Small But Bigger
could hardly be categorized as unfettered growth, but Tuck School has embarked on a plan for a modest, carefully planned, decorous expansion in size.
Over a five-year period, the College trustees have agreed, the faculty is to increase by 20 per cent, from the current 25 to 30 in all. The present student enrollment of 270 is to be enlarged gradually by initial increments of five to ten per cent per year, up to a possible total of 320. The tentative nature of the expansion, Dean Richard West explained, will allow the faculty and administration to assess the impact of even a few more students on the small-school character of Tuck, with its traditional emphasis on close student-faculty relationships.
Tuck, the oldest graduate school of business administration in the country, is also — and will remain — the smallest of the major institutions in the field, retaining its commitment to personalized teaching and other benefits of its small size, West said.
Even were the expansion far greater, there seems little chance that the supply of Tuck graduates will exceed demand. Or that places in the new, larger classes will go a-begging. There were 1,800 applicants competing for the 136 places in last year's entering class, graduating students received an average of four firm job offers, and starting salaries averaged $22,500.
