One of my favorite professional days of the year is coming up this Saturday. Our entering class of 2011 is arriving at Tuck and I have the opportunity to deliver the annual “Welcome Speech”. Hopefully, it will give the class a flavor of how accomplished, impressive and diverse they are as a group. This year, admissions sponsored over 120 events throughout the world and we reviewed close to 3,000 applications. It’s really quite exciting to see the culmination of that work with the arrival of the first year class – I’m quite enthusiastic about them. This year’s class size is 258, their average age is 28 and the age range is 24-37. We’re excited about the diversity of the class: 33% are women, 30% are international students and 19% are minority students. The average GMAT is 712 and the average GPA is 3.5. Equally importantly, I’m very excited about the character of the class. We screen diligently for interpersonal skills, communication skills, a strong sense of ethics, team-work and leadership skills. Some members of the class have traditional business experience – they are investment bankers, engineers, consultants, accountants for example. But some bring more non-traditional perspectives such as a former researcher for the Today Show, a pharmacist, a professional opera singer who has performed on Broadway and intelligence officers for the CIA. Many are entrepreneurs and multiple members of the class served in the domestic or international armed forces. The class is incredibly well rounded. Many volunteered as coaches, big brothers and sisters, mentors and fund-raisers. They are also quite talented athletes and musicians! There are writers, artists, Fulbright scholars, politicians, chefs and inventors. It’s incredibly rewarding, challenging and fun to compile the entering class. I’m very proud of the work our staff has done to bring in such an exciting new group. I hope you have the opportunity to meet some of them should you decide to visit Tuck and Hanover this Fall!
Read the full article: Welcoming the Tuck Class of 2011