Gender equity in top MBA programs—which seemed like a nearly impossible feat just a few short years ago—is looking more and more like a wholly attainable goal. Leading business school after leading business school has been proudly announcing record percentages of women in their incoming classes this past month. The latest: Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Management.
In a letter to the Tuck community on Tuesday, freshly-minted Dean Matthew Slaughter shared that Tuck tops 40 percent women in its incoming class this year for the first time in the school’s history. The actual figure—42 percent—places Tuck shoulder to shoulder with schools like Haas, Wharton, Harvard, Chicago Booth and Kellogg, all of which have 41 percent or more females in their incoming classes or overall MBA programs this year. Stanford GSB, historically among the leaders in terms of female enrollment, has yet to make public its Class of 2017 profile.
At Tuck, the percentage of women jumped a whopping 10 percent over last year’s 32 percent. We’re checking in now to see what steps the school took to help bring about this impressive gain. And it’s not the only gain the school is celebrating this year. U.S. minorities also rose, from 14 to 20 percent.
The percentage of international students dipped slightly, slipping to 32 percent this year, down from 35 percent last year. Still, those international students represent 23 countries from around the globe, and 22 of this year’s students from the United States in fact are dual citizens of another country as well, Slaughter pointed out. He added that 58 percent of the class has studied abroad, 50 percent has worked abroad, and more than 88 percent speak a foreign language in some capacity. “With such rich global experience even before beginning their time at Tuck, it is clear that the T’17 class will eagerly embrace the new TuckGO program, designed to ensure that all Tuck students graduate with a global mindset,” he wrote.
NEW REQUIRED COMPONENT WILL ENSURE EVERY TUCK STUDENT OBTAINS GLOBAL EXPOSURE
The new TuckGO program, announced last year, is a set of immersive experiential courses that take Tuck students to countries around the world. Every Tuck student, before graduating, must participate in at least one such course in a country that is new to them. To satisfy the TuckGO requirement, students can choose between a Global Insight Expedition, an elective travel course led by a member of the faculty; a First-Year Project that involves significant travel outside the U.S.; OnSite Global Consulting, a second-year elective in which students offer consulting to a range of worldwide clients, or an international exchange with one of Tuck’s partner institutions. One way or another, Tuckies in the Class of 2017 should expect to see the world.
Dean Slaughter had global experience for Tuckies in his sites well before he stepped into the role of dean. In 2012, he formed the Tuck Center for Global Business and Government. As part of an August 2012 interview he said, “One of the important dimensions of the current strategic review for the school is whether there should be some sort of global experience requirement.” Last September, when Tuck announced that precisely such a requirement would be instituted beginning this fall, Slaughter said, “Making an immersive global experience a required part of the curriculum strengthens this commitment to ensure that every Tuck student receives outstanding preparation for the global leadership that businesses are today seeking,”
ACADEMICS, WORK EXPERIENCE, STUDENT AGE REMAIN CONSTANT
In other ways, the incoming class shares much in common with the current second-year students at Tuck. Average GPA this year held steady at 3.5, and average GMAT score actually slipped by a single point from last year’s 717, to 716 this year. Like last year, members of this year’s incoming class come in with an average of five years’ work experience, and the average age is 28. The range of ages of students has tightened a little. The class coming in last year ranged from 24 to 35, while this year’s class members are between 25 and 34.
In his address to the Tuck community, Slaughter thanked Director of Admissions Dawna Clarke and her team for all their hard work in assembling the incoming class, Director of Financial Aid Diane Bonin and team for helping those students find a way to finance their MBA and Assistant Dean for the MBA Program Sally Jaeger and her team for welcoming the new class with a terrific orientation week.
“The 2017 class is incredibly diverse, accomplished and poised to achieve great things both throughout their two years here and in the many years beyond,” Slaughter said.
