Tuck School of Business

History

At the turn of the 20th century, Dartmouth College president William Jewett Tucker decided to explore the possibility of establishing a school of business to educate the growing number of Dartmouth alumni entering the commercial world. Turning to his former roommate from his undergraduate years at Dartmouth, Tucker enlisted the support of Edward Tuck, who had since become a wealthy banker and philanthropist. Tuck donated $300,000 in the form of preferred stock shares in a Minnesota railroad company as the capital to found the school. It was named the Amos Tuck School of Administration and Finance, after Edward Tuck's father and Dartmouth alumnus Amos Tuck.

The new school's tuition fee cost $100 for the few students who enrolled in the first year; graduates of the two-year program received a Master of Commercial Science degree (MCS). The curriculum involved both traditional liberal arts fields as well as economic and finance education. Undergraduate professors taught most of the first-year courses, while outside guest instructors and businesspeople educated students in their second years. As the nation's first graduate school of business, the Tuck School's emphasis on a broad education in general management was adopted by many other emerging business schools, and was dubbed the "Tuck Pattern".

In the late 1920s, Dartmouth president Ernest Martin Hopkins sought to unify the Tuck School by establishing a central campus, uniting the school's academic and residential facilities. Edward Tuck, then an aged man living in France, donated an additional $570,000 for the effort. Using primarily his funds, four new buildings were constructed in 1929 on the west side of campus.

In 1942, the school's name changed to the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, and in 1953, the degree program changed to the modern Master of Business Administration (MBA). Until the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Tuck School catered primarily to Dartmouth students, accepting undergraduates during their third year. Under Dean Karl Hill, Tuck shifted its focus to soliciting a national student body. The resulting expansion in the late 1960s saw additional growth of the campus with the construction of a new dormitory and the Murdough Center, which contains the Feldberg Business and Engineering Library. Under Deans Richard West (1976–1983) and Colin Blaydon (1983–1990), the school's curriculum and faculty expanded extensively, and applications increased by one-third. Since the late 1980s, Tuck has continued to expand in student body and faculty size, and has seen the establishment of two new campus buildings as well as several research centers and nondegree business programs.

Campus

The Tuck School is located on the campus of Dartmouth College, which is situated in the rural, Upper Valley New England town of Hanover, New Hampshire. The campus of the Tuck School sits in a complex on the west side of Dartmouth's campus, near the Connecticut River. Shortly after being founded in 1900, Tuck was housed in a single building across from the Green at the center of the campus; in 1930, the institution moved into Stell, Chase, Tuck, and Woodbury Halls in its present location along the Tuck Mall. Today, these original structures serve as four of Tuck's six academic and administrative buildings.

Tuck emphasizes its residential character, describing residential life as "a foundation of the Tuck culture" and crediting it as "a reason that Tuck alumni are among the most loyal of all the business school [sic] in the world." Tuck's isolated location has been described as an "image problem" for attracting successful applicants and faculty to its rural campus, although some students cite the insular location as a positive trait for fostering intimacy and friendship.

Currently, Tuck has five residential facilities: Buchanan Hall (constructed 1968) and Whittemore Hall (constructed 2000) Pineau-Valencienne Hall, Achtmeyer Hall and Raether Hall (2008). Further, a new complex called the Tuck Living and Learning Complex that houses 95 additional students as well as classrooms and study space serves as the home for nearly half of first-year Tuck students. This state-of-the-art facility was constructed in 2008 for around $27.2 million. The Tuck School shares the Murdough Center (containing the Feldberg Business and Engineering Library) with the adjacent Thayer School of Engineering. The Tuck campus is serviced by Byrne Hall, a dining facility operated by Dartmouth Dining Services.

Academics

The Tuck School offers only a single degree: the two-year, full-time Master of Business Administration (MBA). Students may specialize within the MBA in fields such as finance or marketing, but a specialization is not required for graduation. First-year MBA students at Tuck undertake a 32-week core curriculum in general management and a specialized First Year Project. During their second year, students take 12 elective courses and design their own focused field of study.

The school stresses a collaborative and teamwork-based approach to learning, which it touts as one of its assets for "building the interpersonal skills required for business leadership." However, this emphasis on cooperative group learning has been criticized as too "touchy-feely" for students entering the competitive business world, and the emphasis on consensus-building as detrimental to students' ability to make quick, independent decisions. The school's academic programs have also been criticized for not offering their students a broader international perspective, though the school has sought to remedy this by offering globally-oriented courses, programs, and research.

Students seeking other degrees can engage in one of seven dual-degree or joint-degree programs offered in conjunction with other academic institutions. Dual degrees include an MBA/Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, an MBA/Master of Public Affairs from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, an MBA/Master of Studies in Environmental Law from the Vermont Law School, and an MBA/Master of Arts from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Joint degrees include a Doctor of Medicine/MBA from the Dartmouth Medical School, a Master of Public Health/MBA from the Dartmouth's Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences, and a Master of Engineering Management/MBA from Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering. The school also offers a variety of second-year exchange programs at other institutions such as the Handelshochschule Leipzig in Germany, the HEC School of Management in Paris, IESE Business School in Barcelona, and the London Business School.

In addition to the MBA program, the school also offers an array of executive education and other non-degree programs, such as the Tuck Business Bridge Program for current and recent university undergraduates, and the Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) program for high school students.

Organization and research

Like the undergraduate portion of Dartmouth College, the Tuck School operates on a quarter system. As part of the larger institution, the Tuck School is ultimately administered by Dartmouth's President and Board of Trustees. The school is directly managed by a Dean (currently Matthew Slaughter) who is advised by a Board of Overseers that was established in 1951.

Since the Tuck School offers only one degree, it does not contain formal academic departments as do other institutions. Instead, faculty are generally grouped in one or more of seven "academic areas": accounting, finance and economics, marketing, operations management and management science, strategy and management, international business, and management communication. Tuck is also home to five research centers which organize research in different fields of business administration. The centers are meant to promote faculty research, establish liaisons between the Tuck School and the corporate world, and sponsor programs for Tuck as a whole; MBA students are occasionally invited to participate as fellows and research associates. The five research centers are the William F. Achtmeyer Center for Global Leadership, the Center for Corporate Governance, the Center for International Business, the Center for Private Equity and Entrepreneurship, and the Glassmeyer/McNamee Center for Digital Strategies.

Student profile

Tuck students, known as "Tuckies", typically number about 480 students, with international students making up about 30% of the student body. The school has relatively low percentages of women (32%) and minorities (15%), which has been criticized as a weakness by students who desire more diversity in the school. Tuck has tried to address these shortcomings by offering additional scholarships to minority applicants and by promoting such programs as the annual Tuck Diversity Conference and participation in the Forté Foundation for women in business.

Like many other business schools, Tuck encourages its students to have post-undergraduate work experience before applying to the MBA program. The average incoming student has five years of full-time work experience, and the average student age is 28, ranging from 25 to 32 years.

Alumni

Tuck claims the highest percentage of alumni donors of any business school in the world. It is the only business school in BusinessWeek's study of American business schools to have at least 50% of its alumni contribute to their alma mater's annual funds, with 66% making donations. The most popular career industries for graduates are management consulting (40%) and finance/accounting (37%), with graduates' annual base salaries averaging $100,000.

Alumni of Tuck's MBA program who are prominent in business include entrepreneur Jim Butterworth, former Bristol-Myers Squibb CEO Peter R. Dolan '80, Digital Angel CEO Kevin McGrath '77, and former Mattel and Pepsi-Cola CEO Christopher A. Sinclair '73. In education, David T. McLaughlin '55 served as the president of Dartmouth College, and Robert Witt '65 as the president of the University of Alabama. Alumni in other fields include screenwriter and director Kamran Pasha '00, U.S. Representative Herman T. Schneebeli '31, and former XFL football player Kyle Schroeder '07. Alumni of Tuck's Executive Training program include The New York Times Company president and CEO Janet L. Robinson '96 and graphic designer David R. Brown.

Faculty

As of the 2007-2008 school year, the Tuck School employs 46 full-time faculty members and currently maintains a student-faculty ration of 9:1. Among Tuck's notable professors and instructors are Professor of Economics Andrew Bernard, Professor of Marketing Kevin Lane Keller, Professor of Finance Kenneth French, Professor of International Economics Matthew J. Slaughter, Professor of International Business Vijay Govindarajan, Professor of Strategic Management Richard D'Aveni, and Professor of Operations Management M. Eric Johnson. Former faculty include industrial efficiency pioneer Frederick Winslow Taylor, marketing professor Brian Wansink, and Michael Jensen, who taught as a visiting scholar.