Under Pena’s leadership, Tuck has developed a very purposeful process focused on admitting people who meet its four criteria, summed up as: smart, nice, accomplished, and aware. The criteria match my understanding of the Tuck community, and also are relatively easy to grasp. Once Tuck established and defined these criteria, it designed its application process to unearth the qualities it is seeking in candidates.
For more information on the Tuck criteria and the application process, please review:
While most schools so far have made few or no changes to their applications this year, Tuck has made significant changes. Last year Tuck required two essays with a maximum length of 500 words. This year, it is asking for three required essays with a maximum length of 300 words. Essay questions #1 and #2 are entirely new. In addition, Tuck has done away with last year’s short-answer questions. The optional and reapplicant essay questions are unchanged.
My Dartmouth Tuck MBA essay tips are below in blue. Remember, concision is the name of the game.
Dartmouth Tuck MBA Application
Your essays are an opportunity to articulate your candidacy for Tuck. The best responses are clear, succinct, forthright, thoughtful, genuine, and so distinctly personal that only you could have written them. We expect that your essays are completely accurate and exclusively your own. Use of essay writing services violates Tuck’s admissions policies.
Tuck MBA Application 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)
What distinctive aspects of the Tuck MBA experience will help you realize your post-MBA goals? What motivates you to apply to Tuck and would compel you to accept an offer of admission? That’s really what they want to know. And those elements of the program need to be associated with your aspirations.
In terms of structuring a response, you can start with your aspirations, which should lead directly to your reasons for pursuing an MBA. Then show how Tuck is perfectly suited to propel you towards your vision of your future. Focus on the distinctive aspects of Tuck’s program.
Tuck MBA Application Essay #2
Tuck students recognize how their individuality adds to the fabric of Tuck. Tell us who you are. (300 words)
This is a big question with not a lot of words to answer it in.
Think about aspects of you and your life that reflect your individuality and aren’t reflected in other parts of the application or in other essays. Choose the most important elements and spotlight them in this essay.
There are so many different ways to approach the response that I’m not going to suggest a structure. I do urge you to think deeply about what makes you You. Also, deliberate carefully and select those experiences and attributes that you want to highlight for Tuck.
If your transcript and test score show you’re smart and your resume shows you’re accomplished, Essays #1 and #2 will show how aware you are.
Tuck MBA Application 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)
And this essay will address “niceness.” FYI: The “even when it is not convenient or easy” part was added this year.
This question asks you to provide one experience that shows you contributing and supporting someone else’s success. Your assistance could be on or off the job.
While Tuck hasn’t given a timeframe, I would recommend that you go back not more than two years and certainly not more than four years.
A CAR approach will work well here:
- Challenge both for you and the beneficiary
- Action
- Result
Keep it specific and concrete or you will blend in with others writing in generalities. Your empathetic, helpful response to the other party’s situation is key. Set the scene by describing the situation. How did you help the other party succeed? What were the challenges you both faced? What were the results?
Tuck MBA Application Essay #4 (Optional)
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)
If you have any of the elements mentioned in Tuck’s question, by all means, address them here. You do NOT want the admissions committee guessing or assuming wrongly when they come across something anomalous.
If you feel your application represents your candidacy well, don’t feel compelled to respond to the optional essay. If you believe, however, that your application is missing key elements of your story, then briefly include them here. If your application is missing critical context, succinctly add it here. Whether it’s a challenge that you’ve faced or a hardship overcome or another context for what you’ve achieved that will help the admissions committee appreciate your candidacy, include it.
But don’t waste their time with drivel or material that’s elsewhere in your application. Doing so would reveal a definite lack of judgment, and in Tuck terms, awareness.
Tuck MBA Application Essay #5 (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)
This is a straightforward MBA reapplication question. It is critical that every reapplicant be able to answer it for every school they are reapplying to: What has changed that would compel Tuck to admit you this year?
For expert guidance with your Dartmouth Tuck MBA application, check out Accepted’s MBA Application Packages, which include comprehensive guidance from an experienced admissions consultant. We’ve helped hundreds of applicants get accepted to Dartmouth Tuck’s MBA program and look forward to helping you too!
Dartmouth Tuck 2019-20 Application Deadlines
| Application Deadline | Decisions Released | |
| Round 1 | October 7, 2019 | December 12, 2019 |
| Round 2 | January 6, 2020 | March 12, 2020 |
| Round 3 | March 30, 2020 | May 7, 2020 |
| Round 1 Consortium* | October 15, 2019 | December 12, 2019 |
| Round 2 Consortium* | January 5, 2020 | March 12, 2020 |
Applications are due by 5:00pm EST
*Prospective students who are applying to Tuck through The Consortium will receive two decisions; one from Tuck regarding their admission decision and a second from the Consortium regarding their membership decision.
***Disclaimer: Information is subject to change. Please check with individual programs to verify the essay questions, instructions, and deadlines.***
By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted. Linda earned her bachelors and MBA at UCLA, and has been advising applicants since 1994 when she founded Accepted. Linda is the co-founder and first president of AIGAC. She has written or co-authored 13 e-books on the admissions process, and has been quoted by The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News, Poets & Quants, Bloomberg Businessweek, CBS News, and others. Linda is the host of Admissions Straight Talk, a podcast for graduate school applicants. Want an admissions expert help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!
Related Resources:
• Why MBA?, a free guide to writing about your MBA goals
• An Interview with Dartmouth Tuck’s Admissions Director, Luke Pena, a podcast episode
• 3 Tips for Showing Strengths in Your Application Essays
