There has been some talk of late about the process of selecting Tuck Scholars.  This idle chatter does not permeate the community…many students wouldn’t dare discuss grades, not in civilized company where their comments might be misinterpreted as arrogance or might give the impression that they actually care about grades.  But behind closed doors, among trusted friends, people are discussing Tuck Scholarhood, and secretly hoping they “get chosen.”

I say “get chosen” instead of “earned it” because that’s sort of what it would feel like.  The process is so shrouded in secrecy that it reminds me of The Sorting Hat in Harry Potter.  Or maybe bid night at a fraternity.  I’m imagining the professors and deans gathering in a secret location with a few 30 packs….forming coalitions, delivering passionate speeches, black-balling students, taking multiple votes…

Seriously, how are Tuck Scholars selected?  No one knows.  The honor is bestowed on the top 15% of students in each class, based on grades.  But in case you haven’t noticed, we don’t have GPA’s at Tuck…so how do we know who has the best grades?

I asked an official in the program office this very question, last winter.  The first thing this person said was that it is very difficult to make Tuck Scholar if you have more than 2 “S’s.”  I found it interesting that the defining characteristic was the number of “S’s”, not the number of “H’s”.  (Most likely this person was just trying to end the conversation, assuming that I had already received multiple S’s and therefore wouldn’t inquire any further.)

The second thing I learned was that, in most years, the last person to squeak onto the exalted list has about 12 H’s. 

But this individual would not tell me the mathematical formula used to convert H, S+, and S into a GPA.  Which makes me wonder….is there a formula?  If yes, why not make it public?  If no, then how the F is it decided? 

How do they factor in students that take extra credits?  Or students that go abroad? 

As usual at Tuck, the process is shrouded in secrecy and we’re supposed to trust the good judgment of the powers-that-be.  Excuse me while I express some skepticism.  Any subjective process is a political process, and that is simply unacceptable.  Why not introduce some transparency?

I can think of 3 reasons why the process is so opaque:

1)  We don’t want Tuck to be cutthroat.  Transparency (like, say, a publicly posted list, or simply a GPA system) would cause the Type A individuals (95% of us) to obsess about beating their classmates, and we’d lose our collaborative community.  This is a strategic choice that makes sense, but we can’t have it both ways.

2)  Professors want students to be at their beck and call for 2 years. If we introduce transparency, who would sign up to TA my courses?  How would we find graders?  These unruly MBA’s consider themselves “customers” and “the customer is always right.”  Tuck Scholar is the last piece of power we have left!  (This one is mostly just funny…I’ve graded/TA’d for multiple courses and have never experienced anything close to this)

3) We want to preserve the special Tuck magic.  This is the most likely answer, and the most dangerous.  Tuckies love to tout our special secret Tuck culture that sets us apart from all other schools and results in a 65% alumni contribution rate.  Part of this “secret sauce” is just that: secrecy.  Don’t ask too many questions and you might be admitted into the inner circle.

Can anyone think of any good reasons to keep the formula secret?