2017 MBA Essay Questions: Dartmouth Tuck

Two essays, 500 words each, maybe a little longer for the first one. Here’s the blog post where the Tuck adcom announced them in early July :

1. What are your short and long-term goals? Why do you need an MBA to achieve those goals? Why are you interested in Tuck specifically? oh they switched it! HERE IS THE **ACTUAL** CLASS OF 2019 ESSAY 1! Tuck educates wise leaders who better the world of business. What are your short- and long-term goals? How will a Tuck MBA enable you to become a wise leader with global impact? up to 700 words

   Tuck has always cared about career goals as an important element of your application, yet this year they’ve thrown a twist into the works. The best way to write this is to show how you’ve done something in the past, that you can build on through the Tuck MBA. Try not to overhype it though!

2. As a diverse and global community, our students arrive at the same place from many different paths. Tell us about an experience in which you have had to live, learn and/or work with other people very different from yourself. What challenges and/or opportunities did you experience, how did you respond, and what did you learn about yourself as a result? – interesting – this is somewhat similar to what INSEAD tends to ask (some overlap there if you’re targeting both schools) – it’s also very flexible in that the “different from yourself” angle could be applied in myriad ways (just be sure to notice the “very” part; this is asking for a story where you had to deal with things in a new way because of your differences!)

We can tell you, Brave Supplicant, that these essays will take work, but you’re going to have a real opportunity to share something significant through both of them.

There’s also an optional essay (which is truly optional), and a separate reapplicant essay if you’re trying again.

The 2016 Tuck MBA Application Guide is going to be pretty valuable if you’re trying to deal with the complexity of the questions that Tuck is asking this year. Talks in depth about a variety of strategies to show “global impact” with your goals, and also the second question about dealing with people who are different from you. Tuck did not pull the punch on the questions for the Class of 2019 application!

 
[end discussion of last year’s questions]

As we expected, the 2015 essays are nearly identical to what was asked in 2014, except now they’re making the “school fit” angles more explicit. Lucky you – because these are great questions to show the strengths of your profile! You can see this year’s version and what’s changed here:

Two essays, 500 words each:

1. Why is an MBA a critical next step toward your short- and long-term career goals? Why is Tuck the best MBA fit for you and your goals and why are you the best fit for Tuck? What are your short- and long-term goals? Why do you need an MBA to achieve those goals? Why are you interested in Tuck specifically?
2. Tell us about your most meaningful leadership experience and what role you played. What did you learn about your own individual strengths and weaknesses through this experience? How will that experience contribute to the learning environment at Tuck?

Tuck has always cared about career goals as an important element of your application, and they changed the wording this year from what they had previously – and now this is a great career goals question! one of the best of all the schools that ask about goals these days.

There’s also two other essays available for certain circumstances: one, if you’re a reapplicant, and two, if you have other things you must share with the adcom in explanation of details on your app. The optional essay is only to be used if you really need it. Don’t feel compelled to submit one simply because it’s there. That would be a strategic misstep.

The career goals question is really asking for the same thing as they have always wanted to know about. They’ve simplified the way they’re asking for it, in ways which we feel are very applicant-friendly. It’s going to be easier for you to handle this based on those subparts than it was for some BSers last year.

In 2014, Tuck stuck to its guns and kept its own recommendations; this school did NOT have standardized recommendation questions last year. This was, frankly, an advantage to applicants, in our opinion. We don’t yet have word on what they will do in 2015 though we hope they’ll keep that status quo.

 
[end discussion of 2015 questions]

2014 Essays – EssaySnark’s Analysis

2014 Essay Questions on Tuck’s blog

The 2014 essays are the same as 2013, just fewer!

Two essays, 500 words each:

1. Why is an MBA a critical next step toward your short- and long-term career goals? Why is Tuck the best MBA fit for you and your goals and why are you the best fit for Tuck?
2. Tell us about your most meaningful leadership experience and what role you played. What did you learn about your own individual strengths and weaknesses through this experience?

There’s also an optional essay, and a separate reapplicant essay if you’re trying again.

In question #1, they added the phrase “and your goals” to the “fit” part of the question.

The other key change from last year? Besides the fact that they lopped off one entire essay from the set?

They deleted the word “collaborative” from the second essay question. This was a one-year addition (only asked in 2013; see below) where they wanted an example of a “collaborative leadership experience.” Now it’s just your “most meaningful” one – without the teamwork element. This distinction is important. We go into detail on this in our 2014 Tuck MBA essay guide.

The only other change seems to be that they’ve standardized with other schools in ditching the “Confidential Statement of Qualifications” moniker and instead are now calling recs what they are: “Letters of Recommendation.” They’re still confidential, unless you opt otherwise, and it would still help you to keep that focus on “qualifications” throughout your application. Again, this is discussed in the new Tuck strategy guide. Thankfully Tuck hasn’t “standardized” the rest of their recommendations process the way many of their peers have.

Tip: Tuck has a separate application process for their scholarships, with an additional essay and deadlines shortly after the standard round deadline. We have a QuickSnark Guide for the Tuck Scholarship Essay that you can pick up when you’re ready to tackle that.

9/17/14: They ditched the separate scholarship essay!

In terms of deadlines: 2014 was essentially the same as they had in 2013 except that they moved the January 2015 due date to the first Monday after the New Year, which is a relief; in January 2014, they had apps due on the Friday when everyone was still in holiday vacation-mode.

[end discussion of 2014 questions]

2013 Essays – EssaySnark’s Analysis

These are REALLY OLD.

They give you 500 words each – woo-hoo!

Three essays plus an optional (don’t do the optional unless you have a very good reason):

1. Why is an MBA a critical next step toward your short- and long-term career goals? Why is Tuck the best MBA fit for you and your goals and why are you the best fit for Tuck?
2. Tell us about your most meaningful collaborative leadership experience and what role you played. What did you learn about your own individual strengths and weaknesses through this experience?
3. Describe a circumstance in your life in which you faced adversity, failure, or setback. What actions did you take as a result and what did you learn from this experience?

Great questions! Not too different! Classic Tuck! And they give you some room to actually answer them. These should be easy for you. You may even want to do your Tuck application FIRST of all your schools; this will be a good way to learn the ropes on what it takes to write a strong pitch. (We had heard rumors that Tuck was doing a video essay this year… doesn’t seem to be the case.)

[end discussion of 2013 questions]

2012 Essays – these are SERIOUSLY REALLY OLD

Three essays:

1. Why is an MBA a critical next step toward your short- and long-term career goals? Why is Tuck the best MBA program for you, and what will you uniquely contribute to the community? (We’re betting they keep this question again this year.)
2. Discuss your most meaningful leadership experience. What did you learn about your own individual strengths and weaknesses through this experience?
3. Describe a circumstance in your life in which you faced adversity, failure, or setback. What actions did you take as a result and what did you learn from this experience?

[end discussion of 2012 questions]