Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business has made a few changes to its MBA application for 2019-2020. However, the information applicants are expected to provide remains the same. Instead of the 4 short answer type questions and two 500-word essays earlier, applicants now must submit three, 300-word essays. Dartmouth Tuck is known for its comparatively small class size and close-knit community culture and the Tuck MBA essays, help the admissions committee in evaluating your fit for its program.
Here is an outline of the topics we will cover:
- Dartmouth Tuck MBA Application Deadlines
- Tuck MBA Application Essay Questions 2019-2020
- Tuck MBA Essay Analysis and Tips
Dartmouth Tuck MBA Application Deadlines
The following are the application deadlines for the Tuck School of Business a Dartmouth for its MBA program’s 2020 intake.
| Application Round | Application Deadline | Admissions Decision | Enrolment Decision and Deposit Due |
| Round 1 | October 7, 2019 | December 12, 2019 | February 17, 2020 |
| Round 2 | January 6, 2020 | March 12, 2020 | April 27, 2020 |
| Round 3 | March 30, 2020 | May 7, 2020 | May 29, 2020 |
Note: All applications are due by 5.00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
Tuck MBA Essay Questions 2019-2020
Applicants for the 2019-2020 intake must write 3 compulsory essays. Besides those, there is an optional essay and a reapplicant essay. Reapplicants must submit the three required essays along with the reapplicant essay. Every essay has a word limit of 300 words. Below are the questions:
| Dartmouth Tuck MBA Essay Questions 2019-2020 | Maximum Word Limit | |
| Essay 1 | Tuck students can articulate how the distinctive Tuck MBA will advance their aspirations. Why are you pursuing an MBA and why Tuck? | 300 words |
| Essay 2 | Tuck students recognize how their individuality adds to the fabric of Tuck. Tell us who you are. | 300 words |
| Essay 3 | 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. | 300 words |
| Optional Essay | Please provide any additional insight or information that you have not addressed elsewhere (e.g., atypical choice of evaluators, factors affecting academic performance, unexplained job gaps or changes). Complete this question only if you feel your candidacy is not fully represented by this application. | 300 words |
| Reapplicant Essay | How have you strengthened your candidacy since you last applied? Please reflect on how you have grown personally and professionally. | 300 words |
Tuck MBA Essay Analysis and Tips
Let’s now analyze each essay question and understand how to approach each of them.
Tuck MBA Essay 1
Tuck students can articulate how the distinctive Tuck MBA will advance their aspirations. Why are you pursuing an MBA and why Tuck? (300 words)
A quote from ‘Why Tuck’ section – “Our students’ leadership journey is yet another venue for applied learning, with experiential opportunities that foster the development of the aptitudes of wise leadership, including confident humility, empathy, and judgment, complementing the academic and reflective components of leadership development at Tuck.”
The applicant should reflect on the above Tuck vision before putting ink to this essay. Applicants should put forward one of the most critical and foundational ideas that drives you to do an MBA from Tuck. First, one should unpack what the Tuck school stands for, and if this is clear, you can succeed in writing how a Tuck MBA will help you in achieving these goals.
Why Tuck for your goals?
Let’s first see what Tuck imparts to its students. Tuck places emphasis on “Learning by doing” in their curriculum. First-year Project and TuckGo show how their students drive towards their goals from the first semester itself. The experiential learning gained from the Tuck MBA curriculum should be linked with your goals in your essay.
What are your goals?
The essay indirectly wants you to reflect short-term and long-term goals. The applicant can stick on to one’s post-MBA aspirations with emphasis on long-term goals making the short term goals a means to reach the long-term goals. In the Tuck MBA essay, the goals mentioned should directly relate to the values of the Tuck school, so that it will showcase how you are at the right place to progress and move ahead.
Tuck is a highly community-driven school and tends to look for unique characteristics in prospective students, so the essay should bring out this aspect all through by quoting the driving motivational factor to pursue this career.
Any theme that will directly strike the culture of Tuck school, which highlights inclusivity respecting differences and promoting the distinctive Tuck culture, is highly recommended. The school expressly says, “We believe that having a diversity of experiences, ideas, and dreams are essential for transformative learning and that community is something each of us must contribute to and strengthen.”
Most importantly one should respect the prescribed word limit of 300 words.
Tuck MBA Essay 2
Tuck students are aware of how their individuality adds to the fabric of Tuck. Tell us who you are and what you will contribute. (300 words)
Essay 2 directly indicates the qualities that they are seeking from each candidate. The essay being very general and subjective, the candidate is in a challenge to make it stand out. To bring the essay commendable, the candidate needs to look through what qualities the School is looking for. The applicant is given a quote below from the Tuck website, which will provide an idea of how to ink the Tuck essay 2.
“Our graduates are valued for their curiosity, creativity, and ability to work with others. This they learn here, in a supportive and trust-based community that encourages students to take risks…Tuck has long cultivated a collaborative learning community distinguished by our values to be personal, connected, and transformative. Our personalized support and trust enable students to challenge themselves more, leading to deeper, longer-lasting learning and growth. Friendships forged at Tuck last a lifetime “ – Tuck Community
Before you start creating your response to this essay prompt, you should understand what the admissions committee is looking for in your essay. First and foremost is how well you have researched about the Tuck Community and secondly how honestly you canvas yourself to fit into the community. The applicant should be aware of all distinguishing features of the Tuck Community. The Tuck school itself provides specific desired characteristics as guidelines for the candidates as its admission criteria such as:
- Being smart
- Being curious and challenge-driven
- being accomplished with results, progression, and endorsements to boot
- Being aware
- Being nice
Here the awareness that the school is seeking is how you connect your past experiences and present motivations with your future path and chart a course forward. One of the most distinctive characteristics is to be ‘nice’ and, the School elaborates in what sense one needs to be ‘nice,’ i.e. how you help each other and support the others. Tuck values emotional intelligence and compassion, so you must make sure to reflect these characters while you write Tuck MBA essay 2.
Tuck MBA Essay 3
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. (300 words)
Essay 3 is trying to see from each applicant how compassionate they can be in a competitive business world. Through this essay, the candidate is expected to portray certain qualities like healthy competition, at times compromising their convenience. This quality can be more clearly understood by reading the following lines
Tuck says – “The orientation to both do well and do good is one of the most enduring aspects of a Tuck education. As the global economy continues to become more dynamic and diverse, the call for wise, values-driven leaders—the kind of leaders Tuck creates—will continue to grow louder.”
Essay 3 will directly hit out to one of the desired characteristics of being “nice” sought by the school, and this is the best space that can illustrate this characteristic.
Tuck Optional Essay
Please provide any additional insight or information that you have not addressed elsewhere (e.g., atypical choice of evaluators, factors affecting academic performance, unexplained job gaps or changes). Complete this question only if you feel your candidacy is not fully represented by this application. (300 words)
This optional essay offers an excellent opportunity for applicants to present the insights or information they couldn’t include in any other part of the application.
Complete your entire Tuck application requirements before approaching this essay. Though it is optional, for applicants, this essay comes as a savior to convey crucial information which may impact the candidature. Use this space to address the areas of your concern in the application. Following are a few common reasons to submit an optional essay:
- A low GPA or GMAT score
- Explain gaps or a significant shift in your work experience
- Explaining your choice of recommenders
- Any relevant personal circumstances that have significantly influenced your application
Tuck Reapplicant Essay
To be completed by all reapplicants: How have you strengthened your candidacy since you last applied? Please reflect on how you have grown personally and professionally. (300 words)
The admissions committee is trying to understand how the applicant has improved upon his/her candidature since the last application. Reapplicants can use this essay to highlight any specific incidents, since the previous application, which can connect to Tuck’s desired characteristics.
Though this question, the admission committee is looking for the improvement in your profile, they want to assess how failure has changed your perspective and how differently you have prepared this time for the Tuck MBA admission.
Here are some additional articles that can help you with your Dartmouth Tuck MBA essays:
- 5 types of MBA essays explained with examples
- What is a good GMAT score for Dartmouth Tuck
- Dartmouth Tuck MBA – Class profile, employment report, notable alumni
- Tuck MBA admissions 2019 – 2020: ‘Nicer’ and favorable changes for applicants
- Top 10 Business Schools for Technology Careers
- Best Business Schools for Finance
