Darden Mumbai Event

On December 28th 2007, Darden hosted a social event at the Blue Lagoon lounge in Lower Parel, Mumbai. This was an informal event created primarily for prospective students who were either applying for the Fall 08 or were generally interested in Darden. Dean Bruner had recently visited India in November and generated quite a buzz about Darden, describing it as a hidden gem to a large audience. Several of the 30 participants that made it to the Blue Lagoon had also been to the Dean's reception.

The Blue Lagoon event was obviously student-run as are most events at Darden. I organized the location but received a lot of help from Arielle Myhre and Amanda Mills from Darden. Amanda sent several brochures and T-Shirts that we handed out during the event. We had a total of 6 SYs who were current in Mumbai - Ujwala Kukreja, Natasha Sandhir, Vipin Singh, Vineet Thakar, Mayank Jain, and myself. We were able to squeeze in a 45-minute open Q&A panel within the 2-hour event.

The event was held at the Blue Lagoon, a lounge dedicated to private parties, right near the Phoenix Mills Bowling Alley. We placed a few chairs on the dance floor, turned on the disco lights (given they were the only lighting in that area), and opened the floor to the audience to ask anything they wanted to know about Darden.

The most interesting questions: What was your most valuable experience at Darden?; Does Darden have electives catered towards international business?; Why did you pick Darden (ok, this was probably to get more material for the essay)?; What exactly is a general management degree?

And we did get a lot of the typical questions like "how does a case method lend itself to courses like Accounting and Finance?" and "what is the placement like for international students at Darden?"

We ended the session by handing out T-shirts and moving down to the adjacent bar. About 10 participants joined us at the bar to get a few more questions answered and experience a lighter side of Darden students.

We asked every participant to give us candid feedback about the event and told them that someday one (or more) of them would be hosting a similar gathering for future prospects.

Please feel free to add your thoughts to this blog and provide feedback if you made it to the event.