Tuck School of Business

Tuck: Interview Transcripts & Notes

Interview Reports20 reports

On campus interview

Walk me through your resume
What work project are you most proud of?
Can you talk about a project that didn’t go well?
Talk about a time you helped someone succeed
Why MBA?
Why Tuck?
What do you want your Tuck classmates to remember about you?
Any other questions for me?

Started off with just some small talk, and jumped straight into a couple of standard 'About you' questions, and then behavioural questions:

Walk me through your resume

ST/LT goals

Why MBA, Why Tuck, Why Now?

What is the accomplishment you are most proud of (personal or professional)

What was the most difficult thing in achieving this?

On the flip side, biggest failure?

Tell me about a time you went out of your way to learn something new.

What activities/clubs do you expect to be involved in, and how will you contribute?

The most important feedback you have given someone.

Multiple follow ups to understand the story better, after which I had about 20 minutes to ask my interviewer anything I wanted to know more about.

If I knew about Tuck's mission
What empathy means to me and a time when I was empathetic
Explain a conflict that I resolved
What was a time that I failed and what did I learn
If I didn't get into tuck why would that be
What makes me different than everyone else applying to tuck
What would I bring to tuck
General questions about walking through my resume and why MBA

Walk me through your resume.
How do you build relationships with your [business stakeholders/Philanthropist]?
Tell me about the makeup of your team. Do you work with anyone from different departments or people from the [business stakeholders] side?
Why do you need an MBA now?
Why do you want to come to Tuck?
How do you see yourself being involved at Tuck?
What are your weaknesses?
Tell me about a conflict that you had someone.
What would your team say about you?
What are you most proud of?
Who is a leader that you look up to?
What would our class be missing without you?
Is there anything else you’d like me to know?
Do you have any questions for me?

Walk me through your resume.
Why MBA?
Why Tuck?
How would your coworkers at your jobsite describe you? List some positive attributes.
What legacy would you leave behind at Tuck?
Tell me about a time you received constructive feedback.
If money and pursuing a career was not an issue, what would your ideal job be?
Is there something else that you did not have the chance to cover that you would like to expand on?
Do you have any questions for me?

Walk me through your resume.
Why MBA?
Why Tuck?
Tell me more about the XYZ case competition (something discussed in #3).
What legacy would you leave behind at Tuck?
What are you most proud of?
What type of people you find hardest to work with, and how do you resolve that?

What brings you here today
How will mba help you achieve your goal. Why not achieve Your goal right now.
Why tuck and why not the other schools.
What role do you play in a team?
Tell me a time when your manager told you to improve yourself and what did you do?
Tell me a time when there was a disgruntled member in your team and what did you do to motivate him
What will you bring to the study group and what do you expect to gain from it.
How will your study group members describe you?
What do you do outside work?

Tell me about yourself and your resume
Why do you want an MBA?
Why come to Tuck?
What would your team members say are your three biggest weaknesses?
Tell me about a really successful team you were part of?
What do you do outside of work?

Walk me through your resume.
Tell me about your current job at XXXX.
Why MBA?
Why Tuck?
Short term and long term goals?
What opportunities do you want to explore at Tuck?
What attracted you to Asha?
Strengths and weaknesses?
What kind of a leader are you? Give an example with a story.
If money was not a concern what would you want to do?
You have 30 seconds, what would you want me to tell the head of admissions?
Is there anything else you wish I had asked?

The interviewer had a strong finance and strategy background.

How would your classmates describe you?
How would your best friend describe you?
What are your short term goals?
Long term goals?
Why Tuck?

How would others on your team describe you?
How do you feel about working on teams?
What are strengths?
Weaknesses (on teams)?
What are you involved with extra-curricularly…?
Why Tuck?

Walk me through your resume.
Why did you choose your first job?
Why did you leave?
Why did you choose second job?
What do you like most about current role?
Why an MBA now?
Why Tuck?
What would you contribute?
What are your short and long term goals?

Describe a typical day.
What do you like to do outside of work?
What will you be involved with at Tuck?
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
What are your short and long term goals?

Walk me through your resume.
What kind of leader are you?
Tell me about a leader you admire.
Describe a leader whose style you struggled with.
What single trait do you feel most defines a strong leader?
What’s your elevator pitch?

What do you like most about your current job?
Why do you feel now is the right time to leave?
What do you find most challenging?
How do you work through those challenges?

What is the best constructive criticism you have received?
How did you improve?
Is it hard for you to deliver criticism?
Why Tuck?

Tell me about yourself / walk through your resume
What do you hope to get out of this (the Tuck) experience?
Tell me about a time you faced a challenge in a group.
How would your future study group describe you (name three things)?
Why do you want to move to the East Coast?

Then I had time to ask questions. The interview was conducted by a second year student and it was a very comfortable setting and friendly.

Interview was 30 min. I had an admissions person. I saw a mix of students and admissions people taking candidates back.

Walk me through your resume.
Tell me why an MBA is your next step
Why tuck?
What do you have to offer to a classroom at Tuck?
Tell me about a time when a colleague went through a difficult time.
What did you do, and what was the outcome.
Tell me a time when you disagreed with a group decision or direction.
What did you do, how did it effect you, what was the outcome.
If your study group were to describe you, what would they say about
your strengths and weaknesses.
Do you have any questions for me?

*Describe your career progression

Why an MBA?
Why Tuck?
What do you do for fun?
Is there anything else you want to add that we haven't discussed (Here I told as to how I will contribute to Tuck and that Tuck is my top choice).

Then it was...questions for the interviewer.

A 2nd year student interviewed me. The atmosphere was very friendly and the questions were very standard.

Walk me through your resume.
Why an MBA now?
Long term career goal?
What is your short term career goal?
Why do you want to do ******* in the near future?
Why Tuck
How do you want your collegues to remember you at Tuck?
If you could say three things to the admissions committee what would these three things be?

Q&A with the student.

Interview was very structured and nothing out of the ordinary.

Walk me through your resume, tell me about your background, why you made decisions you did, and what you learned.
Did you manage anyone at your first job?
How did you balance the workload of engineering w/ running web design firm?
What did you have to learn to adapt to current job?
Why MBA? Why can't you just stay at current job?
Many interim questions re: teams, leadership, specific examples
If you could capsulize your application, what would it be? (30 seconds on elevator w/ Dir of Admissions - what would you say?)

Walk me through your resume, noting decision points along the way.
Why an MBA? What are your long-term goals?
Why Tuck?
How would future team members at Tuck describe you?
What do you hope to learn from future team members?
How would you get involved in the Tuck community?

It was only a half an hour interview - very basic. And it was structured only 20 minutes on me and then 10 minutes for me to ask questions.

It was very friendly and conversational, hardly any question was out of the ordinary.Familiarize yourself with the Tuck Admissions criteria; I was asked about it specifically during my interview.I would take time to craft a story for each question and iron out the details. I will say my interviewer asked me a lot of clarification questions that I may have fumbled on. Tuck stresses a lot on the qualities that it looks for in individuals. If possible, can you provide any instance where you felt the interviewer was trying to gauge a particular quality in you? To be honest, it felt like the entire interview was focussed on gauging this, right from the small talk you have to bridge to the interview to the type of questions you asked. I think its important to add a flavour of the qualities you want to display in the answers you give (community involvement/empathy/leadership etc.) because a lot of the follow up questions to my answers seemed to delve a little deeper into the quality I was displaying.What would be your tips to someone preparing for MBA Prepare. And then Prepare some more. I would there are hundreds of potential interview questions available on the internet. Instead of tailoring an answer to each of the questions, try to find 10-12 stories you want to tell that are truly impactful. You can generally then tailor the stories to the question you get asked. Remember to practice speaking your answers and not just writing/typing them down. This will give you an idea of how long you are speaking for, and help you work on your tone and expressions as well. Finally, try to get mock interviews in. This doesn't have to be with an admissions consultant, it can be a family member, friend or literally anyone who is willing. Just to make sure that you are comfortable with telling the stories to another person, and are getting your point across well.

Back to Explore