Tuck School of Business Graduate Talks All Things MBA

LA-born Erica Toews graduated alongside her fellow Tuck School of Business 2018 classmates. With the world now at her feet, she tells TopMBA.com her reasons for studying an MBA at Tuck – and what it’s really like.

Let’s start at the beginning

I majored in creative writing and minored in philosophy at Stanford undergrad. I thought I wanted to go to law school which was partly why I chose those degrees but also, I always loved to write.

The creative writing classes and workshops at Stanford were very small and student-centric. I loved that small environment and classroom intimacy which was one of the reasons I wanted to go to Dartmouth for business school.

I’d say my undergrad was a non-traditional business background. A lot of my classmates in business school studied things like finance or business economics, and mine was very qualitative rather than quantitative. I don’t regret my undergrad degree and I wrote a ton of papers in business school too.

Starting anew

The first year at Tuck consisted of core curriculum. Courses such as ‘Leading Individuals and Teams’, and ‘Analysis for General Managers’ were more qualitative, and then there were more quantitative courses like ‘Global Economics for Managers’. The second year consisted of electives.

Especially in my more qualitative courses I was grateful for my English degree. It taught me how to read, write and analyze writing, construct arguments, and express myself, so I was comfortable articulating my thoughts in class. I was grateful for the degree although it didn’t serve me well in my more quantitative classes.

Why Tuck?

Every Tuck alum I reached out to got back to me and they were willing to talk about their experiences. I think that’s related to the intimacy they’ve created at Tuck and the pride people feel in going to that school. It spoke of the community’s quality and I felt it as a student.

As I didn’t have a quantitative business background, people were so patient and generous with their time going through material. I came from the education sector and saw how good the teaching was at Tuck and their willingness to help.

The school location and the closeness of the community were the biggest draws for me. Me and my partner are both very outdoorsy, and I know some classmates came just for the outdoors.

My boyfriend (now fiancé) and I had been living in Brooklyn, so when we came here and there was so much space (and a little chicken coop), it was such a different life to what we were used to.

The GMAT

Studying for it was hard at first because I had a full-time job, and it had been so many years since I’d taken a standardized test, so it was hard to get back into that mindset.

My brother was at Harvard Business School and had taken the GMAT, and I was like, “Hey, what books should I buy?”

I think the book was helpful for practice tests and figuring out how to fit studying into my routine. I’d wake up early, study for between 90 minutes and two hours before work.

My fiancé and I had a 1.5 bedroom when we lived in Brooklyn, so we turned the teeny tiny extra room into an office/study room.

I think carving out a space and time was really important, and I’d set aside four hours on a Saturday and Sunday morning to take a practice test.

The math was stuff I’d done in high school, and I knew I’d do fine on the verbal, so it was the math I was spending more time on to remind myself how to solve these problems.

A lot of people recommend you take a practice test cold, so you can find out where to spend your effort. My first practice test was very humbling, and I realized I had to move faster and work on my math.

Exam time

I’d never taken a test like that before – it became clear during the test that it was adaptive. So, if you get a problem wrong the next question is easier and you overanalyze thinking ‘this problem is easy’, but the test was fine.

Taking the SATs, I was so stressed out and frazzled but because I was older I was calmer taking the GMAT. There was less pressure; if I got a bad score I could take it again or reconsider business school, it wasn’t like college when you HAVE to go.

You see your score immediately after the test; I wanted to break the 700 and I barely broke 700 so I was like ‘oh I’m done. I never have to do this again’. It was very relieving.

Knowing your strengths

I knew my selling point wasn’t going to be my GMAT score, and I had to hit a certain threshold to even be considered for Dartmouth – but I did.

I think I had to write two essays: ‘What are you most proud of?’ and ‘Why do you want to go to business school?’

I spent so much time putting together information to send to my recommenders – one was my co-worker at Google, and it had been four years since I’d worked there, so I had to remind my attorney what I’d worked on.

That’s something about business school – people usually apply after they’ve had a lot of work experience, whereas law school and med school students go right after undergrad.

My fiancé always made fun of me saying, ‘I feel like you spent more time applying to business school than actually being at business school’. Which I don’t think is true, but it felt that way sometimes.

Work life

I want to work in education technology, and those organizations don’t hire in a traditional way. But the job hunt has been very exploratory, the Tuck Alumni network is amazing, and people have had conversations and been honest with me about their experiences and positions in industry.

Speaking to your younger self

I’d say you can’t be the best at everything. Figure out what you’re interested in and passionate about and overcome those areas. Be open to learning and patient with yourself, don’t be afraid to ask classmates and professors questions, people always want to help.

It’s only two years and it goes so fast. Spend as much time as you can with people because when it’s finished they’ll go to all four corners of the earth. Take advantage of it – that’s more valuable than spending an extra hour studying for an exam.

Business school encourages forming a network as classmates are as important if not more important than the academic component.

You get to know people in multi-layered ways. You see what they’re like as students, you socialize with them outside of class at dinner, bars, hiking together, and then you see them in professional settings through jobs, interviews and applications. You help each other prepare for that.

Biggest accomplishment

I was a Fellow of the Center for Private Equity and Entrepreneurship. I’d lead industry trips to San Francisco, Boston and New York with groups of Tuck students and I’d organize meetings with entrepreneurs, start-ups, small companies, and adventure capital firms. I’d set agendas, organize, and make sure everything was set for students.

That was something I was excited to do because during those two years, you have this magical status where you can reach out to anyone. In almost any industry, they’ll open their doors for you.

There was this interesting connection to my creative writing in the sense that entrepreneurship is all about being creative and innovative and sharing ideas. To me, increasing the presence of entrepreneurship on campus was important.