MBA - Admissions - Dual Degrees

Dual Degrees

MBA/MSDS

Master of Business Administration/Master of Science in Data Science

Darden offers a combined program with the University of Virginia School of Data Science that grants a Master of Data Science degree and an MBA degree in 24 months, instead of the 32 months that would be required if each degree were pursued independently. This program combines the School of Data Science’s action-oriented 11-month curriculum with Darden's "best education experience in the U.S." (The Economist, 2011-2019). Students who pursue this dual degree will become coveted hires and indispensable leaders in a variety of fields, including consulting, finance, and technology.

Students in the dual degree program will begin their coursework in summer of their enrollment year. Students enroll in 9 credits of in-person coursework over the summer, starting on June 21st. During the first year, they will be enrolled in the full Darden School of Business First Year curriculum, as well as some continued coursework at the School of Data Science. In their second year, they will be taking classes at both Darden and the School of Data Science and will graduate from both programs in May with their MBA cohort.

Dual-degree students may be eligible for a 24-month OPT STEM extension.

Resources

View the recent MBA/MSDS webinar (recorded December 2019). A panel of current MBA/MSDS students discuss program timing, format, student experience and other frequently asked questions. 

MSDS MBA Curriculum 21-23

Contact Information

Darden Admissions: Merav Frazier

Darden Faculty Advisor: Yael Grushka-Cockayne

For additional information, please visit UVA Data Science. 

MBA/SAIS MA

Master of Business Administration/School of Advanced International Studies Master of Arts

Darden offers a partnership with the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) that allows students to earn an MBA and a SAIS Master of Arts in 3 years instead of the four years that would be required if a student complete each degree sequentially. A notable difference between the MBA/SAIS MA and other dual degree program requirements is that the MBA/SAIS MA requires the completion of 45 Darden credit hours.

 

This unique partnership provides students an opportunity to develop expertise in two distinct, but related, fields, expanding professional opportunities not only for the next job, but for an entire career. Students will also be able to harness two powerful alumni networks as well as career service professionals at both institutions.

Participants will complete three semesters at each school, and the program offers a flexible sequencing to accommodate a variety of schedules and interests. Students can complete their first year at Darden or SAIS, their second year at the other school and in their third year spend a semester at each institution.

MBA classes will take place at Darden’s full-time MBA program in Charlottesville, Virginia. The SAIS portion of the program can be completed at the school’s Washington, D.C., campus or a combination of its D.C. and SAIS Europe campus in Bologna, Italy.

Admissions Process

Applicants will apply to both schools separately, and must be accepted by both institutions to participate in the program. Applicants can apply to both schools simultaneously or to the other school during their first academic year at either school once matriculated.

If applying to both schools simultaneously, students will defer one school for a year or a year and a half. Students will present each school with their sequence plan, and any changes to the plan must be submitted to and approved by both schools.

Tuition & Financial Aid

Requests for financial aid should be made to each school separately and processed according to each school's own aid policy. Tuition is paid to each school separately for the semesters studied.

Resources

• Discover Darden Blog: Q&A with MBA/SAIS Dual Degree Student Brandon Weber
• MBA + SAIS Information Session Recording (November 2022)

Questions?

Please email:

Darden Admissions at darden@virginia.edu

Johns Hopkins SAIS Admissions at sais.dc.admissions@jhu.edu

MBA/JD

Darden offers a combined program with the University of Virginia School of Law that grants a JD degree and an MBA degree in four years, instead of the five that would be required if each degree were pursued independently.

Students are required to secure admission separately to the Darden School and the School of Law through the normal admissions processes of the two schools. The applicant will be held to the same standards as any other applicant, and the fact that s/he is a candidate for the dual-degree program will not be considered in the admissions process. Application may be made prior to entrance, prior to starting the third year of Law, or prior to starting the second year of Darden. No students are admitted to the dual-degree program after this time. Students who have been admitted to both schools and who wish to undertake the dual-degree program should notify the registrar of each school and apply to the faculty advisors for permission to do so. Admission requires approval of both the School of Law and the Darden School faculty advisors.

The Law School faculty advisor is Professor George Geis. Visit the Law School's JD/MBA Program page for further details and program checklist. 

Resources

For more information on the student experience, program format and admissions tips, view this webinar, recorded November 2019.

Discover Darden Blog: Q&A with MBA/JD Dual Degree Students

Tuition & Fees

During the first three years of the program, students will pay one full year of Darden School tuition (when enrolled in the full-time First Year curriculum at the Darden School) and two full years of Law School tuition. During the fourth and final year of the program, students will pay one semester of tuition to the Law School and one semester of tuition to the Darden School.

Financial Aid

Financial aid will be provided by the school to which the student is paying tuition during each semester. Financial aid is not guaranteed and is subject to individual school and University availability and regulations.

Contact

Prospective students with additional questions about the MBA/JD program can contact a current student.

For more information on the School of Law, contact:

 

Emily C. Cockrell
Associate Director of Admissions
University of Virginia School of Law
Phone: (434) 924-7348
www.law.virginia.edu

MBA/MD

Darden offers a combined program with the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia. The objective of the MBA/MD program is to educate a small number of students who will become national leaders in innovation and entrepreneurship in the health care sector, ranging from the development and diffusion of new products to the management of health care delivery systems.

Medical students in their third year can apply to Darden, and if accepted, must complete all requirements for the MD degree and 52.5 credit hours of course work at Darden, including the entire First Year program. The combined degree will generally require five years including summers to complete.

Contact

For more information on the School of Medicine, contact:

M. Kathryn Mutter, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine
Course Director, Internship Readiness Course
Course Director, Transition Course
Director of the Phase 3 Curriculum
Phone: (434)924-8485
Email: mkw2y@virginia.edu
www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/admissions

MBA/M.Ed

MBA/M.Ed in Education Innovation

Few sectors in society provide the reach that schools have into, quite literally, millions of lives. But reach does not always translate into impact because the challenges that education organizations around the world face are profound. Darden’s MBA/M.Ed program is designed to address these problems by preparing the next generation of business and education leaders.

Together, the UVA School of Education and Human Development and the Darden School of Business offer a MBA/M.Ed degree that is designed to prepare creative, principled, and practical leaders—those who will create education innovations in the United States and around the world. Dual-degree graduates combine a deep knowledge of education with rigorous training in management, operations, and strategy, and they use this expertise to improve education effectiveness, lead change in education policy, direct school operations, start ventures as education entrepreneurs, and more.

The length of study is two years, including summer coursework, in-person/online courses while at Darden, and internships. Students begin their studies at the School of Education and Human Development during the summer prior to the start of Darden’s MBA program, or may begin during their fall semester. Students join a cohort of MBA/M.Ed peers who complete coursework together, collaborate on innovative projects, and participate in an Emerging Trends in Education speaker series and other education-focused events.

Today, dozens of graduates of UVA’s MBA/M.Ed dual degree program work in a variety of roles at the intersection of business and education. These roles span educational leadership, consulting, entrepreneurship, education technology, instructional design, and management. For example, recent alumni have gone on to lead change through their roles in:

• School districts and charter management organizations such as UP Education and YES Prep Public Schools
• Public sector consulting and management consulting firms such as Bain & Company, Bellwether Education Partners, Accenture, EY-Parthenon and the Boston Consulting Group
• Education and technology companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Thinkful, and MURAL 

Resources

• School of Education and Human Development MBA/MEd Website
• September 2020 Virtual Information Session, featuring Merav Frazer (Darden Admissions), Matthew Wheelock (School of Education and Human Development), and a panel of MBA/M.Ed dual degree students
• Discover Darden Blog: Q&A with MBA/MEd Students
• Interested in applying? Request a virtual coffee chat with a current student
• Discover Darden Blog: MBA/M.Ed Dual Degree Alumni Build on Program’s Innovative Foundation

Contacts

June A. West
Marjorie R. Sands Associate Professor of Business Administration
Darden School of Business 
University of Virginia

Matthew Wheelock 
Associate Professor of Education; Innovation Program Area Director
Dept. of Curriculum, Instruction and Special Education
School of Education and Human Development
University of Virginia 

MBA/MPP

The Darden School of Business and the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia offer the MBA/MPP dual degree. A student who wishes to be admitted into the dual degree program must apply to each school separately and be admitted to both the Darden School and the Batten School through the normal admissions processes of each school. The program takes three years (six semesters) to complete: the First Year program of each school, followed by one year of coursework taken from the curricula of the two schools. The MBA/MPP coursework also may include courses from other graduate offerings at the University.

Resources

• View the Batten Dual Degree information session (recorded November 2020) featuring a panel of dual degree students, including Darden student Henry Frost (Class of 2021)
• View the Batten School MPP Brochure

Visit the Batten School’s MBA/MPP degree page for further details.

Contact

For more information on the Batten School, contact:

Jeff Chidester
Executive Director of External Affairs
Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy 
434-924-0812
jchidester@virginia.edu 
University of Virginia 
www.batten.virginia.edu

MBA/MPH

Darden and the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia offer the MBA/MPH dual degree. Students who combine their MBA and MPH degrees will have the opportunity to work with faculty from the Darden Business School, Department of Public Health Sciences and School of Medicine to focus on the management of health-care-related businesses and models for addressing health. Foci can include health care delivery systems, biotechnology, medical devices, translational research, health policy, and regulation.

Students must complete all requirements for the MPH degree and 52.5 credit hours of course work at Darden, including the entire First Year program. The combined degree will generally require three years, including two summers to complete.

Contact

For more information on the Department of Public Health Sciences, contact:

Ruth Gaare Berheim, JD, MPH
Director, MPH Program 
University of Virginia 
+1-434-924-3487 
www.healthsystem.virginia.edu

MBA/MA

MBA/MA in East Asian Studies

The MBA/MA in East Asian Studies combines the analysis, decision-making, and managerial concepts and techniques taught at the Darden School with intensive language and area studies in East Asia, primarily Japan and China.

Students may obtain both the MBA degree and the MA degree in East Asian Studies in three academic years and two summers. Students will normally spend the first full academic year in the program taking courses in the Darden School, and will not enroll in East Asian studies courses in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences until the following fall. When necessary, an intensive nine-week language training course is taken during the following summer. The second year incorporates both MA and MBA courses, including more language training. A six-month research assignment in an Asian location follows the second year. These student projects are approved by the University and supported, in part, by Asian companies or Asian affiliates of multinational companies. For their sixth semester, students return to the University to complete the degree requirements, which include a Master's thesis.

Contact

For more information on the MA in East Asian Studies, contact:

Leonard Schoppa
Professor of Politics
University of Virginia 
www.virginia.edu/eastasia

 

MBA/MA in Government or Foreign Affairs

Darden and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia offer the dual degree of a MBA/MA in Government or Foreign Affairs. This dual degree meets the growing need for managers to obtain expertise in comparative government, international relations, political risk assessment and public administration in combination with the business concepts and techniques taught at Darden.

Contact

For more information on the MA in Government or Foreign Affairs, contact:

Philip Potter
Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies 
Department of Politics 
University of Virginia 
www.virginia.edu/politics

MBA/ME

Darden and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at the University of Virginia offer the MBA/ME dual degree.

The objective of the joint MBA/ME degree program is the development of leaders with business administration skills and solid technical expertise. The ME degree provides a foundation in engineering or applied science well above the normal undergraduate level. The MBA develops the functional areas of business by teaching the essential behavioral and quantitative sciences that apply to management, as well as the techniques of management decision making. The combined degrees provide the knowledge required for a wide range of business applications.

A student must apply and be admitted to both degree programs and satisfy nearly all of the requirements for both degrees. Typically, the overall program length is reduced by one semester compared to the total time for attaining both degrees separately. In order to obtain this reduction in the number of credits, the student cannot stop after one degree but must finish both degrees. If the student decides to drop out of the joint degree program, the full requirements of one of the degree programs must be met.

Students in the MBA/ME program are required to complete 24 credits for the ME degree in SEAS and 52.5 credits for the MBA degree at Darden. Of the 24 credits in SEAS, 21 credits will be normal course work and 3 credits will be a project course taken in an appropriately numbered course. A minimum of 12 credits of course work must be taken in the major department. None of the 24 credits may include a course taken in the Darden School. The project must have one advisor from SEAS and another from the Darden School.

Contact

For more information on the ME program, contact:

Carla M. Davis
Graduate Outreach and Engagement Coordinator Office of Graduate 
Programs School of Engineering & Applied Science
UVA Engineering 
carla.davis@virginia.edu 
+1 434-243-3635

MBA/PhD

The MBA/PhD dual degree is administered by the director of the Doctoral program. It is a five-year program, and interested students should apply directly to the MBA Office of Admissions. This program allows students to attend the entire First Year of Darden’s MBA program and then go directly into doctoral work. Andy Wicks is the Director of the PhD program. Please visit Darden’s PhD web page for additional information.

MBA/MUEP

Darden has partnered with the UVA School of Architecture to offer a three-year dual degree program in which students take courses at both Darden and the School of Architecture to simultaneously earn an MBA and a Masters in Urban and Environmental Planning (MUEP). For students interested in real estate, in addition to the courses listed above, the MUEP curriculum also prepares them to tackle the critical challenges that come with global urbanization and rapidly transforming social, ecological, and technological systems to ensure a sustainable, equitable and healthy future for cities.

Please contact the Darden admissions team for more information or schedule a dual degree conversation using the link at the top of the page.