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Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs

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Peru’s Andean Miracle: Inside the Peru GIX [#permalink] Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs   14 May 2019, 15:00
FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: Peru’s Andean Miracle: Inside the Peru GIX

By Keerthi Vallabhapurapu T’20

After a long, arduous winter in Hanover filled with the pressures of recruitment, 23 of us, along with Richard McNulty, executive director of leadership development, and Dartmouth government professor John Carey stepped into Peru. The theme of the GIX was “Peru's Andean Miracle: Lessons at the Intersection of the Private Sector and Public Policy.” The promise was of wisdom, wonder, fun, and some much-required vitamin D. Peru did not disappoint on any account. The Peru 2019 GIX kicked off with a walking tour of its sprawling capital: Lima. We learned about the Spanish Inquisition of Peru, walked through the local markets, and essentially saw the city through the eyes of local tour guides—an experience worth the sunburn mark I carry to date.



Tuck students during the walking tour in Lima

The same evening, we battled through Lima’s traffic to visit Mr. Hernando de Soto, a world-renowned economist. It was an enlightening conversation that helped put in perspective all the extralegal settlements we came across earlier in the day. We wrapped up the day, just like the days to come, by experiencing the culinary delights that Peru so proudly offers, and with an abundance of pisco sours.



Tuck students with Mr. De Soto

The next day started bright and early with a visit to Intercorp, a Peruvian conglomerate that soared to prominence in the capable hands of Carlos Rodriguez-Pastor (aka CRP) T’88. An extremely charismatic person, CRP is an embodiment of Tuck’s core value of wise leadership. Spending a day listening to the top leadership at Intercorp, including the former prime minister of Peru Fernando Zavala, left us in awe of Intercrop’s vision and potential impact on the emerging middle class in Peru. That night, we got the chance to spend time with a number of Tuck alumni in a historically significant building: Club Nacional.



Tuck students with CRP at Intercorp

The next day, we had the opportunity to visit one of the Innova schools—an Intercorp initiative—and were amazed to see how Innova succeeded in standardizing quality education in Peru using a low-cost model that benefits the middle class and more importantly makes the business sustainable and scalable. Highlight of the trip was meeting with the Peru Champs. Peru Champs, spearheaded by Alberto de Cardenas T’04, provides need-based scholarships for students to attend Innova Schools. Listening to extremely talented kids talk about how they battled unfathomable difficulties to pursue their passions in hope for a better life for themselves and the people around them was heartwarming and inspiring. Later in the day, we visited Intercorp’s innovation center—La Victoria Lab—and had an interesting conversation about Aviva, which is another initiative about to be launched by Intercorp to make quality health care available to the Peruvian middle class. We ended the day with an engaging design thinking workshop aimed at providing innovative solutions to Kani, a startup that helps native Peruvian artisans and craftsmen find a market to sell their beautiful product. With that we bid farewell to the incredible view of pacific to headed to the highlands of Cusco.



Peru GIXers with Peru Champs at Innova Schools, Lima

The five days we spent in the highlands were travel heavy but truly magical. Accompanied by extremely knowledgeable and witty tour guides, Efrain and Miguel, we got comfortable in our bus seats where we spent majority of our time for the next few days. We started off by visiting stunning Moray and Maras Incan ruins. The beauty and the architectural precision of these ruins left us in wonder despite the persistent rain. The next day we visited the Amaru village, a community of native Quechuan speakers. We adorned traditional costumes and feasted on the delectable lunch prepared using traditional methods.

It was then time for what many of us came to Peru for: Machu Picchu. A train journey away from Cusco, we arrived at the nearest town to Machu Picchu, Aguas Calientes the night before. We started our journey to Machu Picchu at the crack of dawn, after getting a walking tour of Incan ruins around Machu Picchu, it was time to hike up Huayna Pichhu. This intimidating hike in the rain with sheer drops and slippery rocks offered the promise of a breathtaking view of Machu Picchu and it was totally worth it. With the view of a world wonder filling up our hearts, we headed back to Cusco.



Tuck Students at Machu Picchu

In the last couple of days at Cusco, we visited a nonprofit school supported by our wonderful tour guide, Efrain. It was both heartwarming and heartbreaking to serve lunch to the most underprivileged girl children in Cusco. We then had the rest of the day to process all the wonderful and contrasting experiences we had throughout the trip. The fact that more than half of us broke down during our final refection is a testament to how impactful the trip was. It not only engaged our minds but also captured our hearts. It helped us appreciate our position of privilege and the opportunities that ensured. It inspired us leverage this privilege to be thoughtful and compassionate in our endeavors at and beyond Tuck.

Sree Keerthi Vallabhapurapu is an MBA candidate at the Tuck School of Business, Class of 2020. She was formerly a principal consultant at Orbees Business Solutions in Hyderabad, India as well as an electronics and communications engineer at Osmania University in Hyderabad, India.
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Tuck Admissions Insights: Insider Tips from Tuck, Michigan Ross, and B [#permalink] Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs   21 May 2019, 06:00
FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: Tuck Admissions Insights: Insider Tips from Tuck, Michigan Ross, and Berkley Haas

By Tuck Admissions

In the second annual MBA Summit Panel hosted by the Michigan Ross School of Business, Executive Director of Admissions Luke Anthony Peña and fellow admissions directors from Michigan Ross and Berkley Haas discuss the MBA admissions process and provide advice to prospective MBA applicants. Moderated by John Byrne, editor-in-chief of Poets & Quants, the rich one-hour discussion dove into topics including the GMAT vs. the GRE, how to stand out as an applicant, and the ROI of an MBA.

When asked about evaluating the applications of those looking to attend an MBA program in order to successfully switch careers, Peña said:

“We look for awareness. To us awareness is a balance of ambition and reality. So we want candidates to be ambitious, we want candidates not to come to the MBA just to do the exact same thing that they were doing before at the same level, in the same role.

I had a mentor who used to tell me nobody changes the world through low ambition. So we do want people who aspire to great things. Yet what needs to come with that is a sense of reality. What does the realistic path actually look like? If you are looking for an enormous jump in your career, we would like to see that you know this is an enormous jump and that you understand it may take several steps to get there. You need to have that self-awareness.”

Peña also shared his perspective on an admissions buzz word that is used often: “fit.”

“Fit is such an interesting concept and an interesting word. I’ll never forget sitting with a student in Shanghai and he said, ‘Tell me about why I should pursue an MBA and don’t use the words fit, holistic or authentic because I’ve heard these words over and over and over.’

It’s true, we talk about fit a lot. I do think that fit is a concept that does in some ways invoke the idea of being completely in your comfort zone, and I think that’s not the greatest value of the MBA experience. 

There is some value in feeling like you do have an ability to feel safe and secure but at the same time are pushed beyond the boundaries of what you’ve already seen and what you’ve experienced. And when you can do that, and when you can balance that with support, that’s a powerful place to grow.”

Watch the full interview below or read the transcript here.

 
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Tuck Admissions Insights: Insider Tips from Tuck, Michigan Ross, and B [#permalink] Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs   21 May 2019, 14:00
FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: Tuck Admissions Insights: Insider Tips from Tuck, Michigan Ross, and Berkley Haas

By Tuck Admissions

In the second annual MBA Summit Panel hosted by the Michigan Ross School of Business, Executive Director of Admissions Luke Anthony Peña and fellow admissions directors from Michigan Ross and Berkley Haas discuss the MBA admissions process and provide advice to prospective MBA applicants. Moderated by John Byrne, editor-in-chief of Poets & Quants, the rich one-hour discussion dove into topics including the GMAT vs. the GRE, how to stand out as an applicant, and the ROI of an MBA.

When asked about evaluating the applications of those looking to attend an MBA program in order to successfully switch careers, Peña said:

“We look for awareness. To us awareness is a balance of ambition and reality. So we want candidates to be ambitious, we want candidates not to come to the MBA just to do the exact same thing that they were doing before at the same level, in the same role.

I had a mentor who used to tell me nobody changes the world through low ambition. So we do want people who aspire to great things. Yet what needs to come with that is a sense of reality. What does the realistic path actually look like? If you are looking for an enormous jump in your career, we would like to see that you know this is an enormous jump and that you understand it may take several steps to get there. You need to have that self-awareness.”

Peña also shared his perspective on an admissions buzz word that is used often: “fit.”

“Fit is such an interesting concept and an interesting word. I’ll never forget sitting with a student in Shanghai and he said, ‘Tell me about why I should pursue an MBA and don’t use the words fit, holistic or authentic because I’ve heard these words over and over and over.’

It’s true, we talk about fit a lot. I do think that fit is a concept that does in some ways invoke the idea of being completely in your comfort zone, and I think that’s not the greatest value of the MBA experience. 

There is some value in feeling like you do have an ability to feel safe and secure but at the same time are pushed beyond the boundaries of what you’ve already seen and what you’ve experienced. And when you can do that, and when you can balance that with support, that’s a powerful place to grow.”

Watch the full interview below or read the transcript here.

 
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Tuck Admissions Insights: 2019-2020 Application Changes [#permalink] Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs   13 Jun 2019, 07:00
FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: Tuck Admissions Insights: 2019-2020 Application Changes



By Luke Anthony Peña

Executive Director of Admissions and Financial Aid

Happy June, friends! I’m excited to share that we recently announced the 2019-2020 application round dates, essay prompts, and letter of reference questions. I’m writing here in this space to offer additional context as you look ahead to your application. (We’ll resume our series on how to demonstrate our criteria next month.)

Speaking of the criteria, we continue to seek smart, accomplished, aware, and nice candidates. We simplified and streamlined our criteria last year, and we are retaining them for the upcoming year. We’ve been delighted this past year to see the many ways applicants have demonstrated the criteria, and we continue to be excited to get to know aspiring wise leaders for whom all four criteria resonate.

All four criteria matter—no one criterion is more important than the others—so we are maintaining our commitment to transparently map each component of the application directly to the criteria. Your application form provides background information. Your academic transcripts and test scores demonstrate that you are smart. Your resume demonstrates that you are accomplished. Your essays demonstrate that you are aware and nice. The interviews and reference letters provide evidence across all four criteria.

My colleagues and I care a great deal about your application experience, so we hear and listen to your feedback. And we heard that last year’s short-answer questions didn’t give applicants enough space to share how an MBA—specifically a Tuck MBA—advances their goals. So we’ve made some changes. We’ve eliminated the short answer section and relocated questions about your short-term and long-term goals to a different part of the application form—away from the essays—where you can give a straightforward summary. We’re interested in what you hope to do, but we’re not interested in having you agonize over crafting a goals narrative next to the essays!

Speaking of essays, we’ve refined our approach there as well. There are now three 300-word essays, the first of which gives you more space than last year to share your reasons for choosing Tuck. The essay asks the following: “Tuck students can articulate how the distinctive Tuck MBA will advance their aspirations. Why are you pursuing an MBA and why Tuck?” We hope you’ll devote roughly half the essay to why an MBA is right for you, and the other half to why Tuck is right for you. You might use this essay to connect the MBA and Tuck back to your goals, or you might make a strong case for an MBA and Tuck without explicitly referencing your goals. Either way, we’ll be assessing that you’ve carefully considered and cultivated an awareness about why the Tuck MBA is right for you.

The other two essays are shorter, lightly modified versions of last year’s essays. The second 300-word essay asks the following: “Tuck students recognize how their individuality adds to the fabric of Tuck. Tell us who you are.” Keen observers will note we dropped the phrase “and what you will contribute” from the end of the prompt; we want to hear less about the things you will do here and more about the person who will show up here. And the third 300-word essay asks the following: “Tuck students invest generously in one another’s success even when it is not convenient or easy. Share an example of how you helped someone else succeed.” The careful observer will note the addition of the clause “even when it is not convenient or easy.” Anyone can be nice when it is convenient, so tell us about a time when the stakes were meaningful, the circumstances were challenging, and success was far from guaranteed.

A few other essay notes: the words “aware” and “nice” no longer explicitly appear in the essay prompts, but I assure you the first two essays map directly to aware and the third maps to nice. And you do have three essays to prepare this year (versus two last year) but fewer words overall to write. Last year’s short-answer questions were a bit too short and the essays were a bit too long, so we believe we right-sized your application.

In our listening tour, we also heard that last year’s reference letter questions—distinct and different from those asked by the Common Letter of Recommendation (LOR)—were onerous for references and thus a considerable barrier in our application. In response to applicant feedback, we’ve now adopted the questions posed by the Common LOR in their entirety. We do believe your references should have the knowledge, desire, and time to thoughtfully advocate for you. We don’t believe we must require them to reword their advocacy in multiple formats. We’re confident the Common LOR questions will surface meaningful examples of your smart, accomplished, aware and nice behaviors and competencies.

Finally, we’ve finalized our application dates. We’re retaining three rounds, and the latter two rounds are virtually unchanged. We’ve moved our Round 1 application date back two weeks from late September to early October. My colleagues and I don’t want you waiting for your decision any longer than necessary, so we’ve further streamlined Round 1 review. This will give you more time to visit campus, self-initiate an interview, and get to know Tuck better before submitting your Round 1 application.

We’ve worked hard to improve our application with you in mind, and we hope you’re as excited as we are to get to know one another throughout the application process. You can expect our application to be fully live by July 4. In the meantime, come see us at Summer Visit Day on June 21, or message me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Twitter!
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How Tuck Can Help Transform Your Career [#permalink] Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs   25 Jun 2019, 09:00
FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: How Tuck Can Help Transform Your Career

By Tuck Career Services

Tuck brings a unique and personalized approach to helping students achieve their career aspirations. As Stephen Pidgeon T'07, executive director of Career Services at Tuck, explains in a recent webinar, many elements at Tuck work in tandem to provide transformational career services to its students: alumni mentors,expert career advisers, Tuck Centers, student career mentors, career clubs, and more.



"This is very emblematic of the way Tuck operates," says Pidgeon. "It's a network of support." But there's one component of career services at Tuck that really distinguishes it from other peer schools: its people. "Whatever career path you’re on, there will be people through clubs, through the classes you’re in, etc. who will actively seek you out and give you advice, offer interview practice, and just give you general support," says Pidgeon. "The transformation you go through will be largely driven by the people you’re around."

Watch our career-focused webinar with Pidgeon to learn more about how Tuck provides a highly personal and transformative career experience for its students.

 
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Tuck WIB: The Moment I Knew Tuck Was Right for Me [#permalink] Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs   15 Jul 2019, 14:00
FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: Tuck WIB: The Moment I Knew Tuck Was Right for Me



By Amanda Weatherhead T'20

Women in Business Conference Co-Chair

As I began the process of applying to business schools, Tuck’s Women in Business Conference was recommended as a way to experience firsthand what an MBA would be like, and to gauge whether Tuck would be good fit for me. I applied, signed up for a night in a dorm (!), and drove up from New York City to Hanover to see for myself what business school could look like for me. I couldn’t have anticipated the impact of that weekend as Manhattan’s skyscrapers turned into New England’s picturesque fall foliage. My experience that weekend exceeded all my expectations—conversation and debate with like-minded women, career path advice and guidance, new friends, and a real understanding of the Tuck community. I left my brief weekend at Tuck in awe of a community that effortlessly embraced dozens of strangers as if they were fellow classmates and friends. It was the shock at how genuine and forthcoming an entire organization could be that cemented in my mind that Tuck was the right place for me.

As I reflect back on that weekend after having completed my first year at Tuck, I can say that my first impressions and instincts were spot on. One of my favorite events during the conference was the small group dinner, where I met women from all over the country and from a wide array of professional backgrounds. Over homemade lasagna and red wine we swapped ideas—career ambitions, travel plans, our must-visit restaurants in each of our respective cities. It was the type of intimate setting generally reserved for dear friends, but the small group dinner made quick friends out of strangers. I learned that these dinners with a handful of randomly selected students are a regular fixture throughout the year at Tuck, and they remain among my favorite ways to get to know people across both classes. Throughout the conference, I was awed by how tight-knit and supportive the Tuck community appeared, and my first year at Tuck has definitely exceeded the expectations set by the conference weekend.

Beyond the personal connections I made throughout the weekend, I found the professional development programming to be equally valuable. At the time, I knew I wanted a career change post-business school but was unsure what the options even were. The breakout sessions helped me explore potential career paths, answering my questions and opening doors I didn’t know existed, and ultimately informed my decision to pursue consulting post-Tuck. I traded best practices with fellow conferees and came away from the weekend with tools that have proven useful in structuring and driving my overall career.

With this in mind, my fellow co-chairs and I have put a focus on professional development for this year’s conference, as we celebrate the milestone of 50 years of women at Tuck. This year’s conference strives to help women think critically about their careers and to allow attendees to get to know Tuck. Breakout sessions will delve into topics such as creating a personal brand and industry briefings. Each of the sessions will be strongly aligned with Tuck’s values of being personal and collaborative. We’ve planned many small group activities to help you meet each other and experience life in the Upper Valley.

As a co-chair for this year’s Women in Business Conference, I hope to deliver that same welcome that I received a few years back and to equip you with tools to carry with you throughout your career. I hope that you’ll join us in October!

For more information on the WIB Conference, and to apply, visit: https://conferences.tuck.dartmouth.edu/wib/
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Tuck Admissions Insights: 2019-2020 Application Essays [#permalink] Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs   24 Jul 2019, 11:00
FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: Tuck Admissions Insights: 2019-2020 Application Essays



By Luke Anthony Peña

Executive Director of Admissions and Financial Aid

Happy July, friends! Recruitment season is here, which means we’re looking ahead to the Tuck Class of 2022. My Admissions colleagues and I are gearing up to travel the earth to get to know you, and give you the opportunity to get to know Tuck. I plan to spend time in the coming months in Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, India, UAE, Israel, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and a number of U.S. cities. I look forward to meeting many of you!

We recently launched our 2019-2020 application, and we tweaked our essay prompts for this year. There are many sources of advice and essay guidance from various influencers and websites, so my colleagues and I want you to hear insights directly from those of us who are reading, evaluating, and assessing your essays.

Before diving into each, some relevant context: as with every component of your application, each of the three essays map directly to our criteria: smart, accomplished, aware and nice. Each essay prompt opens with a framing sentence that articulates the connection to the relevant criterion, followed by the essay question itself. You enter each essay into a text box field in the application, which means the 300-word count is a firm limit.

Essay Question #1: “Tuck students can articulate how the distinctive Tuck MBA will advance their aspirations. Why are you pursuing an MBA and why Tuck?

This essay maps to our “aware” criterion, so before you start reflecting and writing, review what being aware means at Tuck. Once you’ve done so, recognize that there are two important considerations here. First, your aspirations matter. You’ve shared elsewhere in the application your short- and long-term goals, which we hope are both audacious in scope and grounded in reality. Second, the distinctions you see in the Tuck MBA matter. Take the necessary time and effort to identify what about an MBA, and especially the Tuck MBA, aligns with your goals.

The question itself has two parts. We hope you’ll devote roughly half the essay to why an MBA is right for you, and the other half to why Tuck is right for you. To the former question: explain why, given the various paths for growth and development, you’ve chosen to pursue the MBA degree. If you come from a professional or personal background where pursuing an MBA is common, or an MBA is acommon step towards your goals, keep in mind that your background or goals don’t answer the question for you. Instead, demonstrate that you’ve given real thought to the value of an MBA for you beyond simply walking a well-worn path. Conversely, if an MBA is less common for your background or your goals, take this opportunity to “connect the dots.” We believe that an MBA can add value for a diverse populationacross a variety of professional pursuits; we read with optimism that you have thought carefully and can express how it adds value to yours.

To the latter question: explain why, given the number of strong MBA programs, you are applying to Tuck. The key distinction here is the difference between loving Tuck and knowing Tuck. You need a clear-headed awareness about how Tuck uniquely advances you towards your goals, and that requires knowledge of the alignment between what Tuck offers and what you want. Instead of focusing on how much you want a Tuck MBA, tell us instead about how well Tuck aligns with your goals.

One other quick note: since you’ve stated your short- and long-term goals elsewhere, you don’t need to use valuable word count restating them here. We read each application in its entirety, so you can assume the person reading your application has already seen your goals before reading your essay. Some of you may choose to use this essay to elaborate on goals, while others might make your case for an MBA and Tuck without explicitly referencing your goals. Either way, consider this essay a supplement to your goals rather than a recitation.

In summary: a strong response will go beyond generic responses, applicable for any MBA program or any Tuck applicant, and will instead provide a clear, highly personalized articulation of the match between you and Tuck.

Essay Question #2: “Tuck students recognize how their individuality adds to the fabric of Tuck. Tell us who you are.”

Like the first essay, this second essay also maps to our “aware” criterion. There’s another important cue here: the interplay between individuality and community. Some of you have asked me whether your response should show that you “fit in” with Tuck, or should instead highlight that you are different and distinct. They’re not mutually exclusive. We want you to confidently bring your whole unique personal self, including your strengths and growth areas, to Tuck. We also hope you appreciate how this extraordinary community is a tapestry of the collective individuals therein, and adding to it means choosing to consistently engage.

This prompt is an invitation to articulate your individuality, and we’re excited to read your response. We’ve long been known for getting to know our candidates well, and this is another deliberate step to learn more about you. Perhaps my favorite aspect of this question is that there’s no one right answer, or even a right category or domain of answers. We’re expecting responses that are as diverse and wide-ranging as our students. Maybe you define who you are most strongly through your professional experiences and aspirations. Or perhaps your sense of self is rooted in personal values that may or may not have anything to do with your professional work. Maybe a community of importance, a culture, or specific relationships shape who you are. The heart of this question is about your identity, and the strongest responses will reveal the clarity and depth of your reflection.

We’ve refined this essay prompt to focus on the person who will show up here rather than the things you will do here. Given the framing statement preceding the question, I expect some of you may choose to explicitly name aspects of Tuck where you will add. That’s okay, but the true heart of this essay is your individuality rather than a list of classes and clubs of interest. In fact, a strong essay does not necessarily have to mention Tuck at all; you may be able to convey who you are in ways that implicitly but powerfully illuminate what you bring. In summary: we hope your response is honest, revealing, and deeply personal - one you and only you could have written!

Essay Question #3: “Tuck students invest generously in the success of others even when it is not convenient or easy. Tell us about a time when you helped someone else succeed.”

This essay maps directly to our “nice” criterion. This criterion has generated considerable interest, and we’ve had numerous opportunities to explain what being nice at Tuck means. A key point: investing in other’s success does not mean sacrificing your own. Some of you have asked if your investment in others should have personally disadvantaged or set you back. Not at all! We hope you consider investment in others mutually beneficial and create outcomes where both you and others win.

The emphasis on “even when convenient or easy” is intentional. We hope to see evidence that your investment in others is not routine, common, or entirely expected. The best examples have considerable stakes, and perhaps even legitimate risk. Smiling each day at a colleague might be an investment in that person’s morale and happiness, but the stakes are low. Tell us about a time when the stakes were meaningful, the circumstances were challenging, and success was far from guaranteed. We hope to see that the thoughtfulness, care, and intentionality of your investment led to an outcome in which both you and the other person benefited either in expected or unintended ways.

Note that we’re asking you to tell one specific, discrete story rather than offer general reflections or a collection of stories. The 300-word count is brief, so you’ll have to use good judgment about the level of situational detail to provide. Provide just enough context to set the stakes while leaving yourself enough space to focus on what you did and what outcome you achieved.

Two additional thoughts:

  • Tell a story that focuses on your investment in one other person, or perhaps a very small group. Investing in the success of a huge group is commendable, but the richness and depth of interpersonal interactions therein will be limited. Individual relationships offer more compelling evidence of relationship-building.
  • Proudly own your contribution to a positive outcome. Some of you have asked how to reconcile being nice with highlighting your impact. This is a good reminder that Tuck students exercise confident humility. Have the humility to invest in others as well as the confidence to recognize your positive impact and share it with us.

In summary: a strong response will go beyond examples that are low-stakes, routine, common, or expected, and will instead highlight an investment with meaningful stakes where both parties benefited either in expected or unintended ways.

Looking Ahead

I’ll be back here in August to resume our series about demonstrating each of our four criteria. If you missed the first two posts in the series, you can review the earlier blog posts about accomplished and aware. In the meantime, keep up with me and Tuck on social media, and join us at one of our upcoming in-person or onlineevents. My colleagues and I look forward to getting to know you better!
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Tuck Veterans Club: Our Summer Internships [#permalink] Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs   07 Aug 2019, 09:00
FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: Tuck Veterans Club: Our Summer Internships

This summer veterans from the Tuck Class of 2020 are putting their first-year MBA skills to work at internships across the U.S. They are using their military experience, coupled with the skillsets they gained during their first year at Tuck, to make immediate impact on a variety of industries. Below are a few internship highlights from Tuck Veterans Club members.

Ryan Turk T’20, Navy Nuclear Submarine Officer; private equity internship at Trilogy Search Partners

I am interning at a private equity firm in Seattle, WA called Trilogy Search Partners. The firm invests in profitable, small businesses identified through the search fund model. My role was to guide due diligence activities on several potential deals and to assist several operating company CEOs to conduct strategic analysis for their boards. Having never been an investor, the learning curve was steep, but the core curriculum at Tuck gave me the vocabulary and exposure to all the concepts I encountered during my internship. That knowledge, coupled with the can-do attitude you develop in the military, has allowed me to really contribute and add value.

Tim Aras T’20, Army Infantry Officer; banking internship at J.P. Morgan

After researching internship opportunities and leveraging the Tuck alumni community to provide mentorship and answer questions, I chose to intern within the investment bank at J.P. Morgan this summer in New York City. As a summer associate in the Leveraged Finance group, I have had the chance to work on several deals spanning multiple industries. We help clients design optimal capital structures that meet their strategic goals but are also attractive to the institutional debt market. As an associate, I move the process along from conception to market syndication. Coming into banking with no financial background was challenging. However, I have found that my Army experience combined with everything I learned at Tuck has more than set me up for success.

Ben Noble T’20, Navy Supply Officer; technology internship at Samsung Electronics America

This summer at Samsung I am revamping the company’s marketing vendor base. As a tech company with a large marketing budget it is important that Samsung understands the capabilities and quality of its marketing vendors, attributes which I am using to recategorize and reshape the pool of vendors the company will use in the future. In my internship I am using skills I learned as a Navy contracting officer to conduct outreach with Samsung’s vendors and build relationships with our counterparts in Samsung’s business units. The first year core curriculum at Tuck has also been useful in helping me to better understand the challenges facing our business units and to speak the language of the marketing function. Throughout my internship search I received a lot of helpful advice from the Tuck alumni network.

Jeremy Wano T’20; Navy Dental Officer; consulting internship at Boston Consulting Group

I am interning in consulting with BCG in Boston. My project for the summer is within the social impact practice for a global non-governmental organization (NGO). My role on the team has been to build out a landscape of the NGO sector. Even though I’ve never had any previous experience with this, Tuck’s strong curriculum provided me the skill set to tackle this challenge. Tuck and the military’s strong focus on teamwork was another factor that helped me feel comfortable stepping up and contributing for our team. Furthermore, I utilized the Tuck alumni network to provide in-depth information on office culture and work/life balance as well as connecting me with other people who could answer my questions.

Connect with us!

If you are a military veteran interested in Tuck, the Tuck Veterans Club and Tuck Admissions Office invite you and your family to attend our Fall Military Visit Day on September 24 and 25. Register here.

We also encourage all prospective veterans to connect with the Tuck Veterans Club if you have any questions about life at Tuck!
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Tuck Team Achieves Success in Venture Capital Investment Competition [#permalink] Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs   13 Aug 2019, 15:00
FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: Tuck Team Achieves Success in Venture Capital Investment Competition

By Gavin Loudfoot T’20

Our journey started early in the academic year, when incoming Executive Director of the Center for Private Equity and Venture Capital Jim Feuille D’79 asked Tuck students to apply for Tuck’s Early Stage Venture Capital Workshop, which included a series of lectures covering all aspects of early stage venture capital investing plus a series of workshops assessing current early stage venture deals, and which concluded with the students’ participation in the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC).  Jim is very well versed in venture capital (VC), with a successful career at Crosslink Capital as an early stage investor. Jim’s record includes multi-billion market cap exits in Pandora, Coupa, Ancestry.com, and Omniture, with private companies Chime, Personal Capital, and Reltio, all trending to similar outcomes, as well as him making the Forbes Midas List.

Joining Jim were Dick Green D’75, a successful enterprise software entrepreneur and then angel investor who had been a long-time coach of the Tuck VCIC team; alumni and past participants Joe Henderson T’18 and Emily Snyder T’17; and Center for Entrepreneurship Executive Director Daniella Reichstetter T’07. Our team put in well over 125 hours of study and workshop training in the fall and winter terms, and our advisers brought incredible knowledge from the current venture market and past investments and competitions. We felt very prepared when we made our way to the Boston University Questrom School of Business at the end of January 2019 to compete in the Northeast regional leg of the world’s largest VC competition, with 98 MBA programs from around the globe participating.

For the regional competition, we received pitch decks from three entrepreneurs, all trying to raise venture funding, on Wednesday night—approximately 36 hours ahead of the start of the competition on Friday morning, which enabled us to conduct research and analysis on each of the three deals and prepare investment memos, valuation models, cap tables and term sheets. Our task for the day was to meet the founders in the morning to hear their pitches, then conduct due diligence Q&A sessions with them before proposing our investment recommendation to the panel of judges (who were experienced VCs and entrepreneurs) acting as the senior partners on the investment committee of a venture capital firm. In this regional final we came up against Harvard, MIT Sloan, Babson, Pittsburgh, and Rochester. The deliverable took the form of an investment memo, outlining investment attributes and risks, valuation, option pool, board structure, investment structure, and other key terms. Our team selected a dental benefits platform for employers aimed at reducing total dental costs. We were particularly attracted to the savings they have achieved for companies to-date and the increasing traction in a growing market. The judges were equally impressed with our analysis, presentation and ability to address their tough questions, and we took home the win, getting the first place vote from eight of the nine judges!

Next up was the global finals in mid-April. We resumed our training regime at the start of spring term, working on eight more venture deals in the market and we had a session with mock negotiations with entrepreneurs since negotiations were to be included in the global finals for the top two teams left. We made our way down to North Carolina to compete in the showdown at UNC Kenan-Flagler where the other 15 regional winners from around the world had gathered. Tackling a similar format, getting three new deals on Wednesday night, we breezed through the first round on Friday in a semi-final bracket with eight of the 16 teams, where the top 3 advanced to a final group of 6 teams. The final 6 teams were given an additional three deals on Friday afternoon to evaluate and present the following day. After an earnest evening studying the companies, markets, and management teams, we turned up on Saturday to compete in the final six. There were many more judges this time since the judges for the two separate semi-final brackets all came together to form one large judging panel for the final, and the scrutiny and questioning was even more intense. Our team had a clear investment structure that we stood behind despite fervid critique from the panel. Alas, this approach did not work in our favour and we were handed fourth place, which we feel was still respectable considering the 98 schools that started out in the competition. This experience taught us a lot about venture capital investing, and we are incredibly thankful for our team of advisers for all their valued counsel and countless hours spent with us. We highly recommend participation in the Early Stage Venture Capital Workshop to future students. The three T’20s on the 2019 team, who are ineligible to compete a 2nd time, are looking forward to helping a 2020 team of Tuckies get first place in 2020!

Case Competition Participants: Chris Bartenstein T’20, Elizabeth Clegg T’19, Sarah Igoe T’19, Sheena Jindal T’19, Ross Klosterman T’20, and Gavin Loudfoot T’20.
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A Closer Look at Tuck’s Admissions Criteria [#permalink] Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs   16 Sep 2019, 08:00
FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: A Closer Look at Tuck’s Admissions Criteria


Part IV: SMART

 



By Luke Anthony Peña

Executive Director of Admissions and Financial Aid

Happy September, friends! Our first-year T’21s have Launched, our second-year T’20s have returned, and our future T’22s (that’s you!) are starting to arrive to Tuck for applicant-initiated interviews. If you’d like to visit campus and schedule an on-campus interview, do so now—spots fill up quickly! Meanwhile, several of my colleagues and I continue to canvas the world to see you, and I look forward to seeing many of you in Latin America this month.  

This blog post is the final entry in our admissions criteria series, which means we’re overviewing how you can demonstrate in your application that you are smart. Being smart at Tuck means you have the necessary intellectual aptitude to succeed in a rigorous and demanding learning environment. That said, being smart goes beyond your raw intellectual horsepower; it also matters how you use it. Tuck students use their smarts to continually learn, which means first acknowledging you don’t know everything, and then exercising curiosity to seek out new perspectives, experiences, and challenges. Tuck students subscribe to the growth mindset; no matter how smart you currently are, you can continue to grow your intellect and knowledge.

Like our accomplished criterion, smart encompasses both outcomes and underlying behaviors. In your application, you provide two indicators of outcomes that map to smart: your grades and your test scores.  While both factor into how MBA programs are assessed in rankings, I acknowledge that neither is a perfect reflection of your intellectual aptitude, as both include noise and require context to be accurately assessed. Nevertheless, previous academic performance, communication skills, and ability with numbers are directionally predictive of success in MBA studies. So while my colleagues and I need to consider your grades and test scores, we also want to offer context that will help you understand how we evaluate them.

The marks on your transcript help us assess sustained outcomes over time. Every academic journey is unique, and so each of your transcripts look different. Some of you earned degrees in courses of study, colleges and universities, and/or countries where the grading was especially rigorous. Some of you earned degrees in which you were given no numerical grades, or perhaps no grades at all. Some of you considering Tuck might have earned a three-year degree—or even no undergraduate degree at all—while others may have completed post-graduate coursework or advanced degrees. Some of you have already studied quantitative topics, while others have little or no prior quantitative coursework. No matter your academic history, we welcome your Tuck application. We also calibrate and assess your grades within the context of your school’s grading scale and rigor. We care that you have challenged yourself and performed well relative to expectations in your academic environment. If you have succeeded academically, trust that we will see it. And if your academic performance was not strong, either in totality or for a portion of your studies, you can help us understand why by offering a brief explanation in your optional essay.

The scores on your test(s)—the GMAT or GRE, and the English proficiency test if applicable—help us assess a standardized outcome at a moment in time. While some of you may find the tests easy and painless, I know they are difficult and stressful for many. (I know this first hand, as I myself wrestled with the exams.) While I can’t eliminate all test anxiety, I can assure you that these are exams for which you can prepare, both in content and format, and preparation often improves performance. I can tell you that we consider your highest scores—not your averages—across exams and sittings, and we do not penalize you for taking tests multiple times; we want to reward you for your best work. I can tell you that we have no preference between the GRE or GMAT and among the three English proficiency tests, and we encourage you to take the test(s) on which you score best. I can tell you that scores are one component of one of our four criteria, and every round we admit candidates with modest scores who demonstrate our other criteria in compelling ways. Finally, I can remind you that the admission rate for those of you who don’t apply is 0.0%. Yes, your scores do matter, we encourage you to do well, and all else equal a higher score increases your chances of admission. But the admission rate for applicants with modest scores will always be higher than for those who don’t apply at all. With this in mind, don’t disqualify yourself on account of your score if you know you demonstrate our criteria in other ways.

Beyond your grades and test score outcomes, you also demonstrate that you are smart through your behaviors. There are two components of your application where these behaviors emerge: your reference letters and your interviews. A good reference letter offers meaningful examples of your curiosity, creativity, resourcefulness, growth mindset, and enthusiasm for challenges, all of which speak to your ability and desire to learn. With this in mind, encourage your references to go beyond merely listing achievements; remind them to give us examples and stories which highlight not just what you did but also how you did it. And you can expect your interviewer to ask questions that invite you to demonstrate the smart criterion. My encouragement here draws again from the growth mindset: offer behavioral examples from your past that highlight how you grew your knowledge, and look forward to the future by sharing how Tuck will help you satisfy your curiosity and learn.

My colleagues and I continue to believe in giving you an open, transparent, and applicant-friendly admissions process, and we hope this blog series about demonstrating each of our four criteria—smart, accomplished, aware, and nice—helps you apply with greater confidence and enthusiasm. As always, I invite you to come see us on the road, join our online events, schedule your interview in Hanover, and keep up with me and Tuck on social media. To our Round 1 applicants, we’re cheering for you as we approach the October 7 application deadline, and to all, see you back here in October!
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Vibrant and Tight-Knit: Get to Know Tuck Pride [#permalink] Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs   18 Sep 2019, 09:00
FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: Vibrant and Tight-Knit: Get to Know Tuck Pride



By Peter Struckmeyer T'20

Tuck Pride Leadership  

Greetings from Hanover! My name is Peter Struckmeyer, and I am a second-year student at Tuck, as well as one of the co-chairs for Tuck Pride. We just finished our first week of the school year here, and as part of that, kicked off the year for Tuck Pride!

Earlier in the week, as part of Tuck’s Club Fair, we met with first-year students to give them an overview of what Tuck Pride does throughout the year. A big hit at this year’s club fair were our Ally stickers – Tuck’s ally community is incredibly supportive, and they showed this support by wearing their pride flags while tabling for their respective organizations.

As Tuck’s club for LGBTQ+-identified students and partners, we host several events on campus throughout the year, including (but not limited to):

  • AMA: Every year, we host a panel that features several LGBTQ+-identified students speaking to the diverse experiences they’ve had related to their sexual orientation. The event gives Tuck’s ally community a chance to learn from the experiences that have shaped who we are – from personal experience, many of my classmates came up to me the next day to share their appreciation and tell me how much they learned!
  • Diva Night: Quite possibly Tuck Pride’s signature event – once a year, we host a drag show in Tuck’s own Raether Hall, and the contestants are all Tuckies! It’s one of the most anticipated events every year, with Tuck Pride members and allies alike entering into the contest.
  • Hidden Identities: One of the great aspects of Tuck is how much our clubs collaborate for events. Together with Tuck Veterans, ACTS, and Tuck Jewish Club, we hosted a series of mini-Tuck Talks (another popular school tradition!), highlighting several personal anecdotes from speakers across the school to better understand the experiences that have shaped who they are today.
  • Tuck ’Tails: Tuck Tails is a beloved Tuck tradition where our whole community comes together each week to celebrate the end of classes. Each Tuck Tails is hosted by a different club, and ours is just weeks away!

And of course, we have smaller scale events for our tight-knit group of students and partners who identify as part the LGBTQ+ community! This is our most common type of events: whether it be brunch, dinner, movie night, or more. In fact, we had our first Tuck Pride brunch this past weekend to kick-off the year, featuring delicious food from Lou’s (a Hanover staple which is run by a Tuck alum!).

Tuck Pride is a vibrant, tight-knit community. Above all, it’s a family, one which has been instrumental in my Tuck experience. I hope you’ll join the family!

Want to learn more about Tuck Pride? Come to Hanover and meet us at the following on-campus events:

  • Women in Business Conference: October 25-27, 2019, apply
  • Diversity Conference: November 1-3, 2019, apply

Additionally, we’ll be in Atlanta at this year’s Reaching Out MBA (ROMBA) Conference, a recruiting event that is specifically for companies to meet with LGBTQ+-identified MBA students. This is another highlight of the year for Tuck Pride, and one that has proven to be an invaluable recruiting experience year over year.

That’s all for now! Hope to see you on campus soon as part of the Tuck Pride family.

—Peter
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An Internship at the Intersection of Strategy & Business: MetLife [#permalink] Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs   01 Oct 2019, 15:00
FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: An Internship at the Intersection of Strategy & Business: MetLife



By Sneha Nagarajan T’20

I came to Tuck knowing I was choosing the generosity, commitment, and kindness of the people of this community over everything else.

When I was choosing my internship, that remained just as important to me. After having spent a summer at MetLife, I am convinced that even a 150-year-old company with ~50K employees across the globe can foster a culture of collaboration and collective progress. MetLife Inc., a global insurance company, early on realized the need for creating its next generation global leaders to further its cause. With that, the Global Leadership Development Program for MBA graduates was born in 2013.

I was part of the 16-member cohort of GLDP interns from business schools across the globe including Tuck, LBS, Darden, HBS, Fuqua, HKUST and Kellogg among others. With 75 percent women and over 60 percent internationals, this was by far one of the most diverse and accomplished group of peers I have had the opportunity to work with.



The program allowed us to choose from a range of roles within the business and supporting the business, including strategy, marketing, finance, tech, and innovation business units. I worked in the Global Strategy team directly reporting to the AVP and VP of competitive intelligence and new initiatives. My project, focused on rethinking MetLife's innovation system and detailing it out with various cross-functional teams, was exciting because of the novelty that is being introduced to a centuries-old industry!

Having worked in consulting prior to b-school, I made a comfortable transition to a strategy role in the insurance industry, a completely new space for me. With the support of other GLDP members and my team, I was able to grasp the nuances of the field and apply it to my work. Aside from my major project, I also worked with three other interns on an Action Learning Project (ALP) to make recommendations on improving Salesforce utilization. This was a real business problem, led and solved entirely by our team. When I was faced with challenges on shaping the project, I often found myself drawing inspiration from my learnings working on my Tuck FYP.

Outside of work, since most interns came from different parts of the world, we relied on each other to find home in New York City. We did rooftop barbecues, celebrated several birthdays, explored the New York restaurant scene; Many of us even experienced our first Broadway musical! The experience that stood out the most for me was the GLDP intern speaker series that I organized: Over the course of our summer every GLDP intern hosted a lunch chat to talk about their experience.



It was enriching to hear the perspectives of my peers about the future of the company, their projects and teams, and their career plans within the program. Overall, I found the program and company to be very inclusive and full of opportunities. With 3 rotations over 5-years, I am excited to explore the possibilities that lie ahead, including global rotations, cross-functional roles and the opportunity to lead a business unit after the program. The Tuck network at MetLife GLDP is now 8-cohorts strong, and the alumni never hesitated in extending their undivided time and support to help me progress.

I went into my internship hoping for an experience at the intersection of strategy and business, I came out having received so much more!

Sneha is a second-year MBA student from India. Having majored in architecture and engineering, she brings a balance of creativity and technical skills to the table. She is a firm believer in small changes by individuals with a desire to leave behind a world better than what they found.
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Top 5 Reasons to Apply to the Tuck Diversity Conference [#permalink] Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs   09 Oct 2019, 13:00
FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: Top 5 Reasons to Apply to the Tuck Diversity Conference

By Ijele Adimora T’20

The 25th annual Tuck Diversity Conference will be held November 1, 2019. Apply now!

1. Experience what Tuck has to offer

Coming to DivCo, you will experience firsthand how our tight-knit, diverse community makes Tuck both unique and familiar. Our student body-- made up of veterans, former educators, and students from all over the world—consists of some of the smartest, kindest, and most collaborative people I have ever met. At DivCo, we will provide you an opportunity to get to know the students that help set Tuck apart through traditions like our small group dinners, and through the chance to be hosted by a current Tuck student! Not only will you leave with an understanding of life at Tuck, but you will also get to hear about ways to transform your career through Tuck Career Services career clubs, and Tuck Centers. 

2. Connect with Tuck alumni

You’ll be able to experience our immersive, life-long community firsthand. Tuckies are some of the most devoted alumni you could ever meet. Whether it is offering advice on how to successfully navigate recruiting, or simply relaying their experiences in leading companies, our alumni are always willing to help out a fellow Tuckie. And you’ll get to meet plenty of alumni while you’re on campus. Ramsey Jay Jr. T’05, president of Ramsey Jay Jr. & Associates, returns for DivCo every year to deliver an inspiring address. And Aisha Barry T’10, Vice President & General Manager of Patient Management at Medtronic, will deliver the keynote address.

3. Visit the Upper Valley

If you have never experienced autumn in New England, then a weekend in Hanover will surely be worth the trip. Tuck is nestled in one of the most beautiful parts of the country, with the fall foliage and the endless mountains creating a picturesque place to be a student. Picking apples and pumpkins in the fall, playing tripod and going skiing in the winter, or going on a hike on one of many beautiful trails in the spring are just a few ways you can get acquainted with our home. While I was not too big on the outdoors when I first moved to Hanover, living in the Upper Valley has given me a chance to step outside of my comfort zone, and given me an appreciation for how rich life outside of the city can be.

4. Meet your fellow classmates

One of the best parts about DivCo is that you get to meet like-minded peers who will likely become your classmates or colleagues. The purpose of DivCo is to extend our inclusive and open environment to future members of our community. Having a chance to connect to one another in a welcoming environment will allow you to be your authentic self and build tighter bonds with your fellow attendees. Many of my closest friends at Tuck are people who attended DivCo, and it is a great way to get to know people before even starting business school.

5. Blow off some steam

One of the lessons I have truly learned at Tuck is how to incorporate balance into my life. Tuckies work incredibly hard, but we also make time to have fun! During DivCo, you will have a chance to step away from your daily and hustle and bustle, and see how Tuckies relax. No matter if you are an extrovert, introvert, or mix of both, there is definitely room to find your social niche at Tuck.  

 

Apply Now
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Lessons Learned at Tuck Launch [#permalink] Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs   14 Oct 2019, 10:00
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FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: Lessons Learned at Tuck Launch

By Stylianos Chasapopoulos T’21

At last, the time has come. You just arrived at the Boston Logan Airport. You are still sad, leaving your family, your partner, and your friends back to your home country. However, you don’t have time to think about it. You are stressed because you will arrive in Hanover late at night and thus you won’t be able to get the dorms keys from the MBA Program Office.

Where am I going to stay tonight? As you begin Googling if there are any 24-hour-bars in Hanover, you receive an email at 8 p.m. from Sally Jaeger, associate dean of the MBA program, telling you that two Tuckies will pick you up from the bus stop and give you the keys. This was the exact moment you realized that Tuck is your new home.


The second night in Hanover

Community Values

You don’t have much time to check out Hanover and the campus. The very next morning, you have a session about diversity at 8:30 a.m. You enter the big classroom and you are scared. There are so many people that you don’t know. Luckily, Tuck has requested that we all sit with our individual study groups. You sit where your study group sits and you meet the other members. You try your hand at small talk. You start to like these people.

The session starts. Tuck invited a group of actors to show how biased we can be at certain times. The session has an impact on you. Before Tuck, you are used to learning about diversity through slides. In this moment, you know you came to the right place.

After the session, you hope you have time to rest but that’s not the case. In the evening, you have several seminars about the different digital tools in the MBA as well as a cocktail party designed to help you become closer as a class.

Managing People

The next day, you start your first MBA lesson: Managing People. In this course, you learn about how to be a good manager. The whole class is frozen. Nobody talks or asks questions. The professor though, is experienced. He knows how to make the students feel comfortable. Through a series of questions and case studies, the professor made the course so interesting that at the end of each class, you couldn’t wait for the next one. During Tuck Launch, you learn about the different aspects of the work of a manager such as how to motivate people and give productive feedback.

The whole class ended in a great way. In the last lesson in Tuck Launch, a whole section of around 75 people is now considered one big organization. The goal of the organization is to paint a famous artwork and sell it to its clients. Some people are workers; some people are team leaders; and some people are senior management. Though working with a large team on a project was a challenge, you made it through.


The artwork prepared by more than 70 people.

The CEO Experience

By far, the best experience during Tuck Launch was The CEO Experience. Tuck invited four CEOs that are Tuck alumni:

  • Elyse Allan, chair, Tuck Board of Advisors; former president and CEO of General Electric Canada
  • Natalia Garcia, founder and CEO of eVOLT Energy Market
  • Thad Hill, president and CEO of Calpine Corporation
  • Nykia Wright, interim CEO of Chicago Sun-Times

The panel of CEOs, moderated by a professor, discuss the challenge they face while managing their respective companies. The students also have the opportunity to ask them questions. As soon as the panel finishes, you receive a new assignment. Each study group is assigned to one of the four companies represented by the alumni and are asked to prepare a solution to a real-life challenge at the company. Then, they present their solution to the company CEO.

After two hours of preparation, and a short presentation, the CEO then presents how they solved the problem and what problems they face in real life. It was so interesting to see that the solutions that your team prepared were tested in real life and they had real impact on people.

Scavenger Hunt

Despite the time that you’ve already spent at Tuck, you still feel you don’t know it very well. That’s why Tuck organized a Scavenger Hunt. The Scavenger Hunt was a game where students had to visit several buildings around campus with their study group and learn more about how each place can help. Within three hours, you visited Tuck’s centers, Career Services, TuckGO, the Dartmouth library, the Dartmouth gym, as well as a number of other places in Tuck. The funniest challenge was by far when you had to find the biggest rock in Hanover.

The hunt ended at the entrance of Tuck. The whole class was gathered there because you had to compare the rocks that each team found. Some people carried a large rock with their hands. Some others used their cars to bring even a larger rock. The winners though were a team that asked a worker from a local construction site to bring a large rock using an excavator.

Last Day of Tuck Launch

During the last day of Tuck Launch, everybody had to be brought back to reality. Joe Hall, one of the best and most famous professors in Tuck, gave a short speech about the academic part of the program. Joe talked about grades so suddenly everyone became very serious. The students also met the professors for the fall. They were all so funny and vulnerable that everybody couldn’t wait for the classes to start.

Tuck Launch ended in a very sentimental way. Russell Wolf T’94, general manager of ESPN+, talked to us about his life during and after Tuck. He talked to us about how passionate he is about media and how his career progressed within ESPN, in Asia. His speech was full of funny moments, but it ended with most of the students crying when Russell talked about his daughter and his involvement with Special Olympics.

It was definitely a great way to end Tuck Launch and prepare us for the start of the fall term.
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An Internship at Stanford Health Care [#permalink] Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs   14 Oct 2019, 13:00
FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: An Internship at Stanford Health Care

By David Leander T'20

Prior to both medical school and business school, I worked for four years as a project manager and consultant in the niche field of electronic medical records at Epic. Coming into graduate school, I knew I wanted to continue to gain experience and strengthen skills in health care as a business prior to entering residency. After finishing up my first year at Tuck and then the last of my medical school requirements this past summer, I was looking for a unique opportunity to challenge myself and bring together my interest in technology, medicine, and health care delivery.

           

I found the perfect opportunity at Stanford Health Care and the Center for Digital Health. The organization recently began implementing virtual visits for patients across its system, primarily in the Anesthesia Department. My project fit seamlessly with my First-Year Project at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and the Pre-Admissions Testing unit, which was a part of the Anesthesia Department. For some patients, a pre-operative visit with the anesthesia can be arranged to evaluate patients prior to surgery. During these visits, patients are assessed in order to prevent risks and complications related to their surgery and anesthesia. This unique aspect of health care combines both medicine and surgery, and has become a rising area of research into mechanisms to improve patient outcomes after surgery.

As health care demands increase, organizations are coming up with creative ways to see more patients with limited resources such as space, which is especially relevant in the Bay Area. Telemedicine offers a creative way to eliminate space constraints and offer patients a convenient way to receive care from a distance. Performing video visits has some limitations in terms of a more limited physical exam, but certain assessments can be easily obtained such as airway visualization. I got observe some of these visits, which was an experience I had not seen during medical school. Admittedly at first, it was a bit awkward having to balance looking at the camera and at the screen simultaneously. However, after a couple of visits, I got excited thinking about this future state of medicine that could take place this way. Everyone has a smartphone, especially in the Bay Area. I enjoy seeing patients, but I thought about how much time and effort was being saved by having these virtual visits. For some patients being seen at a hospital like Stanford, they come from several hundred miles away for surgery. Virtual medicine has been proposed as a new specialty, so this experience was a glimpse into the potential future of my career as a physician.

My project focused on a cost benefit analysis of implementing virtual visits compared to in-person visits. I uncovered data from various areas across the organization including a square-footage cost estimate for the clinic space and an extract of all the ZIP codes for patients to estimate mileage and time spent driving that was saved by patients. I was able to meet different team members from across the organization: clinicians, finance managers, and IT reporting analysts. I learned the value of asking the right people the right questions in order to get to the right data. With the data itself, I leveraged some of the first year coursework to analyze, interpret, and convey this data into meaningful results. This experience was an incredible opportunity to practice what I hope to do in the future as a physician working at the intersection of technology, health care delivery, and business.
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Tuck Admissions Insights: Common Applicant Questions, Fall 2019 [#permalink] Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs   31 Oct 2019, 07:00
FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: Tuck Admissions Insights: Common Applicant Questions, Fall 2019



By Luke Anthony Peña

Executive Director of Admissions and Financial Aid

Happy October, all!  Fall has arrived in Hanover, and with it comes application season. It’s such a joy for me and my colleagues to see submissions from those of you we’ve met over these last months (and years!), and it’s delightful to “meet” many more of you for the first time in your applications. Our reading team started application review immediately after the October 7 Round 1 deadline, and our student interviewers are hard at work interviewing many of you both on-campus and virtually. It’s exciting to learn more about you.

I recently returned from seven invigorating weeks on the road recruiting for Tuck in Asia, Latin America, and Europe, where I met hundreds of you and fielded thousands of your good questions at information sessions and small group chats. I’ve been reflecting on emergent themes from our conversations, and I want to answer several of the most commonly asked questions. We care about reducing stress and anxiety and encouraging you to apply with confidence—that means responding to the collective concerns on your mind.

 

How is Tuck helping international students succeed in a U.S. job search?

All of us at Tuck care deeply about the talents and global perspective our international students bring. This includes our Dean Matt Slaughter, who recently joined with other prominent business school deans to author an open letter urging our government to revise policy supporting global mobility. It is not coincidental that I spent much of my summer canvassing the world; my colleagues and I want those of you outside the U.S. to know that we value your contributions and welcome your applications here.

All of our Career Services advisers work individually with students in their job search, and several of our Career Services colleagues—including our Executive Director, Stephen Pidgeon T’07—are Tuck alumni who came here from outside the U.S. Before admitted international students arrive to campus, we provide training videos and resources to you about how U.S. recruiting and cultural dynamics work. Our Career Services advisers regularly communicate with employers and recruiters, and keep a pulse on firms’ international hiring trends, which they pass along so you can make informed recruitment decisions. Last year, the majority of our international students who applied for an H1B visa were successful, and the few who were not are working closely with their employers on a contingency plan for relocation.

We know that many of you who pursue a U.S. MBA hope to stay here, and we at Tuck are prepared to help you maximize your chances of success. 

 

How is Tuck helping reduce the financial burden of funding a Tuck MBA?

If you want to be at Tuck, and we want you to be at Tuck, it’s important to us that  not stand in the way. Several years ago, we were falling short of this goal; we admitted strong candidates who really wanted to be at Tuck but enrolled elsewhere because Tuck was out of reach financially. Our ongoing $250-million capital campaign is changing this.

In fiscal year 2017, Tuck received $20 million in support of scholarships. Since then, we have doubled the number of scholarships awarded to admitted students—the Class of 2021 received 94.6 percent more offers than the class two years prior. And as the number of scholarship awards increases, so does their size—the average scholarship award has increased during the same interval. We’re awarding larger scholarships, and we’re awarding more of them!

All applicants, domestic and international, are automatically considered for scholarship awards, and our team uses discretion to award scholarships to those of you who, absent funding, might not enroll at Tuck. I also work alongside first-rate Financial Aid colleagues who encourage and advise applicants and students to plan ahead financially including for costs not covered by scholarship.

 

What is new at Tuck? What is changing?

I already mentioned the Campaign for Tomorrow’s Wise Leaders above, and I’ll add that we’re also bolstering our resources for our programs and our places. To the former, a generous $25 million gift from Michaela and Zdenek Bakala T’89—the largest in Tuck’s history—will endow our TuckGO program. To the latter, we’ve broken ground on the Irving Energy Institute, which will open in Fall 2021.

Tuck has significantly enhanced its first-year core curriculum. The enhancements include refined leadership framework, a restructured winter term that better balances academics and recruiting, a new portfolio of data analytics courses, and increased optionality for elective coursework. We’ve also expanded orientation to ensure you begin your Tuck experience with the confidence to jump head first into rigorous study. Tuck Launch, our new two-week long orientation, includes case method preparation, primers on career skills and how students can articulate their personal narrative during recruiting, small group dinners, CEO panels, and more.

In Admissions, we’re excited to create more pathways for you to connect with our students and alumni. We’ve already upgraded our student ambassadors page to enable you to filter and find a student perspective of interest to you. We’re also laying the groundwork to have ambassadors proactively reach out to more of you, even before you apply, and to create more small group chats with students and alumni in markets around the world. We want you to engage with our extraordinary community.

 

What do you look for when selecting applicants?

We’re looking for smart, accomplished, aware, and nice applicants—read all about it!

 

How do you evaluate my application?

We’ve articulated this in detail as well—check it out!

 

Some economists are saying a U.S. recession may be imminent. If this happens, will a U.S. MBA still be a worthwhile investment?

My colleagues and I can’t predict the future, but we certainly don’t hope for a recession. I’ve heard some speculate that a recession will increase MBA application volume and reverse a market correction that is affecting all U.S. MBA programs, including Tuck. Perhaps this will be true, but hoping for this feels like schadenfreude. We want our students and alums to benefit from economic conditions that will enable them to do well and do good. A strong economy is good for Tuck, the U.S., and our society.

History shows us that economic trends are cyclical, and a recession at some point is inevitable. When a recession occurs, many industries and companies will tighten their hiring volume and be selective in hiring decisions. When this happens, I ask if you can afford to lack the skills, the network, and the credentials that would differentiate you in the employment market. Unlike in expanding economies, in which career opportunities are readily available to those with a range of skills and abilities, you will need to be especially qualified to advance your career in a recession. An MBA like Tuck’s offers those qualifications.

There is never an inopportune time to invest in yourself. The Tuck MBA is one such investment in yourself, and I believe it offers an opportunity to develop the wise, decisive leadership to better weather economic ambiguity and volatility.

On behalf of my colleagues, I appreciate the opportunity to offer reflections on your questions you collectively asked most often. We love hearing what’s on your mind, and we take great pride in offering an open, honest, transparent look into our community and our application. If you want to dive deeper on these questions or have others not answered here, please do reach out to me and the team. We’re excited to hear from you, and I look forward to seeing you back in this space in November!
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Tuck Admissions Insights: Your Admissions Interview [#permalink] Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs   22 Nov 2019, 07:35
FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: Tuck Admissions Insights: Your Admissions Interview



By Valeria Wiens

Associate Director of Evaluation, Admissions

The Tuck Admissions team is known for transparency when it comes to admissions criteria and how we evaluate applications. We’ve recently been focusing our efforts on providing advice on how you can best highlight that you are Smart, Accomplished, Aware and Nice. Now, let’s take it a step further. I’m excited to discuss another part of the application that allows you to provide a more complete picture of who you are—your admissions interview.

Admissions interviews play an important role in the evaluation process. They are a way for you to demonstrate how you’ll contribute to our community, and how Tuck can help you thrive. They also give you a chance to learn more about Tuck.

While Tuck’s interviews are meant to be a comfortable conversation, we understand that the process of interviewing at a business school can be a stressful one. We know that you are excited about the prospect of attending Tuck, and we’re excited to meet you! I hope the advice below helps alleviate interview-day anxiety.

Preparing for Your Interview—You’ve Got This!

Know our four admissions criteria well. The admissions interview is an opportunity for you to demonstrate that you are smart, accomplished, aware, and nice. Most of our interviews are conducted by Tuck Admissions Associates (TAAs). These are trained second-year students who genuinely want you to succeed and are excited to learn your story. Using only your resume, your interviewer will ask you questions that draw out evidence of each of these criteria. Your interviewer listens to your answers, summarizes and records notes in a form, and makes a recommendation on your candidacy to the admissions committee. The best interviews are the conversations that flow, and TAAs have discretion regarding which questions they ask—they have no pre-set list from us—and how they allocate questions across the 30-45 minutes of your interview.

Some of the questions we might ask are common to an MBA interview. Prepare and know your answers. Although this may vary by candidate and interviewer, you will likely be asked some standard questions, such as “Walk me through your resume,” “Why are you pursuing an MBA?” and “What are your goals?” Prepare to discuss these by reviewing your resume beforehand, thinking about any applicable transitions, and reflecting on what aspects are most important to you and how you can best highlight them to your interviewer. Consider asking yourself: what led you to this point in your professional life, and what goals are you hoping to achieve post-MBA? Answers to these questions are only a small part of your interview. It’s best to respond to these questions in 2-3 minutes to give your interviewer enough time to ask behavioral questions that explore your alignment with our four criteria.

We ask behavioral questions. Prepare examples that address each of our four criteria. We believe that behaviors demonstrate transferable skills that predict your impact at Tuck and beyond. By relating stories from your past, you show us that your performance can be replicated here at Tuck and throughout your professional life. You may find the STAR format helpful in structuring your answers (Situation, Task, Action, Result). Start with the situation, then describe the task or problem that you faced. Next, tell your interviewer about the actions you took, and finish the story with a brief summary of the result. The best stories are those that focus mostly on your actions.

Prepare examples but listen well to the questions asked. Be ready to improvise and think on your feet. Your interviewer will likely ask you at least one question for which you have no prepared answer. Remember to listen carefully and answer the question being asked. It is okay (even encouraged!) to take a few seconds to collect your thoughts before answering the question as best as you can. Our interviewer may ask follow up questions. This is a good thing! It usually means that your interviewer sees evidence of one or more of the criteria in your answer and wants to give you an additional opportunity to shine.

Research Tuck well. And then use the interview to learn even more about us. Think about what compels you to apply to Tuck, and articulate how you envision yourself contributing to the community. But remember—we don’t expect you to know everything about the school! Your interviewer is a second-year student that knows Tuck well and could be a wealth of information for you. I encourage you to ask questions that cannot be easily answered through our marketing materials or website. As you will see, our interviewers are excited about Tuck and are eager to answer your questions.

The interview starts from the moment your interviewer greets you. First impressions are formed early on. The interview starts as soon as our interviewer sees you, either in person or virtually (for the virtual committee-initiated interviews). Present yourself with confidence and composure. Your interviewer will likely initiate small talk, either on your way to the interview room, or as you establish and test your virtual connection. Stay positive and be confident. Keep the small talk going by asking related questions in return, and use it as a chance to build rapport with your interviewer before you dive into the bulk of the interview.

Interviewing is a great way to demonstrate your alignment with Tuck’s criteria. It’s also an unparalleled opportunity to get a feel for our school’s culture. We truly look forward to hearing more of your story. Prepare, relax, and be confident. You will shine!
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Tuck Admissions Insights: Make Your Resume Shine [#permalink] Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs   25 Nov 2019, 15:00
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FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: Tuck Admissions Insights: Make Your Resume Shine



By Valeria Wiens

Associate Director of Evaluation, Admissions

Mathias Machado T'09, Director of Career Services and Resources

In our latest blog, we offered some advice on what to keep in mind when preparing for your Tuck admissions interview. We’ll now turn our attention to a related component of your Tuck application: your resume! We’ve partnered with Career Services to offer guidance that will help your resume shine.

A Resume, A Snapshot

An impactful resume is an important part of your Tuck application. When starting to read your file, many officers on our team will first look at your resume before reviewing other parts of your application. Your resume is also the only document your Tuck interviewer will see prior to meeting you in person or virtually. Creating a strong first impression is important, and having a resume that is representative of your work output, skills, interests, and community involvement allows you to highlight specific meaningful aspects of your experience to others.

Your resume should be a snapshot of experiences and achievements, and show that you have the transferable skills needed to succeed, not only in an academic setting, but beyond the classroom as well. Yes, your resume helps us understand how you align with the Accomplished criterion; however, a well-crafted resume can be used as a vehicle to speak to the Smart, Aware and Nice criteria as well.

This may seem like a heavy lift for one piece of paper, but it’s definitely achievable!

The Format

Your resume should be one page in length to allow us (and everyone else looking at your resume) to navigate to key information quickly. In addition to fitting everything you’d like to highlight on one page, pay attention to the margins (not too narrow), spacing (1.0 suggested), and font size (no smaller than 10 point). Maintain formatting consistency throughout the resume and use white space for easy reading. We do not have a preferred template for candidates to use. However, if you’d like additional guidance on how to best structure and format your resume, including a Tuck resume format template as an example, take a look at our comprehensive resume writing guide. 

Content

Quality, not quantity is key.  If you list everything you have done at every job, you’ll be breaking the formatting guidelines above and will demonstrate some misalignment with our Aware criterion. Granted, every resume is unique, but many impactful ones follow a similar formula that you can leverage:

Focus on achievements, not responsibilities. One way to differentiate between the two is to ask yourself—“If I Ieave this job, will the next person who takes my place be able to write exactly the same bullet point?” If the answer is yes, then there is room to improve. Your goal should be to show the value that you brought to the role. For instance, “Responsible for customer application processing” tells the reader about your experience, but is not unique to you and may be relevant to all jobs in the same function. Ask yourself if there was anything you did to deliver above and beyond expectations. For instance: “Took initiative to work with stakeholders across the company to create and implement interventions that helped reduce customer application processing time” provides evidence that you have transferable skills, not just functional experience.

Quantifying results can be useful, but is not essential. You could add a level of detail to the above bullet such as “Introduced automated processes that decreased the customer application processing time from one month to two days.” This helps the reader understand the scale of your achievement, but every bullet does not need to include a numerical result.  Please also know that your resume is equally valuable if you don’t come from what you might think of as a “traditional” business background and the work you do is not easily quantified. We’re excited to get to know you and your many accomplishments, regardless of your industry, and our experienced readers will calibrate your achievements and behaviors relative to the nature of your work.

Finally, show us how you achieved the result. As we evaluate your alignment with the Accomplished criterion, we want to see how you approached a task or problem rather than simply jumping to the result. What were the steps you took that were essential drivers of success? Consider the difference between “solved quality issue with production line and saved $Xm per year” and “solved quality issue by investigating source of problem, mining data, running workshops with workers, and leading team to design new process, saving $Xm per year.” The second version emphasizes the route you took to success, and allows us to get a better read on how you demonstrate our Accomplished criterion.

Why is this important? Results rarely carry over from one context to the next. It is highly unlikely that you will need to tackle exactly the same problem at Tuck as you did previously in your career. As mentioned in a previous blog, your behaviors are transferable skills that could be indicators of impact at Tuck and in your professional life, and they help us calibrate across diverse backgrounds and experiences. By providing examples of your behavior, you show us not only how those impressive results were earned, but also indicate that your strong performance can be replicated here at Tuck and beyond.

Beyond Your Professional Experience

Finally, pay attention to the non-professional part of your resume. The Education and Personal sections of your resume are just as important as the professional section, and are used for the same purpose—to showcase your achievements and transferable skills. Use the Education section to show us more than just the school(s) you have attended – we see this information in your application and on the transcript(s). Focus on showing leadership and/or involvement (for instance clubs or societies that you led), entrepreneurial mindset (clubs and societies that you founded) and evidence of achievement (strong GPA, strong GMAT, academic or athletic achievements, Deans List, etc.).

Use the Personal section to highlight leadership and/or involvement, achievement (e.g., pastimes that show a commitment to excellence), or a desire to drive change (community contributions, etc.).

And if space allows for it, consider adding one or two lines in your personal section that are purely about your interests. This information helps us see more of you, the applicant, and is often used by our interviewers to start small-talk and get to know you better. Try to be specific when listing interests, so instead of saying that you enjoy “baking and reading”, consider writing “conquering sourdough bread baking and reading about Baroque composers.”

We hope you take our advice to heart and invest in putting forth a resume that closely reflects your achievements and interests. The way you put forward your experience helps us get to know you. Let us, and everyone else who looks at this document get a better understanding of you as an academic, a professional, and a person.  
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Tuck Admissions Insights: Employment History, Common Applicant Questio [#permalink] Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs   03 Dec 2019, 15:00
FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: Tuck Admissions Insights: Employment History, Common Applicant Questions



By Valeria Wiens

Associate Director of Evaluation, Admissions

The Employment History section of your application allows you to demonstrate that you are accomplished. You demonstrate accomplishment through the resume, professional achievements and extracurricular involvement, the Letters of Reference, and the interview. We calibrate Employment History for the quality and quantity of your post-undergraduate experience.

Below I highlight parts of the Employment History section that prompt the most questions from applicants, and share why we ask these questions and what information we hope you will provide. This is not high-level advice on how to demonstrate our Accomplished criterion (for that, please refer to this blog post), but rather tactical guidelines on what information to provide.

Description of your organization[/*]
[*]Description of your responsibilities[/*]
[*]Reason for leaving, if applicable[/*]
[*]Starting Position, Ending Position, and Other Positions Held[/*]
[*]Starting Compensation, Ending Compensation, and Annual Bonus[/*]
[/list]

Description of your organization

Our team is familiar with many but not all organizations in the world. Here we are looking for a basic overview; a few sentences explaining what your firm does is sufficient. It is also okay to copy and paste a brief summary from your organization’s marketing materials or other credible sources. If you work at a large, well-known firm, please use this section to tell us more about your division.

Description of your responsibilities

We look at your resume and Letters or Reference to learn about your achievements and contributions to your organization(s). We encourage you to provide a few sentences (or bullet points) outlining your responsibilities. This is a very brief overview of your job description. Since you will probably not have enough space to list all your responsibilities, we encourage you to focus on the most critical parts of your job. Note that this is different than the bullet points on your resume, which should highlight achievements and accomplishments versus simply listing responsibilities.

Reason for leaving, if applicable

We want to give you ample opportunity to explain your career progression and the why behind your transitions. What led you away from one employer towards another firm? When you explain the thread that ties your transitions together you show us the interntionality with which you have approached your career to-date. Here we look to you to help us understand the motivations underlying changes. We encourage you to go beyond stating “Left to join company X.” Tell us why you chose to join company X.

Starting Position, Ending Position, and Other Positions Held

This is asked so that you can demonstrate professional progression with your employer(s). If you’ve had several employers, it might be difficult to list all positions on your resume. This section allows you to highlight progression by listing all positions at each employer, including intermediate positions. For example, if you’ve held three roles within an organization, list your first role for Starting Position, your second role for Other Positions Held, and your most recent role for Ending Position. 

Commonly Asked Questions about Positions:

  • Should I list an internship as a Starting Position? I interned with my current employer while still completing my undergraduate degree, and received and accepted a full-time offer to return.  

    While we acknowledge that you may have worked while completing your degree, we are looking for evidence of your accomplishments in your post-undergraduate work experience.

     
  • There is no change in title between my starting and ending position. Am I at a disadvantage?

    Not at all! We consider progression within a firm, but we also understand that it may take longer to formally progress with some employers or within particular industries. If that is the case for you, do not worry. We will look at whether your responsibilities, impact, and/or leadership increased over time. We will also look at salary progression.

Compensation: Starting Compensation, Ending Compensation, and Annual Bonus

Why do we ask this? Salary information demonstrates progress within a firm beyond your title. It also provides us with additional insight into your level of responsibility.

Commonly Asked Questions about Compensation:

  • My work offers me a high level of responsibility but does not pay as much. Am I at a disadvantage?

    We understand that different fields have different pay scales. An applicant earning a high salary in a lucrative industry is not categorically stronger than an applicant earning a modest salary in a less lucrative role. In some cases, salary information can be helpful when we evaluate candidates from well-represented industries, employers, or geographic regions.

  • I work outside of the United States and my salary is not in US Dollars. How should I report it?

    Please report both in U.S. Dollars (using a currency conversion calculator), and in your local currency. We require your salary in U.S. Dollars for reporting purposes. However, we recognize that fluctuating currency rates can cause a converted salary to inaccurately reflect your true salary progression.

My colleagues and I hope that this post provides more clarity on why we ask certain Employment History questions. Please know that our goal is to better understand your professional progression as part of our Accomplished criterion. As you review the guidelines above, remember to be concise and confident in describing your professional experiences!
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Tuck Students “Venture” to Boston [#permalink] Tuck Dartmouth MBA Admissions & Related Blogs   10 Dec 2019, 10:00
FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: Tuck Students “Venture” to Boston

By Claire Dalman T’21 and Ross Klosterman T’20

In early November a group of Tuck students interested in venture capital and entrepreneurship traveled to Boston for a packed schedule of meetings with a variety of firms. In addition to networking, the goal of the trip was to expose students keen on entering venture or on a path to starting companies to the different models of venture capital—from early stage to growth, generalist to industry specific. We began with an evening of drinks, appetizers, and networking between students and Tuck alumni, graciously hosted at State Street Provisions by Liam Donohue T’95 and So-June Min T’95 from .406 Ventures.

Thanks to the initiative of Center for Private Equity and Venture Capital Executive Director, Jim Feuille D’79, who called everyone to attention from the dining booth seat, Brodie Stone T’20 and Ross Klosterman T’20 pitched their company, UnifiHealth, which is focusing on reimagining health benefits for small businesses. After an evening of socializing, we had a full Friday of scheduled stops at Bain Capital Ventures, Boston Millennia Partners, Charles River Ventures, Openview Venture Partners, Flare Capital, and Green D Ventures.



Jim Feuille D’79 (right) called everyone to attention from a dining booth seat giving Brodie Stone T’20 and Ross Klosterman T’20 (left) an opportuity to ptich their company, UnifiHealth, which is focusing on reimagining health benefits for small businesses.

Tuckies in attendance on this trek were a mix of first- and second-year students, each of whom brought a unique perspective to each meeting given the group’s diverse background experiences and varying areas of interest within the venture capital industry. This contributed to dynamic discussions with each of the firms we met. After an obligatory coffee stop, we kicked off our jam-packed day with a conversational dialogue at Bain Capital Ventures. We discussed the firm’s position within the industry, its industry focus on SaaS companies, and its diligence processes, but we also had the chance to discuss general trends in the greater VC industry. Getting candid insights from venture professionals into where VC is today, as well as where it is heading, was a fortunate reoccurrence at every stop we made.

Millennia Partners, a firm focused on growth equity in healthcare, pharma, medical devices, and life sciences was our next stop. At only our second meeting of the day, we learned important ways in which VC firms can differ from one another, both in terms of investment approach and industry focus. Millennia Partners shared an internship opportunity with the team that first year students would be eligible to apply for, adding value to this already widely insightful trip. Charles River Ventures, or CRV, was up next where we were provided with a generous lunch spread. Here, we had the opportunity to meet with Izhar Armony, a seasoned industry professional who is a four time "unicorn" investor and has been involved with four +$1bn IPOs.

Our afternoon visits kicked off at Openview, an expansionary stage software-focused fund. We were able to speak with two Tuckies that work at the firm—John McCullough T’10 and Caitlin Bolnick T’19—who described how Openview’s advisory in corporate development, pricing and packaging and executive networks, as well as other areas gives them a competitive advantage when sourcing deals. After re-elevating our caffeine levels, we continued to our next meeting with Flare Capital Partners. Flare invests in primarily early-stage healthcare technology. This was an especially exciting meeting for our entrepreneurs mentioned above given the interest level overlap. Finally, we concluded our busy day at Green D Ventures where we met with Laura Rippy D’89 and Lacey Johnson T’13. Green D Ventures invests in early-stage companies connected to Dartmouth and Tuck alums. Ending our nonstop day at a firm connected to Tuck was a welcome grounding in the ever-evolving world of venture capital.
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