Tuck’s overarching goals are to provide the world’s best educational preparation for a career of business leadership and to support a faculty of acknowledged thought leaders who are also outstanding teachers.

 

Principles

Everything Tuck does is guided by general principles and values it shares with Dartmouth College relating to integrity, excellence, community, individuality, diversity, and inclusiveness.

Integrity

Personal integrity and accepting responsibility for one’s actions are the cornerstones of leadership. Through our policies, actions, and teaching, we foster a high level of integrity among all our students, faculty, and staff.

Excellence

By setting high standards for our programs, ourselves as individuals, and for our organization, we strive for excellence in all our endeavors.

Community

People work and learn most effectively through teamwork and within a supportive community. Tuck strives to foster a sense of community among all our students, alumni, faculty, and staff.

Individuality

We honor and value each person in our community as an individual, a commitment that is supported by our small scale.

Diversity and Inclusiveness

Diversity of cultures, nationalities, and ethnicities benefits everyone at Tuck, and it is essential to our educational mission. We work to create an environment in which the value of diversity and inclusiveness is understood and celebrated, and we do not tolerate discrimination.

 

Strategic Implementation of Our Educational Philosophy

Tuck’s strategic choices are guided by our principles and by a deeply held educational philosophy.

Faculty Scholarship and Teaching

Business students learn most effectively from scholar-educators who excel in leading-edge research and inspirational teaching. Their teaching is informed by research-based expertise and an academic rigor that edifies their students. Our full-time faculty members teach the large majority of courses in the MBA program and other Tuck offerings.

Access to Faculty

Students’ business knowledge, analytical skills, and decision-making abilities are enhanced by exposure and access to professors’ expertise and methods of knowledge discovery. Tuck’s favorable ratio of students to research-active professors provides an exceptional degree of access, both in and out of the classroom. In addition to core and elective courses, we offer unique, small-scale seminars designed to give students in-depth access to our faculty’s critical thinking skills.

Achievement and Diversity

Students learn much from the experiences of their peers and are motivated by belonging to a collaborative community of brilliant colleagues from diverse backgrounds sharing the goal of being leaders. Tuck requires that its enrollees have a record of high academic achievement and substantive work experience. We ensure that each class possesses a diverse set of personal, cultural, and business experiences and perspectives.

Scale and Focus

Limiting the size of the student body and focusing on specific programs enhances student interaction and allows faculty and staff to concentrate on the quality of the educational experience. Tuck’s size allows it to offer unprecedented access to faculty expertise through specialized and small classes.

Curriculum and Pedagogy

Business leaders need functional knowledge, practical management skills, and the ability to identify and analyze problems from multiple perspectives. Tuck’s program has a rigorous, integrated core curriculum that provides strong functional expertise and develops practical management skills through several teaching methods. Our broad elective offerings allow students to focus on specific areas within the context of the cross-functional knowledge required in top management positions.

Learning Environment

Students learn the most when they fully immerse themselves in their studies. The physical setting and intensity of learning experiences are key factors in the effectiveness of our program. Tuck MBAs study full-time in a close-knit, residential community, providing abundant opportunities for personal and professional development. Our living and learning facilities are designed to encourage complete immersion in learning with a full exchange of ideas and viewpoints.

Leadership Development

Leadership skills and potential can be enhanced in an academic setting. Innate abilities are honed through self-awareness based on informed feedback, observation of role models, and experience in leadership roles. Tuck provides a comprehensive leadership development program, including leadership coverage in core and elective courses, comprehensive feedback mechanisms, personalized coaching, multiple leadership opportunities, and the example of executives who visit our campus.

Cooperation and Teamwork

Enhancing the ability to participate in and lead an effective team, to balance competition with collaboration, and to successfully mentor others is an important objective of the Tuck curriculum. We maintain a comprehensive study-group system through which students complete group assignments and projects. Tuck admits students who will thrive in a supportive learning environment where helping others to achieve their best is the norm.

Global Perspective

A global mindset has become critical for success in today’s business environment. Tuck’s internationally diverse community of students and faculty ensures that students have the opportunity to develop a global perspective. We require a core course on global economics, incorporate international content throughout the curriculum, and offer a variety of electives focused on global issues. The school also provides numerous opportunities for students to develop global mindset outside of the classroom—both on campus and around the world.

Corporate Citizenship and Business Ethics

Integrity and an understanding of the complex interactions of business and society are essential to business leadership. When they are placed in an ethical environment, exposed to ethical frameworks, given the responsibility to enforce ethical standards, and provided with opportunities to recognize the broad social and environmental impact of business decisions, our students’ ability to make principled decisions is improved. Tuck’s student-administered honor code emphasizes each student’s personal responsibility for maintaining community standards, and each student is required to take a course focusing on ethics or, more broadly, on the relationship between business and society.

Lifelong Relationships

Personal and professional networking is important to career success, and a well-managed and supportive alumni network is an invaluable resource to students and alumni. Tuck’s intense educational experience creates a strong bond among classmates that carries over to the alumni network. Tuck encourages extensive student-alumni interaction and maintains an accessible and extraordinarily supportive alumni network.