After all the luck/divine intervention, I finally made it to the Tuck Reception yesterday. I was a bit apprehensive as Nitin had commented on my blog and mailed me saying that the Ad-Com couldn’t make it to the Delhi Tuck Reception due to some reason.

Anyway, I was at the venue a bit early and was the first person there even before the Tuckies. People slowly flowed in and I had a chat with several of them.One of them mentioned that Tuck curriculum lacked focus to Operations which was interesting to me. I need to dig this a bit deeper.

The Venue – Taj Residency

Another one…

At sharp  7:00, Martin Keck (Tuckie Class of ’08) walked in and we got started on time. But like any other IST (Indian Stretchable Time) based event, people kept trickling in long after the session began.As feared Marin started by announcing that the Ad-Com couldn’t be there because they had to go cancel after a huge surge in applications due to the economic slowdown. Here’s a video of Martin’s intro speech.

Martin’s Intro speech

A bit more about Martin Keck. Martin is from California and was working in Venture Capital & Private Equity prior to Tuck and is switching to a consulting role at Bain post MBA. He had a great GMAT score and was offered a scholarship at Tuck.

It was clear that Marin was called on at the last minute as he fumbled through the presentation and did the formal presentation, mostly reading from a piece of paper. I sympathize with him as I am sure he wasn’t aware of it in advance. The formal presentation covered all aspects of life at Tuck and the then we moved on to questions.

I was hoping this doesn’t turn out to be a “What do I need to get in?” kind of a session. Thankfully, due to the fact that the Ad-Com couldn’t make it, there were more questions about Tuck and the program rather than the admissions. There were people asking questions on opportunities at Tuck to pursue Social Enterprise, Entrepreneurship, Private Equity, Marketing… among others. We then had a small tea break and then Martin got talking about his MBA experience which was the highlight of the day 🙂

Martin’s MBA Experience

We had a bit more formal questions and then we concluded. Even after that a whole lot of people surrounded Martin, bombarding with questions. I must say Martin was gracious and was at ease tackling them. Anyway once the crowd cleared, I caught Martin for the interview that I had requested in the beginning of the session for my blog. Here it is (the voice fades off for a bit in the middle. I am still trying to get used to using my E71 for podcasts)

People surrounding Martin

Interview with Martin Keck

My Observations

What I liked/loved:

  • The session gave me insight to Tuck that was not on the website.
  • I have been in touch with a few Tuckies and Martin echoed their sentiments of Tuck being the best days of their lives.
  • Reiterated Tuck’s general management focus and alumni network.
  • Martin’s MBA experience got many of us licking our lips 🙂

What was disappointing:

  • I hope an Ad-Com member could have made it.
  • I hope there were more Tuckies. I had hoped to meet Ad-Com, Students, Alumni to get varied perspectives.
  • Martin scared a whole lot of us by saying that this year is going to be a huge jump in applications 🙂
  • Finally there was mostly non-veg food around, so I had to go hungry 😦

As i said at the end of Martin’s interview, I went to the reception thinking I will apply to Tuck. But I left the place excited to apply and praying I get in. Now back to my essays so that I can finish the Tuck apps for the early action round on the 15th…