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Interview with Christie St-John - Senior Associate Director, Admissions at Tuck School of Business

Tuck School of Business
Business School Research

F1GMAT: What are some of the advantages of having Tuck School of Business in Hanover?

Christie - St John Senior Associate Director of Admissions Christie St-John : Most people who visit tell me that they are always amazed by how friendly people are at Tuck and they see that the students, professors and staff actually do know each other and have conversations in the hallway and the cafeteria. This is often in contrast to what they see at other schools., Although everyone’s website talks about ‘community’ and ‘collaboration’, at Tuck it is true. Also, by being located outside a big city, our students learn to make their own fun and this in turn, helps them create very strong bonds of friendship – and they learn new things too, such as tripod hockey, how to make maple syrup, and deep international cultural understanding. Another one of the pluses of being in Hanover is that corporate recruiters  love to come here. We treat them well, and this is the sort of place that is relaxed and convivial. The recruiters often stay all day rather than just stopping in for an hour or so. There is something very tranquil too about looking out the window and seeing the snow covering the mountains, or in spring, the first green buds appearing on the trees. This is a relatively stress-free environment (except for the academics!) and I think students appreciate being out of the hustle and bustle of a city for the two years they are here.

F1GMAT: What are the entry criteria in terms of the number of years of experience/GMAT/GPA for Tuck Full-time MBA program?

Christie St-John : We are more about quality than quantity, whether this pertains to number of years work experience or test scores. However, since our program is very small compared to some of our peers, we are also selective. We want students to come in with work experience. This both benefits them in understanding what they are studying, and benefits their classmates during group discussions. The range of experience goes from 2 to 14 years of work. The average is 5 years.

The GMAT score should be strong, especially in the quantitative area. The range last year was 560-790, with an average of 716. The GPA is counted in statistics only for US schools with a 4.0 grading system, and the average last year was 3.5. We do look at all student transcripts very carefully and if we see that the student has not taken very challenging classes, or that they have not done well in several classes, we would be very wary of admitting them. Our program is quite rigorous and we want everyone here to be successful. We counsel students to take Quant classes  before they even apply to business school. It will make them more competitive and also make their life much easier when they are enrolled.

F1GMAT: What is the biggest misconception about Tuck Dartmouth MBA programs?

Christie St-John : The  biggest misconception is that because we are in a small town in New Hampshire there won’t be much diversity in the student body. Visitors are impressed by the number of non-US students they meet while they are here. People also often think that because Dartmouth is an Ivy League school that our students will be somewhat snobbish or elitist, but that is not the case. The atmosphere here is very friendly, open minded, tolerant and respectful of others.

F1GMAT: Latest statistics shows that 34% of MBA candidates are of International origin. What attracts International students to Tuck’s MBA program?

Christie St-John : Personally, if I were an international student applying to business school, I would definitely come to Tuck if I could. Why? Because we are such a small, supportive community that our international students have a great experience. They are not thrown out into a big city where they have to find a place to live, figure out the transportation system, learn where to shop, etc. And their families are incorporated into the Tuck community as well. Our Tuck Partners Club is very active and seeks to include all Tuck partners and children, many of whom are international. I think it helps them ease into a new culture gradually, and takes away a lot of the stress accompanying any uprooting from one’s friends and family. Also, the Tuck brand is recognized by the folks who hire MBAs and we attract top companies all over the world who know and appreciate the quality of our students.

F1GMAT: Every school promotes its MBA program with some common marketable components like Accreditations, ROI, Job prospects and Unique learning methodologies. What makes Tuck stand out from the competition?

Christie St-John : There are so many things that I could write a book about it! As mentioned above, we attract top corporate recruiters who hire our students. We also have a wonderful Speaker Series where experts in many fields come to speak to the students, and then . stay on campus to hold office hours and have lunch with students.  We have conferences in almost every area of interest, such as Private Equity, Digital Strategy, Climate Issues and Clean Energy, Business and Society, Health Care Issues, Entrepreneurship, International Conferences focused on India, China, Europe, or South America, New Technology and more. One of the most important aspects of academics at Tuck is our faculty. Every member of the faculty teaches in the program. We don’t have Ph.D. students teaching our MBA students, and the students have the opportunity to work with the leading minds in business research.  At some schools, research faculty is just that: they research but do not teach. At Tuck, our faculty are renowned scholars and excellent teachers. To sum it up in one word, the uniqueness of Tuck is accessibility, be that faculty, visiting VIPs, alumni or staff.

F1GMAT: Has the state of the economy affected Tuck MBA's job prospects?

Christie St-John : As in the “real world” so it was in business schools.  There was a great deal of turmoil these  last couple of years, and yet we ended up ahead of all of our peer schools.  This was partly because of the huge effort by the Career Development Office and also by alumni who came to Tuck to counsel  students who were still job searching. That is the kind of experience that is common at Tuck but not always elsewhere.  Things have righted themselves now and so far, we have a majority of the class with full-time and summer offers. Our students are so well prepared, so smart, and so good at team work and leadership, that we know they will find their dream job

F1GMAT: What are some of the unique courses offered in Tuck’s Full-time MBA program? How will these courses help MBA students?

Christie St-John : I think our Leadership Program is certainly unique. We recently inaugurated the Center for Leadership under the supervision of Professor Pino Audia, wherein students are intimately involved in not only learning new leadership strategies, but also in developing their own personal leadership plan for business, personal and community roles they will undertake.

Tuck has developed curricular and other activities that move the leadership-development process forward. All first-year students take the Personal Leadership course, during which they compare how they see themselves with how others see them. This can be a powerful educational experience that serves as the basis for a personal leadership plan. Students use their plans to understand which behaviors they need to develop and what opportunities they will need to do so.

Also,  Tuck's unique Research-to-Practice Seminars were designed by our faculty to advance the critical thinking skills of our graduates. As students in these small seminars discuss a professor's current research, they gain insight into the way top-level researchers go about knowledge creation. The simultaneous result is to teach students to be intellectually skeptical, to test ideas against both theory and data.

Finally, but certainly not last, the Tuck Global Consultancy is a field-study course in which students work with companies and NGOs operating outside the United States. On-site consulting projects of three weeks are carried out by small teams of students working under the supervision of advisors who have extensive consulting experience. As they learn more about consulting, Tuck students also learn how to operate effectively in new environments and cultures.

F1GMAT: What are some of the defining characteristics that you look for in a potential Tuck MBA candidate?

Christie St-John : Since we are a small program, we want people here who really want to be at Tuck and who appreciate what we stand for. They should be very strong academically, have interesting work experience,  be active in their community, and be willing to try new things and get outside of their comfort zone to experience all that we have to offer.

F1GMAT:  Can you give our readers a demographic snapshot of the Full-time MBA program?

Christie St-John :

Geographic Overview Tuck School of Business





Academic Background Tuck School of Business

Work Experience Tuck School of Business




Interesting Facts

Interesting Facts about Tuck Dartmouth School of Business

About Christie St-John

Christie - St John Senior Associate Director of Admissions Christie St-John studied in Italy for two years and then worked in Monte Carlo, Monaco for six years, first in marketing, then in oil and gas trading. She returned to the United States to complete her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at Vanderbilt University. Christie is the Senior Associate Director of Admissions at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College since 2004, where she focuses on recruiting and mentoring international students.

Winning MBA Essay Guide - A Complete Guide for M7 and Top 15 MBA Application Essays 


F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay guide will teach you how to transform your essay into a life journey with trials and tribulations that will move the admission team.

+ Over 245 Sample Essays (Read Previews of F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay Guide Sample Essays here)

+ Top 15 MBA Programs (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Booth, MIT, Kellogg, Yale, Haas, Darden, INSEAD, LBS, NYU Stern, Tuck, Duke Fuqua, Ross)
+ The Art of Storytelling 
+ Leadership Narratives
+ Review Tips
+ Persuasion Strategies
+ The Secret to "unleashing" your unique voice
+ How to prepare and present for the Video Essay
+ How to write about your Strengths
+ How to write about your Weaknesses
 
 

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F1GMAT's Essay Guides

  • Harvard MBA Essay Guide (20 Sample Essays)

    Growth-Oriented Essay: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words) 

    Example #1: Persistence Narrative 
    Background Information: The applicant – a design and music talent, shares her journey through several setbacks. She attributes curiosity to her growth.  
    Curiosity: Philosophy  
    Curiosity (Explained): Curiosity as a philosophy is tough to translate into a narrative unless you are from the creative industry or your contributions had an influence on a solution or an initiative.  
    MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to capture the humanity of the applicant and her influence in music instead of just highlighting how she overcame multiple roadblocks to gain attention as a designer.  
    Theme: Persistence  
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Life Starts at NO (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example) 

    Example #2: International Community Building 
    Background Information: The applicant, a Machine Learning (ML) entrepreneur specializing in healthcare diagnostics, shares how his curiosity to learn other ML algorithms’ evolution in diagnosing Alzheimer’s, cancer, and heart disease transformed his platform into a global community. 
    MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to show the applicant’s contributions in diagnostic from 2020 to 2024 by citing two events. Such examples build credibility instead of engagements that were recent. The evolution of the platform from an AI development community to a community for discussing the application of AI in diagnostics is captured through a ‘curiosity’ angle.
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Growth through Collaboration (AI in Healthcare) (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #3: Culture
    Background Information: The applicant, an Entrepreneur from India narrates his first entrepreneurial experience – facilitating exchange of stamps in the late 1990s.
    Theme: Culture
    MBA Essay Strategy:  Instead of addressing the biases in the investor community that could turn preachy, I wanted to focus on the applicant and his entrepreneurial journey by citing two entrepreneurial experiences – a platform(club) for stamp collection and his Grocery delivery App.
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – The American Dream (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #4: Addiction
    Background Information: The applicant – a beneficiary of the foster home system, captures the sacrifice his adopted grandparents made to save him from a path of addiction. Paying it back through early intervention among teenagers and community engagement is the curiosity narrative.
    Theme: Addiction
    MBA Essay Strategy:  My strategy is to capture a gratitude narrative in the first one-third of the essay to demonstrate motivation for starting the venture and dedicate the latter part of the essay to the unique solution
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Drug Addiction and Gaming (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #5: Scarcity
    Background Information: The applicant, an education major, recognizes that 70% of all students in Kenya don’t have a computer. The curiosity that drives him to pivot from one solution to another is the growth narrative.
    Theme: Innovation
    MBA Essay Strategy:  Often, innovation is captured with a ‘hero’ narrative where the applicant is the sole originator of an idea. I wanted to break that cliché and include a person from whom the applicant learned to use a concept called ‘scaffolding.’
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Scarcity (Growth-Oriented HBS Essay Example)

    Example #6: FinTech
    Background Information: The applicant captures a vulnerable moment of a beneficiary to compare his journey of side hustle before a technology giant noticed his talent. Although cryptocurrency is not a flavor for the year, capture niches where innovation is still happening. 
    Theme: Education, Child Welfare
    MBA Essay Strategy:  Empathizing with a techno solution is tough without a strong backstory around the beneficiary. For the essay, I wanted to clearly establish the beneficiary – Rami, before the applicant narrates the similarities to his journey and finally shares the solution that emerged from his curiosity.
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – FinTech as a Tool for Good (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #7: Learning from the best
    Background Information: The applicant – a Remote Engineer in the Oil and Gas industry, reflects on a value that has helped her learn from the best regardless of her geographical limitations.
    Theme: Learning
    MBA Essay Strategy:  The effectiveness of the case-study method depends on the assumption that peers in a Harvard MBA class will help elevate your learning experience. For the essay, I have highlighted the applicant’s recognition of this value proposition with three examples.
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Learning from the Best (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #8: Military & Search for IMPACT
    Background Information: The most common narrative for US military applicants is to quote 9/11 and the reaction your immediate family had while watching the events unfold. The horrifying moment is captured as a motivation to join the Military. On digging deeper, most applicants would share that their motivations were diverse.
    Theme: Career Choice
    MBA Essay Strategy:  I wanted to quickly highlight that the applicant had the choice of entering any industry. One achievement to demonstrate his curiosity that I shared in the first half is the invention of a game. Since the game is mentioned in the resume and verifiable through search, I didn’t quote the name. By clearly highlighting the person’s curiosity and career options, the family legacy is used as a factor in joining the military.
    Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Career Choice after a Military Career (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
     
    Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)

    Example #9: Small Business Values
    Background Information: The applicant - a second-generation Asian American, is familiar with the values of fiscal conservatism, building relationships, and understanding the daily struggles of the community through his family’s department store.
    Theme: Customer-Centric
    MBA Essay Strategy:  The applicant’s role in developing an App for the store is highlighted in the essay at a crucial part of the narrative so that the essay is not all about his father. I have also humanized the journey – by sharing how upset the father was when the revenues fell by 40%. The essay is about the transformation in the applicant’s value from a person chasing productivity and optimization technique to someone who is truly thinking about the customers. 
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Small Business Values (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #10: Breaking Away from Family Business
    Background Information: A unique challenge that applicants whose parents are public figures or CXOs of businesses or entrepreneurs are the pressure to live up to the parent’s standards or milestones. For the leadership narrative, the burden of legacy is established before the narrative addresses his leadership principles.
    Theme: Authenticity  
    MBA Essay Strategy:  For the essay, I want to capture an entrepreneur’s journey to rise above his entrepreneur father’s image. But I didn’t want to make the entire essay about this complex dynamics. The narrative is around the applicant’s focus on customers and surrounding with teams who keeps him grounded. 
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Breaking Away from Family Business(Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #11: Creativity and Communication 
    Background Information: When the overall percentage of users with internet access is 62% in South Africa and the inequality accentuated by the rural and urban divide, the applicant endured the lack of digital infrastructure, and spending close to 22% of the family income on gaining relevant information on schools, global exams, and financial assistance. 
    Theme: Creativity, Communication
    MBA Essay Strategy:  The strategy is to share why the applicant values no distraction in a child’s home for optimum education experience. Then I highlight the many roadblocks the applicant’s non-profit faced in receiving fee waiver for their cooperative run ISP.
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Non-Profit (Telecom) (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #12: Mental Health
    Background Information: The applicant like most didn’t pay much attention to the mental health epidemic until tragedy hit home.
    Theme: Communication, Innovation
    MBA Essay Strategy:  A question we frequently get from applicants is whether they should cite tragedy in the family as a motivation for a venture or a non-profit initiative. As long as you don’t linger too much on the tragedy and offer a balanced narrative, there are no restrictions on leveraging unique stories from your life. 
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Mental Health (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #13: Trauma, Healing & Finding Authentic Self
    Background Information: The applicant narrates the absurdity of war in the narrative about the duties in Kabul, and the trauma. Instead of wallowing in on the horror, the applicant takes what makes military applicants strong and guides unprivileged children build life and leadership skills.
    Theme: Resilience
    MBA Essay Strategy:  Capturing PTSD in an essay, the healing process, and the cues that helped the applicant are too sacred to be shared in a Harvard MBA application essay. However, with the right motivation and narrative arcs, you can capture the essence of your journey without sharing the darkest secrets. That is what I did by merging two stories – the horrors of the war with a non-profit engagement.
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Military & PTSD (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #14: Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra
    Background Information: In this narrative, the applicant captures Peru’s Silver mining boom of 2006. The growth experienced in her father’s business shifted the family’s economic status to a new stratosphere. Through the changing economic and family dynamics, the applicant finds her voice in a unique way, initially to record her unheard voice but later as one of the youngest subject matter experts in mining and commodities.  
    Theme: Failure
    MBA Essay Strategy:  For the essay, the strategy is to show how life’s unpredictability is a blessing. By narrating two setback events, the essay demonstrates the applicant’s resilience and her acknowledgment of people who made a comeback possible.
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Example #15: War, Immigration and Starting Over Again
    Background Information: Despite a raging war in Syria, the family of the applicant was unblemished by the chaos. The strategic government assets near the applicant’s house would have made the region an easy target, but it was not. The calmness of her journey is shattered in one event. From the privileges of a cocooned life, the applicant is forced to think about survival, her sister’s future, and her future in the US. The second half of the narrative captures the change that was forced on her. 
    Theme: Gratitude, Resilience
    MBA Essay Strategy:  I consciously chose not to start the essay with a dialogue or trauma. Two lines are allocated to set up the narrative before the trauma event.
    Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – War, Immigration and Starting Over Again (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)

    Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)

    Example #16: Creative or Finance
    Background Information: The applicant starts the narrative with the origin of her talents. The unbridled enthusiasm receives a reality check when in high school, the applicant’s father has a conversation with her about academics. While the applicant picked up her quant skills, she was reaching over 50,000 loyal fans, and her videos captured 1 million views. 
    Theme: Passion, Talent
    MBA Essay Strategy:  Capturing vulnerability is the toughest part for Harvard MBA applicants. For this essay example, I have captured the applicant’s uncertainty about career choice throughout the essay. Here the goal is to show vulnerability in the career choice essay while for leadership and growth essay, I could capture one example each from creative and PE industry respectively to balance the narrative. So don’t follow this example without a strategy.  
    Read: Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay – Creative or Finance (Business-Minded HBS MBA Essay Example)

  • Stanford MBA Essay Guide (24 Sample Essays)
  • Columbia MBA Essay Guide (21 Sample Essays)
  • Wharton MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
  • INSEAD MBA Essay Guide (19 Sample Essays)
  • Darden MBA Essay Guide  (21 Sample Essays) 
  • Yale SOM MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
  • Tuck MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
  • Haas MBA Essay Guide (18 Sample Essays)
  • NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays + 6 Examples - Visual Essay)
  • LBS MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Essays)
  • MIT Sloan MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Cover Letters + 3 Sample Video Statement Scripts + 3 Sample Optional Essays)
  • Kellogg MBA Essay Guide (11 Sample Essays)
  • Chicago Booth MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)
  • Ross MBA Essay Guide (31 Sample Essays)
  • Duke Fuqua MBA Essay Guide (10 Sample Essays + Two 25 Random Things Samples)
  • Cambridge MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)

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