Tuck 2013 (Dartmouth) - Calling All Applicants

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Hi everyone, I attended the Tuck reception in Bangalore and thought I'd share some pointers. Some of these may already be known to you:

1. EA invites are still coming out, geography no bar. This year, the EA volume is up by 30% and Allegra mentioned that the adcom is stressed out, trying to wrap up everything before the decision day. Her advice to applicants was to wait and not assume the worst.

(Personally, I feel that since they haven't finished reading the apps, you cannot assume that they've covered all apps from country X or Y. I don't think it is correct to assume that if you didn't get an invitation that coincided with a reception, you're scrood.)

2. As str1der previously mentioned, almost 60% of the class is decided from the EA and November rounds.

3. They don't care about multiple GMAT attempts, whether the scores trended up or down. Just have a good score(s) in one of them.

4. Allegra mentioned that she uses a + and - column while reviewing applications. So if your GMAT is low, like in the 500s or 600s, she would put that under the minus column. But this alone does not qualify for a ding. They look for other compensating strengths or evidence that you have worked on these weaknesses. One exception would be military candidates, who have either the GPA or GMAT low, but generally have great profiles. Tuck loves military candidates and recruiters love them too.

5. For those who applied in the November round, expect interview invites to come out 6 weeks from 11/7.

6. The one thing she stressed the most were the career goals. I think she talked about it at least 3 or 4 times. If your career goal is lofty, then Career Services steps in to determine whether they have the resources to place you in that role after your MBA. So it is very important that you state a strong case for your goals.

7. They don't expect Indian candidates to have stratospheric GMAT scores. It's just that they're so used to seeing these scores from India. They don't think 680-710 is bad at all. However they will be concerned if your verbal or quantitative score is low, or if your AWA is below 4.5.

Hope this helps!
Pru