applying to wharton vs. just upenn

<p>out of curiosity, does it make a huge difference whether you apply to upenn wharton or just upenn undeclared? is the former a LOT harder than the latter?</p>

<p>I'm pretty sure you have to apply to one of Penn's undergraduate schools, such as CAS, Wharton, Nursing, etc.</p>

<p>upenn undeclared = applying to the college of arts and sciences
upenn wharton = applying to the wharton school</p>

<p>it's harder to get into wharton than into the college.</p>

<p>tenebrousfire, what i mean is, is it a LOT harder?</p>

<p>YES it's a LOT harder.</p>

<p>I know it is impossible in practice qrstuvwxyzzz, but you should really base your choice of colleges on wherever your interest lies, not on admission stats.</p>

<p>If you could actually go to Penn you would see there isn't really a difference between a wharton undergrad and a cas undergrad. Both schools have their geniuses and their morons.</p>

<p>I definitely agree with JohnnyK - applying to Wharton, as opposed to applying to the College, is basically just declaring you are pretty sure you want to be a business major. A lot of people think its an entirely different school/experience, but it really isn't. To me, applying to Wharton/Nursing/Engineering, as opposed to the College, is roughly the same - you're just basically declaring that you're interested in a more specific field (though of course, you can always change your mind).</p>

<p>@hxgbert:
While it's easy to change majors within schools, it isn't easy to switch between schools. They're not really different experiences, but the curricula (academic experiences) are VERY different, and admissions are different. The admissions committees for each school are looking for different things.</p>

<p>While Wharton does have a lower admission rate, that shouldn't influence your decision at all. Either you're interested in business, engineering, nursing, or the arts and sciences. You need to make that decision before applying, but trying to game the system just to get into "Penn" never turns out well.</p>

<p>Wharton admit rate = around 9%
CAS admit rate = around 18%</p>

<p>So, twice as hard to get into Wharton.</p>

<p>BUT, it's almost impossible to transfer (maybe 2 dozen internal transfers/year). And it seems like half the applicants to CAS have a "secret plan" to transfer to Wharton. For 98% of them, their "secret plan" will fail.</p>

<p>So, if you want to study undergraduate business, apply to Wharton and some other undergrad B schools. If you want to study something else, apply to CAS.</p>

<p>"And it seems like half the applicants to CAS have a "secret plan" to transfer to Wharton. For 98% of them, their "secret plan" will fail"</p>

<p>Not to mention the fact that if the admissions committee catches a whiff of that on a CAS application, it's an automatic reject.</p>