Adcom initiated interview debriefGetting thereI took the dartmouth coach up from Boston early in the morning. The ride was around 3 hours total and was fairly pleasant. The coach was surprisingly comfortable with wifi, toilet and reclining seats.
I highly recommend the coach if you're coming from Boston or NYC, however make sure you get your tickets in advance. Both my ride to and from Hanover were sold out the prior day. Luckily I got my tickets a week before hand. I arrived in the afternoon and was tired so didn’t do much the night before the interview. Read over some notes quickly and tried to chill out with netflix and some herb tea
The morningMy day was scheduled to start at 8 30 am with a class visit and applicants expected to arrive at the admissions office around 8 15.
Due to jet lag, I was up at 5am so had plenty of time to get up and get some breakfast from Lou’s Bakery(highly recommended by the way). After eating I went for a walk around the campus and familiarised myself with where Tuck was on campus so I wouldn’t get lost. I ended up arriving around 8am to the admissions office and was the second person there. We were given our schedules for the day and admissions marked us off the list. By 8 15 the room was full with about 12 -15 people. There were a few other International applicants - Some from East Asia and some from India. However majority was domestic students
Class Visit At 8 25 my guide showed up and took me to the class I was sitting in on. I sat in on a core accounting class that ran from 8 30 to 10. I have never studied accounting and didn’t really understand what was going on, however the professor seemed engaging and the class appeared more like an open discussion rather than a lecture. It seemed like a great way to learn.
Interview
After the class visit, I had around 15 minutes before my interview was scheduled. My interviewer showed up at 10 15 on the dot and took me to the room and we made small talk about my flight and what not on the way.
The interview was with a second year and was very relaxed. We had 30 minutes for interview and 15 minutes for questions. The 30 minutes flew by and we covered a lot of ground so make sure you are succinct in your responses. The interviewer already had a copy of my resume (although I don’t believe they have access to the other parts of my application; essays, transcript, gmat etc) and had already read through it.
The questions were all fairly standard with the walk me through your resume,
why mba, why tuck, what are you most excited about outside of academics, how will you contribute to the study group, when have you had to give feedback, when have you received tough feedback.
It was very flowing and they don't appear to throw any curveball questions at you, so nothing to be stressed about. However make sure you have interesting questions prepared as 1/3 of the interview time is allocated to questions. I truly feel the purpose of the interview is to know your personal side and your motivations for Tuck.
Lunch and TourAfter the interview I had an hour of free time before lunch. I mostly just chatted to other applicants and walked around the dartmouth campus.
At lunch we sat in a class room and sandwiches and fruits were provided. We were joined by some first years who talked more about their experiences so far. After lunch was a tour provided by a first year who walked us all around tuck. It’s deceptively big and is all interconnected with tunnels which I thought was interesting
Takeaways and observationsTuck is really remote. Like really remote. If you are coming from a major city you may find it difficult to adapt. Understand this before applying. However the campus is beautiful and has a lot of charm to it. Things close very early which I found weird coming from a city where most things are open 24 hours
The students seem amazing. All the interactions I had with students seemed very genuine and authentic. They obviously love being at tuck and they will go out of their way to make you feel comfortable. Whilst I was walking around during the day I got lost on campus. A first year approached me and asked if I needed any help with directions. We ended up having a chat for 10 minutes about Tuck life and even gave me some interview tips.
Lack of diversity. I was a little disappointed about the lack of diversity at tuck. Maybe it was just the class I sat in on but everyone seemed to be White American. There was a handful of Asian/Indians in the class and no coloured people. It seemed about 90% of the class was white. This was a little off-putting and made me think about tucks international strength and reputation. Diversity is an important criteria for me and within that class I didn’t really feel it. I need to do more research here.
Sense of community
You can really feel that all the students known each other and are always helping one another. I could definitely feel a strong sense of community, almost like everyone was a family.
Worth the visit
Overall Im very glad I decided to visit. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Hanover. I encourage those, particularly international applicants who aren't familiar with US culture to visit tuck. The day was very well run and informative and gave me a much deeper understanding of what Tuck is about