The Tuck Business Bridge program provides a holistic education in business while fostering a unique sense of community. With access to world-class educators, full-time MBA students, and an ambitious peer group, the Dartmouth Tuck Business Bridge Program provides the structure, support, and opportunities to enhance further growth.
Bridge Courses
- Business Communications
The objective of the Business Communication course is to prepare you to create and deliver the professional presentation of your corporate valuation. Many of you are already strong communicators; this class will help you to translate what you already know to a business audience.
- Corporate Finance
This course studies the financial aspects of managerial decisions and the capital markets in which firms raise money from investors. The course starts with the basics and builds up to a detailed analysis of how to determine the value and riskiness of real and financial assets.
- Ethics
What is the basis for making ethical decisions? The kind of evidence required for an ethical decision is different than a nonethical one; but what is the nature of the difference? These questions give rise to a search or a method of ethical justification and decision making, a method that will specify the conditions that any good ethical decision should meet.
- Financial Accounting
The objective of the Financial Accounting course is to provide you with an understanding of the structure and key measurement issues that underlie a set of financial statements and to show you how to use them for decision-making in a variety of contexts. Those contexts include but are not limited to valuation, which is the focus of the Bridge project. Students should not expect to become technical experts, but rather to be able to confidently converse with accountants and non-accountants in a future career in business.
- Inclusive Leadership: The Business Case for Diversity
In this session, students will learn about the framework of Inclusive Leadership and discuss the role and impact of diversity in/on individuals, teams and organizations. Using small group discussion, and creating a safe space for curiosity and dialogue, we will give students the opportunity to reflect on their own lived experiences, hear about the experiences of others and explore what wise and inclusive leadership means to them.
- Investments: From DCF to market valuations
A discounted cash flow framework typically involves the “long” view: long project horizons, long-term costs of capital, long-term expectations of cash flows. As such, the resulting net present values are somewhat “sticky.” Yet market valuations for public companies are comparatively volatile. How does one reconcile this gap in valuation volatility? How do we go from the intrinsic value of a company to the market value of a company? In this session, we’ll explore what happens after the discounted cash flow exercise is completed and how factors outside the DCF framework–namely, Fed influences on the yield curve–affect expectations and perceptions of value.
- Managerial Economics
The objective of the Managerial Economics course is to give you the ability to apply economic principles and tools in business settings. We will focus on the application of economics to actual business problems and decisions. The goal is for you to leave the course convinced that economics has a lot to offer in business decision-making and that you’ll be confident in your ability to use economic concepts and tools. We will cover three main areas of analysis: principles of cost; price/revenue/profit relationships; and industry analysis.
- Marketing
This course is designed to provide you with an introduction to the fundamental building blocks of marketing. In this class we use the marketing process model framework in order to provide exposure to important key concepts such as consumer behavior, company capabilities, and competitive environments. Additionally, students will learn about the key components of marketing strategy: segmentation, targeting and positioning and the primary marketing, tactics also known as the four Ps –Product, Price, Place and Promotion, which are critical in the execution of an entity’s marketing strategy. Students are also introduced to important marketing topics such as diffusion of innovation, customer orientation, international marketing and social/digital marketing.
- Organizational Behavior
Organizational success depends on people interacting to achieve common goals. The purpose of this course is to provide you with concepts for increasing team performance in support of organizational goals. You will discuss practical steps your study group can take to be more successful. You will be challenged to consider your role in managing interpersonal and team behavior in complex organizations. We will address these learning objectives by engaging in a team simulation to virtually summit Mount Everest.
- Spreadsheet Modeling
This course will teach you how to build and use a spreadsheet model as a laboratory for learning about a business problem or decision. This requires learning the basics of spreadsheet engineering: how to design, build, test a spreadsheet model and how to use it for business analysis.
- Strategy
Strategy is fundamentally about gaining an advantage over competitors, even for not-for profit organizations (e.g., universities). Simply making or delivering the same products or services in the same way as other organizations does not require a lot of strategy. To gain a competitive advantage, an organization must explicitly consider its interdependencies with other organizations and individuals. We will discuss the Value Net as a useful framework for understanding how an organization can strategically manage these interdependencies.
- Team Building
Throughout Bridge, you’ll be working in close collaboration with your Study Group. In this session, you will work on a collaborative group activity designed to help you get to know the members of your Study Group and begin to learn how to work together effectively.
Bridge Electives
Based off of recent post-program survey data, we are happy to introduce a selection of additional course topics to the Business Bridge program. We are offering the following courses based on this student interest.
- Business Law
Did you know that Dartmouth College has a special place in American contract law history? Have you ever wanted to know what kinds of agreements need to be in writing? Have you ever wondered where the tipping point is between profit and person? In Business Law, we address these questions and many more. This course provides a brief overview of major concepts, relationships, rights, and responsibilities of businesses and related stakeholders. The session concludes with a case-briefing exercise.
- Entrepreneurship
This class will introduce the four key frameworks for applying entrepreneurial thinking: Hypothesis-Driven Entrepreneurship, Lean Canvas/Lean Methodology, Customer Discovery, and Human-Centered Design/Design Thinking as it applies to startups. These frameworks can apply to various aspects of your professional life.
- Leadership
What do great leaders do that others don’t? What do I need to think about to start building my own capabilities as a leader? What is leadership in the first place? These are the questions we tackle in this session on Lessons on Leadership. While leadership is a contact sport – you need to practice being a leader to actually become a leader – there are several key capabilities that in my 30 years as a scholar, advisor to CEOs, and teacher keep rising to the top. As you move toward launching your career, and even more importantly, move toward an impactful and meaningful life, your own ability to be an effective leader will prove crucial. This session is designed to help you on that journey.
- Negotiation
Negotiation is the art and science of securing agreements between two or more interdependent parties. The purpose of this session is to understand the theory and processes of negotiation and practice practical skills. This interactive session will teach participants to analyze their own behavior in negotiations and better understand how those behaviors impact their outcomes.
- Private Equity
This elective is an introduction to private equity—often referred to as ‘buy side’ investing. Students will get an understanding of various types of private equity firms and investment focuses, targeting more mature companies across all industry sectors.
- Real Estate
This class provides an overview of the $20 trillion commercial real estate industry, introduces techniques for evaluating real estate investments, and applies those techniques in a short case study of an apartment rental via Airbnb.
- Technology: AI-Powered Business Tools
This elective covers the rapidly evolving landscape of business tools, focusing on the integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) like Microsoft Copilot and programming tools such as Python into Microsoft Excel. The course will explore the implications of these technologies on the roles of knowledge workers in business.
- Venture Capital
This elective is an introduction to the business of venture capital investing. Understanding venture capital is essential to comprehending today’s tech-centric economy. Students will be introduced to how venture capital firms work, and how they use capital to invest in startups and very young companies. The class will conclude with what career opportunities exist in venture capital for college graduates and how to pursue this career path.
Team Capstone Project
You will leverage all of your knowledge, skills and abilities to analyze and assess real-world issues and opportunities during your Team Capstone Project. You will leave Bridge with a tangible example of your potential business skills to share with employers, plus hands-on experience delivering a business presentation to clients and colleagues.
Project Stream: Company Valuation
Select a company product for analysis
Perform Research
Analyze Data
Draw Conclusion: Stock Price or Market Size
Present Findings to Panel of Industry Executives and Faculty
