Calling All Fall 2010 Dartmouth (Tuck) Applicants

True that. I think this is a great profile. I am an engineer too and got a ding. I believe the email was a generic one.

My essays were a bit long too

1st essay- 970
2nd- 587
3rd- 447
4th - 617

My interview went well according to me.

My profile

GMAT - 700
B.E in Computer engineering from a top 10 university in India- GPA 7.2/10

MS from San Jose State University - 3.6 GPA

Excellent Internship experience with companies like Apple Computer

3 years Full Time work experience with a top virtualization company as an engineer. Been promoted once and currently working in a lead role with multiple leadership roles at the company.

Extracurricular- Many leadership roles since college. In sports and other projects. Involved with 2 charities since I was 17.

Highly interested in Entrepreneurship and general management.

My request to the candidates who got it. Can they share their profile and some tips on essays with the ones who got dinged.

I applied to Stanford, Tuck, Haas, Tepper and UCLA. After a ding from Tuck I am not very hopeful of my chances. I am hoping to get some help from the experts here who have been admitted and what I can do to strengthen my chances. Is it possible for the ones who got admits to review my essays from one school and provide feedback? I must state that I spend a considerable amount of time in preparing my applications and writing my essays along with getting them reviewed from friends.

Thanks a lot for your time and I am really hoping to get some positive replies to my call for help.

My essays were 550/550/650/650 in length.

We can take this to PM if you like but my number one concern would be this:

"Highly interested in Entrepreneurship and general management."

That's extremely general. I am also interested in Entrepreneurship, however I didnt say in my essays I was "interested" in it, I said I was going to be a tech entrepreneur. My goals were hyper-specific. I basically gave the adcom a roadmap of my career, how I was going to get there, why I needed the MBA from Tuck to do it.

If you view Tuck as a business and the adcom as the hiring manager, your application should be for a certain position (your goals). You have to make them see the fit, that youre qualified for the position (or can make the transition given your abilities or past background). If you dont connect the dots in their head, its going to be hard to get in. I didnt read your essays so I dont know if they were themed as generally as I am assuming, but if you just said you are interested in entrepreneurship, it would be like going to Goldman Sachs, applying and telling them you are interested in Finance. You need to be more specific to get the goods. Just my $.02

Good advice Ginetta!

Do you have any insight on the question I posed above? Thank you very much!

Posted from my mobile device

Thanks for the reply. I was definitely more specific in my essays. I provided a clear roadmap of what I wanted to do with an MBA and how it will fit in to my career goals(Both short term and long term). I think that is why I am asking for help from people who got into Tuck. If I can read a successful essay and an application (a recent one), it will help me get an idea of what I missed, even if the profile is different than mine. I did read that successful candidates have helped in reviewing essays for other members on this forum once they get in and I am hoping for a similar kind of help if one has the time.

I dont know the exact hit rate - but yes I believe it is a very good sign if you get invited to interview and do well. Tuck places a lot of importance about fit which is understandable, its a close-knit place. If you are invited to interview I would imagine you have a pretty good shot.

Not sure I'm qualified to weigh on this discussion, since I'm not quite sure how I got into Tuck myself. My numbers are good, but not mindblowing, and I felt like my interview was awful. I am a woman though and I work for a fairly blue-chip PE firm. I'm also a good writer, so even though I thought my Tuck essays were weak relative to my other applications, they were probably good relative to the others in the applicant pool.

I can't remember if Dartmouth asks on its application what other schools to which you're applying, but I think your answer to this questions matters to them. My understanding is that Tuck is SUPER concerned about yield so if you're a strong candidate and you're applying to a lot of great schools, adcom is probably concerned that they'll give you an admit only to be rejected for another top 10 school. After I attended their women's weekend in the fall, I really fell in love with the community so I sent Dawna and Pat (who's in charge of woman's recruiting) a thank you email for hosting us for the weekend and also expressed that Tuck was my top choice. It wasn't long or overdone - only a few sentences - but I let them know they were my number one choice. I also wove into my essays details that showed other experiences in my life were similar to what I wanted from my business school experience. In other words, for undergraduated I attended a small, private liberal arts school where there was a strong emphasis on community; I really enjoyed that, knew that I thrived in that type of environment and thus knew that Tuck, which has a similar feel, would be a good fit.

Only one aspect, of course, and just my speculation - just something I would consider as it shows that a ding doesn't mean you had a weak profile at all - could actually mean you were TOO competitive and they thought they would lose you to H/S/W.

Waitlist for me...

Hey Guys,
Congrats to the R1 admits! I hope there's still room in the class for people like me

Question for everyone: I just got a note in the mail from Dawna Clarke. It was on a general postcard but contained a kind of personalized note mentioning my interview (applicant initiated). Should I take this as a good sign? I have been kind of worried that I wouldn't hear anything indicating the status of my application until d-day... I want to think of this as positive, but I have no idea. Did others who interviewed on campus prior to applying receive this kind of note? Am I just being paranoid?

Thanks!

I received one from Dia Draper too. This was after my applicant initiated interview and before submitting the application ( if that helps). I am in the Jan round so am still waiting....

T.

Thank Ginetta, I was just curious. Once again, congrats on your admit!

Bloomberg is reporting that Dartmouth will be making budget cuts given that its endowment lost 20% of its value. I doubt this will affect Tuck much (it's mostly undergrad), but an official confirm from Tuck staff would be advisable.

I'm a new member so I can't post the link, but it's pretty easy to find. Some snippets:

"Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Dartmouth College is raising tuition and fees, requiring some students to take loans and eliminating jobs while Yale University will cut construction spending as U.S. universities feel the effects of endowment declines.
...
Dartmouth’s endowment had an investment loss of 20 percent in the fiscal year ended June 30 and fell a total of 23 percent, to $2.82 billion, when spending and new gifts were also taken into account. Dartmouth, which relied on its fund for 32 percent of its revenue in 2009, is making decisive cuts now so it can avoid future reductions, President Jim Yong Kim said in a conference call.
...
Thirty-eight of Dartmouth’s 3,400 non-faculty workers will lose their jobs, starting tomorrow, with 'a comparable number' expected in April, Dartmouth said. An additional 33 staff members will have their hours cut to help erase a $100 million deficit during the next two years, according to the e-mail."

Oh this is sad... wonder if they will take in a few more applicants to offset the cost?

It's really quiet here... Any one else get an interview invite for the Jan round?

So I'm confused by Tuck's admissions process. What if you cannot do a self-initiated interview? And then you do not get a committee-initiated interview invite. Does that mean you will not be admitted?

That's what i imagine to be true... If you are not invited to interview and have not interviewed before on your own... then admission is not a possibility.

but a self initiated interview does not mean you will get admitted just because you interviewed.

Is Tuck still sending out committee-initiated interview invites to January-round applicants, or have they all already gone out?