WHY MBA?
My path makes more sense when you connect the dots backwards. Over the past 10 years or so I’ve gone from studying Biology and English, to teaching English in Rural Thailand, to climbing my way through a startup in India, to finally finding myself in Hanover. It took a while, but I finally figured out business was where I could best apply myself. I’ve always been analytical, and through my education and work experience have developed a love for problem solving, working with people, and making an impact.

When I found myself wanting a change, not just in job, but in country, industry, and environment, an MBA made a lot of sense. I wanted to build a foundation in business fundamentals, grow a network, and look beyond India and Thailand. I also wanted to press pause on work and give myself room to grow as a person.

While I sometimes wish I had figured it out earlier, I do believe that the time I spent meandering worked in my favor, giving me lots of great experience to apply to Tuck with and share in the classroom.

ON TUCK’S GLOBAL FOCUS
Having lived and worked around the world, it was very important to me to join an MBA program that had a clear global focus, and Tuck really delivered on this for me. The network I’ve forged over the past two years is full of individuals from different backgrounds, all of whom bring diverse perspectives to the table.

In class, we talk about businesses and economies all over the world, often with people (classmates, guests, or professors) with experience in these geographies. Beyond the classroom, it’s been awesome to take the global focus to another level through Global Insight Expeditions and other trips I’ve taken during my time at Tuck. 

My GIX was to South Korea, a country that had been discussed in classes like Managing People and Growth Economics. On this trip, we not only peeked under the hood of businesses ranging from skincare to industrial manufacturing, but also got to experience first-hand the customs and culture of this country, and hear the voices of the individuals that had lived what we had read about just months before. 

Without such experiences, it is difficult to envision how businesses (and the people who run them) truly operate in other parts of the world. What’s on paper often looks very different in person. I am so grateful for what I’ve been able to experience during my two years here. 

ON TUCK’S ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE 
I came to Tuck for the core curriculum. The core is such a great way to not only build a strong foundation in business fundamentals, but also to get to know your classmates and hear their experiences in the context of key subjects. In the core and beyond, there is a healthy mix of case method and lecture-style teaching, which is great for different types of learners and different levels of experience. Our class size is small enough that you can really get to know your professors, both in and outside the classroom, and our professors are so passionate about what they teach that it resonates in their material. I’ve loved the mix of electives, and the fact that so many professors have been excited to talk to me about further questions and pursuits that their classes have inspired. In fact, I’ve even gotten the chance to work with professors on some of the material they’ve developed for class, which has been an incredible honor and learning experience.

ON COMMUNITY AND RECRUITING
I think most people know, when they apply to Tuck, that the sense of community here is exceptional. To have lived it, however, is really something else. I felt it most strongly during the consulting recruitment process. I had two second year mentors and plenty of others who were willing to do mock case interviews with me, a full curriculum laid out by past Consulting Club members that helped me learn how to interview, alumni at various firms excited to talk to me, and, of course, peers in my own class that I was prepping alongside. To say we support each other here is an understatement, we uplift, encourage and challenge each other. This of course extends well beyond recruiting, but to feel the power of the Tuck community so early in my first year, in what could have been a cut-throat environment, was amazing

ON TUCK’S UNIQUE LOCATION
Leaving my comfort zone at business school wasn’t just about academics or recruiting. A lot of it, actually, had to do with activities that come with a life in the Upper Valley. I am a city girl, and so the idea of ice hockey, skiing, hiking, canoeing, and everything in between, was a little overwhelming at first. That being said, after some nudges from classmates, I can happily report that these activities became important parts of my experience at Tuck, not only because of the friends I made while partaking, but also because of how I was pushed to get comfortable with being a humble beginner at something at this stage of my life, and get excited about starting at square one, stumbling as I was. 

In fact, I remember my first tripod hockey game, we played at Thompson Arena: I was my team’s goalie, and I had never set foot on the ice before. Moments after getting dragged into the goal by my teammates, I attempted to stand up and found myself slipping and falling on my back. Fortunately, I was wearing so much padding that I didn’t get hurt, but I was like a turtle on my back and incredibly annoyed. I started yelling “flip me!” and after what felt like an eternity, two of my teammates came and helped me up. They gave me a thumbs up and shortly after, I blocked my first goal. We lost, but I felt like I had won, just a little.