By Kiley Winsnes T'16
Kiley is a first-year student at Tuck. Before arriving in Hanover, she was living in stunning San Francisco and working for an integration software company. Originally from Chicago, Kiley spent her formative years in Seattle before chasing the California sunshine for her undergraduate degree in economics and religious studies. After Tuck, she hopes to get a job that combines two of her passions: fitness and technology. Outside of the classroom, Kiley enjoys running, road biking, writing, and the beverages of her two home cities: coffee and wine. Kiley can be contacted at kiley.j.winsnes.tu16@tuck.dartmouth.edu. Follow her on Twitter at @kileywins.
Now, I bet you’re thinking, “four?” “Top four things” you learned? That’s random. But think about it, four is such an underutilized number. People are always making “Top 5” and “Top 3” lists—don’t you think four feels left out? Yeah. So let’s give four some much-needed attention. Also, it’s how many lessons came to mind, so, there’s that.
4. When it comes to business school, it’s best to check your ego at the door.
This lesson isn’t necessarily limited to ASW, but it definitely made itself even more apparent during the planning phases. At a place like Tuck, you’re surrounded by people who are accomplished, driven, compassionate, generous, good looking (yep, I said it, my classmates are pretty); in other words … perfect. They’re ex-MLS players from another continent going into investment banking who can have you halfway out of your chair laughing in class. They’re ex-Navy SEALs who are incredible fathers and landed their dream job at Bain but still make time to help a classmate prep for case interviews. They’re ex-Peace Corps volunteers who are earning a dual degree but won’t hesitate to spend a few hours tutoring a friend, then share a tear-inducing speech about their life-changing experiences abroad. Not a bad lot to be around. The thing is, to get to business school, especially one like Tuck, you kind of have to have done some pretty impressive things, so you come into school thinking you’re a bit of a hot shot (and you are!), but quickly realize you’re an ice cube compared to some of your classmates (work with me on the metaphor, people, I’m trying).
When it came to ASW, this sort of ego-crushing experience happened all the time. I chaired a few committees, thinking that my experience and title meant I was the one with all the expertise. Ha. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Instantly I realized the volunteers I selected to lead my committees were all far more qualified for the task, had insanely creative ideas, and were absolute work horses when it came to execution. Any illusion I had of bestowing my wisdom or being needed were quickly dashed. Instead, my committees ran with their responsibilities, delivered way above and beyond anyone’s expectations, and did it more gracefully and competently than I ever could have. Ego: checked.
3. Buy more T-shirts.
Don’t worry, I didn’t mix up my blog list and my to-do list, this is a real lesson. To explain: Here at Tuck, we have a rich tradition of buying t-shirts for just about everything. First-year section wars? T-shirts. Blacklight party? T-shirts. Conference? T-shirts. Winter Carnival? T-shirts. An excessively large group of students going on a completely Tuck-unrelated trip to Costa Rica? T-shirts. So, of course, ASW would require T-shirts. The next logical question was “how many t-shirts”? Well, we knew we would want the volunteers to wear them during the weekend. What we didn’t realize was just how many volunteers there would be.
ASW is a very volunteer-heavy event. There was the core planning team comprised of four co-chairs, who together led twelve committees, each of which had one or two leads, who were tasked with building out teams of up to ten volunteers. Yeah, it starts to sound like a 7th-grade math problem, right? And this was just the planning team. That doesn’t include the folks who graciously offered their homes for students to stay for the weekend, hosted groups for dinners, led optional activities, and much, much more. There were so many tasks and so many volunteers that we failed to keep track of them all, and committed the ultimate Tuck sin: We ran out of t-shirts. So, lesson learned: When it comes to a Tuck event, you’ll have way more volunteers than you bargained for; plan accordingly.
2. Tuck admits some very, very impressive people.
This one is a little repetitive to point four, where I already bragged about my current classmates, but is also a more explicit call out to the incoming class of 2017. Our admissions team reads off some class stats during the first day, at which point I basically gave up on ever being anywhere close to as accomplished as you people. Seriously, the class of 2017 is out of control.
Together, they speak 59 languages; one of them is a member of the West Point Parachute Team (i.e. jumps out of planes for a living) and has completed over 400 jumps; one of them literally helped found a political party in Romania; 26 of them were captains of college sports (yes, college, like, legitimate athletic teams); and one of them, for their actual profession, manages a nuclear reactor on an aircraft carrier. I wouldn’t even be qualified to manage a bathroom on an aircraft carrier. So, yeah, these are some pretty impressive people. As for me? I’m patting myself on the back just for being here; after all, it’s not what you know …
1. Tuck really is as special as people say.
I know I say this a lot, but I’m not even close to sorry for it. I feel incredibly lucky to be a member of this community, and I will brag about how amazing it is every chance I get. Lucky for you, every blog post I write is one of those chances!
The moment that best captures this lesson for me happened Saturday afternoon of ASW. I was walking toward our international lunch event a few hours before it was scheduled to begin, expecting to arrive to an empty venue and to be overwhelmed with the work still to be done. I should have known better.
Instead, what I saw was enough to bring me to tears (and no, it wasn’t from the grill smoke). Dozens of my classmates and their Tuck Partners from countries around the world were already hard at work: Brazilians and Argentines were flipping massive pieces of steak on the grill, Indians were carrying bowls splashing with mango Lassi, Chinese and Russians balanced trays laden with steamed buns, little ones (Tiny Tuckies) were laughing and screaming, dodging their parents and the tables of food, and above it all Brazilian music blared. In other words, it was like an international Pleasantville had set itself up on campus and I had arrived just in time for lunch. Try to imagine it from my perspective: here were people willing to spend their entire day working for an event that had no impact on them, willing to spend hours in the kitchen and at the grill cooking and serving food to admitted students simply because they believe Tuck really is the best MBA program in the world. That kind of pride, generosity, and community simply don’t happen other places, and that’s precisely why I’m so humbled to be a part of this one.
(Photo above: Students share a laugh during an ASW panel. Photo by Laura DeCapua.)