Dartmouth, Tuck School of Business

Dartmouth Tuck School of Business offers interviews with the expectation that they should not be drill sessions, but should be conversations so that Tuck can get to know the applicant on a personal level and the applicant can get to know Tuck so remember to ask your interviewer questions. Applicants will be evaluated on criteria such as leadership, self-awareness, interpersonal skills and ability to get involved in the Tuck community. Applicants who do well in the interview will showcase these skills and qualities in the interview. They will have high energy and show a passion for what they are talking about. In addition, if you are an international student, your ability to communicate in English will also be evaluated.

Dartmouth Tuck MBA interviews are either applicant initiated on-campus or Admissions initiated after an initial review of your application. Interviews are considered one data point in the application and will not make or break your application. It is to your benefit to schedule your interview after you have done your campus visit/tour. If you cannot schedule your interview for after the visit, try to talk to students. Many applicants lament that they have a better understanding of Tuck after they have had the chance to visit or talk with students.

The majority of on-campus interviews are given by Second-Year students. These students are chosen for their leadership on campus and their commitment to Tuck. This means these students love Tuck and have had a great experience and will want to talk about how great Tuck is. They are also a great resource to you! You should dress for your interview, regardless of location, in business dress. I know this can be a challenge in the cold weather in Hanover, but presentation counts.

1. Walk me through your resume and talk about the professional experience you have.
2. What do you see yourself doing immediately after graduation and in the longer term?
3. Why do you feel that you need an MBA?
4. Tell me about your team experiences and how they have influenced you?
5. What do you do apart from work?
6. What do you want to do after business school?
7. Why do you need an MBA?
8. Why Tuck?
9. How will you fit in at Tuck?
10. What classes and initiatives at Tuck specifically interest you?
11. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
12. What’s unique about you that you can add to the Tuck culture and environment?
13. What kind of leader are you? Tell me about a time when you have been a leader.
14. How should members of a team deal with teammates who are not contributing?
15. What are your goals – Why is it not possible to achieve it without an MBA
16. Tell me about a situation where you had a difficult boss.
17. How will you handle differences in your study group, for ex: Language
18. When you’ll join Tuck, you’ll be put into groups. What will be your approach if your team is not able to accomplish a task on time.
19. What do you do for fun?
20. What questions do you have for me?

The interviewer was a 2nd year MBA student. She was very nice and made me feel relaxed and comfortable from the get-go. She escorted me to the conference room where the interview was held. On the walk there, we briefly talked about where I was traveling from, and the weather (It was raining a lot that day, and was messy). The interview questions were as follows:

1) Walk me through your résumé, and explain any transitions in work

2) Why do you need an MBA at this stage?

3) Why an MBA at Tuck as opposed to other schools?

4) How do you plan to contribute and engage yourself at Tuck?

After these intro questions, several behavioral questions were asked:

5) What would your current supervisor say about you?

6) What are some of your weaknesses?

7) Tell me about a time where you solved a problem at work.

8) What are you involved in outside of work? (extracurriculars)

9) Anything else that I should know about you?

I interviewed during an open interview period.
I waited in the admissions office and a second-year student came to pick me up. She was very friendly and we walked together to one of the team meeting rooms, quite far from the admissions office. Looks like Tuck doesn’t have proper space for interviewing (both admissions and recruiting), and that was a bit disappointing.
The interview was blind, she just had my resume and took extensive notes.

Questions:

1. Tell me about yourself
2. Why MBA?
3. Why Tuck?
4. What are your short-term and long-term goals?
5. What is your plan B?
6. What three good things would your supervisor say about you?
7. What are your weaknesses?
8. Tell me about a time your weakness created a difficulty for you
9. How would you contribute to a team at Tuck?
10. What classes will you take?
11. Tell me about a time you encountered an adversity but had to pick yourself back up
12. How do you work with a diverse team?
13. Tell me about one personal and one professional accomplishments you are most proud of
14. Tell me about a time you had to deal with a conflict on a team
15. Is there anything else you wish we talked about?
16. Do you have any questions for me?

Conclusion

Overall very conversational, friendly interview experience. I think I messed up the weakness question though, and seeing how much emphasis they put on self-awareness, my advice would be to prepare for weakness-related questions really well. They are also interested in team players and you can tell that from the interview.
I was shocked by how hard to access and boring Hanover is, but every student I met during my visit was extremely warm, friendly, and helpful. You can tell they all are great people who love their school very much, so my opinion of Tuck definitely went up. Highly recommend to everyone to visit campus for the interview.

It was overall a pleasant experience. The interview started with a quick background into what the interviewer was doing prior to Tuck, and then she walked through the following questions:

1. Walk me through your résumé.
2. What are you short term/long term goals?
3. Tell me about a time you had a solve a complex problem at work. Walk me through how you tackled the problem.
4. Why Tuck and why now?
5. Are you looking at any other schools?

It ended on good terms, and was in the morning prior to the tour and Q&A. Was a little thrown off by the last question, but it seemed like a genuine question.

Interviewed at the Tuck campus as part of a day’s visit. Was interviewed by an adcom member after a morning class. The atmosphere was relaxed, felt very conversational. Interviewer asked general questions, some behavioral and had my résumé in front of them:

• Asked me to talk about my work experience
• Asked me about my short term and long term goals
• Asked me how I would get involved at Tuck specifically
• Asked me what my role would be in a group/team
• Asked me what skills I’ve learned in my career that would be helpful in a group at Tuck
• Asked me about a mistake I’ve made
• Asked me about some of the extracurriculars on my résumé
• Asked if I had anything else I’d like to share
• Asked if I had any questions about Tuck

Interview lasted 45 – 50 minutes, had a great experience overall at Tuck. Everybody very friendly and informative.

My visit to Tuck was phenomenal, and exceeded my expectations. For the purposes of this post I’ll stick to the interview. Before I talk about my specific experience, I should mention that in my discussion with other interviewees, we discovered that each of our experiences were very different, and it truly depended on the interviewer.

We waited in a small room for our interviewers to arrive and call our names. [A second-year student], T18 came and got me, and we went to a conference room. The interview was blind, but [the interviewer] did already have a copy of my résumé. We exchanged pleasantries, after which she dove right in. She commented on my GPA, but did not ask a single question regarding my résumé (I was very surprised at that).

The below is an incomplete list of the questions I was asked:

• When did you decide you wanted to pursue an MBA?
• What brings you here (to Tuck)?
• What are your three biggest weaknesses, and how will attending Tuck help you address them?
• You’ll be in a very diverse group, and work against tight deadlines. It’s the night before a deadline, and you’re all in a room together. How do you work within the group?
• Tell me about a time you had to work with people across various departments/disciplines.
• How will you take advantage of everything Tuck has to offer outside the classroom?

It was a very straightforward interview, but low stress. As long as you know yourself and the school, and why you belong there, you’ll be fine. Research as much as possible beforehand. I was able to mention specific classes by specific professors, clubs, activities, recent Tuck news, and how each of those fit into my plans.

Straightforward interview, but my interviewer asked several detailed follow-up questions:

1. Tell me about you.
2. Resume questions (pick & probe): I work in fixed-income but seek to transition into a totally different industry hence she asked my why not fixed income & details
3. Why MBA?
4. Career goals
5. Why Tuck?
6. How do you see yourself get involve in Tuck?
7. Tell me a time when you have to deal with conflicts.
8. Questions about my hobby.
9. Any questions for me?

Had an afternoon interview that didn’t include a class, but showed up early and ran into someone i knew, and he took me to class.

I spent the night prior and day of in Hanover, walking around town. Probably that nicest, most outgoing group of grad students on earth. Lines up with the tuck rotating reputation.

Interview was, as everyone says, very casual and conversational.

She asked:

• Go over my resume
• What am i most proud of
• What role do i fill in a group
• A mistake I’ve made

Nothing odd. Lasted 30 minutes.

Student interviewer didn’t seem well-prepared and disjointedly jumped from question to question. Admissions office also seemed annoyed by all of the students there for interviews rather than welcoming, was a very weird environment and all candidates talked about it. This may be the downside of applicant-initiated interviews.

Questions:
– Walk me through your CV
– Why an MBA?
– Why Tuck?
– Why now?
– What are your strengths?
– What are your weaknesses?
– Tell me about a time you had to deliver hard news to someone
– Anything else you want us to know about you?

Then the interviewer asked if I had any questions and we wrapped up after about 30 minutes.

After waiting in a common area with other applicants, an admissions team member came in, called my name, and walked me to our interview room. The room is a nondescript meeting room with a small table that both you and the interviewer sit at. There is a small amount of time for ice-breaking conversation as you make your way to the room and take your seat.
The interviewer I had was a very composed, quiet individual who was very warm and seemed enthusiastic about being part of the process. In my case, being ti was Early Action, I immediately got the sense that my interviewer was new to this. It is possible that depending on the timing of your interview, you may get a second-year student with varying degrees of experience.
The Questions were asked in a non-rushed manner, with ample time provided to provide answer and without a very strict schedule or quota of questions to get through. They were the following:
1. Tell me about yourself and why you are pursuing an MBA
2. What is it about the Tuck experience that interests you?
3. What will you bring to the Tuck Community/Culture?
4. How do you see Tuck furthering your career goals in the short term?
5. How do you plan to engage with Tuck after graduation and as an alumni? How do you anticipate being a Tuckie will add value to your career in the long-term?
6. Do you have any questions for me?
I was surprised by the relaxed atmosphere and warm reception. The interviewer seemed intent on hearing as complete an answer as possible rather than checking boxes. The questions themselves, however, were not surprising in the least. They were stock questions we might all prepare for but their simplicity and the time allowed means a full and well-thought out answer is necessary to differentiate oneself. Even so, the 30-40 minutes I was allotted felt quite short given the day-trip that was required and the travel involved in getting to Tuck, even considering the campus tour, class visit, and student seminar.
Overall, I felt I learned about the program quite well and was given a platform to articulate my case.

My interview was with a second year student who was very polite and nice. She set the stage at the beginning of the interview, noting that it was going to be about 30 minutes and she will ask me a series of questions about my past experiences. The questions were fairly straight forward:

• Walk me through your résumé.
• Why an MBA?
• Why Tuck?
• What would you get involved in at Tuck?
• Tell me about a time when you failed
• After your first semester at Tuck, what would your study group teammates say about you? (one positive and one negative)

Then we had time for a few questions at the end and it lasted for about 40 minutes total.

The total culture is supportive. For the class visits, there will be current students to escort you, and the professor might be ask you to introduce yourself as well. The school is beautiful (but a little bit cold at night). It takes around 3 hours to drive from Boston and 5 hours to drive from NYC, really far. But save for that, everything was perfect! The admission director even dropped by to say hello to us.

The interviewer was nice. The interview was more like a casual conversation. Questions were:

1. Walk through the résumé.
2. Why MBA? Why Tuck?
3. Which clubs are you interested in Tuck?
4. One teamwork experience you had.
5. How to deal with conflicts? and examples.
6. One time you showed initiative.
7. One feedback you received from your supervisor and how did you respond.
8. Q&A.

I guess the interviews are similar for everyone. I suggest you visit the schools to check out the culture, location, weather, etc. to see whether it’s fit.