Jun 06, 2013
ASW - Awesome. Super. Wonderful
By Nancy G.- Admissions
T'15 Maryn J. couldn't wait until she arrived on campus in August to start sharing her Tuck expereince, so she sent us this post about her Admitted Student Weekend expereince. You can look forward to more posts by Maryn as she ventures into her first year at Tuck.
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As I packed for Admitted Students Weekend, millions of questions and thoughts scattered throughout my head: What am I supposed to wear? What the heck is ‘smart casual’? I am not sure if I remember how to make new friends. Do I need to bring a down coat to New Hampshire in April? Is it ok to admit that I am not so sure that I actually want to follow that dream career path that I wrote about in my admissions essay? I sure as heck hope that I like this place since I am already $4,000 in-debt to it…
Within five minutes of arriving to campus (my first time ever visiting Tuck), my fears assuaged. As we drove up, a gang of extremely friendly and relaxed T’14s greeted us and helped us carry our luggage to our overnight host dorms. I checked-in for the weekend, joined the delicious Mexican fiesta, and immediately began to make new friends (note that one of my main fears was quickly erased. Everyone immediately welcomed me; making new friends was seamless. I don’t know how it happened, but within an hour of arriving at Tuck, I had new besties). My only gripe with the fiesta was that it was a bit of a challenge to stand, eat a burrito, hold a drink, converse, and attempt to look somewhat put together – all at the same time. But heck, business school is all about new challenges, right?
Welcoming remarks from the Dean and Admissions team followed lunch. We then broke out into smaller groups where we experienced a mock class. My group met with renowned Tuck Professor Kevin Keller. We analyzed Nike’s brand management successes and failures over the last twenty years. Professor Keller captivated my attention and, while I had never previously thought about studying marketing, after his class I fantasized about a CMO title at the end of my name. Apparently changing your mind about your career is pretty common in business school and the Career Development Office expects that (another fear alleviated). Friday continued with an overview presentation on the curriculum (confession: I was pretty grateful for this overview. Since I applied to five other schools, I honestly couldn’t remember all of the details of Tuck’s curriculum so this refresher was an added bonus!), Tuck Tails (Tuck’s version of happy hour), small group gourmet dinners at an off-campus students’ house (salmon and wine, anyone?), and an all-campus party to close out the night. Although I was having the best time socializing with my new classmates (did I mention how interesting everyone was? What an incredible group of students – I can’t believe that I get to spend two years getting to know these fabulous people), I decided to retire to bed at 1am knowing that Saturday would be even more jam-packed than Friday.
Saturday started with a bang. I woke up at 6:30am to get in a quick run. Another T’15 was heading out on a run at the same time so we joined forces. I learned that just five days earlier he had run the Boston marathon as a running-guide for a blind runner – something that he does in his spare time. See what I mean about incredible classmates? Every time I turned around I met someone with a unique story that complemented everyone else’s experiences. Well done, Admissions team. Anyway – back to the day: breakfast, a Welcome by Chris Williams, T’84, a presentation by the Career Development Office (I can already vouch for the fact that Tuck’s CDO is world-class. In the month since ASW I’ve already had three phone meetings with members of the CDO, they’ve edited several drafts of my resume, and have also put me in touch with Tuck alumni in my sectors of interest…and I am not even a full-time student yet), alumni panels, student panels, an International Student lunch (all of the T’13 and T’14 international students made delicious goods from their home countries – thank goodness Tuck is 32% international students…yum), a muddy hike at the Tuck ski hill, another small group dinner out in the thriving metropolis of Hanover, and finished with a party.
The 48 hours of A.S.W. were some of the best hours of my life, to-date, and the quick summary above doesn’t come close to bringing it to life. The T’14s definitely planned an incredibly weekend of fun-filled activities, but the highlights for me were the people and conversations. I am confident that I am going to make life-long friends and connections at Tuck. I am now counting down the days until I arrive on campus on August 15thwhere I will get to fully join the Tuck community and learn from and with this diverse, talented, genuine, compassionate group of people who I will get to call my friends and classmates. In case you were wondering – the count is at 70 days.
