Earlier this month, I attended the Center for Private Equity and Entrepreneurship's annual conference on Private Equity and Growth Ventures (here's the link to the 2014 conference agenda). My husband is pursuing a career in PE post-Tuck, and I'm really interested in the industry as well, both personally and professionally. I found the panel topics and keynote speakers to be really engaged, enthusiastic, and insightful, and I felt really lucky to have access to such a lineup of industry veterans merely by virtue of being a Tuck Partner.
Later this week, I'm actually attending another Tuck-sponsored conference, put on by the Center on Business and Society (website). In this instance again, I'm invited/eligible to attend simply because I'm a TP (Tuck Partner). I work full-time in development and philanthropy, so social impact and creating measurable social change is central so what I do for a living -- this conference's topics should also be right up my alley!
Taking advantage of speakers on Tuck's campus is just one way that TPs can tap into academic/learning opportunities happening at Tuck. Many, many TPs audit a class (or several) during their time in Hanover. Some go above and beyond what's typically required of auditors, and join teams of students and participate fully in final projects and presentations to classmates and professors. I know of at least one partner who joined a group of students' First Year Project (FYP) -- the culminating experience of the first year of curriculum for Tuck students (link to article). That group ended up winning $25,000 in funding at the annual Dartmouth Ventures conference last year (also put on through the aforementioned Center for Private Equity), and they're still together and competing for more funds this year. Partners can participate in Tuck clubs (for example, female partners can take part in Women in Business activities). There are also less formal learning opportunities being organized all the time (most recently, I heard of efforts to organize a language exchange program for students and partners, leveraging the many languages and cultures coalescing on Tuck's campus).
Not having attended other business schools, I can't speak to whether opportunities like these are available to spouses/significant others across all the schools you might be considering. I can say, however, that Tuck welcoming partners in these ways has made an enormous difference in my experience as the partner of a business school student. Incorporating partners like this also has a significant effect (in my opinion) on Tuck's overall culture, which I've found to be incredibly inclusive and collaborative, and one that considers all perspectives valuable--both in and oustide the classroom.