Nestled in bucolic Charlottesville, Virginia, the University of Virginia (UVA) Darden School of Business, aka “Darden,” boasts a distinctly tight-knit culture due to its small class size (approximately 350 students), the interdependence of its first-year learning teams, and its reliance on the case method. Within the past decade, Darden has been invigorated by 2020 Poets&Quants Dean of the Year Scott Beardsley, who served as a McKinsey & Company director and global board member before taking the helm at Darden. Dean Beardsley arrived at the Darden MBA program in 2015 and promptly went on an ambitious fund-raising campaign, netting the program almost $400 million in donations. Applicants and students will likely be pleased to know that the Darden MBA program’s priorities for these funds were 66 new scholarships, 22 new endowed Darden professorships, and the Batten Foundation Darden Worldwide Scholarship endowment (which covers every full-time MBA student’s fees for a Darden Worldwide Course). In December 2025, Beardsley was named the tenth president of the University of Virginia. Darden professor Michael Lenox will serve as interim dean while the school conducts a search for the Beardsley’s successor.
In 2023, the school saw the opening of The Forum Hotel, which is run by Kimpton and replaced the UVA Inn on campus. The hotel features nearly 200 guest rooms, creating a notable enhancement to Darden’s on-campus accommodations. Darden announced plans for another new campus building, the Darden Housing Project, in 2024. The project broke ground the same year and is expected to welcome its first students in June 2027. The new student housing complex, the first of its kind on Darden grounds, will feature more than 200 units and nearly 350 beds, in addition to dining facilities and study spaces.
In an attempt to reduce applicant stress and increase class diversity, the Darden MBA program offers test waivers and an array of test options, including the GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, and Executive Assessment. We are not surprised that a program that relies on the case method and thereby asks its students to take a leadership perspective is shaking up testing orthodoxies while making significant investments in itself.
The UVA Darden Interview Guide
For all MBA program interviews, we suggest thorough preparation. However, such readiness is even more essential for UVA Darden, where the interview is never an interrogation but almost always a warm conversation that lasts up to 45 minutes. Darden applicants are often put at ease, but that does not mean that their interviewer is just passively participating; the interviewer is always evaluating the applicant’s communication and interpersonal skills, attempting to understand what kind of participant they would be in a case environment and on a learning team.
The Darden interview is “blind,” meaning that the interviewer does not read the applicant’s file or even their resume beforehand. As a result, the interview generally opens with a broad introduction, after which the interviewer moves on to ask about specific experiences as the applicant continues sharing their story. Of course, beyond their personal and career narratives, applicants should have very clear reasons for applying to the Darden MBA program specifically—because one’s fit with the classroom and community is critical in Darden’s candidate evaluation process.
Darden offers Early Action applicants the opportunity to book their interviews freely during the Open Interview period, though interviews are not guaranteed. For candidates applying in Rounds 1, 2, and 3, interviews are conducted on an invitation-only basis.
Darden interviews are completed on campus, via Zoom, and off campus (in select cases only). For sample essay sequences and commentary from past applicants, download a copy of our UVA Darden School of Business Interview Guide.
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Darden MBA Class Profile (Class of 2027)
| Class Size |
361 |
| Average Undergraduate GPA |
3.54 |
| Average GMAT Classic Score |
725 |
| Average GMAT Focus Score |
671 |
| Average GRE Combined Score |
322 |
| Average Years of Work Experience |
5.67 |
| Women |
35% |
| International |
30% |
| Countries Represented |
28 |
| U.S. Minorities |
21% |
| Military Service Members |
12% |
UVA Darden MBA Rankings
Darden appears consistently among the top 20 in rankings of U.S. business schools. The school stands in tenth place in Bloomberg Businessweek’s 2025–2026 domestic ranking. Darden was ranked 20th internationally and 12th domestically in the Financial Times’ 2025 survey. In U.S. News & World Report’s 2025 survey, the Darden MBA program was named 11th within the United States (in a tie with Berkeley Haas) and was also ranked in the following specialty rankings: management (fifth), executive MBA (21st), marketing (28th), and entrepreneurship (29th). Finally, Darden was fifth in the Poets&Quants 2024 domestic survey.
UVA Darden MBA Acceptance Rate
The UVA Darden School of Business has an acceptance rate of approximately 34% to 40%. This figure reflects the competitive nature of admissions at Darden, where applicants are evaluated on a holistic basis, considering factors such as academic achievements, professional experience, leadership potential, and personal attributes.
Aspiring students looking to join the prestigious ranks of UVA Darden must present a compelling application to stand out among the many qualified candidates. The admissions committee seeks individuals who demonstrate not only strong analytical skills and a solid academic background but also the ability to contribute to the collaborative and dynamic learning environment that Darden is known for. With a focus on shaping future leaders, Darden values applicants who exhibit a clear vision for their career goals and a passion for making a positive impact in the business world.
UVA Darden MBA Deadlines (2025–2026)
Early Action
September 4, 2025
Early Action Decisions
October 22, 2025
Round 1
October 1, 2025
Round 1 Decisions
December 10, 2025
Round 2
January 7, 2026
Round 2 Decisions
March 18, 2026
Round 3
April 1, 2026
Round 3 Decisions
May 6, 2026
