Despite the addition of a new December session that will launch after fall term, the summer Tuck Business Bridge program saw an 8 percent increase in the number of applicants this summer, program director Nicole Faherty said. The program, historically offered over two four-week summer sessions at the Tuck School of Business, is designed to help liberal arts, science and engineering majors without academic business backgrounds learn the mindset and skillset required for the field.
Tuck associate professor of business administration Adam Kleinbaum, who teaches organizational behavior in the Bridge program, said this summer’s program is “at capacity.”
Faherty said that while a couple of students deferred their acceptances into the summer program to the December Bridge program, the program saw no decline in the number of attendees this summer. Among the 500 to 550 applications the program receives each year — from approximately 65 universities and 20 countries — a total of about 270 attend Tuck as part of the program, with 135 attending each of the two summer sessions, she said.
The December session will be open to both Dartmouth and non-Dartmouth students, according to the FAQs posted on the program’s website. It will, however, be catered primarily to students at the College. Dartmouth students typically take up about 18 to 23 percent of the total summer session students.
In contrast to the summer programs, the winter session will offer students a choice between the traditional single project and an alternative market assessment project of either a company or a product.
Tuck professor William Martin, who oversees the final projects, said that the alternative project may be implemented in future summer programs.
“December Bridge will be kind of a laboratory to test it out,” he said.
Evan Griffith ’15, a summer Bridge student, said that since the December program was not finalized when he was applying, he could not think over the various merits of the different programs.
“This is a great opportunity because students often look for internships or go away in the summer,” he said. “A month-long break in the winter means we have a lot of free time that other schools don’t give.”
When announced in April, the December Bridge program was scheduled to run slightly shorter than the summer programs. This change is still planned, Faherty said.
“We’ll have to cut back on the curriculum a little bit, but we’ll bring up the intensity so that at least 90 percent of the summer program will be covered,” Faherty said.
Applications for the December Bridge program are split into three rounds over the summer and fall.
The December Bridge program expects to see 50 applications, Faherty said. Decisions will likely be released by the 3rd week of August.
In the past, students interviewed have said that the program is generally a positive experience. Nathaniel Graves ’14, a music major who participated in the program last summer, said that the program was “beneficial” for career development.
This summer’s program wrapped up its first session on July 3. The second session, which began on July 14, will end on August 8.
Business Bridge, which was founded in 1997, costs $10,200, while December Bridge will cost $7,000.
Roshan Dutta and Amelia Rosch contributed reporting.
