myice

Tuck Representative, Off-Campus, Jan Round (waitlisted). MBAStarter (Published March 14, 2007)

My Tuck interview took place in Delhi sometime back.

Here's what I was asked:

If I were not to see your resume, what one thing would you take along if I send you to the moon or Mars? Then some discussion on what I answered.

What one word describes you the best?
What makes teams work? Some ques about teamwork v/s individual brilliance.
Questions about my experiences as a team lead.
What will your friends say if I ask them about your strengths? And weaknesses? Asked for examples on why I felt those to be my weaknesses.
My experiences in community service – what is one particular experience that you are proud of?
Why MBA?
Why Now?
Why Tuck?
Any questions you want to ask?
Tuck interview in India is a bit different from that of other schools. Tuck has appointed a dedicated representative for Asia, and he interviews prospective students across Singapore, Bangladesh, India, China etc. In the end, I was not too sure if this is a good idea. The representative is not a Tuck pass out, so I felt the interview lacked the vital ‘Tuck perspective’ that an alum would have provided me with. At the same time, I think it is better than a telephonic interview that is the norm for most US B-schools - in case no alumni is available.

Overall, it was pretty much a ‘textbook interview’. I came out with a feeling that there was still some information that I could have put across. A key question I wanted to address was why they should take me in Tuck. While I did weave in plenty of stories that would help him judge the answer to this question, there was still some stuff that I could have added. He did not ask me if I wanted to say something else, and I thought it wise to leave it at that.

myice

On-campus student interview, Early Decision Round for Fall 2007 (Published January 28, 2007)

My interview was with a second year student who was friendly and professional. The interview was relaxed and comfortable. The interviewer had a copy of my resume and was familiar with it. However, he was unfamiliar with my field, which meant I had to briefly explain my industry’s landscape and my position in it during the initial “walk me through your resume” question.

Additional questions:

What are your Post-MBA career goals?
Why MBA and why now?
Tuck is different than other schools, especially in terms of location, why do you think it’s the right school for you? (Read: Why Tuck?)
Q&A
The interview was brief approximately 35-40. Overall the interviewer was professional, warm and relaxed – a good experience. One caveat: virtually every student I spoke with at Tuck mentioned (in one way or another) that because of the workload and the small community’s emphasis on extra-curricular participation, first-years tend to get only 5-6 hours of sleep per night.

myice

Early Action Round (Class of 2009): AdCom Interview: Accepted (Published January 2007)

My interview was scheduled at 9:00 AM at the School. I was interviewed by an AdCom member and a trainee 2nd year student. The interviewers made me feel very comfortable. I was also helped by the fact that I approached it as a conversation rather than an interview. It was resume based and along the standard lines of "Walk me through the resume" , "Why Tuck" etc. We talked a bit about my extra-curricular activities too. I was asked a couple of questions on how my peers viewed me as a person. After that answer I was asked how did my friends view me as a person. The interviewers also tried to find out how I had researched Tuck, whether through alumni contacts/websites etc. [I had mainly researched the website]. The Post-MBA questions were very direct and I did everything short of naming the company I wanted to work for post MBA [or maybe I did name the company ]

It was a short interview. Barely stretched 20 minutes. But I was surprised at myself regarding the amount of information I was able to convey in that time I made sure that I got across concrete examples of all my qualities, activities and work experiences. It didnt really make that much of a difference that the interview was prior to the class visits.

Just make sure that you know exactly why you want to be at Tuck. Be sure of your career goals and be honest. It helps!

myice

Round 1, Second Year Student (Published November 26, 2006)

My interview experience with Tuck second year student:

He was very friendly and on the way to his office, we started talking about my working experience and the projects I have worked on. After we sat down, we continued this topic and I gave him a bunch of funny stories and interesting experience about my projects. Considering his real estate background, I explained my experience pretty well as I used few tech terms and he nodded with smile. After we finished with those fun information exchange, he asked the following questions:

go over your resume and talk about team experience you have
did you have experience dealing with a touch/uncooperative team member?
How did you motivate people?
What outdoor activities do you enjoy?
how I am going to deal with the current startup if into the MBA?
Q & A
I feel like Tuck emphasized a lot of team work but did not ask any leadership stories. So I told a team work story of my outdoor activity. Basically, I gave out four team work stories, cannot imagine I had that many in my mind. I think the interviewer did a good job relaxing me because I felt pretty good going over those stories.

Other experience at Tuck:

Took the business communication (writing) class, which is an interesting class. Lots of interactions and students even invited us to express our ideas for group discussion.
Talked with first year students during lunch and they like the place very much and the faculties and the classes. Seems the only issue is how to balance the lives of family members. Not many places to go and far from other cities. Especially the location in the mountains which makes it difficulty to drive in the foggy winter season.
tour of the campus was ok and what impressed was the dorm like places where it is easy to organize parties!

myice

Round 1, Second Year Student (Published October 2006)

My interview was at 3.00 p.m, the last one for the day. I reached Dartmouth in the morning and met with other candidates (around 10 of them). We were met by the first year students who took us to their "Leading Organizations" class which was lot of fun. Lunch with first years, where we asked them lots of questions, on admissions, life at Tuck, Tuck's rigorous Fall quarter. One thing that I noticed, from every one I met there, was that they love the life at Tuck, whether they came from a city or a town or a village. Lunch was followed by Tour of the campus with a stop at Career development office where we met one of the officers. It was amazing to know to what level the career development office tries to accommodate requests from students in terms of job or internship placements. Then we had a Adcom Q&A, which was again a Tuck style, very friendly and casual.

Then came the Interview. The interviewer was a second year who had amazing combination of work experiences in so many fields. At the same time he was very informed about the other areas which I was familiar with. The session was very casual. The interviewer had a copy of my resume and he seemed to have really read it thoroughly. These are the questions, almost in the same order he asked me,

He said he did not want to waste time asking about what I did in my companies, rather why I did and the flow of my choices of companies along the line.

He asked my why I would like to leave a job like I have( in a great organization) and do an MBA ? ( why MBA question) and why I cant do that doing what I currently do.
He asked me questions on what I answered and he really kept me engaged the whole time. But he did it in a very casual manner.
Then he asked me about my long term vision and had questions on its feasibility since he was involved in similar pursuits but in a different area. I did defend my vision but we agreed midpoint. Then he asked me a question on how exactly I have planned my short term goal in a way it will help my long term ? (Short term goals).
Then he asked me how Tuck would help me in my goals (Why Tuck).
He asked me if I am okay with the cruel Tuck winter and the snow. He also asked me if the rural setting was okay for me and my wife?
Finally he asked me if I had any questions. I had and he was very informative and really answered my questions in details.
During the whole time he was taking some notes and though I knew that is the usual procedure, in the end he apologized for doing so, which I thought was very sincere.

He walked me back to the Admissions office and gave me his card and asked me to call or email him with any questions,

myice

2005 Season, Round 2 Interview

My interviewer was a male second year student (formerly in the military) who was very friendly and did try to sell the school. We talked a lot about my work experience - and I did highlight the fact that I had worked with colleagues abroad, etc. We also talked a little about my China experience - he found the fact that I was in Beijing during the SARS epidemic quite interesting. (He lived in different countries in Asia so is more or less familiar with the place). We also talked a little bit about my hobbies.

He asked me the standard why mba/tuck/now, and finished with questions on what i thought my strengths and weaknesses were.

Overall I think I did very well. I kept an upbeat tone and after describing some "challenges" at work (like starting a Quality initiative) - he sounded impressed (said "wow" and that must have been hard, etc). I asked about his experiences at and opinions on Tuck - and he was very responsive and had a lot to say.

I had a very good feeling after the interview and he sounded like he enjoyed our conversation. So now I am just crossing my fingers and hoping for the best!

myice

16 Dec 2005 / Phone Interview with 2nd year student / Dec 6th round / International candidate / Dinged (Report filed on 26 Feb 2006)

It was a phone interview. The interviewer gave me the option to choose the date and time. There werent any unexpected questions. I was asked to start with a walkthrough of my resume, then the regular why MBA? and why Tuck? I probably touched everything within these three questions because I wasn't asked much else. It was very informal, conversation like. The interviewer made me comfortable.

He asked me if I had any questions and I asked him something related to the curriculum at Tuck. I think I rambled on a bit about my resume and thats probably what took the interview to 45 mins instead of the planned 30 mins. (and, in retrospect, maybe thats what killed my app too! But thats just an optimistic guess... It could have well been my essays or the need for further diversity on the campus.)

myice

Student

My early morning interview was fairly short – 20 minutes – the interviewer had to be somewhere else. She was a 2nd year and seemed to have a list of generic questions that she went through. The interview was totally blind as I hadn’t even submitted my application at the time. The first was “This is your first visit to Tuck and you haven’t had a chance to sit in on a class or take a school tour. How do you know that Tuck is the right place for you?” The remaining were:

Walk me through your resume
Why an MBA? Why now?
What are your short-term and long-term goals?
How will Tuck help you to achieve them?
What do you do outside work? What do you do for fun?
A couple of unusual questions were

What will you miss the most upon moving to Hanover?
What are you most proud of?
What is the worst part about working in teams?
At the end, she clearly asked me if I wanted to cover anything else that she hadn’t already asked, and I took the opportunity to highlight a couple of things that hadn’t already been covered. Given the length of your interview, your answers have to be very crisp.

There were only 2-3 minutes to ask questions at the end because she had to run off somewhere else. She actually said that living in the dorms could leave you with little privacy – I hadn’t expected her to say anything negative about the Tuck experience.

myice

Student, on-campus

My Tuck interview was the first one I did - probably not the best idea since it's pretty high on my list of choices. I had been to the Dartmouth campus a few times during undergrad, so I was familiar with the environment. There were about 15 others visiting the same day as I, and I realized quickly how tight the timeliness were for completing an interview.

As everyone else does, I interviewed with a 2nd year student. I was a bit nervous, but I think that's par for the course. Some of the good things:

Similar work background to my interviewer, so I didn't have to spend a ton of time explaining what I did.
Had lots of good answers for what I would do if I had a year off from school...I said I would write a fictional novel about a guy who leaves his job to travel through South America, discovers a hidden river deep in the rain forest, and opens a white-water rafting company there. I really would.
Answered the behavioral questions well...pretty much everything I do these days at work is managing people and expectations, so I feel confident that I've got some good instincts in this area.
I asked lots of questions about the program, and felt I showed that I had done my research - avoided the basics and got to the details of specific things I'm interested in.
Some of the things I've avoided since this interview:

Asking TOO MANY questions....at the end of the interview, I said I could go on forever asking questions. We were rushed leaving the room, and it felt a bit awkward. She almost forgot to give me a card. I thought a 30 minute slot was too short...I guess the author of Blink might disagree and say first impressions are the most important.
Mentioning that I'm excited to get out of the corporate "jungle" for a couple of years. Just a bad statement altogether. Not sure if that one will bite me.
Spending too much time on my resume. I realized about halfway through that I was giving too much detail...I tried to recover, but fear I glossed over some important recent achievements too quickly, while spending more time on my first position out of undergrad.
In summary, I don't think the interview is going to set me apart in any way, but I don't think it was a disaster. Probably a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10.

myice

Tuck Interview

Tuck interview was pretty straight forward, as mentioned on this site The questions included:

Walk me through your resume
What are your goals (long term and short term)
Why MBA, why now and why Tuck
Tell me about a time when you took lead in a team setting (the interviewer
mentioned that being a team player was very important at Tuck)

What do you do outside of work.
Any questions for me
I asked him how did they manage to get good professors given the remote location and the absence of a PhD program and I asked him what percent of spouses/ partners lived in Boston and how does that work for them.

One of undergrad friends is at Tuck and he answered most of my other concerns.

One interesting thing at Tuck was that the interviewer was from my city and had spent 7 years in the Venture Capital industry - makes me wonder if this was more than just a coincidence.