Dartmouth Tuck Essay Tips: Essays 1 & 2

Dartmouth Tuck has released their application deadlines and essay questions for the 2022-23 application cycle. Here are the important dates and Admitify’s guidance on Essays 1 and 2.

Dartmouth Tuck: Your essays are an opportunity to articulate your candidacy for Tuck. The best responses are clear, succinct, forthright, thoughtful, genuine, and so distinctly personal that only you could have written them. We expect that your essays are completely accurate and exclusively your own. Use of essay writing services violates Tuck’s admissions policies and Academic Honor Principle.

Essay #1: Tuck students can articulate how the distinctive Tuck MBA will advance their aspirations. Why are you pursuing an MBA and why Tuck? (300 words)

Admitify Guidance:

This is a standard Goals + Why Us? essay. The Why Tuck piece is far more important than the Why an MBA piece, however, so feel free to devote 200 of the word count to a meaty, savvy, due-diligenced discussion of the specific Tuck resources (classes, faculty, out-of-classroom experiences, culture, etc.) by name (as in state the actual specific name of the resources; don’t generalize about them) that connect with your post-MBA goals. If you also want to mention Tuck resources that have very little to do with your goals but attract you, do for it, but at least 75% of the Why Tuck material should be directly relevant to your goals. Why? Because you want to convince Tuck that its resources (rather than its rankings or brand) are why you seek admission. Given that Tuck only gives you 300 words, we recommend cutting to the chase and stating your long- and short-term post-MBA career plan (perhaps mentioning your Plan B) directly at the start of the essay. Be as specific as possible, for example, name relevant job titles or organizations by name, and if space permits, state how the short-term goal helps get you to the long-term goal. You can address the ‘Why an MBA’ question in 1-2 sentences between the goals statement and the Why Tuck section: which skills do you lack that your goals require and that a Tuck MBA can give you?

Essay #2: Tuck students recognize how their individuality adds to the fabric of Tuck. Tell us who you are. (300 words)

Admitify Guidance:

Treat this as you would Harvard Business School’s ‘what more would you like us to know?’ prompt or Stanford’s ‘What matters most?’ promote: this is where you drill down and spill your soul, your deepest drivers, the experience or cause or passion that most defines you – even if it has absolutely nothing to do with your current career (though hopefully it will connect with why you seek an MBA). Three hundred words is not very much so you will have to shoot your shot with maximum economy, vividness, and self-exposure. Don’t waste word count on general ‘thematic’ statements; cut to the chase. If who you are is defined by an experience or challenge you have lived, then start describing that experience. If who you are is defined by a passion, then begin describing what you really love about that passion (hobby) and how good you are at it. If who you are us defined by some mission or goal then start telling us where in your life that mission comes from and what you’ve been doing to realize it. This is the essay where you let your personality shine through. If an essay about ‘who you are’ comes across as dull or phoned in, then you will have a big problem getting the admissions reader interested in you. Feel free to end the essay with a sentence connecting the ‘who you are’ to specific Tuck activities where ‘who you are’ can be expressed.

Check back next week for guidance on Essay 3 and the Optional Essay, and contact us to start on your application today!