Dartmouth Tuck 2018-2019 MBA Deadlines

Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business is eliminating its ‘early action’ application round for MBA candidates this year and moving to just three rounds.

No less crucial, the school also is promising to speed up admission decisions. According to Luke Anthony Pena, executive director of Tuck admissions and financial aid, “one of the least enjoyable, most stressful parts” of applying to a business school is the wait. “I don’t want you waiting for your admissions decision any longer than necessary,” he says.

When he looked at the school’s admission rounds, Pena discovered that applicants who completed their applications for Tuck’s November deadline had to wait 100 full days to get a decision from the school. That was the longest wait of any round at any of Tuck’s peer schools.

“We can do better,” noted Pena. “We’re ‘sun setting’ the ‘applicant-unfriendly’ November round. We’ll now offer three admission rounds with more applicant-friendly turnaround times: one in late September, one in early January, and one in early April. We’re saying goodbye to the “Early Action” designation in our first round, which is no longer early and required a higher enrollment deposit from you.”

The upshot: For round one with a deadline of Sept. 24th, Tuck cut the wait time by more than 25% to 63 days to Dec. 6th. Last year, November candidates had to wait until Feb. 9th for a decision.

Tuck set a round two deadline of Jan. 7, with decisions on March 14th, while the round three and final deadline will be April 1st with a decision on May 9th.

Tuck’s 2018-2019 MBA Application Deadlines

Tuck Rounds	Application Deadline	Decisions	Deposit Due
Round One	September 24, 2018	December 6, 2018	February 22, 2019
Round Two	January 7, 2019	March 14, 2019	April 29, 2019
Round Three	April 1, 2019	May 9, 2019	May 31, 2019

TUCK LAST YEAR RECEIVED 2,610 APPLICATIONS FOR 293 SEATS

In the 2017-2018 admissions cycle, Tuck received 2,610 applications for the 293 seats available in the Class of 2021. The school accepted 601 candidates for an overall acceptance rate of 23.0%.

The mean GMAT score for the incoming class was 722, with a range of 620 to 780. The average undergraduate grade point average was 3.51, though the school enrolled one student with a GPA as low as 2.63 and another with a high of 3.99. Unlike many schools, Tuck will consider your highest quantitative and highest verbal scores, if you take multiple tests. The school will not, however, combine scores from different tests to create a new total score.

International students at Tuck averaged two points higher on the GMAT, with a mean 724. The average age of new entrants was 28.

ADVICE TO APPLICANTS FROM CLASS OF 2018 MBA GRADUATES:

“Put in the time to be able to answer ‘Why Tuck?’ Tuck is a tight-knit community and I would encourage applicants to think critically about why they want to spend two years of their lives engaging with the community directly and the rest of their lives engaging with the network broadly.” — Alen Amini, 2018 MBA graduate from Tuck

“Be authentic. Tuck’s mission is about wise leadership and that always starts with strong self-awareness and being unafraid to be vulnerable throughout your application process.” — Sravya Yeleswarapu, 2018 MBA graduate from Tuck now working for Amazon as a senior product manager

“Have a great story and a unifying theme, especially if you have an unconventional route to business school. I think every experience can be (and should be) tied together to explain your life, whether that is your value, hope, or a goal. Looking back, I initially didn’t think economics, biology and teaching were related at all – much less applicable to business or medicine – but now I can see that they all helped focus my interests in health care and the business of medicine. Coherently articulating how each of my very distinct experiences led me to pursue an MBA was extremely helpful in my application and deciding on which business school to attend.” — Ahra Cho, Class of 2019 MBA student at Tuck

“Your essays are going to be one of the most time-consuming parts of the application process, but also a valuable opportunity for your voice to come through. More than anything, it allowed me to do some deep introspection that helped refine and effectively articulate my story. Really take the time to be reflective before putting pen to paper. I would jot down random thoughts as they came to me throughout my day and build upon them in multiple edits. Be your whole authentic self as you create this narrative. I also found talking to Tuckies, both current students and alumni, to be helpful in terms of understanding the Tuck culture and how I would fit within it. If possible, do a school visit prior to choosing. Lastly, lean in on others to help provide honest feedback. I was lucky to have had a good friend read all my school essays who was able to let me know when I was starting to sound generic and losing my authentic voice. I also had Tuckies who were all so gracious in providing helpful feedback.” — Tayo Odusanya, Class of 2019 MBA student at Tuck

DON’T MISS: 2018-2019 MBA APPLICATION DEADLINES FOR LEADING BUSINESS SCHOOLSor FREE MBA INSIDER GUIDE TO DARTMOUTH’S TUCK SCHOOL OF BUSINESS