The first graduate school of management, Tuck School of Business was also the first school to administer a master's degree in business administration. Tuck focuses all its non-research-related resources into its full-time residential MBA program--the only degree that the school awards. The curriculum has a 32-week long core, unusually long for most business schools, and students are required to complete a first-year project, in which they work on a consulting project or new venture. There are no formal concentrations at Tuck; students tailor their own specialization through electives in areas such as health care, global business and new ventures. Students can also collaborate with other universities in order to design a dual degree, with established examples like the MBA/MELP at Vermont Law School and MBA/MPA with the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

Tuck students tell Vault that the academics are extremely rigorous, particularly in the first two terms, and the workload occupies the majority of students' time. However, the MBA student body is notably close, and students help each other succeed. Hanover is a quiet college town, so MBA students spend most of their time with classmates, and about half of the student body lives in the two MBA dorms. And Tuck's close community continues after graduation. Its alumni network is famously responsive and widespread, and recruiters come from all over to Dartmouth's campus.