A few weeks ago, Maureen Keegan (Darden, ’17) shared her story of her transition to Darden and Business School. In a few short weeks since then, it’s been in her words, an “absolute whirlwind.” We got the chance to catch up with Maureen, who shared with us about why it’s been a whirlwind and what she’s gotten out of her experience thus far.
MBASchooled: You’ve been in business school now for a few months. What was the transition like and how does it feel to be back in school?
Maureen: It has been an absolute whirlwind and I’ve loved (almost) every minute of it. I participated in Darden Before Darden, which is a 10 day pre-matriculation program at Darden. It definitely helped ease the transition – by the time classes started, I already had time to get used to the change in schedule and how busy school was going to be. It was also nice to have a few weeks to get settled in my apartment, especially getting unpacked, before classes started. I also enjoyed getting to meet a smaller subset of my classmates before the entire class showed up.
During the first few weeks of class, we joked that we should all have been wearing signs with our names, hometowns and what we did before Darden, because it felt like we were constantly introducing ourselves! That seems like just yesterday and like months ago at the same time. Time in business school goes so quickly!
MBASchooled: What’s an assumption you had about business school that you were right about?
Maureen: This is going to sound really cliche, but what a great time it would be. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot of work, but we definitely play just as hard as we work. At Darden, Monday – Thursday are pretty busy. We have class from 8 – 1:10 each of those days. After that, we typically will have club meetings and/or different recruiting events. In the evening, we meet with our learning teams. When/how long each team meet for really depends on the team – mine meets at 7, usually for about an hour and half unless we have a really have case-load for the next day.
Outside of class/recruiting, there are always a ton of different activities happening. Every Thursday we have something called Thursday Night Drinking Club, where a club will usually organize something at one of the local bars. Two weekends ago, the Darden Military Association had a fundraiser in honor of Veterans Day. At the beginning of November, the SYs organized the 100 Case Party, which is a celebration of the FYs finishing 100 cases in our core classes. Once a month, we have an event called Cold Call (a play on the cold call that starts class each day) which is an opportunity for all the students, their partners and families and all the faculty members to get together after classes have ended for the week. This week, it was in celebration of Diwali. Beyond the organized activities, there are so many fun things to do in Charlottesville – eating out at amazing restaurants, hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains, touring tons of wineries and breweries. As UVA students, we can also go to all of the athletic events. Darden hosts tailgates before football and basketball games. I haven’t been to a basketball game yet and the football team isn’t great, but it’s still a really fun time!
MBASchooled: What’s an assumption you had about business school that you were wrong about?
Maureen: It’s no secret that women are in the minority at the top business schools. Knowing this, going into school I definitely had expectations that I would feel like the minority, but that definitely has not been the case. Part of that probably has to do with the fact that Darden admitted it’s largest percentage of women ever this year. But I think the other part of it has to do with just how diverse my class is. There are people from all different backgrounds that there is probably no one who is just like someone else in the class. There are definitely times when it’s noticeable that there are fewer men, but it hasn’t been something I’ve found to be problematic. There are also a lot of great resources for women at Darden, especially the Graduate Women in Business, affectionately called GWiB. They hosted a conference one of the first weekends of the school year, hold office hours every week and also paired all of the FYs with a SY mentor. They’re also working to launch a “Friend of GWiB” program for all of the men who want support women in business.
MBASchooled: It’s only been a few months, but have you learned anything interesting or gained additional knowledge that you didn’t previously know?
Maureen: I have learned SO much during my first three months at Darden. As an International Studies major in college and having worked in a non-profit before school, I came in with very little business background. Because of that, basically every day in almost every class, I’m learning something new. In Q1, Accounting and Decision Analysis were definitely the classes where I felt like I was learning the most. In Q2, I’ve been learning the most new material in the continuation of Accounting and in two new classes, Finance and Operations. I’m also really starting to see the connections between the subjects that we’re taking, which is something I find really interesting. On Thursday, our Accounting professor asked us about something we’d covered in a joint Strategy and Finance class the day before, without realizing we’d covered it. Our Strategy professor came in afterwards and said our Accounting professor was surprised by how much detail we could give her about the question she’d asked.
MBASchooled: How would you describe Darden to others?
Maureen: In a word, amazing. But that doesn’t really say much about what the experience is actually like. To give some more detail, I think there a few things that really encapsulate what makes Darden such an amazing place to be:
Community – As soon as I sat down in the admissions office for my interview last year, I knew there was something about Darden that was different from any of the other schools I visited. The current students were so welcoming and all of the prospective students were talking to each other. The sense of community that I experienced that day is definitely one of the things that I’ve found defines Darden now that I’m here. We’re just over 3 months in and I can honestly say that I recognize almost everyone in my class and know almost as many names. The community extends to the faculty and staff at Darden as well. The professors are incredibly down to earth and open. Each quarter, 10 people can sign up to have lunch with each of the section professors for the quarter. The professors learn all of our names pretty quickly and always say hi when they see you outside of class. They even come to our Darden cup events, often with their families in tow!
Case Method – Another thing that defines is the case method. It definitely took a while to get used to answering case questions before we had covered a topic in class, rather than after, but there’s something to be said for trying something on your own and figuring out what you know before going into class. It’s also great to learn from the experience of my classmates. Its way more interesting to listen to someone talk about how they used a certain concept in their past job and how it applies in the real world, rather than just reading about it in a textbook.
Charlottesville – When I was visiting Darden as a prospective student, I heard Charlottesville described as a place where everyone from the big city thinks they’re moving to a small town and everyone from a small town thinks they’re moving to a big city. Having grown up in a small town and lived in Boston before school, I think that’s absolutely true. There’s the small town feel where chances are, no matter where you go, you will run into someone that you know. At the same time, the cultural activities and quality of restaurants are much more on par with the offerings of a big city, though at small town prices. Because there’s so much to do, I find that my classmates tend to stick around on the weekends and have out of town friends visit, rather than traveling out of town. Charlottesville also contributes to how close everyone becomes because most people don’t have friends in Charlottesville when they move here.
MBASchooled: What’s been your favorite class so far?
Maureen: That’s a really tough question to answer. There are some subject matters that I wasn’t particularly crazy about that had great professors and other classes that I’ve found really interesting (that also have great professors). In Q1 I think my favorite class was Decision Analysis, which is not something I ever thought I would say. I didn’t even know what Decision Analysis was when I came to Darden, but sitting down and taking the exam, I realized just how much I had learned. It was also really interesting to see how each class built on the classes before, so that we went from doing basic decision trees on the first day to creating Crystal Ball models in the final classes. The professor for the course was also great. She made something that could’ve been really intimidating easy to understand. In Q2, I’m really enjoying Operations, which is another class I didn’t know anything about before coming to Darden. Our professor is really engaging, which definitely contributes to why I like the class so much. But I’m also finding the subject matter really interesting. Right now, we’re focusing on processes and process improvement, which is kind of like detective work, figuring out what we can do to optimize a process.
MBASchooled: What has been the most enjoyable aspect of business school?
Maureen: Darden Cup, for sure. There are 5 sections of FYs at Darden, each with 65-70 people in them. Throughout the year, we participate in a bunch of different activities to get points. At the end of the year, the section with the most points wins the coveted Darden Cup and of course bragging rights over the other sections. Each event has points split among performance in the event and participation from FYs, SYs and faculty. It’s been a really fun way to get to know each other as a section and hang out outside of class. It was especially exciting that my section, Section A, came in first for performance in soccer and cricket. Unfortunately, we were the first team eliminated during flag football last weekend, but we just found out that we’re still (barely) in the lead. Luckily with still have bowling, poker, volleyball and softball next year!
MBASchooled: What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to deal with so far in business school?
Maureen: Another cliche answer, but not being able to do everything. I feel like I am constantly having to choose between different things that I want to be doing. It’s impossible to give 100% to academics, recruiting, and social life, and each day you have to make decisions about which areas you’re going to prioritize and which are going to be at the bottom of the list. I thought I was pretty good about managing my time before Darden, but during the first quarter and a half here, I’ve definitely had to get better. One of the biggest things for me has been to be sure that I take time for myself during the week, even if that means saying no to doing something with friends. I also try to use the weekend as a check-in/reset point. Did I feel like I dropped the ball on something the week before? What does the next week look like? If it’s really busy, are there things I can do this week make it a little bit easier? It’s definitely a juggling act, but I make sure that I never drop the balls that will break.
MBASchooled: What opportunities ahead are you most excited about?
Maureen: While recruiting is kind of crazy right now (my first summer internship resume drop is this week) I’m really excited about the internship opportunities I’m looking at and getting to try out what will hopefully be my new career path.
I’m also really looking forward to taking part in one of Darden’s Global Business Experiences in May. I’ll be going to Shanghai with a group of my classmates and one of the finance professors to learn about how Chinese culture influences the way business is conducted within China and internationally. The impact of culture on business practices is something that I’ve always found fascinating, so I’m looking forward to studying that. I’ve never been to Asia so I’m really excited to experience a completely different culture, while also getting to know classmates outside of my section as well.
Section A with our marketing professor after our last class of Q1 – we were his first class at Darden!