Ask a Tuck Interviewer

Question

A co-worker of mine has put me in touch with a guy she attended UG at Dartmouth with that just graduated from Tuck last year and was an Admissions Associate his 2nd year. He said most every interviewer is a 2nd year student and basically if you live in the US, an on-campus interview is expected, with a few extenuating circumstances allowed.

My question is this. I'm going to send him back an email in a day or so, but I wanted to know if there were any questions people would like me to ask him? This is a pretty darn good opportunity to get in the mind of 1) and admitted student / graduate of Tuck and 2) an interviewer that made recommendations to the adcom about the individuals he interviewed so he probably got feedback from adcoms as to exactly what stood out about each individual.

So post your questions here and I'll pick 4 or 5 of the most asked questions and include them in my email back to him. I don't want to overload him with questions. So if you read a question that you want answered also, copy it into your post and "vote" for it.

jallenmorris · Answer

I thought i would have had at least 1 question by now.

refurb · Answer

Ask him how he reports back to the adcom. Does he fill out a form that ranks people in different areas? 
What areas were the most important?
What areas are less important?

What annoys him most during an interview? 
What personal characteristics does he feel is the best match for Tuck?

When he asks "Walk me through your resume" what is looking for? Should the person focus on giving a broad background or focus on accomplishments?

RF

IHateTheGMAT · Answer

These are VERY good questions. I'm going to try and think of some others...

sarzan · Answer

I would really like to know:

1) If there truly is going to be a crusade on age this year (HBS and Stanford have already declared war), how is Tuck going to deal with it? How will this new trend influence their admission policies?

2) As this year appears to be more competitive than previous years, will Tuck show more love to applicants from booming sectors and hate to applicants from falling sectors?

3) How would a school like Tuck recognize the sincerity of applicants when they drop the "Tuck is my #1 Choice" line? What differentiates between two stellar applicants with regards to how one demonstrates genuine interest in their school as opposed to the other?

refurb · Answer

I should add a big thanks jallenmorris for doing this! He could have kept this resource to himself, but he's decided to share with the gmatclub community.

Thanks!!

RF

IHateTheGMAT · Answer

I second that. Kudos

devil420 · Answer

Jallenmorris,

Gr8 oppurtunity and huge magnanimity on your part to share it.
 If possible could you ask, what advice/guidelines are given by adcom to the students while conducting interview. There has to be some criterion, Communication, confidence, goal clarity etc. What is the relative weightage of these criterion? How much weightage does the interview carry in the overall application?

jallenmorris · Answer

What I'll do is take questions over the weekend and get the email ready to send to him and send it on Monday morning.

filmcity · Answer

I asked this question to Tuck adcom member during my feedback ( since I am old but have fewer number of years in workex). He said "We do not look at the age while making decision."

jallenmorris · Answer

I don't know that this person will have an answer to the question regarding age as he is not doing it anymore and he was an interviewer last year. I don't see Tuck as the type of place that wants people that are 23 and no work experience, or even 25 and just a few years. What I've learned about the "fit" of Tuck, I don't see it as a place many young people (25 and younger) are going to like if for not other reason that geographic remoteness.

agold · Answer

They have no issues with accepting 25 year olds with 3 years of experience (I fall into this bucket and I have cleared it with them already). However, the problem is, as you mentioned that not many 25 year olds want to live in Hanover at that stage in their lives.

prospect · Answer

Thanks jallenmorris, mighty nice of you to share this with us. I vote for refurb's questions as well. Especially the personal characteristics fit with Tuck.

devil420 · Answer

Dear JAllenmorris,
Did you manage to get the questions?

jallenmorris · Answer

I've been away from GMATClub for awhile. I need to get the email to the interviewer so he has time to respond. I'll keep you all informed.

Antmavel · Answer

Interesting post. Just to clarifiy a few points: 1) age is not a major factor, clearly there won't be 200 people 40+ years old or 200 people 23- years old so it will depend on the pool as always. I would say 25-32 is the general norm. I believe there are not too many students under 25 at Tuck but a lot of them is also 25-26

Internationals are older in general. 2) I dsagree with the comment made about the fact that nobody under 25 wants to live in Hanover. I think that we are talking about a MBA degree not some field trip. Location should not come up as a number 1 choice, not enven in your top 5 I believe. It's only 2 years but the impact is measured far beyond. I do recognize though Hanover is not NY though and I can understand why ultimately someone would choose another top 10 school but not if someone join a second tier school just for the weather/city entertainment/activities

3) 99.9% is about the fit at Tuck. Get to know the people. Ask basic questions. Show interest. Know some prof and some interesting classes but do not spend too much time on the latest publications, rankings of professors or stuff like these. Tuck is more focused on knowing if you will fit in rather than Tuck fit in your life. 4) Finally Tuck is like any school, some things are good and some aren't, just choose the school you think will be the best for you. I've just graduated from Tuck but I had the choice and I know why I made this choice, it should be the same for you. Make up your own mind.

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