Tuck's Conference for International Educational Consultants

From Sunday through Tuesday  24  educational consultants from 18 different countries and I were the guests of Tuck Business School at Dartmouth University in Hanover, New Hampshire. I have pages of notes that I am not going to bore you with and I am finding it difficult to distill the information I received, but I do want to share my impressions of Tuck and a little of how Tuck is distinctive from other top MBA programs. Perhaps I'll write  more in the future.

Dean Paul Danos set the tone at the first event of the conference when he defined  Tuck in terms of  immersion, academic rigor, and a high degree of alumni support.  All three qualities were emphasized throughout the presentations and events.

Tuck has 240 students in a class, one of the smallest class sizes of the top American business schools. Located two hours from the closest large city (Boston), Tuck takes advantage of its proximity to Dartmouth, its magnificently beautiful location, and small size to attract outstanding faculty and create a tight-knit community with ties that last.

Student Life: All single first-year students live in dorms attached to the Tuck administrative and classroom buildings.  The students are divided into sections of sixty and then assigned to study groups of 6, each designed for maximum diversity in professional and personal background. They literally live, work, study, and play together for that first year. Married students live nearby in Tuck married student housing. At almost every single presentation the speaker mentioned that alumni support is around 64% and that no other business school is anywhere close to that figure. All speakers, including the students we spoke with, attributed that level of support to the tightness of the community. Many staff and students praised the accessibility of the alumni.

One French student  was asked what is the one thing she likes best about Tuck. "Community -- past, present, and future." She explained that she benefits from the alumni network -- those who have been to Tuck in the past. She also clearly enjoys the immersion aspects of Tuck community life. And she looks forward both to benefiting from and contributing to the Tuck alumni network and community  in the future.

The program: The deans  emphasized that the required first-year program builds skills first, then moves into teaching business functional areas, and ends the year by developing an integrated approach to management. Throughout, the deans emphasized that Tuck maintains a balance between developing soft skills -- leadership (in a formal leadership development program), teamwork, and communications skills while requiring quantitatively and academically rigorous work. The schools is not married to any one pedagogic approach and uses cases, lectures, and lots of projects. Tuck provides  opportunities  for overseas , entrepreneurial, and NFP consulting projects.

The faculty: Dean Bob Hanson  explained that Tuck hires for rigorous scholarship, practical involvement, and teaching. He explicity and persuasively argued that the Bennis and O'Toole criticism of MBA education did not apply to Tuck.  Clearly the faculty is heavily  involved in practical business applications.

A few interesting stats from various presentations:

• 100% of Tuckie first years have internships.
• Tuck placed in the top ten for five  major rankings.
• 65% of Tuck ’04 were career changers.
• 70% of 2005 class had summer internships different from pre-MBA field.
• 50% of all interview slots go to people who bid for slots.  Companies must interview from this pool. (The other 50% is chosen by recruiters based on a review of student resumes.) 35% in this pool receive offers, which is less than the 50% chosen by the companies but a lot higher than -0-.

In a nutshell Tuck is very friendly to career changers. Plus the interview bidding system can boost the efforts  of career changers and international students who may have trouble getting their foot in the door of companies who prefer traditional applicants.

International students: The conference made a point of addressing the needs of international applicants since so many of the consultants were from outside the US. A typical Tuck class  has 30% of its students come from from outside the US and offers opportunity for study abroad  and consulting projects outside the U.S.  Still, the European consultants pointed out that for Europeans with European options, the international nature of Tuck was somewhat of a joke. However, the reality is that Tuck provides an American immersion experience which may appeal to certain international applicants willing to step outside their comfort zone and challenge themselves..

In almost all larger social settings with multiple ethnic groups, like a larger school or a school located in a larger city, there is a tendency  for people who speak the same language or come from the same country to form their own social group -- and stick to that group. That kind of isolating process almost can't happen at Tuck because it is so small. There is no "group" for most ethnicities.  If 30% of the class comes from outside the US, then 72 classmates are non-Americans. There simply can't be more than a handful from any one country. Furthermore, because Tuck is in a small town, the closest ethnic neighborhood is in Boston, two hours away.  Immersion in Tuck and an English-speaking environment is the result.

The program director said, "Tuck is the best school in the world for the right people." He's right, and clearly the same statement can be made about many schools. But if you are looking for a academically rigorous general management program, a tight-knit collaborative community during school, and an active, committed alumni network for the rest of your career, explore the Tuck option.