Meet Dartmouth Tuck’s MBA Class of 2018

Like Stanford and Wharton, Tuck carries the greatest appeal with students from a liberal arts background. 51% of the class majored in humanities and social sciences as undergrads, cementing Tuck’s status as the school for career changers. However, you won’t find the class quoting Ezra Pound and Michel Foucault in the hallways. Another 26% hold degrees in STEM-related fields, with business and finance accounting for the remaining 23% of the class.

By the same token, the highest concentration of the class worked in consulting at 20%, down four points from the previous year. Financial services and real estate (18%), investment banking and private equity (12%), government, military, and nonprofit (11%), consumer goods (9%), and technology (9%) also make up large portions of the incoming class. The biggest gain was made in financial services (+3%), with government, military, and nonprofit experiencing the biggest drop (-7%) over the previous class.

The Class of 2018 couldn’t be walking into a better situation, either. The indicators are all pointing up at the school, with the Class of 2015 reporting median starting packages at $146,020, up $8,300 over the previous year. Better yet, 99% of the class enjoyed job offers within three months of graduation. Despite the supposed disadvantages of Tuck’s rural setting, it hasn’t hampered recruiting, with the largest number of internship for the 2016 Class coming at McKinsey, Amazon, and Bain & Company.

“I HAVE YET TO HAVE A TUCKIE NOT RETURN MY COLD CALL OR COLD EMAILS”

Still, the big paychecks can wait. Tuckies are invested in the here-and-now, in joining a tight-knit cohort that’s so elusive in the real world. 285 members strong, the 2018 Class is a relatively small class. That’s part of the program’s charm, where full-time students are the exclusive focus of the program. In fact, the majority of students live together in dorms, further fueling the students’ camaraderie and closeness. “The top reason for choosing Tuck was the class size,” Muyambi says. “I wanted a place with a family-like feel and by visiting the school and talking to alumni, it was clear Tuck was the place to be. Even non-Tuck MBAs marvel at how close Tuckies are.”

If anything, Tuckies are supportive. That was critical for Gordon, who’s pursuing a non-traditional path that combines tech, frontier markets and venture capital. At Tuck, she realized that she would never be alone in chasing her dream. “Even as a prospective student, Tuckies went out of their way to connect me to people in the network that could offer insight on my interests,” she points out. “While visiting Tuck, staff and students alike gave me concrete suggestions and examples of other Tuckies who had carved their own unique career paths and leveraged Tuck’s resources and connections to explore entrepreneurship and build meaningful relationships and experiences at start-ups and in private equity and venture capital.”

Part of this can be attributed to the active involvement of Tuck alumni at the school. While they number less than 10,000 graduates, Tuck alums are ‘quality over quantity’ incarnate. For one, over three-quarters of alumni find their way into the c-suite within 20 years of graduation. For another, they are the school’s biggest advocates, with 70% making a gift to the annual fund — a rate nearly three times higher than most peer schools. This 1-2 punch of stature and access is nearly impossible to beat. “I have yet to have a Tuckie not return my “cold call” or “cold emails,” quips Xie.

In fact, you could bill Tuck as Harvard-comes-to-Hanover. Both Ivies boast a rigorous general management curriculum where students walk lock-step through core courses under the guidance of superstar professors. Here, a global mindset is the end, with the case method and experiential learning often the means. The difference is scale — major metro vs. college town and vast vs. intimate — and everything that comes with each. One of those is a pride in who and where you are. That’s exactly what

Greatorex experienced during her campus visit. “My husband summed it up nicely when he said he has never been to a place where everybody was so happy and excited to be right where they were.”

A TUCKIE TECHIE IN THE EMERGING MARKETS

Two months in, you’ll find many Tuckies still wrestling with what they want to do after graduation. Count Greatorex among them. She arrived at Tuck focused on making her mark at energy. Sure enough, the MBA experience has a funny of reshuffling first years’ passions. “I have recently discovered non-profit crisis management and that feels powerful, so I plan to tug on those strings and see where they lead,” she shares. “I expect I will discover new paths and careers thanks to my peers. Right now I am keeping my eyes open and my nose to the grindstone.”

Others have held firm to what brought them to New Hampshire. Davis, for one, plans to enlist in an investment firm that specializes in the resort and hospitality industry, combining his operational experience in the ski industry with his love of outdoor activities. In contrast, Gordon pictures a career where she’ll use technology as a vehicle to foster “sustainable wealth in communities that have been previously isolated from economic opportunity and are highly vulnerable to market volatility.”

“My goal is to build great technology companies in underserved regions, activating markets in a way that transforms the lives of everyday people,” she explains. “I have been fortunate enough to get a taste of my dream job this summer through a pre-MBA internship at venture capital firm in Lagos, Nigeria that invests throughout Africa (One of the principals of the firm is a Tuckie). My dream job post-MBA would be to continue this kind of work via a role at a company that touches emerging markets, ideally where I am investing in and coaching innovative entrepreneurs or bringing high impact technology products to market.”

GREATOREX HOPES TO MAKE THE CLASS “TUCKIER” FOR EVERYONE

When it comes to what they want their classmates to think of them by after graduation, there was a pretty strong consensus: They want to be remembered as Tuckies. Ghana’s Richard Asala, who earned his electrical engineering degree at Dartmouth, would like to be known for getting work done — and everyone having fun in the process. Michael Blanc, an airport manager in his Perú, hopes his classmates recall how he listened and lent a hand, while Fuentebella wishes to pay it forward to future Tuckies.

On the other hand, Muyambi’s selection of Tuck may have been preordained. His name means “helper” in his native Runyankole tongue. “Given the fact that being helpful to others is engrained in the Tuck fabric, all I have to do is follow my Tuck instincts. In part this is to follow in the footsteps of current and past Tuckies who go far and beyond for others when they don’t have to.”

The same could be said for Greatorex, whose first name translates to “sunny” in Croatian. “I want my peers to feel that I was there for them and helpful when they needed me. I want them to say I delivered an excellent product on time, every time. I want to leave knowing that I gave as much as I received or more. Somehow I want to know that me being there made their Tuck experience that much Tuckier.”

DON’T MISS: THE STEREOTYPE-DEFYING MBAS IN THE CLASS OF 2018 OR MEET DARTMOUTH TUCK’S MBA CLASS OF 2017

To read profiles of incoming Tuck students — along with their advice on tackling the GMAT, applications, and interviews — click on the links below.

Richard Asala / Accra, Ghana

Michael Blanc / Lima, Perú

H. Holland Davis / Bozeman, MT

Ramon Fuentebella / Naga City, Philippines

Jodine K. Gordon / Teaneck, NJ

Vedrana B. Greatorex / Zagreb, Croatia

Daniel Marquez / Medellin, Antioquia, Colombia

Muyambi Muyambi / Rukungiri, Uganda

Rachel Phillips / Oklahoma City, OK   

Chethan Rao / San Jose, CA

Erica Toews / Los Angeles, CA

Stephiney Y. Xie / Long Island, NY