Attending Tuck @ Dartmouth in the fall, after being waitlisted. Ask me anything (Q&A))

whattherock:

what's your thought about networking from Hanover - What are some of your networking strategies?

As I was looking at schools, I thought about this too. A big piece of what resulted in my feeling more comfortable, as well as applying only to Tuck, was the fact that the students at Tuck (and grads) acted as though they had a genuine interest in helping me out. I actually was thinking, "all of these Tuck people are absurdly nice, what's the deal?" In other words, that added an additional level of comfort in any grads returning my call, when I am networking. Regarding future interactions with people from other schools, I noticed that everyone that I spoke to from other schools had great things to say about Tuck and students from Tuck.

Also, I have heard good things about the career coaches, and them being very aware of any career goals that you communicate to them. Also, I could have more of a unique view, because my internship, at the beginning of my career, was the result of many phone calls.

I am aware that many of the above atteibutes exist in other programs as well, they just felt most comfortable, for me, at Tuck. Hope that helps.

BleedingBlue:

How was your undergrad GPA and how big of a factor do you think it was the admissions process at Tuck. Thanks a lot for doing this btw.

Sure thing. Going through the process, I spent so much time reading forums to see experiences that people provided about applying to bschool, so I'm more than happy to provide the same.

I first went to a state college, and my undergrad GPA was terrible freshman and sophomore year. After Sophomore year, I transferred to a new school, also a state school, that few people have heard of, if they have not lived in that state. I think I had a 3.7 average Junior and Senior year, and also worked about 20 hours a week. I used my optional essay to discuss the GPA.

It is interesting that you asked this question because I only wanted to do a full-time program if it was top 15, but thought it would never happen because of the horrible undergrad gpa. It was in the back of my head, in a bad way, while I studied for the GMAT and went through the application process. Looking back, my advice would be to never not put everything into an application because you think you are completely lacking in one or two areas of your background.

If there is something specific about your undergrad that is worrying you feel free to elaborate.

Hope that helped.

larry david:

Pre-MBA experience?

First insurance, then pensions.

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dutchduke:

This is cracking me up

Lol. I'm finding that I keep checking in on my own post just to see the things said. Although, now I have the term "demigod" stuck in my head.

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DUDE! Just what I was thinking haha

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Someone should send this thread to the Dartmouth adcom.

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Angus Macgyver:

Congratulations. I applied to Tuck as well, but decided to attend another school that isn't in quite as remote a location. All of the Tuckies who I met during the process were nothing less than exceptionally warm, and I'm sure you'll have a great time.

Thanks man! Congrats on your acceptance to the other scool as well; it'seems always nice to have choices.

itsanumbersgame:

Congrats. Two questions that tie together. How long did your application take, including all components (resume, letters, GMATprep, essays, etc...) - please include months and if you're feeling super helpful, your estimate of total hours. What was most helpful in increasing your gmat score from 690 to 760, and how long would you estimate that took? Your responses are much appreciated! Thanks, LOB.

Now, that's a beefy question. I am going to try to think through it while I type and maybe that will give you an idea of hours; I will say, in advance, that I put many many hours into it. I am by no means a great test taker, nor am I an amazing essay writer.

1) -I first spent a couple of months looking at programs.
-Jan 2015: Started studying GMAT. March 2015: Started emailing and setting up calls with students at possible schools, in order to network and get info/advice. That took up a good bit of time, because I always made sure I knew all about each school and had notes allover my kitchen table so that I didn't seem clueless on the calls. Resulted in multiple unsolicited recommendations from current students to admissions. Let's say, on calls and networking, I spent maybe 30-50 hours. -April 2015: Took first GMAT and got the 690. Let's say on that first attempt, I spent maybe 150-200 hours. Note: I would study a lot after work and my mind had trouble focusing, so the hours weren't "hard" study. -June 2015: Took GMAT again. Got the 700, but IR went up to an 8. I wasn't too happy. July 2015: Decided to stick with my 700 and started the application. Essays and application, I spent around 300 hours. I did tons of re-edits. At one point I even started from scratch on one that was completed. My resume, I spent weekend tweaking and seeing if dfferent people I know could follow it, because it was not in common enough language. -September 2015: I went to interview. I gathered a huge list of potential questions for the interview and made sure that I could answer any of them. Oct 2015: Submitted app. Dec 2015: Notified I was wait-listed. Feb 2016: Asked for feedback, and was told my 700 GMAT was slightly below their average of 717. I knew I didn't want to go through all this again next year, so used mostly all of my free time, until May, to study. Time estimate is tough. I had thrown all of my GMAT stuff away and not seen any material for 6 months. I probaby spent more time than the first two attempts combined. May 2016: Took GMAT and got 760 and max score on essay. June 2016: A few days after official scores were released, got accepted from waitlist.

Let me know if that helps for your first question.

so1id:

How did you study for the GMAT on your third attempt?

3rd attempt I studied more than either of the first two. As far as time, I studied for about 4 months and used most all of my free time on it (evenings, after work, most Friday nights, weekends).

Quant: I would say the GMAT Club website's study guide is what helped most on the attempt, along with questions people post on the site's forum. I made sure that I understood every bit of the study guide (it's a MUCH tougher study guide than OG and MGMAT, so it can be discouraging), then did the 2 larger sets of very difficult problems that are put together by the same guy who made the guide. (I think his name on the forumarket iso Bunuel). Those destroyed my confidence at the time, but others told be to expect that, so I proceeded. I then went on the forums and would do searches on the types of problems that were an issue for me and would only look at the most difficult ones; I did hundreds of those. I also just searched for random very difficult rated ones. For the last week, for quant, I reviewed notes and took two or three quant CAT's a day (ones made by GMAT company).

Verbal: For SC, the big thing that helped was going on the same site I mentioned above and looking at as many very hard questions as possible). I did hundreds of very hard rated questions on those forums. I was already pretty good at SC from the first two attempts though. I have way less to say for verbal, cuz my 3rd attempt was really focused on improving quant.

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ExcelMasterFlex:

You seem to be a bit younger than the average mba student and thus I suspect you have less work experience (I think Tuck lists their average WE as 5 years). How did you overcome this? Did admissions/interviewers mention this? Did you address this in your essays?

I am not so sure the high GMAT cancelled out my being younger. I say that because, when I got feedback (when I had the 700 and was on the waitlist), they saw no issue with my work experience. The 5 years sounds correct, because the Tuck application actually went out of its way to say that it encourages applicants to have "at least" 5 years when they apply. I have indeed been out of college for three years. Here are the things I intentionally did to help:

1) I made it clear that I communicate I am 100% confident in what I plan to do after bschool. I think people get caught up not being "completely sure." Decide what you MOST want to do after school and communicate throughout the application your plan to do it. I would hesitate to mention multiple possible plans that you have. Plenty of people end up going into something different once they attend bschool. "1" is important because it leads into "2."

2) Make it clear, that you need to go to bschool NOW, that you have everything in "1" planned out and the next step is an mba, so there is no doubt that this is the year you need to go. Be direct and explain why. A good portion of one of my essays built up, with concrete reasoning, why this is the year I need to go. Be sincere. My best analogy is to paint a picture of your past/future professional journey, with your mba being the bridge to connect you to the next stage; you are at the cliff's edge RIGHT NOW!!! I trully believed that this is the right time for me to get my mba, so I just wanted the reader to also think, "wow, this guy needs his mba asap to achieve these plans.

3) Don't identify less work experience as a weakness. Just build up all that you have.

4) Build up work experience you had prior to graduating. I started as an intern in insurance product pricing (heavy math) the summer immediately before my freshman year of college. I did that job during summers all four years of college. I also did that job for 20 hours a weak during my Junior and senior year of college. So, I made sure to point out all the work I did before graduating.

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