After seeing an HBS and CBS thread on their reflections on the first term of their MBA programs, I thought I'd do the same. Thank you to @dabears92 for the format that I'm using below.
1.) Recruiting a. MBB – As someone recruiting for consulting, this was my first concern and Tuck did not disappoint. McKinsey is interviewing 80, BCG is interviewing 80, and Bain is interviewing nearly 70. Given our class size of 280, this is pretty impressive. LEK and Parthenon are also taking huge numbers of Tuckies. In short, I think you’d be hard pressed to find another program equaling Tuck in terms of consulting placement. I know the class of 2015 has done incredibly well in terms of placement, but those results have not yet been released. However, over 21% of the 2014s went to MBB. Scary good results.
b. Investment banking – I am not recruiting for IBD, but the following is what I know / have witnessed. Approximately 40 people are (very similar to most years). In the past pretty much everyone who wanted to go into IBD did successfully. Nearly all of the BBs (GS, MS, JPM, Barclays, BAML, etc) recruit on-campus and classmates also are interviewing with elite boutiques like Evercore and Moelis. Additionally, a number of London positions are recruited for on campus, particularly Credit Suisse.
c. Private equity – We have a very active PE club and I know a number of classmates are pursuing that and a couple have had success thus far. But, I don’t really follow this. Hopefully if another Tuckie is around they can expand on this.
2.) Academics The academic workload has been greater than I expected, not necessarily in terms of how difficult it is, but more so the volume. That said, I have learned a fair bit and dusted off subjects I haven’t touched since my UG days. Additionally, one main complaint is the process of exempting classes is incredibly opaque and there seems to be little rhyme or reason to who gets exemptions for certain core classes.
3.) Community / Social
This is arguably Tuck’s greatest strength and what really enables the development of the famous Tuck network. I have experienced this via dinners with senior execs in VC, F500 companies, and partners at MBB and other consulting firms. Everyone really is ecstatic to hear from you and will get back to you within minutes or hours. The few who took more than 24 hours were literally apologetic about not getting back to me sooner. It is mind-blowing!
In terms of socials, we have two formals as well as tons of trips. This has ranged from Outward Bound and hiking pre-term trips, a Peru trip, Costa Rica pre-Christmas trip, and a half dozen ski days. Personally, I am looking forward to Winter Carnival in February, which is Tuck’s biggest social. I can’t wait!
4.) Campus I would put Tuck’s campus up against any other business school’s in terms of beauty (and convenience). The dorms are great and well appointed. There are gyms in the building as well as access to the bigger Dartmouth gym a few blocks away. One of my favorite things is walking around Tuck any time of day or night you will always run into friends, which really helps bind the community and the network I touched on above.
All in all I am exceedingly pleased with my decision to attend Tuck and I’m happy to answer any questions people may have!
