Out of all the classes I've taken at Tuck, one of my all time favorites is Ron Adner's Entrepreneurship and Innovation Strategy class. In the class, Adner focuses on examining the challenges of entrepreneurial innovation and how one should approach the challenge of picking the right opportunity, aligning the right partners, and targeting the right market and, perhaps most importantly, setting the right expectations for a new venture. If you have any interest in innovation, I HIGHLY recommend this class for two reasons: #1 - Adner will rock your world, #2 Adner's frameworks will totally change the way you think about innovation strategy.
Adner has also just come out with a new book The Wide Lens: A New Strategy for Innovation, which covers a lot of the topics we discussed in class such as:
— How to see and manage the hidden risks in your ecosystem
— How to assess alternatives and establish leadership in collaborative settings
— How to reconfigure your ecosystem to create and leverage success
I can't wait to read his new book and would definitely recommend both his book and his class(es) to anyone interested in innovation or business strategy!
In a recent survey BusinessWeek asked graduates at America's Top Business Schools to rate the quality of teaching on several dimensions. I'm proud to say Tuck came in #2 for the Best MBA Teaching Faculty!
In my opinion, one of the many great things about Tuck is that professors tend to be more accountable and accessible to students because of the school's culture and location. Similar to the alumni network, it's incredibly easy to reach out to the faculty and connect with them on a personal or professional level. Feedback is highly valued and used by professors to improve their classroom performance. And, of course, there are some faculty such as Ron Adner and Matt Slaughter that have truly blown my mind!
Answer: Yes - a self-initiated interview is critical to your candidacy. The admissions office uses the self-initiated interview process as a way to #1 - gauge your interest in Tuck and #2 - evaluate your interpersonal skills.
If you're a domestic applicant, you absolutely must visit Tuck and schedule a self-initiated interview before your application deadline. If you don't visit Tuck, the odds of getting invited to interview are extremely low (<5%). Not visiting Tuck essentially tells admissions that you're not that interested in attending the program.
If you're an international applicant, it is understandable that you may not be able to travel to Tuck for a self-initiated interview. If you can't visit Tuck before your application is due, make sure that you attend an admissions event in your home country or connect with some current students or alumni so that you can show sincere enthusiasm for the school.
Often times when I host prospective student visits at Tuck, at least one student gets up the courage to ask, so what is there to do in Hanover? Understandably, this is a fair question to ask. Hanover is a small New England town of roughly 10,000 people after all.
The short answer is, life in Hanover is exactly the same as life in any other city, just minus the hot night clubs and with a smaller variety of restaurants and bars. As a former Manhattanite, I've actually been quite impressed with the number of activities and events in the Upper Valley.
Here's a glimpse of a few of my favorite aspects of life at Tuck:
Parties
The Upper Valley now has roughly one night club so to compensate for the lack of local night life, Tuck sponsors at a weekday cocktail party (Tuck Tails) and at least one big party each weekend (translation: great parties with free food and alcohol!). Dartmouth also has a love for themed, costume parties so needless to say, by the end of second year most students have a treasure trove of costumes and crazy outfits.
Scavenger Hunt - Team Scooby Doo
Party like a Rock Star
Lady Gaga Party
Proof that not all our parties involve costumes
Sports & Outdoor Activities
There are literally a million different sport-oriented activities you can get involved with ranging from hockey to golf or even triathalon training.
Intramural Hockey - The Official Sport of Tuck
Great Skiing in Killington, VT
Men's Soccer Team
Culture & The Arts
In spite of the small town location, we get a surprising number of great threatre shows and musical performances in the Upper Valley. The Dartmouth HOP sources and subsidizes a number of great musical performances and theater acts. Northern Stage, a theatre located in neighboring Vermont, also brings a number of NYC quality acts to the Upper Valley.
Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers @ the HOP
Evita @ Northern Stage Theatre - An amazing performance!
As some of you may know, MBA programs just publicly released total compensation figures for their 2011 graduates. To my astonishment, one of my T'11 classmates earned the highest total compensation out of any 2011 MBA graduate with a total pay package of $863,000. Holy moly! Not even in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that an MBA graduate (anywhere) could earn that much money their first year out of school.
On that note, if you're reading this Mr. or Ms. Anonymous High Rolling Graduate, you'll be happy to know I'm still considering full-time employment options and would even be willing to settle for a measly $500,000 in annual total compensation. Hit me up!
Recently Sheryl Sandberg has taken a lot of heat for claiming that women suffer from an 'ambition gap'. While speaking at the World Economic Forum on January 27th, Sandberg cited a study by the Economist that only 36% of American women self-identify as 'very ambitious.' Why aren't there more very ambitious women in the USA?
Sandberg argued that the “ambition gap” is due to the fact that achievement and likability are negatively correlated for girls. “No one calls little boys bossy,” she quipped. Sandberg goes on to point out that our societal norms teach girls to value themselves based on looks and 'playing nice' whereas boys are taught to value themselves based on their intelligence and ambition. For example, while Sandberg was at a Gymboree last month there were two children's t-shirts for sale that caught her eye. The t-shirt for girls said "Pretty like Mommy"; the t-shirt for boys said "Smart like Dad". What gives? What does our society think its OK to value girls based on looks and not on intelligence?
Gymboree T's -Gender Stereotypes at Its Finest
Sandberg, a Harvard MBA, also points out that "It's now been 15 years (since she graduated), and of the people I know every single man is working full-time and almost none of my female friends." As a female MBA student, I can relate to what she's saying. Over my year and a half at Tuck, I've met so many male CEOs, VPs...etc. However, I'm pretty sure I can count the number of female senior executives I've met on one hand. Personally, I find that a little depressing. My hope for my MBA class, is that we women will pour ourselves into our careers for as long as we chose to work, instead of holding back out of deference to social norms, or in anticipation of “starting a family one day.” If we can do that, I'm confident we can close the ambition gap for future generations and finally bring more female leaders into the C-Suite.
One month from today I will be in South Africa. I am so excited I can hardly control myself! No, this isn't a spring break trip. I'm actually going to South Africa on a Tuck sponsored learning expedition with 20 of my classmates. Although I've travelled extensively, I never been to any of the countries in Africa, so I am very excited to learn more about SA's economy and what it takes to successfully do business there. While we're in South Africa we'll be meeting with some incredibly interesting and diverse companies such as: Standard Bank, McKinsey South Africa, MassMart, Eskom, Streetwires, SafMarine, Grassroots Soccer (a really cool non-profit that leverages soccer as a vehicle to teach HIV prevention) and Pilanesburg Game Reserve. It should make for an amazing experience - details to come!
One of the great things about Tuck, is that it provides a number of excellent opportunities to further develop your global mindset as a future business leader. Like many schools, there are a variety of internationally focused electives, exchange programs and other international business learning opportunities. However, there are a few opportunities that I think are really special:
Second-year students have the opportunity to participate in on-site corporate consulting projects in international venues. This year projects ranged from a Swiss brewery start up (market assessment and feasibility study for an established brewer) to developing a market-entry strategy for a manufacturer in India.
An experiential course that helps students understand political, social, and economic developments in a specific country. The course focuses on the country’s historical antecedents giving rise to the economic, political, and social structures in the country and the key local and global forces that are likely to affect future development. It also exposes students to some of the leading companies in the country to illustrate some of the core management principles studied at the Tuck School.
Case Writing Opportunities
My good friend Shavonne got involved with business case writing this year at Tuck. Over winter break, she flew to China to meet the key executives (for the case at hand) and gather material. She said the experience she had with the Chinese executives was one of her more influential and rewarding learning experiences at Tuck.
Ascent: Leading Multicultural Women ASCENT is a national, not-for-profit organization committed to the professional development and corporate career advancement of multicultural women.
Consortium for Graduate Study in Management
The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management is the country’s preeminent organization for promoting diversity and inclusion in American business. Through an annual competition, The Consortium awards merit-based, full-tuition fellowships to America’s best and brightest candidates.
Management Leadership for Tomorrow Management Leadership for Tomorrow delivers programming that puts minorities on the fast-track to success at every stage of their careers: from College through MBA and the Executive levels. MLT is a leading source of minority talent for top graduate business schools and for many of the nation's premier corporations including Citi, Goldman Sachs, Google, McKinsey & Co, PepsiCo and Target.
As the co-chair of a couple clubs at Tuck, I often get e-mails from prospective students inquiring about the school or a club they're interested in. Most people ask really great questions and I'm really happy to help them in any way I can. However, every now and again, a propsective student does something that is either a) a big no no or b) slightly ridiculous. I've decided to post a few of these as lessons in what not to do.
What Not to Do:
#1 - Accidentally writing the wrong school name in your e-mail/essay or addressing a letter to the wrong person. This will get you ding'ed anywhere - whether applying to school or a job. Enough said.
#2 - Not conveying sincere interest for the school. A few months ago I received an e-mail that started off like this: "After careful consideration I recently decided to include Tuck in my MBA application process." So basically what you just told me is that you weren't originally considering Tuck and that it's probably not your top choice? #ding
#3 - Expecting a current student or admissions officer to tell you why you should attend the school. Sample bad e-mail: "I would like a first person's account of what is unique about the program, and how it can help me fulfill my aspirations." You wouldn't send a potential employer an e-mail that says "Dear Goldman Sachs, please tell me what is unique about your company and how you can help me fulfill my aspirations." so what makes candidates think this is an appropriate strategy for reaching out to a MBA program?
That said, current students and admissions officers are definitely willing to help answer any questions you may have about the program. However, it's all on you to know why you want to get an MBA and why you're interested in a school (even if you're not 100% certain that you're going to apply there yet).
#4 - Trying to show how smart you are by asking unnecessarily complex questions. People will generally assume you are intelligent. Acting 'smarter than thou' does not win you points.
#5 - Claiming to know a current student or admissions officer better than you really do in your interview. Odds are relatively high that the interviewer will reach out to the current students / admissions officers you claim to know in your interview for more information, so be honest. One time an applicant exaggerated how well he knew a current student we'll call "Guy X" during an interview. Ironically (and unknown to him) the applicant was interviewing with "Guy X's" girlfriend. #badtimetoexaggerate
#6 - Not following up. If a current student does an informational call with you or e-mails extensively with you, follow up with them and let you know when you interview/apply. If a current student tells you to 'keep them posted', this generally means that they really like you and might (unknown to you) put in a good word for you with admissions. If you don't follow up with the current student, you lose this opportunity.
#7 - Asking your interviewer to recommend you. If you have to ask, the answer is probably no.
One of the things that has really impressed me about Tuck is the cultural diversity. That might sound ironic given that Tuck is located in Hanover, a New England town with less than 10,000 residents, and even more ironic since this comment is coming from a former New York City chick. Hear me out on this: a third of our student body is of international origin. So while we may not have the most diverse community surrounding Hanover, the international students contribute a great deal of cultural diversity to our school both in the class and out.
As a die hard foodie, one of my favoite things about going to school with so many international students is that I've been able to try all of their favorite foods from their home country. The Tuck administration really makes a point to celebrate every culture here at Tuck, so we frequently have Brazilian barbeques (the best steak I've ever had!), Diwali celebrations (curry heaven), and China-Korea-Japanese Day Party (mind blowing dumplings) in addition to number of other international events. In addition to being incredibly smart, my classmates are wicked good cooks and I'm so thankful that they're willing to share all their traditions and holidays with us!
T'12 Student Performers at China Night Party
The ladies did a very elegant Chinese dance performance at the
party while Yang did a popular Chinese rap complete with nunchucks!
In my opinion, one of the best things about Tuck is it's Visiting Executive Program. The Visiting Executive Program brings senior executives to the school to share their expertise with the classroom and meet with students and faculty. From a classroom perspective, this program allows professors to invite senior executives that worked on the case at hand to the classroom to facilitate discussion. You'd be amazed at how much color and clarity their hands on experience brings to discussion!
From a student perspective, the Visiting Executive Program arranges opportunities for office hours, breakfast, lunch, dinner or roundtable discussions with the visiting executive. In order to create a more intimate setting where students can get a lot of one-on-one time with the executive, each meeting is generally limited to less than 10 students. Over the course of my time at Tuck, we've had executives such as Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon), John Mackey (CEO of Whole Foods), Robert Eckert (Chairman & CEO of Mattel), Michael Ward (Managing Director at Bain Capital Inc), Brian Myerholtz (Principal at Boston Consulting Group) and a number of other top executives from nearly every industry.* Of course, as a former retail industry exec, my all time favorite visiting executive this fall was Mickey Drexler (CEO of J.Crew). Mickey is a true legend in retail, so my roundtable meeting with him was one of my all time favorite moments at Tuck!
I'm so happy that Tuck offers these opportunities because whether students want to leverage them for networking or just to learn more about an executive's experience, they are truly amazing opportunities to get access to senior business leaders. In some ways I feel that I've learned more from my conversations with these senior execs than I ever could just by reading a book or a case.
*(Disclaimer: As a student focused on general management roles, I've chosen to primarily highlight general management visiting execs. We've had a TON of high ranking banking, finance and consulting execs come as well, but I can't speak to them as much as I haven't followed their sign up lists as closely.)
In this article Sanford “Sandy” Kreisberg, founder of MBA admissions consulting firm HBSGuru, analyzes profiles of typical MBA applicants and assesses their odds of getting into several top MBA programs. Great read for anyone trying to answer the question: "Do I have what it takes to get into a great school?"
In keeping with the spirit of a globally focused MBA program, we (students) have a photo contest each year for the best shot of the Tuck logo in a rare, dangerous or exotic place around the world. Here are a couple of my favorites!
I will graduate from Tuck in five months - and as a female MBA student, I feel pressure to find a job with work life balance. I've noticed that this goal of "work life balance" isn't so much something I am seeking but something that other women think that all women must ultimately pursue. If you don't seek work life balance, you are somehow typecast as a bad wife, bad mother...etc. Ironically, the people that typecast you as the two headed dragon - a bad wife and mother - aren't men. In fact, it's most often women that push other women to pursue less challenging jobs in the name of work life balance.
Sheryl Sandberg did an excellent job addressing this issue in her 2011 commencement speech at Barnard College:
"I have deep respect for my friends who make different choices than I do, who choose the really hard job of raising children... These are choices that you may make some day, and these are fine choices.
But until that day, do everything you can to make sure that when that day comes, you even have a choice to make. Because what I have seen most clearly in my 20 years in the workforce is this: Women almost never make one decision to leave the workforce. It doesn’t happen that way. They make small little decisions along the way that eventually lead them there. Maybe it’s the last year of med school when they say, I’ll take a slightly less interesting specialty because I’m going to want more balance one day. Maybe it’s the fifth year in a law firm when they say, I’m not even sure I should go for partner, because I know I’m going to want kids eventually.
These women don’t even have relationships, and already they’re finding balance, balance for responsibilities they don’t yet have. And from that moment, they start quietly leaning back. The problem is, often they don’t even realize it.
If several years ago you stopped challenging yourself, you’re going to be bored. If you work for some guy who you used to sit next to, and really, he should be working for you, you’re going to feel undervalued, and you won’t come back. So, my heartfelt message to all of you is, and start thinking
about this now, do not leave before you leave. Do not lean back; lean in. Put your foot on that gas pedal and keep it there until the day you have to make a decision, and then make a decision. That’s the only way, when that day comes, you’ll even have a decision to make."
Once I watched this video I realized that I too had started quietly leaning back.
Last year I took an internship with a top consumer goods company that was known for its work life balance and is rated one of the best places for mothers to work. When I accepted the offer, those seemed like good selling points to me. However, once I started working there I found the work to be unchallenging and was perplexed by the culture. The office cleared out by 5pm everyday, no one worked weekends and my boss spent an unusual amount of his desk time planning his son's little league games. After working in a fast paced career pre-MBA (which I loved), I just didn't get the appeal of this 9-5 role. Reflecting on this experience, I realize I had somehow leaned back and convinced myself that a place that 'mothers like' is the place for me. I don't even have kids. So why was I making career choices around children that I may or may not ever have?
As I move forward with my full-time job search, I've realized that I must be true to myself and my dreams. I didn't come to Tuck with the ultimate goal of finding "work life balance". I came to Tuck to develop the skill set and network I need to pursue what I'm passionate about - and that's exactly what I intend to do.
Here's to leaning in and keeping our feet firmly planted on the gas pedal!
"I can't begin to tell you how many situations a recommender has derailed an applicant's dreams by procrastinating or doing a shoddy job" points out Chioma Isiadinso author of The Best Business School Admissions Secrets. Clearly after all the hard work that's gone into your application, the last thing you want is to get dinged for a bad letter of recommendation. So what can you do to prevent this from happening?
Choose recommenders that know you well - Ideally your recommenders should be your immediate manager (when possible) or a prior manager that can speak to your leadership skills and progression. Don't choose the CEO or someone else with a fancy title in hopes of impressing the admissions office. This technique will backfire on you. The admissions office wants to read a letter of recommendation from someone that knows you well and has worked closely with you.
*If you choose someone that's written your annual review before, you should have a good idea (based on past reviews) of how they regard you as a leader and what they will be most inclined to write about.
Choose recommenders that will CHAMPION you - As Ms. Isiadinso points out in the above video, you need to think of yourself as a brand and choose a recommender that's willing to be a brand champion for you. Run the other way and find a new recommender if your potential recommender says: he's too busy, doesn't understand why you want to get an MBA or just generally doesn't come across as supportive. This type of person is not going to champion you in your letter of recommendation.
Prime your recommenders with your successes - Not everyone is a natural for writing letters of recommendation. Take the time to set up a meeting with your recommender early on and discuss what you'll be writing about in your application essays and what you think your key successes are as a leader. If it's been a while since you worked with your recommender, this is especially important. Even if you recommender thinks you are a rock star, the precise details of your accomplishments may be a little hazy in his mind and need refreshing. The last thing you want is a vague or generic letter of recommendation that doesn't back up any of the 'key messages' in your essays.
Give your recommenders sufficient time to write your letter of recommendation - Depending on how many schools you're applying to and how busy your recommenders are, you'll want to give them 1-6 months to write the recommendations. It's also helpful to follow up with them as the deadline approaches to make sure everything is submitted on time.
In the eternal quest to beat the GMAT, it's easy to get caught up in the GMAT hype and think it's the end all and be all of your application. It's not. While it's important to have a GMAT score that falls in the competitive range for your target school, scoring the elusive 800 isn't going to be what gets you accepted. However, putting together a well-rounded application that makes you stand out from the heap of other applications will.
So how can you make yourself 'stand out yet fit in'? If you don't know the answer to this question then I highly recommend that you use an admissions consultant.
While I was in the very early stages of my MBA application process, a friend of mine at Stanford GSB told me that he had used an admissions consultant and that he highly recommended that I use one as well. At first, I was skeptical to say the least. Admissions consultants are known to charge a pretty price tag - would I really get my money's worth out of this service? Nevertheless, I decided to get a basic package with Stacy Blackman Consulting and it was worth every penny.
When I first met with my admissions consultant, I felt confident about my candidacy but wasn't quite sure which experiences to highlight in my essays to really make me standout. Thankfully my admissions consultant did a phenomenal job in helping me determine which experiences to highlight in my essays for each school. With her guidance, I was able to put together a knock out application that got me into my top choice.
In summary, if you're not sure how to make yourself standout from the competition, invest in an admissions consultant. (Unless you think you'll need a lot of editing help, a 4-5 hour package will generally do.) I personally recommend Stacy Blackman, but I've also heard Maureen Phalen at the Admissions Advisory Group is excellent as well!
