New Record GMAT Average For Dartmouth Tuck MBA Class Of 2023

This time last year, when Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business released its MBA class profile, all the talk was about how the school was poised to become the first Ivy and first B-school in the top 10 to achieve gender parity. Tuck’s 49% placed the Hanover, New Hampshire school on the verge of history.

A year later, and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania has stolen the thunder by reporting 52% women in its incoming MBA class. Nevertheless Tuck, which released its class profile today (August 23), maintained its status as a place where women are on almost equal footing with their male colleagues and saw big improvements in other key areas.

Dartmouth’s MBA Class of 2023 will be 46% women, making Tuck one of the very few schools where such an impressive total is a decline from a previous mark. Still, 46% is likely to be a higher proportion than most of the other top-25 schools, barring huge improvements in this fall’s numbers. Meanwhile, the school set a new record in average Graduate Management Admission Test score with 724, up big from 720 last year and a point better than the school’s previous record set in 2019; Tuck also tied its previous record Graduate Record Exam average score of 324, thanks to an uptick in Verbal average and a new record Quant average. The class also set a new school record for grade point average with 3.54, up from 3.48 in the Class of 2021. See details below.

ADVANCED DEGREE HOLDERS IN CLASS DECLINE FROM 16% TO 11%

Tuck, which enrolled its biggest class ever at 294 students (up from last year's 289), got a little less diverse, however, based on its U.S. minorities in the new class: As a percentage of all students, the total declined from 22% to 21%; as a percentage of all U.S. students, it dropped to 29% from 32%. International representation grew to 41% from 37%, but the number of countries represented by citizenship dropped to 35 from 47.

In terms of background, the number of undergraduate majors declined from 75 to 72, with most once again coming from the arts/humanities (45%, down from 49%), with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degree holders flat at 28% and business degree holders growing slightly to 27% from 23%.

The number of advanced degree holders in the class declined from 16% last year to 11% this year.

“We’ve enrolled a class of engaged and impactful students with a proven track record of academic excellence,” says Pat Harrison, Tuck’s co-executive director of admissions and financial aid. “These are students who are excited by challenges and motivated to learn from others. They’re an accomplished and ambitious group.”

FINANCE BACKGROUNDS DROP 5 PERCENTAGE POINTS

In the fall of 2020, incoming Tuck MBA students hailed from 230 unique employers and boasted 63 months’ professional experience. This fall, the number of unique employers slipped to 227 but the amount of professional experience grew to 65 months, nearly 5 1/2 years.

Last year, 30% of new MBA students arrived in Hanover with partners, and 4% came to campus with children in tow; this year, students with partners declined to 25% while students with kids stayed at 4%. In a first, Tuck this year has reported the percentage of LGBTQ MBA students: 6%. In another first, the school reports the percentage of those who are the first in their family to graduate from a four-year college or university at 16%.

The biggest group in the Class of 2021 that arrived at Tuck last year came from financial services backgrounds (25%), followed by consulting (24%), nonprofit/government (15%), and tech (9%). Seven percent hailed from the consumer goods/retail sector, while 5% came from healthcare/pharma/biotech, and 5% from media and entertainment. In the Class of 2023, the order for the top four is consulting (25%), finance (20%), technology (14%), nonprofit/government (9%), consumer goods/retail (8%), "other" (7%), healthcare/pharma/biotech (6%), energy (5%), media/entertainment (3%), and manufacturing (2%).

“Every T’23 has brought a different set of experiences with them to Tuck—experiences that have shaped who they are and their character,” says Amy Mitson, co-executive director of admissions and financial aid. “The diversity and range of these experiences offer Tuck students a tremendous opportunity to learn from and encourage one another. We can’t wait to see the impact each student has on the community.”

DON'T MISS DARTMOUTH TUCK STANDS ON THE PRECIPICE OF GENDER PARITY and VIRUS CAN'T SLOW RISE OF DARTMOUTH TUCK MBA SALARIES