The Darden required curriculum in the First Year provides you with an integrated perspective on general management. From finance and marketing to accounting and leadership, the required courses are arranged in terms around important business themes. Darden's core curriculum is designed to give you both breadth and depth, while allowing ample time for career discovery and preparation for First Year interviewing.
First Year Core Areas
All students take the same core courses during the first four terms of the First Year in order to develop a common foundation in global business leadership. All core courses are crafted from a series of cases designed to build your business and decision-making skills.
Visit Curriculum: Electives for information about elective offerings in the First and Second Year.
Capstone Leadership Experience
A recent curriculum innovation developed by the Darden faculty went into effect in the spring of 2011. After First Year students complete the required core curriculum, they now participate in a Capstone Leadership Experience to put into practice their newly-acquired business knowledge and expertise and to develop their teamwork, decision-making and implementation skills.
In its inaugural year, the Capstone Leadership Experience involved student teams creating mini-organizations. This included determining an executable business idea, creating an organizational structure that identified various leadership roles and responsibilities, devising a marketing strategy for their product or service, managing sales, and implementing accounting procedures.
For more details about the Capstone Leadership Experience, read the following article in MBA Innovation, written by Professor Erika Hayes James: “Learning to Lead While Giving Back.”