By Dominic Yau T’16
Dominic grew up in Hong Kong and London. After graduating from University of Warwick in 2008 with a bachelor’s in mathematics, he worked as an insurance underwriter for Markel International. Dominic enjoys playing rugby, tripod hockey, and reading outside of the classroom.
I had the pleasure of meeting several prospective applicants this fall while volunteering for events through the admissions office. This was definitely a surreal experience since it feels like it was just yesterday that I was on the other side of the fence trying to learn about what life at Tuck was like. One common question that I hear from prospective applicants is “What is a typical day at Tuck like?” Before sharing what a typical day at Tuck is like for me, I will say that oftentimes, no two days at Tuck are the same! Here is a snapshot of one of my days during Fall B.
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07:00 Rouse myself and wake up. I usually hit snooze for about 30 minutes before actually getting up to shower and have breakfast. |
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08:15 Set off from my dorm room for the arduous five minute walk to my first class. |
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08:30 First class of the day which happens to be Capital Markets. Today we learned about how to price stocks. Don’t worry if this makes no sense to you at all—you will be surprised how quickly you learn about the inner workings of the finance world. |
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10:00 End of Capital Markets. Phew! Time for a vital coffee break before the next class. Most of my classmates usually have the same idea. |
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10:20 Second class of the day. It is a complete change of pace as we switch from the hard finance of Capital Markets to Personal Leadership. There was an interesting back and forth conversation about Nelson Mandela’s leadership style. |
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12:00 All that learning sure made me hungry. Time for a lunch break with my classmates in Byrne dining hall. Occasionally I will spend my lunchtime hosting prospective student lunches. |
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13:00 Time to meet with my study group, AKA my extended family here at Tuck. Through some magical process, the MBA program office always does a great job putting study groups together, and mine is no different. We share the highs and lows together throughout the Fall A and B terms. Today we are working on the next set of homework for Capital Markets as well as talking about the upcoming midterms. |
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15:00 Quick call home to my girlfriend who is still based in London. She is a long-distance Tuck Partner and I make it a priority to fit her into my busy Tuck life as much as possible. |
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17:00 Rugby training today. After all the studying it is always great to run around and get some fresh air. |
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18:30 Grab dinner in the dining hall. Run into a few classmates there and end up catching up over dinner. |
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19:30 Finally: A bit of down time. Sometimes I will work on homework or do something recruiting related, but today I had a chance to relax and listen to some music. |
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21:30 Head out for my tripod hockey game, which is easily one of my favorite activities at Tuck even if I am pretty terrible. It is amazing that I can kind of play the game now, seeing as I did not know the rules at all when I started. |
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23:00 Quick shower when I get home, and then it’s time to just relax before getting some sleep in preparation for the next day. |
This is just a taste into a typical day at Tuck. It is very busy but actually a lot of the things I do are for fun and things I choose to do. It is not all work related!