University of Virginia Darden School of Business

The Colgate Darden Graduate School of Business Administration (branded as the Darden School of Business) is the graduate business school of the University of Virginia, a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. The school offers MBA, PhD, and Executive Education programs.

The school was founded in 1955 through the efforts of Colgate Whitehead Darden Jr., the president of the University of Virginia from 1947 to 1959 and a former Democratic congressman and governor of Virginia from 1942 to 1946. It is located on the grounds of the University of Virginia. Its faculty use the case method as their method of teaching courses.





== History ==



The Darden School was established on September 15, 1955, when it held its first classes. The school was a years–long effort by UVA President Colgate Darden. Initially, the school was known as the Graduate School of Business Administration and was located on the central grounds of UVA. On July 1, 1974, the school was renamed the Colgate Darden Graduate School of Business Administration and was moved to its current location at Saunders Hall in North Grounds in 1975. Designed by the Driehaus Prize winner Robert A. M. Stern, the Darden school's buildings feature sand-struck Virginia brick, Chippendale balustrades and red-metal standing seam roofs. In 2018, the Sands Family Grounds was inaugurated by the Darden School, in Arlington County, Virginia, in proximity to Washington D.C.'s central business district.