Meet Dartmouth Tuck’s MBA Class Of 2024

INTERVIEWS WITH TUCK LEADERSHIP

Along with Dean Slaughter, P&Q also reached to two members of Tuck’s leadership team: Lawrence Mur’ray, Executive Director, Admissions and Financial Aid, and Dia Draper, Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Here are their thoughts on areas like underrated aspects of the program and signature program experiences.

P&Q: If you were giving a campus tour, what is the first place you’d take an MBA applicant? Why is that so important to the MBA experience?

LM: “Stell Hall—named after Julia Stell, the wife of Tuck’s founder Edward Tuck—is the heart of the Tuck campus in many ways. Tuck’s two-year MBA program is truly residential, and you’ll often find students, faculty, school leaders, and staff collaborating and connecting in Stell throughout the academic year. Not only is the room stunning with its ornate features, but you can also feel the weight of history and tradition within its walls. Thousands of remarkable students and hundreds of brilliant professors have spent hours in its chairs and at its tables, scouring textbooks in preparation for a final exam or on the couches brainstorming new business ideas. Each time you walk through Stell, it is brimming with an unmistakably Tuck energy. It’s hard for any one place to serve as the example of an entire institution, but Stell offers an excellent microcosm of the Tuck experience.”

P&Q: What is the most underrated part of your program that you wish students knew more about? How does that make your graduates more valuable to prospective employers?

LM: “Our location in Hanover, New Hampshire, a quintessential New England college town. I sometimes hear prospective students conflate a school’s geographic location with employment outcomes. They think that to get a post-MBA job in a specific city—finance in New York or tech in the Bay Area, for example—they must go to business school in that city. This could not be further from the truth, and Tuck’s employment results continually prove it.

Tuck’s setting offers a massive advantage for students and their career journeys. This is in part because of the intentionality that our location creates around reflection and recruiting—top firms come to you at Tuck and usually for a day or longer, giving students ample time to connect with potential employers. Our location also helps students build deep relationships with one another and bond with a global network of alumni who are extraordinarily distinguished, loyal, and supportive.

No one ends up in Hanover by accident. Students come to Tuck to for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. For two years, they learn and grow in a community that is “all in” and highly engaged, surround themselves with the beauty (and recreation!) of the Green and White Mountains, and graduate primed to succeed on a transformative career path.

The connections and interpersonal skills fostered by Tuck’s environment pay dividends when students reenter the workforce, too. We often hear from recruiters that Tuck students are excellent at working in and leading teams. This can be attributed to our location, our size, and a curriculum that emphasizes collaboration. With roughly 285 MBA candidates in each class, Tuck students can get to know their classmates in ways that are not possible at larger programs. This allows students to co-create a community that fosters inclusion and growth in an encouraging environment. They quickly grasp the value of diverse perspectives and the benefit of considering multiple stakeholders. They learn how to constructively disagree and create trust-based, no-fear-of-conflict teams that navigate difficult conversations and decisions with empathy and respect. All of this adds up to a suite of soft skills that, when matched with their top-notch hard skills, make Tuck graduates the type of decisive leaders that every firm needs.”

P&Q: What have MBAs told you is the most memorable, signature experience they’ve had in your program? Why did it resonate so much with them?

DD: “Many prospective students are drawn to Tuck for its supportive and close-knit community—and for good reason. At Tuck, community building is intentional and begins the moment students enroll, if not before. From the minute first-years arrive on campus, they are placed in study groups that are carefully curated to ensure a diversity of backgrounds and experiences among members of the group. Students recognize early on that every perspective, including their own, is valid and that you can learn just as much from your fellow student as you can from the professor at the head of the class.

Community is then fostered through time-honored traditions like Small Group Dinners and, perhaps the favorite event among the student body, TuckTalks. A night of storytelling featuring members of the Tuck community sharing the experiences, relationships and/or passions that have shaped their perspective and given them purpose, TuckTalks is an opportunity for Tuck students and community members to be vulnerable within a safe space. The event is held three times each academic year and every single one is a standing-room only affair.

The thread through each of the many signature experiences and events, is that students engage and co-create these special moments, and many of them are the best kinds of tradition—inclusive, adaptable, and student-led.”

P&Q: Where are some of your students’ favorite hang-outs in the Hanover area? What do they do and why do they gravitate there?

DD: “Tuck students are certainly well-known within the Hanover community, particularly at Murphy’s on the Green which has been a local haunt for Tuck classes going back decades. But the most special aspect of going to school in a place like Hanover is the access to the incredible outdoors and Tuck students make the most of their time in northern New England. You can often find students hiking up Mount Cardigan or traversing Mink Brook trail, arguably the most popular in Hanover, which is accessible to wheelchairs and strollers. Students enjoy skiing (or learning) at the Dartmouth Skiway or Whaleback Mountain, and on beautiful, clear, starry nights they can often be found enjoying the many Adirondack chairs and firepits around the Tuck and Dartmouth campus.

Exploring the outdoor splendor that New Hampshire and Vermont have to offer is often at the top of student bucket lists, and there is no shortage of great options within minutes of the Tuck campus.”

10 REASONS TO CONSIDER DARTMOUTH TUCK

1) Small Class Size: “I chose Tuck because the small class size and abundant resources gives Tuck an unmatched ratio of resources-to-students. The full-time MBA program is the only MBA program offered by Tuck, which means the faculty and staff are more accessible and focused on creating a positive experience for a smaller cohort. The location in small-town New Hampshire also helps create a tight-knit class with relationships that last long after our two years at Tuck.”
Adrian Heneveld (’24)

2) MBA Only: “It was the fact that this business school invests all its resources into the full-time MBA program. From the classrooms to the living situations (dorms, graduate housing in Sachem Village, and everything in between), this is a place that invites brilliant minds to fully dedicate two years to the program.”
D’Najah Picou (’24)

3) Entrepreneurship: “Given my goal of entrepreneurship, I believe that Tuck’s Center for Entrepreneurship is well-positioned to support me in building the skills necessary to be a founder. I’m especially excited by the opportunity to utilize my classmates’ perspectives and skills during class to pursue a startup idea as part of the ETHINK (Entrepreneurial Thinking) and eFYP (Entrepreneurship First-Year Project) courses.”
Analisse Marquez (’24)

4) Tuck Culture: “Humans are pack animals, and I firmly believe that the most important thing we do in our life is create and foster relationships with others. When I was looking at business schools, I knew it would be important for me to find a community where I could find my pack, give back as much as I received, and feel supported while trying new things, taking risks, and enjoying opportunities that MBA programs provide. As an undergrad at Dartmouth, I remembered seeing Tuckies around Hanover and thinking “Wow, they are all so old and seem to like each other so much.” While I now take issue with the “so old” piece of that thought process, I can say first-hand that the Tuck community is both what I perceived it to be when I was 18 and what I hoped it would be when I chose Tuck.”
Lulu Carter (’22)

5) Hanover: “The biggest myth is that there is nothing to do in Hanover. We have the best time swimming in the river and ponds, biking around the hills, and skiing or playing pond hockey in the winter. It’s an amazing place to pick up new hobbies and lean into old ones!”
Eva Greene (’22)

6) Hockey: “Tripod hockey is an age-old tradition at Tuck: hockey for those that don’t play hockey.  It is a complete mess, with everyone falling over themselves, but that just adds to the hilarity and fun. There is no better way to get to know your counterpart than through sports. Tripod hockey is one way our community is strengthened even further.”
Chris Lites (’24)

7) Tuck Talks: “Hearing these stories have been an inspiration to me and I feel show the individuality and strength within Tuck students,” Hazel explains After each story is shared, Tuckies write personalized messages of encouragement to the presenters highlighting how each story positively impacted them. I feel this is an accurate reflection of our business school as it underscores how we are a strong and encouraging community that supports one another.”
Andrew Hazel (’22)

8) GIX: “The Global Insight Expeditions (GIXs) were a big draw for me. These are experiential courses that begin with classroom sessions at Tuck and then take students and faculty members to countries around the world. When considering MBA programs, I was looking for a program with a strong emphasis on a global education as I hope to work abroad in the future, and I felt that Tuck’s global opportunities would prepare me well for such a transition.”
Hilde Tineo (’24)

9) Inclusion: “It is Tuck’s intentionality in promoting awareness and creating a safe space for people. I am a proponent of mental health. During my application process, I got to learn about the wealth of opportunities to support mental health on campus. The “river of life” activity, Tuck Talks, iMBA, and sessions on diversity, equity, and inclusion are just a few of the programs that I attended that developed my awareness before classes even began. It showed me how much Tuck cares for the students, not just academically.”
Catherine Diane Uduba (’24)

10) Outward Bound Sailing Trip: “This signature pre-term program has more than 30 years of history at Tuck. Eight students as a group (with two instructors) take aboard a 30-foot sailboat, sailing (and mostly rowing) to take an expedition among pristine islands off the Maine coast. Living on a primitive boat for five days means a lot of physical and mental challenges, but it was also a great opportunity to deeply self-reflect, bond with your crew, and gain confidence over accomplishing what you have never done before.”
Yida Wu (’24)

ADVICE TO PROSPECTIVE APPLICANTS

“Start by exploring how your values, experiences, and goals align with Tuck’s mission of “Building wise, decisive leaders who better the world through business.” Everyone brings something different to the Tuck community, so be your authentic self and don’t try to guess what the admissions committee is looking for. In my experience, talking to current students and alumni who had similar backgrounds in education and nonprofit was most helpful.”
Adrian Heneveld (’24)

“Don’t be afraid to go for the school you really want. Reach out to students from various schools and begin to narrow your list based on what you learn about the school. Find about three things that really matter to you and ask specific questions to find out how the school ticks those boxes. I believe many MBA programs can help achieve any goal but what really matters is the journey and the community while getting there.”
Catherine Diane Uduba (’24)

“I don’t know if I could have been more candid about my excitement for Tuck. When asked why I wanted to go to business school by my student interviewer, I remember saying “I don’t want to go to business school, I want to go to Tuck.”
Lulu Carter (’22)

MBA Student	Hometown	Undergrad Alma Mater	Last Employer
Marcus Bailey	New York City, NY	Davidson College	Broadridge Financial Solutions
Jennifer Chacon Salas	La Suiza, Costa Rica	Universidad de Costa Rica	SmileDirectClub
Ashwin Chandrasekhar	Chennai, India	St. Xavier’s College	Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME)
Kathryne Crowley	Portsmouth, RI	Boston College	U.S. Army
Jerome Delmotte	Limoges, France	French Ministry of Higher Education & Research	Diageo
Adrian Heneveld	Grand Rapids, MI	University of Michigan	Harlem Lacrosse-Boston
Chris Lites	Cold Spring Harbor, NY	Columbia University	Medicine in Motion
Analisse Marquez	Los Angeles, CA	Yale University	McKinsey & Company
D’Najah Picou	New Orleans, LA	University of Cincinnati	Walmart
Hilde Tineo	Caracas, Venezuela	University of Wisconsin-Madison	DaVita Kidney Care
Catherine Diane Uduba	Manila, Philippines	University of the East	Institutional Shareholders Services
Yida Wu	Shenzhen, China	University of North Carolina	Tesla