So, I’m planning on applying to UPenn ED next month, and I’d love some advice. First off, UPenn is by far my number one choice for reasons that I won’t elaborate on because I don’t think it’s necessary for this question, but yah I’m definitely set on going to UPenn if given the chance. Anyways, I was originally planning on applying to Wharton because I want to major in marketing and have a ton of experience as an intern for a tech startup and having started multiple businesses, but after a little research that should’ve been done months ago, I realized that the Wharton curriculum, even for Marketing, is intensely quantitative and math focused. Math is definitely the only significantly weak part of my application and of my academic abilities and would definitely get me rejected, so I had another idea. My interest in marketing is mainly focused around the psychological and visual aspects of marketing rather than the economics and finance. So, I was thinking about possibly applying to the School of Arts & Sciences to major in either communications or psychology with minors in consumer psychology and fine art photography. I also know UPenn is very open to students taking classes at the other schools, so taking Wharton classes would also be ideal. I think it’d provide a unique perspective that would otherwise be lacking from the quantitative culture at Wharton, and I know UPenn is big on interdisciplinary learning, so I think it’d play in my favor. I also read about the individualized major option, and I think that might be good for my approach if UPenn would be open to it. I’m going to talk about all this on the academic interests supplemental essay, so they’ll know what I’d plan on doing. (My personal essay and most of my application is focused on my background in visual art and business, so I think they’re likely to be more open to the idea)
Choose the school that best fits the “story” your application is trying to tell. What major(s) do your essays/extracurriculars/letters/courses show you’re interested in? Keep in mind that Wharton is one of, if not the most, competitive school to be admitted to, so there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to do an uncoordinated dual-degree (the coordinated dual degree programs are M&T, LSM, VIPER etc.) or transfer between schools if you end up deciding that you want to study at Wharton.
Math, especially statistics, appears to be an extremely important foundation for study at Wharton (they ask students wanting to transfer/dual-degree to take it,) so it’s important that you note whether or not there are specific requirements for the course you’re interested in (even if you’re able to take them, there’s probably a registration priority for Wharton students if they NEED the courses for their major.)
Even in the college, you’ll still need to take a class including data analysis in-order to fulfill distribution requirements. While it doesn’t have to be a math class, you’ll still be using math in some way to analyze data.
Penn Gen-Ed: https://www.college.upenn.edu/gen-ed
Wharton Internal Transfer & Dual-Degree: https://undergrad-inside.wharton.upenn.edu/itdd/
Hope that helps! Good luck with admissions!