Does Dartmouth Tuck Have the Best MBA Culture?

The Tuck MBA and Tuckies themselves stand out from the business school crowd. You’ll need to know why in order to pass the Tuck MBA interview or even before you apply! Tuck MBA research starts here 🙂 

While you're at it, we just posted a HUGE report on EVERYTHING you need to know about the Dartmouth Tuck MBA.

Angela Guido is joined by our school research expert Louise Loeb to tackle the claim of whether Dartmouth Tuck has the best MBA community, if it has the best alumni network, why that might be and what it means for your MBA applications.

YouTube video

Prefer to read? Here’s the transcript:

Welcome back to MBA Monday. I'm Angela Guido, the founder of Career Protocol, an MBA Coach, a Career Coach, and a facilitator of the achievement of MBA dreams. We’re here to help you get everything you want out of your MBA and today we're answering a really big question: Does Dartmouth Tuck have the best culture of any MBA program? Stay tuned to find out.

Angela: I have with me today our school research expert and Senior Instructor extraordinaire, Louise Loeb. Say Hello, Louise.

Louise: Hi, I'm Louise Loeb, and I'm a Senior Instructor at Career Protocol.

AG: We love Louise because she's also a former attorney, which means that she is a brilliant researcher. She helps us look sharp, stay smart, and stay on top of all the news about the top MBA programs worldwide. Today, because she loves the Dartmouth Tuck MBA program and she’s sent a ton of clients there, Louise, in the last two years how many clients have you sent to Tuck?

LL: In the last two years I've had about half a dozen clients go to Tuck.

AG: So if there's an expert on the Dartmouth Tuck MBA program, it's Louise Loeb. Dartmouth is really known for its amazing collegial culture. So we're going to get Louise's expert opinion today about whether she thinks Dartmouth has the best culture or not and whether or not we can definitively answer that question. We're going to get some insight into what actually shapes the culture and what does make sure that people who go through the Tuck experience have a great experience. So what can you tell us about the Dartmouth Tuck culture, Louise?

LL: Oh, my gosh. Such a big fan of Dartmouth Tuck, especially its students and its community. Tuck really goes out of their way to build a class of MBA students who are smart, accomplished, aware, and encouraging. And these values really permeate through the entire community and with the clients that I work with who are applying to Tuck, one thing that they tell me is that whenever they reach out to students or alumni of the Tuck MBA program, they get almost a 100% response rate, which is incredible. Like prospective students reaching out to members of the Tuck community and getting a 100% response rate? Not really heard of at many of the other top MBA programs, and that's because Tuck really emphasizes a culture of generously investing in others, especially your peers and in the community, because Tuck has a really strong mission to develop wise, decisive leaders who better the world through business. Another thing that makes Tuck really strong is that they actually draw a significant percentage of students from the arts, humanities, and social sciences, which means that their students are really well-rounded and knowledgeable about the world, very curious about their local communities as well as the global community, and really in touch with the human aspects of relationship building. Around 45% of a class comes from the arts, humanities, and social sciences, which is, frankly, a huge percentage compared to the other top MBA programs.

AG: That's true. That is definitely a lot more humanities nerds than most MBA programs.

LL: For prospective students currently in college or a couple of years out of college who will come from humanities backgrounds but want to study business and get an MBA, but don't necessarily have the skills to jump into the MBA program, Tuck has something called the Tuck Bridge Program, designed for applicants at that level to get them up to speed and build a community going forward into the MBA program.

AG: These are really meaningful components that clearly shape the student body and to some extent, the experience of students. What are some of the aspects of the as lived Tuck experience like the campus and what people do there that helps foster this incredibly close-knit community?

LL: Well, certainly Tuck’s location in Hanover, New Hampshire. A little bit remote, but it's a quintessential New England college town. Very close-knit, very fun, really cultivates a culture of on-campus community. Actually, a lot of first year students live in the dormitories of Tuck’s residential college campus, which helps build community as you're always running into your classmates in the common areas and studying with your small study group in the dormitories. Also interestingly, Tuck also has underground tunnels so you don't have to go outside during the cold winter months just to get to class.

AG: I think for the clients that I've helped get into Tuck, the number one thing that they've cited as the thing that drew them to the tech community and then, of course, the thing that they most enjoyed once they graduated was the incredible intimacy of the alumni network. Louise, tell us a little bit about that.

LL: Yeah. Tuck actually has the most responsive, close-knit alumni network around the globe. Tuckies are known to always be helping other Tuckies throughout their lives. If a Tuckie reaches out to another Tuckie, they respond within 24 hours, which is pretty neat.

AG: Yeah, I checked this out with clients over the years, and it's not all hype. The agreement is that if a Tuckie reaches out to you, you reply within 24 hours and seems like they do it. As Louise was saying, it seems like they even do it for prospective Tuckies, for people who haven't even joined the culture yet. So, there are a lot of things to love about the Dartmouth MBA program. We could talk about the fact that what is it Louise, 42%, of the class goes into management consulting? Its curriculum is known to be really great at training general managers, people who are well-rounded, able to make decisions across a lot of different functions, which lends itself really well to management consulting. So, we could go on and on about what's great about the school, about the curriculum, about recruitment, but I think if you even just do a tiny bit of research, the first thing you're going to encounter is the fact that Tuck has a very distinctive culture, and it's one that everyone who ends up there and everyone who graduates from there loves to be a part of. So, if that's the kind of person you are, if you want to be part of a tribe that sticks together throughout the years, you should definitely add Dartmouth Tucks to your list of MBA programs that you're applying to. Any last words, Louise?

LL: Good luck!

AG: Awesome. Thanks so much as always for joining us Louise. If you would like to talk to us about achieving your career dreams at Dartmouth Tuck and beyond, sign up for a free MBA strategy call and if you want you can even request to speak directly with Louise. We can't wait to hear from you. I'll see you next week on MBA Monday.

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Angela Guido

Student of Human Nature| Founder and
Chief Education Officer of Career Protocol

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