It’s Tuesday again and that means it’s time for some trivia! As our regular readers know, each Tuesday we take the opportunity to highlight some of the programs, policies or predilections of the leading business schools. Our goal is to help applicants learn more about the most popular schools while also discovering some of the important differences between them.
Today we’re turning our attention to snowy New Hampshire to discuss a Tuck tradition, the First Year Project.
Part of Tuck’s required core curriculum, the First Year Project is one of three core courses students take in the spring quarter of their first year. In keeping with Tuck’s emphasis on teamwork and interest in experiential learning, the First Year Project is designed as a team consulting exercise. Students choose their own teams and are encouraged to develop and propose their own projects, although they are also welcome to work on a project suggested by a partner business or nonprofit. The project’s focus should either be developing a new business or developing a new product, service or market for an existing business. Since the goal is to have students apply the business theory studied throughout the first year, the projects should ideally require a nuanced analysis of strategic and competitive issues.
First-year teams are supported throughout the project by a professor and a second-year advisor and also have access to additional professors for support on specialized areas such as marketing and communication.
Although Tuck’s First Year Project is similar in design to experiential learning courses offered at other institutions, the difference at Tuck is that all students participate in the course, with the project serving as a capstone to the first year experience. In this sense, while all of the leading programs offer students opportunities to apply their classroom theory to real world experiences, Tuck shows one of the strongest commitments to integrating these opportunities into every student’s MBA experience.
To learn more about Tuck’s First Year Project or the experiential learning opportunities at other MBA programs, visit the schools’ websites or check out the Electives and Special Programs sections of the Clear Admit School Guides.
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