Nothing beyond Math 107? Never fear...

...Mandy is here!
I wanted to share my response to an incoming Darden student who was curious about
1. Interaction with other UVA programs (law, etc) and life outside of 100 Darden Blvd
2. Case method and cold-calls: scary?
My eagerly-anticipated reply (okay, maybe it was only him anticipating said reply):
We interact with other programs but it’s not as common (we have access to the general UVA calendar, alumni contacts, as well as intramural stuff). You spend so much time and energy at school, that sometimes it’s just easier to default to the social stuff that’s laid out on the calendar. You do enjoy the hell out of it, let’s be frank.
That said, you do not lose your inquisitiveness nor your need to reach beyond your realm of familiarity. On the contrary! The curriculum itself challenges you every moment to do so! There are only a handful of students each year who are comfortable with all the subjects thrown at us. The rest of us flail along, trying to stay afloat by paddling with our paddles (metaphor for the subjects at which we excel) and bailing the raft with a thimble (metaphor for trying to grasp the concepts we’ve never before seen). It’s a dance (okay, another metaphor) and it’s exhausting and enriching at the same time. You see the bar that’s set so high by the faculty and your classmates, and you strive to reach it. In doing so, you go the extra mile. Even when your brain is screaming at you to stop because it’s so worn out. This place just churns out excellence because the atmosphere encourages us to never stop striving for it. it’s not cutthroat, surprisingly. You are trying to do YOUR best at all times. But you know that it’s never good enough so you keep going. And in that you find true excellence. And that is awesome. This goes for not just academics but the job-search and general leadership as well. Trust me, you’ll see.
The case method, as well, inspires constant striving for better. It challenges you to articulate more clearly. To think more rapidly yet with a well-formed thesis. Cold calls inspire you to be prepared. The scare your socks off, some days. But you get through them. If you don’t, the onus is on you to reach out and get help. Once you do you’ll find that there is a nearly unlimited supply of assistance and it’s up to you (once again, self-driven) to grab it. I didn’t find case or cold calls terribly trying.
However, I had a rough transition from “real world” to academics since I’d been in the workforce for 8 years before starting school. The students who participate for the sake of participating (our grades are usually 40% participation) irked me when their comments didn’t add value. I was less-vocal but feel that when I did speak that it was of more substance. I didn’t come to school to get A’s. I came to learn how to be a better businesswoman and leader. By way of striving for high marks (because if you don’t you FAIL), I learned better. If I merely surfed, I wouldn’t have learned much. So I did all I could, knowing that even if it wasn’t necessarily “A” material, my brain was reshaping itself for the better. In the real world I knew that there was never 1 “right answer”. I giggled a bit inside at the kids who thought that there was, by virtue of being in an unimaginative job or fresh out of undergrad. They figured it out soon enough.
I feel that any advice I offer wouldn’t be terribly useful. It’s kinda like any advice given to us by those with more experience; we often have to go through it to learn the truth even though we’ve heard it before.
I say that stick with it. Try your damndest. I don’t pretend that the math stuff will be a cinch. It’s a lot of math. Get to know WACC and get to know it soon.
But know this: most of the Darden alums I’ve met say that in their careers, the thing that has mattered most is the people stuff. Their ability to communicate and build consensus and lead. Not their ability to knock out a dynamite DCF (Google it!). Technical skills help get you in the door, but it’s what you do with those skills that distinguishes you. Arty folks have the ability to engage people far better than your run-of-the-mill engineer. Capitalize on this!
Also, I would like to think that us artist-types have the ability to think holistically vs. linearly, and this is a real asset. When you can get outside of linear boundaries to see the true nature of a system (because business and the entire world is one system and you had bet your ass this is waaay important), you can understand how to affect change. Artists have neuropathways burned for seeing “outside the lines”, so this comes much more easily to us. Communicating it to the linear-types, however, becomes the challenge.
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Whew!
Tomorrow: some stuff about diversity invisible to the naked eye.