Highlights of My Tuck MBA Experience
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THE TUCK MBA AT DARTMOUTH?
I chose Tuck because when I visited, people weren't networking at me, they were just talking to me. Coming out of the Air Force and then spending a few years in corporate environments, I had a pretty good sense of what felt real and what didn’t. Tuck felt real. The size of the program, the fact that you actually know everyone, the location in Hanover where you kind of have no choice but to be present with your community—all of it pointed to a place where I could grow in a genuine way. Looking back over the past two years, I am so grateful I made the decision to come to Tuck.
WHAT ARE SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF YOUR TUCK MBA EXPERIENCE SO FAR?
Tuck is small enough that everyone truly matters. That sounds simple, but it shapes the entire Tuck experience. Serving as Class President gave me a chance to see behind the curtain a little, and what I found was that the entire community (students, faculty, staff) genuinely care about Tuck. It’s not performative. Getting to co-create traditions with classmates, from the “Soup”erbowl to the Night in the Woods, to two wild games of Tuck Tuck Goose, those are the moments I'll carry with me. Additionally, my Compass Mentor Hans Reichstetter T’10, had a profound impact on how I navigated my time here, and I don’t think that relationship would have been possible at a bigger program where community might be built outside of campus. At Tuck, people slow down enough to actually invest in each other. That's the thing that's hard to explain to someone who hasn't experienced it.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE AT TUCK?
The treks I participated in were incredible. Going to Vietnam for the FYP and then Peru for our GIX pushed me in ways I really didn’t expect, and the Selma/Montgomery trek was one of the most meaningful experiences of my adult life. Academically, courses like Ramon’s Strategy in Emerging Markets and Ella Bell’s Leadership Out of the Box shifted how I think about leadership and life.
CAN YOU SHARE A MOMENT OR LESSON FROM YOUR TIME AT TUCK THAT WILL STAY WITH YOU LONG AFTER GRADUATION?
Night in the Woods, easily. We created it as a student board tradition: candlelight, the woods, no real agenda, just space for the community to be together—and somehow the entire school showed up. I remember standing there taking it all in and thinking, this is the magic people talk about when they describe Tuck. You create a space for people to connect, and everyone leans in, every time because this community genuinely cares about being together and showing up for each other. That night made me deeply grateful to be part of it, and I know I’ll carry that feeling with me long after graduation.
WHAT WILL YOU MISS MOST ABOUT YOUR TIME AT TUCK?
I will miss the ease of connection. Not that Tuck is easy, it isn’t, but the way that meaningful conversations just happen here. You run into someone between classes and end up talking for an hour. You stay after a lecture because the discussion was too good to walk away from. You show up for a friend’s presentation just because that's what people do here. I don’t know what it will feel like to be somewhere that doesn’t naturally work that way, and honestly, I think a part of me is a little nervous to find out. This place has a way of making you feel like the people around you are genuinely on your team, and that doesn't just happen anywhere.
IN ONE SENTENCE, HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE TUCK MBA EXPERIENCE TO SOMEONE CONSIDERING BUSINESS SCHOOL?
Tuck is the rare place where the people aren’t just part of the experience, they are the experience, and somehow that turns a business school in the woods of New Hampshire into a place that feels like home.
