TuckGO: The World Is Your Classroom

Funded by a sustaining gift from the American family foundation of Michaela and Zdenek Bakala, TuckGO Program at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College helps ensure students develop the necessary skills, knowledge, and global mindset to be able to lead across different cultures, economies, and industries successfully. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and all following travel restrictions, recruiting for the Class of 2023 has started and the number of applicants is rising…  Established in 2015, the TuckGO Program (short for Tuck Global Opportunities) has been a distinctive part of the Tuck curriculum and a critical differentiator for Tuck among international MBA programs. During the program’s carefully designed portfolio of immersive, experiential courses that take place around the world, each student must take at least one TuckGO course in a country that is new to them or participate as an international exchange student with a partner institution. All experiences are designed, taught, and assessed by a Tuck faculty member or faculty adviser. “We are thrilled to support such meaningful experiences at a school that has meant so much to me,” said Zdenek Bakala, an alumni and nowadays, a member of both Tuck’s Board of Advisors and European Council. A qualifying First-Year Project course offers all Tuck students the opportunity to apply classroom learning to complex business challenges for real clients. Under the guidance of a faculty advisor, students develop practical business skills, and clients gain insights from students studying at one of the world’s leading business schools. A second-year MBA course OnSite Global Consulting is elective and offers professional quality consulting services to a host of clients worldwide and an extraordinary experiential learning opportunity. Tuck students have already put their management skills and business expertise to the test in a global context on more than 247 projects for 175 clients in 64 countries, with remarkable outcomes for students and clients alike.

Term Exchange allows second-year Tuck students to spend a term abroad studying at a partner institution while the experiential courses of the Global Insight Expeditions bring together students and faculty and take place around the world. Expeditions help students develop cultural awareness, empathy, and agility through structured reflection thei experiences in new countries. Like most of the world’s universities, the global COVID-19 pandemic forced Tuck to cancel all travel starting March 2020 and lasting through the 2020 – 2021 academic year, the health and safety of the community as well as international partners being paramount. Even still, applications for the Tuck’s newest class, the T’22s, increased 9.2% amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, Tuck is recruiting for the Class of 2023, and early indicators show a rising number of MBA applicants for whom the Tuck mission is resonant. How much did the global pandemic complicate Tuck studies abroad? What are Tuck’s top learnings from the new global situation, and what new best practices will Tuck apply in the upcoming academic year? Learn more in the interview "TuckGO in a New Era" with Lisa Miller, Director of Global Insight Expeditions and On-Campus Programs at Dartmouth College.