2021-22 Dartmouth Tuck. MBA Interview Questions & Guide.

Dartmouth Tuck MBA Interview Overview.
Sign up for a Dartmouth Tuck MBA Mock Interview.
Examples of Tuck MBA Interview Questions.

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Dartmouth Tuck MBA Interview Overview.

Candidate-initiated and Invitation-Only Interviews.

At Dartmouth Tuck applicants who would like to interview on Tuck’s campuscan schedule an interview via the Dartmouth Tuck website. There are a limited number of interview slots available beginning in September so it’s best to sign up early. If you applied to Tuck but didn’t complete an applicant-initiated interview, Tuck’s admissions committee might invite you to interview after reviewing your application.

Where? On-campus or in select international locations. With Whom? Current Students or Admissions Committee Members.

Interviews are conducted by second-year MBA students and MBA admissions committee members.

Blind Interviews.

During the 2021-22 MBA application season, the Tuck MBA program will be conducting blind interviews. A blind MBA interview is one in which the interviewer has not read the applicant’s MBA application (recommendations, essays, short answers etc.). What the interviewer does have access to is the applicant’s resume (and, if they decide to do an internet search, the applicant’s LinkedIn profile or any other biographical information on the web such as an ‘about me’ page on a organizational or community website).

That gives the MBA applicant free range to weave stories and material from their application into the interview. If the MBA interview is in-person, applicants should bring a paper copy of their resume to the interview location as a courtesy to the interviewer. If the interview takes place online then applicants should have a PDF copy of their resume handy should the interview request that it be sent via email. Oftentimes busy MBA interviewers won’t have spent much time reviewing the applicant’s resume before the interview. That’s why Tuck MBA applicants should be ready to give their interviewer a 2-minute overview of who they are at the beginning of the meeting (note that this is often the first interview question anyway, ‘So tell me about yourself…‘).

Influence of interview on admissions decision? Low to Moderate.

While an interview with an admissions committee member can influence your candidacy for the better or for the worse, an interview with a current student or an alum can really only influence your candidacy for the worse. The rest of this section pertains to student or alum interviews.

The reality is that a successful (student or alum) interview will not help an applicant secure an admit to Tuck’s upcoming MBA class, but a failed (student or alum) interview can hurt an applicant (i.e. result in a ding). Not obvious at first blush, below, interested readers can delve into an explanation of why that is.

Imagine you’re the Dartmouth Tuck MBA Admissions Committee. For the 2021-22 MBA application season you’ve secured more than 100 alumni volunteers, scattered across the globe, conducting MBA admissions interviews for Tuck. Jane concludes in her report to the admissions committee that MBA applicant #1 is ‘great‘ and Bill reports in that another applicant, applicant #2, is ‘a good fit‘. You (the Tuck MBA admissions committee) only have one place left to fill in the upcoming MBA class. Which applicant would you choose?

It will be a very difficult choice because with so many different interviewers, it’s impossible for you (the Dartmouth Tuck MBA admissions committee) to quality control the process and make good use of the qualitative feedback you receive from interviewers. After all, what’s the difference between a ‘good fit’ and a ‘great’ applicant? The truth is that the admissions committee is really only interested in one question: Would this applicant make for a great classmate at our school? Is this person a good fit with our school culture? and conversely, Are this person’s attitudes and manner of comporting himself at odds with the Tuck’s culture? i.e. Is this person a jerk (insert adjective of your choice here)?

A successful 2021-22 MBA interview at Dartmouth Tuck is one in which you persuade your alumni interviewer that ‘Yes!’ you would be a great classmate and you are a fit with the culture. This won’t help the application per se, but it won’t hurt it either (which is the important thing). If instead you fail to convince the alumnus that you are a great fit, and on top of that do something to actively put him or her off, then it can seriously hurt your application. Nobody wants to recruit a jerk to campus.

I hope that my explanation makes sense to you and sheds light on the student or alumni-led MBA interview which always carries less weight in the decision process than an admissions committee or staff-led interview (where quality control is possible and results an be normalized). At schools with student or alumni-led interviews the written application takes on greater importance. MBA programs with student or alumni-led interviews include: Berkeley Haas, Chicago Booth, Columbia, Dartmouth Tuck, Duke Fuqua, INSEAD, Kellogg, London Business School, Michigan Ross, Stanford, UCLA Anderson, Wharton, and Yale.

At the other end of the spectrum, schools that rely on a small group of trained admissions committee members or staff to conduct interviews. At these MBA programs the interview plays a greater role in the admissions process (relative to student or alumni-led interviews). MBA programs with admissions committee-led interviews include: Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, UVA Darden and NYU Stern.

Sign up for a Dartmouth Tuck Mock MBA Interview.

Below you can listen to a former client receive feedback on his answer to Why an MBA?. You can earn more about my Mock Interview Service here ($150 for 1.5-hour session).

While each MBA program has a slightly different approach to the types of questions asked in interview, generally speaking there are no big surprises. The goal of your Tuck MBA interviewer isn’t to throw you curve balls but to offer up questions that give you the opportunity to highlight your professional and personal accomplishments, your strengths/weaknesses, your goals, your decision to pursue an MBA and why Dartmouth Tuck is of interest to you in particular.

When faced with an impending interview, you may be tempted to scour the internet and amass an exhaustive list of interview questions. What will you do with all those questions? Most Tuck MBA interviewees will think through answers to each and every one in their head. Sometimes they’ll write out their exact answers on paper and then practice them verbatim. The problem with those strategies is that the first one isn’t very efficient and then second one will leave you sounding robotic when you rattle off your answer out loud.

When I work with Tuck MBA applicants during a mock interview session, we focus on developing answers to a few specific questions (like Tell me about yourself? What are your goals? Why MBA? Why school X?). We then use other questions (Strengths/Weakness?) and behavioral questions (Tell me about a time when…?) to develop a core set of stories. It might surprise you to learn that most people have just 4-6 core stories. That’s because with just a few core stories clients learn to answer multiple interview questions.

At a minimum I would suggest that you prepare the following questions for the Dartmouth Tuck MBA interview:

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. What are your short-term goals and how can Stanford help you achieve those goals?
3. What would you get involved in outside the MBA classroom?
4. What would others say are your two core strengths and one area for improvement (weakness)?
5. + Prepare stories for at least 3-5 behavioral questions of your choice. An example would be: Tell me about a time when you mentored someone. Tell me about a time when a team was underperforming. Tell me about a time when you stepped outside of your defined role.
6. What question do you wish I would have asked you?
7. + Prepare two solid questions for the interviewer.

Examples of Dartmouth Tuck MBA Interview Questions.

Below you’ll find mock interview sequences from Dartmouth Tuck MBA interviews. Studying the sequences will give you a sense of what sort of questions tend to come up.

Dartmouth Tuck MBA Interview Questions 1

1. Could you please walk me through your resume?
2. Why are you pursuing an MBA? Why do you feel that you need an MBA?
3. Why Tuck?
4. Short- and long-term goals
5. What is your greatest accomplishment?
6. (Behavioral Question) Describe a time when a project wasn’t going well.
7. (Behavioral Question)Tell me about a time when you failed.
8. What does Tuck’s motto mean to you?
9. How are you in a group dynamic?
10. How do you motivate people? How would you apply this in a small team setting?
11. What constructive criticism have your teammates/managers given you in the past?
12. Questions for Interviewer

Dartmouth Tuck MBA Interview Questions 2

1. Walk me though your resume.
2. What is your short term goal? Why are you interested in that career?
3. Why MBA?
4. Why Tuck?
5. How do you want to get involved in Tuck community?
6. What can you uniquely contribute to Tuck?
7. (Behavioral Question) Tell me about a time when you worked on a team.
8. What would be your role within study group?
9. What do you think leadership is?
10. (Behavioral Question) Tell me about a time when you took on a leadership role.

Dartmouth Tuck MBA Interview Questions 3

1. Walk me through your resume
2. Why Tuck?
3. Why are you pursuing an MBA now?
4. What will you contribute to Tuck?
5. What classes do you look forward to taking at Tuck?
6. What will your legacy at Tuck be?
7. (Behavioral Question) Tell me about at time you made a mistake at work. How did you handle it?
8. What would your friends say about you in one word?
9. (Behavioral Question) Describe your experience leading people from diverse backgrounds.
10. Questions for Interviewer

Dartmouth Tuck MBA Interview Questions 4

1. Walk me through your resume
2. Why MBA/Why Tuck?
3. (Behavioral Question) Describe a leadership experience
4. (Behavioral Question) Describe a time when you had to motivate someone
5. What would your teammates say about you – both good/bad?
6. Who do you know who has shown great leadership ability, and how have they done it?
7. What have you learned from them and incorporated into your own leadership style?
8. What is your greatest accomplishment?
9. Questions for Interviewer

Dartmouth Tuck MBA Interview Questions 5

1. What was the best thing that happened to you this year/last year?
2. Why MBA?
3. Why an MBA now?
4. Why not an EMBA?
5. How do you think your Tuck classmates will remember you?
6. (Behavioral Question) Tell me about a time when you worked as part of a team to accomplish something, but not as the leader.
7. (Behavioral Question) Tell me about a time when you worked on a project that failed.
8. (Behavioral Question) Tell me about a time when you had a disagreement with a colleague.
9. What will you bring to Tuck?
10. When you’re at Tuck in a study group, what will your study-mates say about you?
11. What will your weaknesses be working in a study group?
12. What 3 things do you want me to tell the admissions director about you?
13. Anything else/other stories you want to talk about?
14. Questions for Interviewer

Dartmouth Tuck MBA Interview Questions 6

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. (Behavioral Question) Can you give me more detail on a time when one of your projects didn’t go as planned?
3. What are your short and long term goals?
4. What is one of your strengths?
5. What is one of your weaknesses?
6. Why do you want to switch fields after graduation and not continue in your current field?
7. What will you contribute to Tuck?
8. How do you work as a leader?
9. Why Tuck?
10. What do you want to get involved with at Tuck outside the classroom?
11. Is there something that I didn’t ask about that you wanted me to ask about?
12. Do you have any questions for me?

Dartmouth Tuck MBA Interview Questions 7

1. Walk me through your resume.
2. Why do you want an MBA?
3. Why Tuck?
4. What’s most unique about Tuck?
5. What do you want to get involved with at Tuck outside the classroom?
6. What unique qualities will you bring to Tuck?
7. What do you want to do in the short-term?
8. What kind of job would your short-term interest translate into?
9. (Behavioral Question) Tell me about a time when you worked independently.
10. What do you want to do in the long-term?
11. (Behavioral Question) Tell me about a time when you worked within a team?
12. (Behavioral Question) Describe a situation where you had a disagreement with someone senior to you. How did you handle it?
13. (Behavioral Question) Give me an example of a significant failure you experienced in the past.
14. Is there something that I didn’t ask about that you wanted me to ask about?
15. Do you have any questions for me?