Admission to Wharton

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

At the moment, I am an eighth grade student, which means that next year, the classes and extracurricular activities I do will show up on my transcript. Therefore, I need to make sure I take an acceptable curriculum for the colleges I apply to.

As I am considering a career in finance, The University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) seems like an ideal higher education institution. And, I am willing to work very hard in high school to be admitted to such a school.

What I would like to know is what it takes to be admitted to Wharton. How many and which extracurricular activities and Advanced Placement Courses should I take? What else would look good on an application to Wharton?

2

Good on you for thinking about college and your career this early. I’m planning on applying to Wharton this year!

1 thing if you want to show that you're interested in finance: join clubs (or even better, start a club) about business/finance. Emphasize mathematics in your courses. As for AP, take as many as you want. AP Calculus BC is also important to take, since finance deals with math and calculus often.

There’s no NUMBER of EC’s or AP’s that is certainly better than another. A person with 2 EC’s that has REALLY shined in them and has shown leadership in them (Wharton looks for leadership, as any businessman must have these skills) is far more preferable than one with 8 EC’s with little activity in them.

Have a couple of leadership positions (Prez, Vice-Prez, Treasurer, etc.). They don’t all have to be president or anything.

I’m ASSUMING you want to go into finance to work on Wall St./stocks and make some good money (like I want to lol), so I would say to have something on your resume/your essays that shows you were interested in stocks throughout high school. Maybe even ask your parents for a couple hundred dollars to put into a portfolio that you would manage yourself (with a mentorship from a parent or someone else who is experienced with trading). If stocks isn’t your thing, just show some interest in whatever field of finance you plan on doing.

The goal is to be unique. Show interest in business and finance ALONG with competence in academics.

Also, try to get at least a 2300 on your SAT (I did). Some people say 2200 is all you need for Ivies, but after looking at Results threads on CC, with Ivies, the chances are higher for 2300+ (unless you have some hook like URM… 'cause you know, Affirmative Action and such). With 3 more years till your SAT, you have plenty of time to practice (though you’ll be taking the new, redesigned SAT). If SAT isn’t your thing, ACT is the way to go. A 34-36 out of 36 is basically the same as the range of 2200-2400 on the SAT. Most say the ACT is easier question-difficulty wise, but it’s far more time-constrained.
Have a good GPA and rank. A 4.0 unweighted GPA (basically means you got all A’s, no B’s, though some schools have different scales) is obviously great.

Lastly, essays. Ivies DO read your essays. It really shows what kind of a person you are. After your junior year, start drafting your essays in the summer. Re-read and re-read them. Have others read them. Make sure your essays TRULY show an

Also, assuming by the time you apply you are absolutely sure you want to go to Penn Wharton, apply Early Decision. The acceptance rate for it is ~25%, up from the ~10% of regular action. The catch: if you are accepted ED, you are REQUIRED to matriculate and attend Penn. You can’t deny them and say you want to apply to other colleges. Read more about ED on their website:
http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/apply/freshman-admission/early-and-regular-decision

Good luck to you!

3

I would argue that your admission to Wharton is dependent on more than just test scores/GPA and a demonstrated interest in finance/business.

True, the first two items are virtually a necessity, and the third is nice to have, but if the most you can offer for why you want to study business/finance at Wharton is that it interests you (and the implicit reason of “I can make a lot of money”), you probably aren’t going to get in.

The best item that you can show to the admissions committee is not only a demonstrated interest in business, but a concept of using the knowledge that you will gain from Wharton towards a social good (e.g. microfinance in your case). Remember that the course of study you give them is only tentative, and it’s expected that your goals will change. As such, as the top undergraduate business school in the world, they aren’t really admitting you on being interested in business, but on what you perceive the value of a business education to be.

As such, take a rigorous courseload, have a good GPA, and get a good SAT/ACT score. That will help you anywhere, even if you aren’t admitted into Wharton. However, if you want an excellent shot for Wharton, I would suggest the “finance club” idea, and a lot of community service. Penn is a school that values service and engagement in general, and having this on your application will make you a synthesized applicant who is interested in business for more than gaining money (and trust, distinguished applicants who have started finance clubs really aren’t that hard to come by in Wharton’s applicant pool).

Therefore, the key to getting into Wharton is the usual academics, some interest in business/finance (even though this isn’t an absolute necessity), and giving a business education a sense of purpose.

I won’t say that I’m an expert on getting into an Ivy League school. However, considering that Dean Furda could partially remember what I talked about in my “Why Penn?” essay, I can offer you some advice from that vantage point.

Ultimately, an applicant who wants to study business for no reason than making money (even if they appear to be a decent business student, but not extraordinary) isn’t really a likable person, or a compelling case for admission. Assuming that they have no hooks, they’d probably be a “maybe if we have room” type of candidate. The distinguished applicant who has the usual and that somewhat lofty but well-developed sense of purpose would be strong, even without hooks.