Dartmouth Tuck

Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business is utilizing the Internet in teaching many of its core classes, and even some electives, Bloomberg Businessweek reports. For an introductory statistics class, students watch video tutorials before the lesson, and then take an online quiz, where they can “see instantly if they’d mastered the concepts.” Their quiz grade goes toward their grade for class participation. And students can post their questions or comments on an online discussion board, to which either the teacher or a fellow student can respond.

Everyone seems to benefit from the videos, with 80 percent of students in the class finding them to be a “useful part of their overall class experience,” and 72 percent noting it “ improved the way they learned the material.” Teachers can also use diagnostic information—such as, who has taken the quizzes and their scores—to monitor their students and assist with class participation.

Only students can access Tuck’s videos for now, but they may be open to the public in the future. While some professors from other schools have tried online courses, with several participating in The Faculty Project, “a website that allows professors to upload free courses and supplementary course materials, as well as interact with students,” in time perhaps even more will follow Tuck’s lead and use the Internet to enhance students’ learning experience.

How did Tuck come to experiment with online videos as replacements for lectures? Dean Paul Danos was watching an online tutorial provide by The Khan Academy with his granddaughter and thought, “Why can’t we do something similar to the Khan Academy? I told professors anything you can put up on a whiteboard should be put up in advance so you can have more time in the classroom for conversation and face-to-face interaction.”

What do you think of Khan Academy methods coming to grad school?

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Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business in Hanover, New Hampshire

This post about Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, focusing on marketing, is part of a series of interviews about top MBA programs called “MBA Career Goals and the B-Schools that Support Them.” Please subscribe to our blog to ensure that you receive all the posts exploring the elements at each school that will help you pursue your goals in finance, consulting, general management, entrepreneurship, marketing and more.

A quick glance at Tuck: Tuck currently has the 3rd highest average starting salary and bonus among the business schools ranked in US News & World Report (March 2012).  About 15% of Tuck graduates go into careers in marketing.

Here is a summary of the interview with Rebecca Joffrey, Director, Career Development at Tuck:

What kind of background and skills do you like to see in applicants expressing interest in a career in marketing?

The feedback we get most from companies looking to hire MBAs for marketing positions is that they seek the ability to deal with ambiguity. In other words, can you deal with big, broad questions without clear answers? Can you distill a question like, “How should we enter Market X?” into objectives, strategies, and tactics without a lot of guidance? You have to be able to demonstrate that you can make assumptions and decisions, sometimes in the absence of data.  That’s the ability to deal with ambiguity that marketing entities seek.

A second quality they seek is “commercial experience,” and by that I mean experience in a sales or marketing role where you were attempting to influence behavior in the marketplace. This kind of experience is distinct from advisory experience. In a commercial role, you have really gone in and built something, living with the consequences of your decisions, the ups and downs of trying to move something forward. Consultants, even marketing consultants, don’t necessarily have that kind of experience, although they can make a case for themselves by showing they know how to think about things from the customer or consumer perspective.

Finally, it’s important to be able to show you have the ability to work cross-functionally and persuade people. In marketing, you are trying to influence entire organizations—the sales force, people in the manufacturing facility, procurement. You have to get everyone on the same page. The ability to work cross-functionally means you are able to persuade people who do not report to you and move things forward.

What about career changers?

You can switch into a marketing career, but you have to show that you are consumer-focused, whether that consumer is a private individual or a large, complex corporate entity, or anything in between. That focus implies that you can show how you start with a consumer need in the marketplace and work backwards based on those needs towards your objectives. Many people think about their needs and their products first. The marketing mindset revolves around customers’ needs.

What aspects of Tuck’s MBA curriculum do you feel are best suited to students who want to pursue a career in marketing?

Tuck’s general management core curriculum is ideal because it is not all about marketing. It’s about strategy and finance and supply chain… and marketing. All the things that you need to run a business. As a marketer, you are running a business; you’re just doing it within a brand or product. Tuck’s core curriculum cultivates the broad range of skills you need to rely on. You need strong financial skills to run a P&L, and that’s a big part of the marketing job. You have to understand supply chain issues, channel management, all kinds of things that are relevant to running a business or a brand. I was in marketing before coming to Tuck, and I would argue that Tuck’s first year core curriculum prepares you better than being a marketing major.

Second year at Tuck is entirely elective. This is the time when you get to dive deep into specific areas of interest. Marketing electives include “Managing the Marketing Channel” and “Marketing in the Network Economy”. There is also an opportunity to do a consulting project through the Tuck Global Consultancy, where students can consult on marketing issues for global companies.

Which school clubs and extra-curricular events are most relevant to people interested in marketing?

The Marketing Club is a big part of your experience at Tuck. It allows you to get to know your sector and the skills required, and it helps prepare you for interviews. The club itself has a whole program to help you. For example in the fall we have Sector Smarts, which is an alumni panel where you learn about the different companies and what the career paths look like. And then at the end of Fall A you can go on a career trek to visit companies in the New York area, such as Pepsi, Colgate, L’Oreal, Nielsen, and American Express. Then there is a Marketing 101 series where second years and alumni prepare you for interviews.

That is the functional area, but everyone in marketing is usually focused on industry so there is consumer biz marketing, healthcare marketing, tech marketing, or retail and then there are clubs for those different industries and interests.

Which companies recruit the most Tuck graduates pursuing marketing careers?

Tuck has very strong corporate relations in this sector, and sometimes has more jobs in marketing than students! Tuck’s top hiring companies for marketing include: Amazon, Colgate, General Mills, Procter & Gamble, and L’Oreal.

We want to give a BIG thank you to Rebecca Joffrey in the Tuck Career Development Office for granting us this insightful interview!

By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted.com and co-author of the new, definitive book on MBA admissions, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools.

As you can see the changes are somewhere between slight and miniscule.  Larger jumps and changes occurred outside the top 10, but the statistical significance of these changes becomes questionable due to fewer responses farther down the list.

And how “reliable” are these rankings? Wait a bit. We’ll be writing more on that.

By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted.com and co-author of the new, definitive book on MBA admissions, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools.

This post about Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, focusing on management consulting, is part of a series of interviews about top MBA programs called “MBA Career Goals and the B-Schools that Support Them.” Please subscribe to our blog to ensure that you receive all the interviews exploring the elements at each school that support career goals in finance, consulting, general management, entrepreneurship, marketing and more.

Here is the interview with the Career Development Office at Tuck.

A quick glance at Tuck: The oldest graduate business school in the nation, Tuck offers only one program: a full-time MBA.  Known for its small scale (each year Tuck enrolls just 250 students in its incoming class) and personalized atmosphere, Tuck currently has the 4th highest average starting salary and bonus among the business schools ranked in US News & World Report (March 2011).  About 30% of Tuck graduates go into management consulting careers.

What kind of background and skills do you like to see in applicants expressing interest in a career in management consulting?

Many consulting companies are used to hiring people from a broad variety of backgrounds, so it is not essential to have a certain career background. If you think about the competencies required to be a good consultant, you can imagine that people who are able to show evidence of these competencies in their past experience will be well positioned. Common competencies include the ability to work well in teams, to influence other people, to work comfortably under pressure and with ambiguous information, to achieve and to have impact. Entrepreneurship is another sought-after skill. If you think about a consulting company, it is a collection of partners who bring in business. Therefore if you are somebody who has already demonstrated that you can build a business then that puts you in a good position. Finally, if you look at many of the people who work as management consultants, they possess a certain level of self-confidence that enables them to walk into a new company, pick up the basics, and then give advice. I think having that innate self-confidence (without arrogance) is a key predictor of success in getting a job in consulting.

What aspects of your curriculum do you feel are best suited to students who want to eventually pursue a career in management consulting?

Tuck does very well with management consulting recruiting for a number of reasons. Firstly, I believe it attracts the type of people who will do well (see above) – people who like to work collaboratively, who are intellectually curious, who can build trust-based relationships. Secondly, the curriculum is well-suited to this type of career. Tuck’s first year core is incredibly rigorous, so that by the time students have gone through that there really aren’t any major gaps in their skillset, so they can confidently tackle a consulting internship knowing they have the fundamentals under their belt. Then there are certain technical skills that many consultants rely on, for instance being very capable with PowerPoint and Excel, and Tuck has excellent hands-on classes in both these areas.

There are also many opportunities during the two years to do actual consulting projects, for instance the First Year Project is a capstone of the first year, and is a real project, solving a problem for a real company. Another course that springs to mind is Consulting Project Management, which is literally a 6-week simulation of a consulting project. For this we have guest lecturers who come from a variety of consulting companies, for instance we’ll have a senior partner from McKinsey come and talk about the challenges of implementation. At the end of the course, students present their findings to a panel of ‘clients’ in a very realistic setting.

Finally, we have Tuck Global Consulting – this is where a client company will pay for a student consulting group (with expert faculty oversight) to come and do a consulting project in a global setting. This is a fantastic way to get both global exposure and also real-world consulting experience.

Which school clubs and extra-curricular events are most relevant to people interested in management consulting?

There’s the Consulting Club, which is very active and which really leads the charge during the fall, when students are learning about the industry, and learning about how to succeed in consulting industries. There are more extra-curricular events available than any one student could take advantage of. Some of these might be leadership opportunities, for instance to lead a club, or a conference. There are opportunities to do a consulting project for a local company, to sit on the board of a local non-profit, to do volunteer work in the community. There are also the many recruiting events that consulting companies put together. Shortly after you arrive at Tuck, you will have many opportunities to get to know all of the major firms at company briefings, wine tastings, individual office hours, visits to their offices in Boston and so on.

Since management consulting is a very broad term, can you break down some of the sub-categories in the field that Tuck excels in?

The largest recruiters at Tuck are the traditional management consulting companies like McKinsey, Bain, BCG and their peers. We also do very well with healthcare consulting, and students who arrive with a background or passion for that area have a wealth of options in terms of who they might like to apply to. I think we also do well with ‘niche’ companies, because with a small company you want to make sure you’re getting someone who is going to be a good fit, and Tuck students tend to be very collegial.

With smaller firms I think there’s a natural focus on those who are located in the Northeast, and within that I can certainly think of good examples in telecom, energy, investment analysis (due diligence), market analytics. Finally, there are many great companies that have internal consulting groups, and these recruit strongly at Tuck. Global companies like Samsung, Siemens, British Telecom, Fidelity, as well as the global pharma companies, all have very strong internal groups that provide the intellectual stimulation and team atmosphere of traditional consulting within the ‘home’ of a parent company.

Which management consulting firms recruit the most Tuck graduates?

Tuck’s top hiring organizations include: McKinsey & Company, Amazon, Bain & Company, Citigroup, Goldman, Sachs & Co., Barclays Capital, and Boston Consulting Group.

Related Resources:

• Dartmouth Tuck B-School Zone
• Tuck 2012 MBA Essay Tips
• Management Consulting

Thanks to the Tuck Career Development Office for granting us this interview.

By Eliot Sloan, Accepted.com editor.  Eliot is a college writing professor specializing in the personal narrative, journalist, writing coach, and admissions counselor. She has helped applicants gain acceptance to Ivy League schools and other top programs.

Look no further – the MBA book of all books is here, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools, written by Accepted.com founder, Linda Abraham, and editor Judy Gruen. And now, for a very limited time only (Monday, Dec. 5 – Tuesday, Dec. 6) you can purchase this must-have book for $10 OFF the cover price by using coupon code SMARTIES at checkout. That’s almost 2/3 off the list price!

In MBA Admission for Smarties you will learn how to:

• Determine “fit” with a program.
• Establish your post-MBA goals and present them in a compelling goals essay.
• Write dazzling, memorable application essays.
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So what are you waiting for?

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(Non-U.S. residents should buy MBA Admission for Smarties from Amazon.com where international shipping is available. Sorry – no coupon available to ship outside the U.S.)

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Next up in our series of featured MBA applicant bloggers is Sanket, author of the blog, “My GMAT and MBA Journey…Freeing my mind from Fears, Doubts & Disbeliefs…Believing I CAN!!” Please enjoy Sanket’s thoughtful answers and use them to help you make your way through the MBA admissions process.

Accepted: First, can you tell us a little about yourself – where are you from, where did you go to school and when did you graduate; and what prior degrees do you hold?

Sanket: A Production engineer by education, an industrial engineer by experience, a passionate writer (three published articles, currently writing my first book), an amateur photographer, a student of Vipassana meditation for the last nine years, a volunteer, a blogger and let’s not forget, a big procrastinator (that GMAT is still pending). It’s not my name but what I do that defines me; but people call me Sanket!

I am Sanket. In Marathi (my mother tongue) Sanket means a symbol, an indication. So what do I symbolize? At any given point of time, any of the things mentioned above define me.

I belong to Sangli, a small town in Maharashtra. I completed most of my schooling and Junior college education in Nasik, Maharashtra, India and received my Bachelor of Production Engineering from University of Pune (one of the top ranked universities in Maharashtra) with First Class in Distinction, in 2005.

I started my career as a consultant (productivity improvement and lean manufacturing) with a relatively small boutique consulting firm. I worked there for 2.5 years and then moved to the automobile industry with Mahindra Chakan to understand the difference between knowing the path and walking the path, i.e. understanding the difference between recommending some things to clients and actually doing the things with my own hands. I worked there for 2.5 years, and for past year I have been working with Volkswagen, India. So, after investing almost six years in the manufacturing industry, I am ready to go to b-school to take my career to the next level.

Accepted: How long have you planned on applying to business school?

Sanket: How long? Do you ever think of “Time” when you are with your girlfriend? Time almost stops when she is around you, doesn’t it? If you are a photographer then do you ever think how long you have been waiting for that perfect click? The answer is NO. You are committed to the perfect click irrespective time. When you are totally in love with something, you seldom think of time; it becomes relative.

The same logic applies to my experience with the b-school application process. I am in love with this entire process. People say it is daunting but I ask them – How can the process of telling something about you be daunting? How can sharing your most profound experiences with the admission committee be time consuming? Whatever others say, I love the process, irrespective of the outcome of this year’s application cycle, I have loved it, the introspection provided lot of insights during the process.

To answer your question, I have been interacting with b-school students for the last three years. To date I have interacted with more than 100 students from more than 12 b-schools which of course include some of the top 10 schools. So a systematic approach and huge investment of time are at stake in this year’s application process. Surely, it was worth doing this!!

Accepted: Why do you want to go to business school? What are some of the factors motivating you?

Sanket: Let me tell you a story.

On my last birthday, we had a great party. When I was paying the bill (some thousands of rupees), I just thought – The amount of this bill equals to the monthly salary of a waiter who was serving us. Why the cost of my enjoyment for a couple of hours equal to the monthly salary of a common man? Why is there so much economic disparity? I remember Bill Gates’ speech on this subject at the Harvard Business School. He asked, “Why aren’t the brightest, most intelligent minds used to solve toughest questions in the world?” I don’t know, really I don’t know, how I am going to do it but my long term vision is to do something, at least play my part in closing the gap of economic disparity, especially in a developing country like India. In India we have lot of issues in front of us – education, career guidance, healthcare, and corruption. I am still understanding my true calling to focus on one of these issues because I cannot focus on all of them.

To understand the complexity in any one these issues, my knowledge of production engineering is very limited. Knowledge of business fundamentals along with transferable skills I have developed during my professional experience really will help in understanding these issues in-depth.

Also, I believe these issues are best solved with a public-private partnership than solely relying on the government. Through business, we can really find some great solutions to these problems. For example, the concept of “Reverse Innovation” by Professor Vijay Govindrajan has created evolution in creating cheapest healthcare products in rural India. So, essentially I want to be in the business of serving people at the bottom of the pyramid.

I know this is not a perfect answer to the career goals essay question but I am still working on it!

Accepted: Where do you plan on applying to b-school? What sort of criteria did you use in choosing where you’d like to attend?

Sanket: I have mentioned somewhere in my blog, that choosing a b school is analogous to choosing your life partner or girlfriend.

There is something about your girlfriend which only you can figure out; you somehow connect with her deeply enough to able to spend your entire life with her. It may not be possible to define that in terms of words or language, but you know somewhere deep inside that SHE is the one, you just know it! I mean if you ask me what it is about Genelia that makes her my favorite heroine, I may not be able to tell you, but it’s just there, something only she has. So my school selection is based on “Just want to be there schools,” as I told you, after lot of interaction with students and alumni from these category schools, I just know that I want to be there come what may!! Perhaps that is the only criteria I used in my b-school selection process.

These schools by default satisfied other important factors such as brand, value, resources and joint degree programs to achieve career objectives, the availability of a loan without a co-signer, no TOEFL requirement, team oriented and collaborative culture.

No wonder, last year, I got Clear Admit’s BOB award for “Best School Selection Advice.”

Accepted: Do you have topics in mind for your MBA application essays?

Sanket: Going by the B-School and Girlfriend analogy, in my opinion essays can be treated analogous to the way you propose to your girlfriend. Apart from knowing that there is something in her that attracts you, you also know that she is important to you.

Essay writing essentially starts with a lot of introspection. On my blog, I have several entries on this topic. For example, I maintain something I call “a book of dreams.” I always carry it with me and It essentially contains all the ideas I come across when I am travelling, brushing my teeth, taking a bath, drinking my coffee, volunteering and so on; it’s just a random collection of thoughts to understand my thinking pattern. This pattern identification has proved to be essential in the essay writing process.

To answer your question, surely I have finalized the topics for almost all of essays for my target schools. I am currently fine-tuning them to fit them into the word limits and let me tell you writing essays has been a wonderful experience.

Accepted: How important is a “name brand” MBA program to you? Are you only applying to top 10 programs?

Sanket: I am applying to some colleges in the top 10, but so called “brand name” and ranking are not only factors in choosing the schools.

My experience with current students and alumni, their involvement in answering my questions, their response time, their willingness and depth in answering my critical questions, their passion to share their b-school experiences tell me a lot about the b-school and the culture there.

For example, a couple of Tuck students wrote blog posts to answer my questions and former Chicago Booth Admissions Director Rose Martenelli wrote a post on her blog answering one of my questions. A Kellogg student remembered my name and contact number and gave me call when he was here for Diwali vacation. Another Kellogg student discussed my idea (we discussed his consulting project over mails, fortunately my current experience in the manufacturing industry was helpful to him) in his learning team at Kellogg.

I ask myself – If these people are investing so much time in me (still a prospective applicant) then how much more supportive will they be when I am part their community as a student??

These things mean a lot to me and such experiences help in narrowing down the schools. So, definitely not only “brand name” but these touchy feely experiences are important factor in my school selection.

Accepted: Why did you choose to blog about the MBA application experience?

Sanket: By this time, you must have understood, I love writing. I love sharing my experiences with others, I love learning through others’ experiences, their thoughts, and perspectives. So this blog was basically an attempt to connect with the rest of the MBA applicant bloggers and learn from their experience, at the same time share my perspective and learning in the process.

But the real impetus came from my experience in guiding a couple of friends in the application process. Last year, I helped a friend write his MBA application for AIM and another friend write his ISB application. We all worked together professionally, so I helped them choose the topics for the essays and critically reviewing their essays and choose the right schools for them. I also wrote a recommendation and so on.

Reflecting upon this, I thought that my experience can be really useful to some of my fellow applicants, so just started writing. Also this blog serves as practice (in terms generating ideas, developing and structuring them, as well as seeing the responses) for my upcoming book. I get lot of ideas for my book when I post on this blog, so it been a very wonderful experience.

Do you want to be featured in Accepted.com’s blog, Accepted Admissions Almanac? If you want to share your MBA admissions journey with the world (or at least with our readers), email us at mbabloggers@accepted.com.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

US News is at it again!  The magazine’s newest top ten list is the top 10 Business Schools That Receive the Most Full-Time Applications. Not surprisingly, almost all the top 10 programs listed in US News’s rankings of the best business schools were also on the list of the top 10 business schools that received the most applications for full-time admissions in the 2010-2011 academic year (Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business was the only exception).

A total of 261 business schools provided US News with application data. On average, programs received 525 applications for admission.  But Harvard Business School surpassed them all with 9,524 applications, 32% more than the Stanford Graduate School of Business, which received the second highest number of applications.

However, the US News data does not reveal the number of students accepted into the class, making application numbers misleading. For example, Stanford has a class of fewer than 400, whereas Harvard’s class size is approximately 930. These statistics are also just a close approximation of the upcoming US News’ top 10.

Other schools that made the list of “the 10 business schools that received the most applications for full-time admission in 2010” were: University of Pennsylvania (Wharton),  Columbia University, Northwestern University (Kellogg), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan), New York University (Stern), University of Chicago (Booth), University of California—Berkeley (Haas), and Duke University (Fuqua).

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Photo credit: lotyloty

Dartmouth Tuck 2012 MBA Essay Questions

Please respond fully but concisely to the following essay questions. Compose each of your answers offline in separate document files and upload them individually in the appropriate spaces below. Although there is no restriction on the length of your response, most applicants use, on average, 500 words for each essay. There are no right or wrong answers. Please double-space your responses.

1. Why is an MBA a critical next step toward your short- and long-term career goals? Why is Tuck the best MBA program for you? (If you are applying for a joint or dual degree, please explain how the additional degree will contribute to those goals.)

The MBA is a means to an end; it is a “step” towards a goal. That means you have to briefly discuss your journey to date and then your reasons for wanting an MBA — and specifically a Tuck MBA–  to continue on that journey.

You have to know a lot about Tuck as well as your goals to respond effectively to this question. Why do you want a small, tight-knit program in rural New Hampshire? Why do you want a program that stresses the integration of business functions?  Which of Tuck’s strengths appeal to you? How will they help you achieve your goals?

2. Discuss your most meaningful leadership experience. What did you learn about your own individual strengths and weaknesses through this experience?

This question reflects the importance Tuck, like many MBA programs, places on leadership.

Have you chaired  a fund raiser that raised a record amount of money? Have you inspired a troubled teen to apply himself academically?  Have you captained a sports team that led your company league? Have you been a team lead on a project that came in early and under budget? Are you head of a sales team? These could all be examples of leadership. How did you motivate your teammates? What did you learn?

The question asks you to reveal strengths and weaknesses. The first is fun and should be relatively easy. However we all cringe at the idea of revealing weaknesses, especially in a situation where you want to impress — like now. Nonetheless, resist that nasty impulse. Don’t even think about a phony weakness. The adcom will see right through it. Reveal a weakness that hopefully you can show yourself addressing in this leadership experience or through another later experience. Don’t dwell on the weakness, but do include it.

3. Describe a circumstance in your life in which you faced adversity, failure, or setback. What actions did you take as a result and what did you learn from this experience?

Think resilience.  Picking yourself up and moving on, better and stronger than you were before. That’s what you want to portray and convey in this essay.  What happened, how did you react, and what did you learn as a result. ( You may also be interested in a video on this subject for a related HBS question, Setbacks and Resilience.

4. Tuck seeks candidates of various backgrounds who can bring new perspectives to our community. How will your unique personal history, values, and/or life experiences contribute to the culture at Tuck?

Tuck may be small and rural, but it is no backwater. And it is fiercely proud of its diversity — in all senses of the word.  It also wants people who will contribute to the school. When I visited Tuck for the International Educational Consultants Conference, I was struck by the variety of events within Tuck and the larger Dartmouth community. Clearly, to answer this question well you must reflect on your background, but you also need to study the activities, clubs, and programs available at Tuck.  What are the distinctive elements of your background? How will they enable you to contribute at Tuck?

5. (Optional) Please provide any additional insight or information that you have not addressed elsewhere that may be helpful in reviewing your application (e.g., unusual choice of evaluators, weaknesses in academic performance, unexplained job gaps or changes, etc.). Complete this question only if you feel your candidacy is not fully represented by this application.

It is almost impossible for four 500-word essays plus a bunch of boxes, a transcript, and a GMAT score to represent fully the uniqueness and talents of a truly impressive candidate. That comment has nothing to do with writing style and everything to do with the complexity of accomplished human beings. In my opinion this “optional essay“  is optional in name only.

6. (To be completed by all reapplicants) How have you strengthened your candidacy since you last applied? Please reflect on how you have grown personally and professionally.

Straightforward MBA reapplication question. What has changed that would compel Tuck to admit you this year when it rejected you last year?

If you would like professional guidance with your Dartmouth Tuck application, please consider Accepted’s MBA essay editing and MBA admissions consulting or our Dartmouth Tuck School Packages, which include advising, editing, interview coaching, and a resume edit for the Tuck MBA application.

                                                    November Deadline       January Deadline       April Deadline

Application Due:            Nov. 9, 2011                            Jan. 4, 2012                        April 2, 2012

By Linda Abraham, President and Founder of Accepted.com.

Are you applying to other MBA programs too? You can find great advice for other programs at 2012 MBA Essay Tips.

U.S. News just released its 2012 MBA rankings just a few hours ago, and with them, a number of good articles and resources. First we’ll give you the top 20 best U.S. business schools, and then we’ll direct you to some of the meaty articles.

2012 Best Business Schools

1. Stanford GSB

2. Harvard Business School

3. MIT Sloan

3. Pennsylvania Wharton

5. Northwestern Kellogg

5. Chicago Booth

7. Dartmouth Tuck

7. UC Berkeley Haas

9. Columbia

10. NYU Stern

10. Yale SOM

12. Duke Fuqua

13. UVA Darden

14. UCLA Anderson

14. Michigan Ross

16. Cornell Johnson

17. Texas McCombs

18. CMU Tepper

19. UNC Kenan-Flagler

20. Washington Olin

For more information please see:

• “The Sustainable MBA” – This article highlights the ways in which the MBA degree has gone green. Courses that used to focus on finance and profit now focus on those things as well as on how they relate to larger social and environmental issues. A number of programs have sprung up around the country that focus on sustainability. Buzzwords include “impact investing” and “social entrepreneurship.”
• “Reinventing the MBA” – This article is about the goals business educators are working to bring about, mainly “to de-emphasize traditional discipline-based courses like marketing and finance in favor of a focus on leadership skills, innovation, social responsibility, and a global perspective.” Many top schools are introducing new curricula that focus more on leadership development.
• “Business School Ranking Methodology” – Please see this article for details on how the business school rankings were determined.

For a better understanding of why the data behind the rankings is much more valuable than the rankings themselves — a view I have espoused for years — please see “Winners and Losers in the 2011 US News Rankings.”

Discover the answers you need to interpret the MBA rankings and learn how to use them to evaluate top MBA programs around the world by downloading Accepted.com’s FREE special report MBA Rankings now!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

We covered a wide range of admissions-related topics during our Dartmouth Tuck Q&A last week. Thank you to Dawna Clarke, Director of MBA Admissions, and Pat Harrison and Amy Mitson, Associate Directors at Tuck, for an excellent conversation! To review, you can read the whole Tuck Q&A transcript, listen to the full audio clip online, or subscribe to our podcast in iTunes and catch as many of the MBA Admissions Q&As as you want.

Here is some helpful advice on applying Round 3 (the April round) from the Dartmouth Tuck Q&A:

Linda Abraham: Jonathan asks, “What advice would you provide to an April applicant?” Is there anything different that an April round applicant should be doing?

Amy Mitson: My response to that would be that whenever you are applying, you should always explain your candidacy. But a question is always raised in my mind when I read essays or see information from an April round applicant who says that Tuck is their top choice and they definitely want to go here. You are putting your all into it, but then I wonder why you waited till the last round. So just with that, don’t leave any question unanswered. If Tuck is your favorite place, why did you wait till the last round? There is probably a reason; maybe there was a job change, maybe you were out of the country and now you are back in the US so you had time to interview on campus, whereas in an earlier round you didn’t because your work took you out of the country. Is there a reason why? Don’t forget to add that in so that we can see the entire context. Answer all of the “why” questions.

Linda Abraham: So if somebody applies in your April round, something goes through your mind wondering why the applicant didn’t apply earlier. In some ways it calls into question commitment; it’s not just that they decided to apply a little later.

Amy Mitson: If an applicant is very enthusiastic about the fact that this is their top choice and they have been thinking about it for so long…

Linda Abraham: If they said they wanted to do this since they were in kindergarten, I would certainly agree with you.

Amy Mitson: The later rounds are fine, but give me the follow-up; provide the detail as to why. I would have loved to see your strong application in the earlier round and offer you admission then, and then you wouldn’t have had to wait any longer.

Dawna Clarke: To build on Amy’s point, I think we are pretty transparent. We do have an April round, but I think we are also very transparent in saying that it is a very competitive round, and our advice to applicants is to try to apply in one of the earlier rounds. There are circumstances sometimes why somebody would apply in the last round; a change in a job situation may necessitate it — you didn’t think you could go this year, but now something has changed and you could go this year. And I think Amy’s point is that to some extent it’s better to let us know those reasons rather than leave some of those questions blank. Certainly come up for an interview; show your interest in other ways.

View the full Dartmouth Tuck Q&A transcript or listen to the mp3 recording of the event now or subscribe to the Apple iTunes MBA Admissions Podcast. If you like the podcast, please leave a 5-star review.

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