Dartmouth Tuck MBA Essay Questions for Academic Year 2015-16

In this post I analyze the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth MBA Application Essay Questions for Academic Year 2015–16 (Class of 2018). Tuck is great school in a small town. This is both its strength in terms of forming a close knit community and weakness in terms of being a location that some find unattractive. Sometimes when I talk to clients and mention Tuck, I know immediately that I made a mistake. Other times, I working with someone whose second or third top choice is Tuck. To be honest, I have worked with only a few clients who ever considered Tuck their top choice.  The location seems to be the issue. That Tuck is not the applicant pool as a whole’s first choice is reflected in its yield of 54% (BusinessWeek). It is important to keep this in mind as showing a strong interest in attending the program is something you should convey both in your application and interview.  Tuck allows for student initiated campus-only interviews, which I strongly recommend unless your budget and time makes doing so impossible. Please see here for my post on interviewing at Tuck.


Essay Questions for 2015–16
Let’s take a look at the essay questions. I took the questions from the Tuck blog (As of this posting the online application is not up yet). The instructions are to “Please respond fully but concisely to the following essay questions. There are no right or wrong answers. We encourage applicants to limit the length of their responses to 500 words for each essay. Please double-space your responses.” I don’t know why Tuck can’t be more explicit and not use such wimpy language (“We encourage..”). I will strongly encourage my own clients to keep it to 500 words or so. Since they want 500, I think it best to give them something that is “500-wordish” meaning around 500-550 words.

In addition to the main essays questions, I have also included an analysis of the international experience question from the application form, which I assume will be included this year, but I will alter this post if it is removed or changed when the the online application is updated later this summer.

1. What are your short- and long-term goals? Why do you need an MBA to achieve those goals? Why are you interested in Tuck specifically?
The first part of this question is a very standard version of the Why MBA essay question and remains unchanged from last year. See my Stanford GSB Essay B analysis of goals, why MBA  and why a particular school because it applies here.

Regarding the second part of the question, anyone applying to Tuck, should most certainly watch the video series “Applying to Tuck: The Inside Scoop” with Dawna Clarke, the Director of Admissions. if you are really interested in attending Tuck, I strongly suggest making a real effort to visit or at least to attend a reception. This will be a great way to meet with admissions officers in a very friendly environment. It is also an amazing way to network with the alum at the event and afterwords. At a Tokyo reception I attended, we were actually provided with a list of alumni who would be happy to communicate with potential applicants. In “Tips on Applying,” Ms. Clarke emphasizes the importance of getting in touch with Tuck alumni. She, in fact, specifically says that mentioning that you met with alumni is something you should do both in your essays and interviews. She also mentioned that she considers notes from alumni as being in an applicant’s favor.  Click here for information about Tuck events.

Learning from students and alumni by networking with them is also incredibly valuable.  See my Q&As with former clients who are members of the Class of 2011 and Class of 2013.
One thing that is consistent is that current students, alumni, and  admissions officers emphasize that Tuck is about being part of a community. Especially in regards to the community aspect, I suggest reading the Q&A I conducted with  a member of the Class of 2011.  In particular:
Adam: What is the Tuck community like? 
Tuck 2011: The Tuck community is like family. Literally for those who live on campus since they spend most of time together. Everybody is friendly and you don’t need to worry about making friends here. From an academic point of view, collaboration between students is highly emphasized in Tuck and you will experience and learn to work together with others.


2. Tell us about your most meaningful leadership experience and what role you played. How will that experience contribute to the learning environment at Tuck?
Keep in mind that according to Dawna Clarke in “Tuck’s holistic admissions process” video, leadership ability and/or demonstrated potential is one of three key common characteristics of Tuck students. Weak versions of this essay will focus too much on simply telling a leadership story, not focus on why the experience was meanings,  and/or what you contribute at Tuck based on that experience.

most meaningful: Since the leadership experience you write about should be he the one that you consider most meaningful, you clearly explain that.  Applicants frequently assume the significance of a story without interpreting it sufficiently.  Make sure you have clearly explained why the particular leadership experience you write about is meaningful to you.  This is not just a function of explaining your strengths and weaknesses as a leader, but of actually explaining why this particular experience is so significant.

While not required I would consider collaborative leadership experiences: Tuck is a highly collaborative environment, so it is highly likely that they are particularly interested in gauging an applicants collaborative leadership ability.   Given the part of the question that is focused on contribution at Tuck, this essay is actually very much one about fit. You should be particularly focused on a leadership situation that highlights your capability and self-awareness in respect to leading, negotiating, persuading, mentoring,  and/or working  with other people. Such stories are likely to be the basis for showing how you can contribute to the learning environment at Tuck.

Given that the structure of the first year program includes mandatory study groups of 5-6 students in the Fall and Winter terms and  the Cohen Leadership Development Program,  as well as Tuck’s intensely community-focused nature, being able to show how you will contribute to  the learning environment should go well beyond mentioning a particular area of knowledge that you might have

Leadership is no easy thing. Nor is it always obvious.  The worst possible thing is to conceive of leadership as simple formal responsibility or a title because this conveys nothing about the person in that  role. While some applicants will have held formal leadership positions, many will not. Formal leadership positions are great to write about if they involve the applicant actually having significant impact, making a difficult decision, being a visionary, showing creativity, or otherwise going beyond their formal responsibility, but the same is true for those showing leadership without having a formal title.

Some clients I have worked with have never really considered themselves as leaders. I think it is critical that if you are applying to Tuck that you have idea about what kind of leader you are.  While there are number of ways to describe leadership, I particularly like this formulation of leadership types that INSEAD Professor Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries has used in one of his Harvard Business Review blog posts (Disclosure I am a student in an INSEAD  program that he co-directs):

• The strategist: leadership as a game of chess. These people are good at dealing with developments in the organization's environment. They provide vision, strategic direction and outside-the-box thinking to create new organizational forms and generate future growth.
• The change-catalyst: leadership as a turnaround activity. These executives love messy situations. They are masters at re-engineering and creating new organizational ''blueprints.''
• The transactor: leadership as deal making. These executives are great dealmakers. Skilled at identifying and tackling new opportunities, they thrive on negotiations.
• The builder: leadership as an entrepreneurial activity. These executives dream of creating something and have the talent and determination to make their dream come true.
• The innovator: leadership as creative idea generation. These people are focused on the new. They possess a great capacity to solve extremely difficult problems.
• The processor: leadership as an exercise in efficiency. These executives like organizations to be smoothly running, well-oiled machines. They are very effective at setting up the structures and systems needed to support an organization's objectives.
• The coach: leadership as a form of people development. These executives know how to get the best out of people, thus creating high performance cultures.
• The communicator: leadership as stage management. These executives are great influencers, and have a considerable impact on their surroundings.

I have previously suggested that applicants who are having difficulty really understanding leadership find out what kind of leader they are by taking this quiz based on Lewin’s classic framework.  While leadership  is more complicated than Lewin’s framework, the quiz is a great way to get you started thinking about yourself, a key part of answering any leadership essay question effectively. However I think the 8 archetypes above provide a much better guide for those who both have extensive leadership experience and those who think they lack it.  Think of these 8 archetypes as aspirational images of certain kinds of leader. You may fit into more than one category. You may find you don’t feel like you are really good at any of the above in comparison to the descriptions above, but that is OK because yo u are trying to identify your potential even if it seems based on relatively little “objective evidence.” I have never worked with anyone who could not demonstrate potential in at least one of the categories above.
Some types of leadership experiences that make for effective content in  this essays,  (as well as recommendations and interviews):
-A time you convinced someone or some group.
-A time you led others.
-A time you demonstrated courage.
-A time you made a difficult decision.
-A time you were innovative.
-A time you formulated and executed a strategy or tactics.
-A time you turned around a situation, overcame an obstacle.
-A time reformed something.
-A time you changed something.
-A time you effectively negotiated with someone.
-A time created something.
-A time you managed or organized something.
-A time you mentored or coached someone.

-A time you represented an organization in public.

-A time you managed up, down, or across an organization.

Some of these are simply derived from the archetypes above, but  all reflect what I have seen in my clients’ leadership essays over the years.

3. (Optional) Please provide any additional insight or information that you have not addressed elsewhere that may be helpful in reviewing your application (e.g., unusual choice of evaluators, weaknesses in academic performance, unexplained job gaps or changes, etc.). Complete this question only if you feel your candidacy is not fully represented by this application.

As with other school’s optional questions, do not put an obvious essay for another school here. If you read the above, it should be clear enough that this is the place to explain anything negative or potentially negative in your background. If you have no explanation for something negative, don’t bother writing about it. For example if your GPA is 2.9 and you have no good explanation for why it is 2.9, don’t bother writing something that looks like a lame excuse. This is more likely to hurt than help you. In the same vein, don’t waste the committee’s time telling them that your GMAT is a much better indicator than your GPA (the opposite is also true). They have heard it before and they will look at both scores and can draw their own conclusions without you stating the obvious. That said, if you have a good explanation for a bad GPA, you should most certainly write about it.
In addition to GMAT/GRE, TOEFL, and GPA problems, other possible topics include issues related to recommendations, serious gaps in your resume, concerns related to a near total lack of extracurricular activities, and  major issues in your personal/professional life that you really think the admissions office needs to know about.You can certainly write on something positive here if you think its omission will be negative for you, but before you do, ask yourself these questions:
1. If they did not ask it, do they really need to know it?
2. Will the topic I want to discuss significantly improve my overall essay set?
3. Is the topic one that would not be covered from looking at other parts of my application?
4. Is the essay likely to be read as being a specific answer for Wharton and not an obvious essay for another school?
If you can answer “Yes!” to all four questions, it might be a good topic to write about.

4. (To be completed by all reapplicants) How have you strengthened your candidacy since you last applied? Please reflect on how you have grown personally and professionally.
An effective answer here will do the following:
1. Showcase what has changed since your last application that now makes you a better candidate.
2. Refine your goals. I think it is reasonable that they may have altered since your last application, but if the change is extreme, you had better explain why.
3. Make a better case for why Tuck is right for you.
For more about reapplication, please see “A guide to my resources for reapplicants.”


UPDATE: The International Experience Question from the application is no longer an essay, but a list. 

International Experience Question from the online application: Briefly describe all experiences you have working, studying, living, or traveling outside your home country. Include the location, purpose, and length of stay. If relevant, reflect on how these experiences have shaped your world view. (Limit 250 words) 
NOTE: THIS MAY CHANGE ONCE THE APPLICATION IS RELEASED.

The usual problem many of my clients encounter is how to even minimally account for their international experience in 250 words.

My advice is to focus on 1-3 key experiences which had a significant impact on you. You need to actually say something meaningful about these experiences in terms of the way they have effected your thinking, perspectives, choices you have made and/or beliefs. Given what you have said about yourself so far in the other essays, what other aspects of who are you and what you have done would you like to tell Tuck about?  This can be a nice way to get an additional key story or two into your application.

If you have limited experiences outside of your home country, you will need to make the most out of very little.

If you lack international experience, go get some! Just kidding, well sort of.  My suggestion to not try to answer this question, but identify international experience in the optional essay or Essay 1 as something you want to get at Tuck.

"Briefly list all experience you have working, studying, living, or traveling outside your home country. Include the location, purpose, and length of stay. (300 words)"

While you have 300 words for this, they are not looking for any essay, but actually a list consisting of the location, purpose, and length of stay.  Don't make purpose into an essay, but provide a few words, phrases, or a sentence to describe the purpose.  If they wanted an essay, they would not have changed the question. 

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

Dartmouth Tuck MBA Essay Questions for Academic Year 2013-14

In this post I analyze the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth MBA Application Essay Questions for Academic Year 2013–14 (Class of 2016). Tuck is great school in a small town. This is both its strength in terms of forming a close knit community and weakness in terms of being a location that some find unattractive. Sometimes when I talk to clients and mention Tuck, I know immediately that I made a mistake. Other times, I working with someone whose second or third top choice is Tuck. To be honest, I have worked with only a few clients who ever considered Tuck their top choice.  The location seems to be the issue. That Tuck is not the applicant pool as a whole’s first choice is reflected in its yield of 54% (BusinessWeek). It is important to keep this in mind as showing a strong interest in attending the program is something you should convey both in your application and interview.  Tuck allows for student initiated campus-only interviews, which I strongly recommen d unless your budget and time makes doing so impossible. Please see here for my post on interviewing at Tuck.

THE IMPORTANCE OF VISITING, NETWORKING, OR AT LEAST ATTENDING A TUCK EVENT
If you are really interested in attending Tuck, I strongly suggest making a real effort to visit or at least to attend a reception. This will be a great way to meet with admissions officers in a very friendly environment. It is also an amazing way to network with the alum at the event and afterwords. At a Tokyo reception I attended, we were actually provided with a list of alumni who would be happy to communicate with potential applicants. In “Tips on Applying,” Ms. Clarke emphasizes the importance of getting in touch with Tuck alumni. She, in fact, specifically says that mentioning that you met with alumni is something you should do both in your essays and interviews. She also mentioned that she considers notes from alumni as being in an applicant’s favor.  Click here for information about Tuck events.

Learning from students and alumni by networking with them is also incredibly valuable. Japanese applicants should also visit the Japanese site. See also my Q&As with former clients who are members of the Class of 2011 and Class of 2013.
One thing that is consistent is that current students, alumni, and  admissions officers emphasize that Tuck is about being part of a community. Especially in regards to the community aspect, I suggest reading the Q&A I conducted with  a member of the Class of 2011.  In particular:
Adam: What is the Tuck community like?
Tuck 2011: The Tuck community is like family. Literally for those who live on campus since they spend most of time together. Everybody is friendly and you don’t need to worry about making friends here. From an academic point of view, collaboration between students is highly emphasized in Tuck and you will experience and learn to work together with others.
Anyone applying to Tuck, should most certainly watch the video series “Applying to Tuck: The Inside Scoop” with Dawna Clarke, the Director of Admissions. I will make reference to Ms. Clarke’s advice below.

Essay Questions for 2013–14
Let’s take a look at the essay questions. I took the questions from the Tuck blog (As of this posting the online application is not up yet). The instructions are to “Please respond fully but concisely to the following essay questions. There are no right or wrong answers. We encourage applicants to limit the length of their responses to 500 words for each essay. Please double-space your responses.” I don’t know why Tuck can’t be more explicit and not use such wimpy language (“We encourage..”). I will strongly encourage my own clients to keep it to 500 words or so. Since they want 500, I think it best to give them something that is “500-wordish” meaning around 500-550 words.

In addition to the main essays questions, I have also included an analysis of the international experience question from the application form, which I assume will be included this year, but I will alter this post if it is removed or changed when the the online  application is updated later this summer.

1. Why is an MBA a critical next step toward your short- and long-term career goals? Why is Tuck the best MBA fit for you and your goals and why are you the best fit for Tuck?
The first part of this question is a very standard version of the Why MBA essay question and remains unchanged from last year. See my Stanford GSB Essay 2 analysis as it applies here.
Regarding the fit to Tuck part of the question, keep in mind that in addition to leadership, the two other common characteristics of Tuck students that Ms. Clarke mentions are teamwork skills and communication/interpersonal skills. So if you have not effectively covered those two categories in another essay, you should address them in one way or another here. You have space in Essay 2 to discuss leadership. Essay 1 is not just a way for admissions to understand some important aspects of who you are, it is also a place for them to see whether you know enough about Tuck to provide effective examples of the way you would really fit into their school and why Tuck is best for you.
Given the limited word count available, I suggest doing the why you fit part of the question in combination with why Tuck is the best MBA fit for you. In the Why Tuck is Best MBA for Me and Why I am the Best Fit For Tuck Table brainstorming table I have attempted to account for everything Tuck related that you need to discuss in this essay.
Why Tuck is Best MBA for Me and Why I am the Best Fit For Tuck Table

Why Tuck is Best MBA for Me and Why I am the Best Fit For Tuck Table

Types of reasons that you should include in your essay	Specific things at Tuck (Classes, clubs, or aspects of the program) that make it best for you	How will you fit at Tuck?	Is this topic covered elsewhere in the application? (If so, why do you need to discuss it here?)
Reasons that relate to your short term goals: 1. 2.
Reasons that relate to your long-term goals: 1. 2.
Reasons that relate to your personal interests, hobbies, values, experiences): 1. 2.

(You can cut and paste this table.)
The above table will help you outline your answer. I suggest following some variation of these 11 steps:
1. Identify specific reasons for needing a MBA that relate to your goals and your personal interests, hobbies, values, and experiences. Think about these generically before going to Tuck specific versions in the next step.
2. Identify specific things at Tuck that relate to these reasons to justify why Tuck is the best MBA for you.
3. Identify specific ways you really fit at Tuck that relate to your goals and your personal interests, hobbies, values, and experiences.
4. Ask yourself if the reason being discussed is covered elsewhere in your application. If so, why does it need to be in this essay?
5. Go through the above steps until such time as you have a sufficient number of reasons to write about.
6. Write it up.
7. Edit it.
8. Don’t look at it for a while (minutes, hours, days, weeks, all depending on your deadline situation) and read it again.
9. Edit it some more.
10. Upload it.
11. Get on with your life. Step 11 is optional, but highly recommended.


2. Tell us about your most meaningful collaborative leadership experience and what role you played. What did you learn about your own individual strengths and weaknesses through this experience?
This question  has been changed from last year as it now specifically refers to a collaborative leadership experience and not just a leadership experience. Keep in mind that according to Dawna Clarke in “Tuck’s holistic admissions process” video, leadership ability and/or demonstrated potential is one of three key common characteristics of Tuck students. You should most certainly provide a full answer to this question, one demonstrating that you really understand your strengths and weaknesses as a leader. Weak versions of this essay will focus too much on simply telling a leadership story, not focus on collaboration,  and/or not enough on self-analysis of leadership ability.

most meaningful: Since the leadership experience you write about should be he the one that you consider most meaningful, you clearly explain that.  Applicants frequently assume the significance of a story without interpreting it sufficiently.  Make sure you have clearly explained why the particular leadership experience you write about is meaningful to you.  This is not just a function of explaining your strengths and weaknesses as a leader, but of actually explaining why this particular experience is so significant.

collaborative leadership experience: Tuck is a highly collaborative environment and it makes perfect sense that they are particularly interested in gauging an applicants collaborative leadership ability.  This essay is actually very much one about fit in that regard. You should be particularly focused on a leadership situation involving communication, teamwork, interaction with others.  The point is to find a situation that highlights your capability and self-awareness in respect to communication, teamwork, and/or interaction with others.

What did you learn about your own individual strengths and weaknesses through this experience? This is a test of your ability to honestly assess your own limitations, not just as a leader, but more generally.The structure of the first year program including mandatory study groups of 5-6 students in the Fall and Winter terms, the Cohen Leadership Development Program, and the intensely community-focused nature of the environment certainly requires that all students be open to receiving and issuing positive, but critical feedback. It is important that you demonstrate the self-critical capacity expected at Tuck.

For my general suggestions on writing leadership focused essays, please see my analysis of Stanford Essay 3.


3. Describe a circumstance in your life in which you faced adversity, failure, or setback. What actions did you take as a result and what did you learn from this experience?
This question is unchanged from last year. It is critical that you learned something meaningful.  Therefore the key constraint of this question is that whatever the adversity, failure, or setback is, you have learned something important from it. While not stated, you may very well find that one way of showing what you learned is to discuss how you applied your lesson to a new situation.
What is the difference between adversity, failure and a setback? I think the easiest thing to do is look at standard definitions of all three words (taken from Dictionary.com):
ADVERSITY: 1. adverse fortune or fate; a condition marked by misfortune, calamity, or distress: A friend will show his or her true colors in times of adversity. 2. an adverse or unfortunate event or circumstance: You will meet many adversities in life.
FAILURE: 1. an act or instance of failing  or proving unsuccessful; lack of success: His effort ended in failure. The campaign was a failure. 2. nonperformance of something due, required, or expected: a failure to do what one has promised; a failure to appear. 3. a subnormal quantity or quality; an insufficiency: the failure of crops. 4. deterioration or decay, especially of vigor, strength, etc.: The failure of her health made retirement necessary. 5. a condition of being bankrupt by reason of insolvency.
SETBACK: a check to progress; a reverse or defeat
Examples of possible topics:
Adversity: Taking care of dying relative, being in a battle field, being poor, having a physical disability, being in a disaster, having a boss who hates you, being the victim of bullying, being the victim of prejudice (because of your gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, etc)
Failure: Drawing the wrong conclusions about a situation, taking the wrong course of action, an inability to see significant problems with a project, bad personal behavior that generates a negative result, lack of empathy that leads to the ending of a professional or personal relationship
Setback: an obstacle to progress on a project, organizational resistance to your plans, changes in a situation that makes what seemed to be a manageable project a potential disaster, a loss of efficiency that must be overcome if success is to be obtained
The basic components of an answer:
1. Clearly state what the adversity, failure or setback was.  Your reader should understand easily which one you have selected.
2. Clearly state your role when you explain the situation. It should be clear how much responsibility you have for the situation.
3. Explain what actions you took. Think about what your actions reflect about your own skills and personality. Provide a sufficient number of distinct action steps to highlight the diverse ways you handled the situation.
4. Explain what you learned. If what you learned is something you applied to a subsequent situation, please explain that.
Everyone should have many examples of adversity, setbacks, and failures, but the key thing is to have one that you learned from. If you think these words bleed into one another, that is true to some extent, but the nice thing about this question is that it covers a huge variety of situations. Adverse situations are certainly not necessarily failures or setbacks, but simply really bad situations. A setback, unlike a failure, is not necessarily something that ultimately does not work.


4. (Optional) Please provide any additional insight or information that you have not addressed elsewhere that may be helpful in reviewing your application (e.g., unusual choice of evaluators, weaknesses in academic performance, unexplained job gaps or changes, etc.). Complete this question only if you feel your candidacy is not fully represented by this application.
As with other school’s optional questions, do not put an obvious essay for another school here. If you read the above, it should be clear enough that this is the place to explain anything negative or potentially negative in your background. If you have no explanation for something negative, don’t bother writing about it. For example if your GPA is 2.9 and you have no good explanation for why it is 2.9, don’t bother writing something that looks like a lame excuse. This is more likely to hurt than help you. In the same vein, don’t waste the committee’s time telling them that your GMAT is a much better indicator than your GPA (the opposite is also true). They have heard it before and they will look at both scores and can draw their own conclusions without you stating the obvious. That said, if you have a good explanation for a bad GPA, you should most certainly write about it.
In addition to GMAT/GRE, TOEFL, and GPA problems, other possible topics include issues related to recommendations, serious gaps in your resume, concerns related to a near total lack of extracurricular activities, and  major issues in your personal/professional life that you really think the admissions office needs to know about.You can certainly write on something positive here if you think its omission will be negative for you, but before you do, ask yourself these questions:
1. If they did not ask it, do they really need to know it?
2. Will the topic I want to discuss significantly improve my overall essay set?
3. Is the topic one that would not be covered from looking at other parts of my application?
4. Is the essay likely to be read as being a specific answer for Wharton and not an obvious essay for another school?
If you can answer “Yes!” to all four questions, it might be a good topic to write about.


5. (To be completed by all reapplicants) How have you strengthened your candidacy since you last applied? Please reflect on how you have grown personally and professionally.
An effective answer here will do the following:
1. Showcase what has changed since your last application that now makes you a better candidate.
2. Refine your goals. I think it is reasonable that they may have altered since your last application, but if the change is extreme, you had better explain why.
3. Make a better case for why Wharton is right for you.
For more about reapplication, please see “A guide to my resources for reapplicants.”

PLEASE NOT I CANNOT CONFIRM THE FOLLOWING UNTIL THE APPLICATION IS UPLOADED. International Experience Question from the online application:Briefly describe all experiences you have working, studying, living, or traveling outside your home country. Include the location, purpose, and length of stay. If relevant, reflect on how these experiences have shaped your world view. (Limit 250 words)

The usual problem many of my clients encounter is how to even minimally account for their international experience in 250 words.

My advice is to focus on 1-3 key experiences which had a significant impact on you. You need to actually say something meaningful about these experiences in terms of the way they have effected your thinking, perspectives, choices you have made and/or beliefs. Given what you have said about yourself so far in the other essays, what other aspects of who are you and what you have done would you like to tell Tuck about?  This can be a nice way to get an additional key story or two into your application.

If you have limited experiences outside of your home country, you will need to make the most out of very little.

If you lack international experience, go get some! Just kidding, well sort of.  My suggestion to not try to answer this question, but identify international experience in the optional essay or Essay 1 as something you want to get at Tuck.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

Dartmouth Tuck MBA Essay Questions for Academic Year 2013-14

In this post I analyze the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth MBA Application Essay Questions for Academic Year 2013–14 (Class of 2015). Tuck is great school in a small town. This is both its strength in terms of forming a close knit community and weakness in terms of being a location that some find unattractive. Sometimes when I talk to clients and mention Tuck, I know immediately that I made a mistake. Other times, I working with someone whose second or third top choice is Tuck. To be honest, I have worked with only a few clients who ever considered Tuck their top choice.  The location seems to be the issue. That Tuck is not the applicant pool as a whole's first choice is reflected in its yield of 54% (BusinessWeek). It is important to keep this in mind as showing a strong interest in attending the program is something you should convey both in your application and interview.  Tuck allows for student initiated campus-only interviews, which I strongly recommend unless your budget and time makes doing so impossible. Please see here for my post on interviewing at Tuck.

THE IMPORTANCE OF VISITING, NETWORKING, OR AT LEAST ATTENDING A TUCK EVENT
If you are really interested in attending Tuck, I strongly suggest making a real effort to visit or at least to attend a reception. This will be a great way to meet with admissions officers in a very friendly environment. It is also an amazing way to network with the alum at the event and afterwords. At the Tokyo reception, we were actually provided with a list of alumni who would be happy to communicate with potential applicants. In "Tips on Applying," Ms. Clarke emphasizes the importance of getting in touch with Tuck alumni. She, in fact, specifically says that mentioning that you met with alumni is something you should do both in your essays and interviews. She also mentioned that she considers notes from alumni as being in an applicant's favor.  Click here for information about Tuck events.
Learning from students and alumni by networking with them is also incredibly valuable. Japanese applicants should also visit the Japanese site. See also my Q&As with former clients who are members of the Class of 2011 and Class of 2013.
One thing that is consistent is that current students, alumni, and  admissions officers emphasize that Tuck is about being part of a community. Especially in regards to the community aspect, I suggest reading the Q&A I conducted with  a member of the Class of 2011.  In particular:
Adam: What is the Tuck community like?
Tuck 2011: The Tuck community is like family. Literally for those who live on campus since they spend most of time together. Everybody is friendly and you don't need to worry about making friends here. From an academic point of view, collaboration between students is highly emphasized in Tuck and you will experience and learn to work together with others.
Anyone applying to Tuck, should most certainly watch the video series "Applying to Tuck: The Inside Scoop" with Dawna Clarke, the Director of Admissions. I will make reference to Ms. Clarke's advice below.

Essay Questions for 2013–14
Let's take a look at the essay questions. I took the questions from the Tuck blog. The general instructions have changed a bit from last year as it now the case applicants really should limit the word count to 500 words. Previously Tuck was quite flexible on this, but not now: Please respond fully but concisely to the following essay questions. Compose each of your answers offline in separate document files and upload them individually in the appropriate spaces. We encourage applicants to limit the length of their responses to 500 words for each essay. There are no right or wrong answers.
Please double-space your responses.
I don't suggest writing much more than 500 unless you really need to, but I see no reason why anyone needs to. I don't know why Tuck can't be more explicit and not use such wimpy language ("We encourage.."). I will strongly encourage my own clients to keep it to 500 words. In addition to these questions, I have also included an analysis of the international experience question from the application form.

1. Why is an MBA a critical next step toward your short- and long-term career goals? Why is Tuck the best MBA program for you, and what will you uniquely contribute to the community? (If you are applying for a joint or dual degree, please explain how the additional degree will contribute to those goals.)
Tuck has now combined the standard MBA/Goals question with a contribution question. They used to give separate essays for each question.


The first part of this question is a very standard version of the Why MBA essay question and remains unchanged from last year. See my Stanford GSB analysis as it applies here.

Regarding the second part of the question, on how you will contribute to Tuck, keep in mind that in addition to leadership, the two other common characteristics of Tuck students that Ms. Clarke mentions are teamwork skills and communication/interpersonal skills. So if you have not effectively covered those two categories in another essay, you should address them in one way or another here. You have space in Essay 2 to discuss leadership. Essay 1 is not just a way for admissions to understand some important aspects of who you are, it is also a place for them to see whether you know enough about Tuck to provide effective examples of the way you would contribute.

Given the limited word count available, I suggest doing the contribution part of the question in combination with why you want to attend Tuck. In the "Let me count the reasons I need Tuck for my goals and want to contribute to Tuck" brainstorming table I have attempted to account for everything Tuck related that you need to discuss in this essay.
Let me count the reasons I need Tuck for my goals and want to contribute to Tuck

Types of reasons that you should include in your essay	Specific things at Tuck (Classes, clubs, or aspects of the program)	How will you contribute? (You need not always mention your contribution)	Is this topic covered elsewhere in the application? (If so, why do you need to discuss it here?)
Reasons that relate to your short term goals: 1. 2.
Reasons that relate to your long-term goals: 1. 2.
Reasons that relate to your personal Personal interests (hobbies, values, experiences): 1. 2.

(You can just cut and paste this. It works)
The above table will help you outline your answer. I suggest following some variation of these 11 steps:
1. Identify specific reasons for needing an MBA that relate to your goals and personal interests
2. Identify specific things at Tuck that relate to these reasons.
3. When feasible explain how you will contribute to the reason you identified.
4. Ask yourself if the reason being discussed is covered elsewhere in your application. If so, why does need to be in this essay?
5. Go through the above steps until such time as you have a sufficient number of reasons to write about.
6. Write it up.
7. Edit it.
8. Don't look at it for a while (minutes, hours, days, weeks, all depending on your deadline situation) and read it again.
9. Edit it some more.
10. Upload it.
11. Get on with your life. Step 11 is optional, but highly recommended. :)

2.  Discuss your most meaningful leadership experience. What did you learn about your own individual strengths and weaknesses through this experience?
This question remains unchanged from last year. Keep in mind that according to Dawna Clarke in "Tuck's holistic admissions process" video, leadership ability and/or demonstrated potential is one of three key common characteristics of Tuck students. You should most certainly provide a full answer to this question, one demonstrating that you really understand your strengths and weaknesses as a leader. Weak versions of this essay will focus too much on simply telling a leadership story and not enough on self-analysis of leadership ability.
most meaningful: Since the leadership experience you write about should be he the one that you consider most meaningful, you clearly explain that.  Applicants frequently assume the significance of a story without interpreting it sufficiently.  Make sure you have clearly explained why the particular leadership experience you write about is meaningful to you.  This is not just a function of explaining your strengths and weaknesses as a leader, but of actually explaining why this particular experience is so significant.


What did you learn about your own individual strengths and weaknesses through this experience? This is a test of your ability to honestly assess your own limitations, not just as a leader, but more generally.The structure of the first year program including mandatory study groups of 5-6 students in the Fall and Winter terms, the Cohen Leadership Development Program, and the intensely community-focused nature of the environment certainly requires that all students be open to receiving and issuing positive, but critical feedback. It is important that you demonstrate the self-critical capacity expected at Tuck.


For my general suggestions on writing leadership focused essays, please see my analysis of  Stanford Essay 3.  And yes, it is highly likely that you will using this same topic for Stanford 3, Wharton 3, and HBS 1(It is possible that it could be HBS 2).

3. Describe a circumstance in your life in which you faced adversity, failure, or setback. What actions did you take as a result and what did you learn from this experience?
This question is also unchanged from last year. It is critical that you learned something meaningful.  Therefore the key constraint of this question is that whatever the adversity, failure, or setback is, you have learned something important from it. While not stated, you may very well find that one way of showing what you learned is to discuss how you applied your lesson to a new situation.  
What is the difference between adversity, failure and a setback? I think the easiest thing to do is look at standard definitions of all three words (taken from Dictionary.com):
ADVERSITY: 1. adverse fortune or fate; a condition marked by misfortune, calamity, or distress: A friend will show his or her true colors in times of adversity. 2. an adverse or unfortunate event or circumstance: You will meet many adversities in life.
FAILURE: 1. an act or instance of failing  or proving unsuccessful; lack of success: His effort ended in failure. The campaign was a failure. 2. nonperformance of something due, required, or expected: a failure to do what one has promised; a failure to appear. 3. a subnormal quantity or quality; an insufficiency: the failure of crops. 4. deterioration or decay, especially of vigor, strength, etc.: The failure of her health made retirement necessary. 5. a condition of being bankrupt by reason of insolvency.
SETBACK: a check to progress; a reverse or defeat
Examples of possible topics:
Adversity: Taking care of dying relative, being in a battle field, being poor, having a physical disability, being in a disaster, having a boss who hates you, being the victim of bullying, being the victim of prejudice (because of your gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, etc)
Failure: Drawing the wrong conclusions about a situation, taking the wrong course of action, an inability to see significant problems with a project, bad personal behavior that generates a negative result, lack of empathy that leads to the ending of a professional or personal relationship
Setback: an obstacle to progress on a project, organizational resistance to your plans, changes in a situation that makes what seemed to be a manageable project a potential disaster, a loss of efficiency that must be overcome if success is to be obtained
The basic components of an answer:
1. Clearly state what the adversity, failure or setback was.  Your reader should understand easily which one you have selected.
2. Clearly state your role when you explain the situation. It should be clear how much responsibility you have for the situation.
3. Explain what actions you took. Think about what your actions reflect about your own skills and personality. Provide a sufficient number of distinct action steps to highlight the diverse ways you handled the situation.
4. Explain what you learned. If what you learned is something you applied to a subsequent situation, please explain that.
Everyone should have many examples of adversity, setbacks, and failures, but the key thing is to have one that you learned from. If you think these words bleed into one another, that is true to some extent, but the nice thing about this question is that it covers a huge variety of situations. Adverse situations are certainly not necessarily failures or setbacks, but simply really bad situations. A setback, unlike a failure, is not necessarily something that ultimately does not work.

4. (Optional) Please provide any additional insight or information that you have not addressed elsewhere that may be helpful in reviewing your application (e.g., unusual choice of evaluators, weaknesses in academic performance, unexplained job gaps or changes, etc.). Complete this question only if you feel your candidacy is not fully represented by this application.
As with other school's optional questions, do not put an obvious essay for another school here. If you read the above, it should be clear enough that this is the place to explain anything negative or potentially negative in your background. If you have no explanation for something negative, don't bother writing about it. For example if your GPA is 2.9 and you have no good explanation for why it is 2.9, don't bother writing something that looks like a lame excuse. This is more likely to hurt than help you. In the same vein, don't waste the committee's time telling them that your GMAT is a much better indicator than your GPA (the opposite is also true). They have heard it before and they will look at both scores and can draw their own conclusions without you stating the obvious. That said, if you have a good explanation for a bad GPA, you should most certainly write about it.
In addition to GMAT/GRE, TOEFL, and GPA problems, other possible topics include issues related to recommendations, serious gaps in your resume, concerns related to a near total lack of extracurricular activities, and  major issues in your personal/professional life that you really think the admissions office needs to know about.You can certainly write on something positive here if you think its omission will be negative for you, but before you do, ask yourself these questions:
1. If they did not ask it, do they really need to know it?
2. Will the topic I want to discuss significantly improve my overall essay set?
3. Is the topic one that would not be covered from looking at other parts of my application?
4. Is the essay likely to be read as being a specific answer for Wharton and not an obvious essay for another school?
If you can answer "Yes!" to all four questions, it might be a good topic to write about.

5. (To be completed by all reapplicants) How have you strengthened your candidacy since you last applied? Please reflect on how you have grown personally and professionally.
An effective answer here will do the following:
1. Showcase what has changed since your last application that now makes you a better candidate.
2. Refine your goals. I think it is reasonable that they may have altered since your last application, but if the change is extreme, you had better explain why.
3. Make a better case for why Wharton is right for you.
For more about reapplication, please see "A guide to my resources for reapplicants."

International Experience Question from the online application:Briefly describe all experiences you have working, studying, living, or traveling outside your home country. Include the location, purpose, and length of stay. If relevant, reflect on how these experiences have shaped your world view. (Limit 250 words)

The usual problem many of my clients encounter is how to even minimally account for their international experience in 250 words. 

My advice is to focus on 1-3 key experiences which had a significant impact on you. You need to actually say something meaningful about these experiences in terms of the way they have effected your thinking, perspectives, choices you have made and/or beliefs. Given what you have said about yourself so far in the other essays, what other aspects of who are you and what you have done would you like to tell Tuck about?  This can be a nice way to get an additional key story or two into your application.

If you have limited experiences outside of your home country, you will need to make the most out of very little.

If you lack international experience, go get some! Just kidding, well sort of.  My suggestion to not try to answer this question, but identify international experience in the optional essay or Essay 1 as something you want to get at Tuck.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

Q&A with a Member of the Tuck MBA Class of 2013

My former client, Tuck2013 is an MBA candidate at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Prior to MBA, he worked for an investment bank. After graduation, he plans to go back to his company. His answers are particularly insightful and should prove useful to anyone considering application to Tuck.
--------------------------------


Adam: What parts of the program have you liked the most? The least?

Tuck2013: I just finished the first year and so far I like the core subjects in Tuck, though I haven’t yet taken so many electives. The first-year program in Tuck gave me intensive trainings as a general manager and broadened not only my skill set but also the career perspectives.
The core program in Tuck is highly integrated. The professors teaching core program are sharing the curriculum and they make the core subjects more connected with each other. For example, in Fall A, we learned micro-economics and then in Fall B, we used the knowledge learned in micro-economics in modeling class. Actually, this modeling class was held as a joint-session by the modeling professor and the micro-economics professor.  As this example indicates, in Tuck, the students can learn core subjects in an integrated program, which is more practical.
The core program covers all basic subjects as a manager like leadership, micro- and macro-economics, marketing, strategy, presentation and so on. Of course we can exempt the class which we are already familiar with, but basically in the first year, we don’t have the option to focus on what we want to do, which can be either good or bad. But learning broad subjects was actually very good for me, because I could find my weakness and blind spots as a manager leading the company. In addition, learning the subjects new to me was really fun. I worked in derivative sales in an investment bank before Tuck, but in Tuck I pretty much enjoyed the subjects outside my expertise like strategy and marketing, which broadened my career perspective.
The workload required in the first year was heavy. However, I think heavy workload was good, because getting through the first-year in Tuck gave me confidence and I could learn the efficient time management.    
What I didn’t like in the first year was that I couldn’t carve out enough time to enjoy winter in Hanover. Though I bought a yearly pass for Killington, the famous ski resort in North East, which is 45 min drive from Tuck, I couldn’t use the pass enough to recover the cost. So I hope that I can play with snow more next year.

Adam:  What has most surprised you about your first year?

Tuck2013: One of the things surprising to me was very supportive Tuck community including not only students and families but also faculty and program office. Almost every class has review sessions and professors and teaching assistants spend as much time as possible to support the students. If we have a problem, we can talk to MBA program office anytime. MBA program office is supporting the partners as well by organizing the events for partners. I expected that Tuck has supportive community but the supports from the community are more than I expected.
Another surprising thing was that we didn’t have much snow in the winter. Last winter, New England had the warmest winter in recent years and there was less snow than usual. Dean Danos visited Tokyo last winter and made a joke that Tokyo had more snow than Hanover. I don’t know what is going to happen this winter, but it is not bad to have a ‘real New England winter’ this winter, as long as it is one-time experience.

Adam: How would you describe the culture of the business school?

Tuck2013: In general, Tuck students are very team-oriented. They are basically attracted by the team-oriented culture in Tuck and thus they are very supportive and mature.  Tuck students are coming from all over the world and are very diverse but they certainly share the team-oriented mind. I also think MBA program office designs the program to preserve the team oriented culture. In almost every class, we are required the group assignment and in some classes we are evaluated by our peers.
I think that the classmates in Tuck are like family. I actually spent vast amount of time with my study-group mates in the first year and we could develop the very good tie. Even outside of study, Students living in the dorms spend literally 24/7 with classmates and students living off-campus also participate in the event on-campus very frequently. Due to the amount of time spent with classmates, we know our classmates very well and I believe that the relationship with classmates is deeper than other schools. I think this is a unique aspect of Tuck.

Adam: What are hot topics, activities, classes, etc. at your school right now?

Tuck2013: The hottest project in Tuck is probably $300 project. This project was initiated by Prof. Vijay Govindarajan. He is one of the best strategy professors in Tuck and was ranked No. 3 in Thinkers 50 in 2011. The concept of $300 house is to make the house affordable to people in the poor region. Now the project is making a pilot version of $300 houses and expected to be in full implementation in two or three years. Entire Dartmouth community is supporting this project. Now Tuck team is cooperating with engineer school team to build a pilot version. Former President of Dartmouth College, Jong Yong Kim strongly supported $300 house project and he was nominated to World Bank chief by President Obama. His nomination is another big topic for Tuck and Dartmouth community.

Adam: What are you doing this summer?

Tuck2013: I’m doing internship in a private equity fund in Boston. I’m engaged in due diligence of new investment opportunity and monitoring of the current portfolio. I’m also involved in the project to identify the next market segment we should focus on.
I found the job by the referral from Tuck alum. Tuck alum network is tight and really helpful for job searching. Also, Career Development Office (CDO) helped me a lot. Counselors in CDO have each specialized industry like banking and consulting and help us out with their personal network and experience. Due to these strong supports, Tuck has the successful record in recruiting.   

Adam:  What advice do you have for those considering application to your school?

Tuck2013: Tuck is kind of special environment. We call it as “Tuck bubble” which is like a two-year camp with classmates. Very few students are local in New Hampshire or Vermont. Most of students are coming from outside and Hanover is a nice town but it doesn’t have many amusement spots or fancy bars and restaurants. So the natural conclusion for the students is that they spend much time in Tuck and hang out with their classmates.  In “Tuck bubble”, we can’t avoid mingling with classmates. Not everybody can adapt to this environment. So I think that the fit to Tuck community is very important. If you like such an environment and want to enjoy two years with your classmates on the beautiful campus in Hanover, Tuck is a good school for you.
Also in terms of academics, Tuck may not be for everyone, because Tuck is a small school and the number of electives is limited, though I think the quality of faculty is really good. The focus of Tuck MBA program is general management and the program is not for specialists. Thus for the applicants who want to develop their expertise deeply, Tuck may not be a good fit.
I think Tuck has several unique characteristics. Showing the fit to these unique aspects is a convincing way to explain “Why Tuck”, which is the most important question both in essays and interview.   

Adam:  Are there any specific websites or blogs that you would recommend that applicants look at to learn more about your school?

Tuck2013: I think that the Admission Blog is a helpful resource for the applicants to get the insights from the admission staff and current students.
Also we are now preparing Tuck Connections which connects applicants with current Tuck students and alumni.
I’m planning to renew the Japanese Tuck Website this year to provide the updated information about Tuck. So if you are a Japanese applicant, please check out the Japanese Tuck Website as well.

Adam: Anything else you would like to tell us?

Tuck2013: Tuck campus is beautiful and Hanover is a small but nice town. It is really hard to describe how attractive they are. It is also difficult to explain the culture in Tuck only with this Q&A. I recommend visiting campus and feel the Tuck culture, if you are interested in Tuck. We will always welcome you!!
-----------------------------------

I want to thank Tuck2013 for taking the time to put together some really great insights into the Tuck experience.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.