Applying to Wharton

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>Hi, this is my first post on these forums. I am a high school junior and am looking at entrepreneurship and business as a serious major. I want to apply to Wharton but have a bunch of questions, so here goes.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>When I apply do I apply directly to Wharton, or to University of Pennsylvania then Wharton, how does that work?</p></li>
<li><p>Do I have to do Extracurricular activities that show i am interested in business or is that not considered. (might be a stupid question) If i do, then what do you guys here reccomend i do, like a mentorship, internship, or maybe start a small business on the side.</p></li>
<li><p>Could i apply to and get into University of Pennsylvania and then transfer into Wharton or is that impossible/hard to do.</p></li>
<li><p>Is it vital that i apply/go to one of Wharton's summer programs or is that also not a major factor. </p></li>
<li><p>What are some of the other top colleges in Business/Entrepreneurship studies, that i should look at. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>I am completely new to the whole college hunt, i might be starting late i don't know, i still have this whole year to mull over possibilities.</p>

2

<p>Oh have one more question. Are there any full ride scholaships offered by Wharton that i should try and apply for?</p>

3

<p>1.) You apply directly to Wharton. It’s a bit of a risk in the sense that Wharton admissions are much rarer.
2.) Business-oriented extracurriculars aren’t “have to,” the most important thing is to show passion in whatever you’re doing, and then tell Penn that you’ll transfer that to your degree pursuit.
3.) Yes, much easier to do.</p>

4

<p>so the better or higher percentage option is to apply to University of Pennsylvania, gain acceptance there, and then once there seek transfer into Wharton. I take it that i still have to apply to wharton once i attend UPenn, do i spend my freshman year at UPenn or do i transfer out of that and into Wharton before freshman year itself. I would like some details about that whole process, if anyone could help me or point to a link where i can read up on this stuff that would be nice.</p>

5

<p>No, you go through one year (semester?) of college and then apply to transfer. You need a perfect 4.0 to transfer into Wharton, whereas transferring out of Wharton is pretty simple. Furthermore, many people try transferring into Wharton, so it’s not a guaranteed shot - you need to be good, lucky, and have superb grades. Although supposedly it’s not as hard as just applying to college as a freshman…</p>

6

<p>You do not need perfect grades, but a GPA of at least 3.8. It’s manageable.</p>

7

<p>I think i would rather do it by applying to UPenn then trying to transfer to Wharton, because even if i don’t make it, i am still going to an ivy league school, of course i am assuming i get into UPenn which is no easy task. Is it possible to apply to both, UPenn, and Wharton, that way i can possibly cover my bases further.</p>

<p>Kind of Off Topic:
I looked on Businessweek about the best business schools in the country and UVa’s McIntire Business school is ranked as 1, i live in virginia so would that be a better fit if i am serious about business school, what are some other nationally ranked business schools.</p>

8

<p>I would say that if you have what it takes to be in Wharton you should apply to Wharton directly. The only way I think you can “try” to apply to both the College and Wharton is through the Huntsman Program. However, tt is far from a guarantee to transfer from the College into Wharton. Like Whartonite1 mentioned, you would need a GPA of at least 3.8 to even be considered.</p>

<p>I’ve heard Babson College is a good place to study entreprenuership. As for McIntire, it’s a two year program that you have to apply to. Thus, you would have to enter UVA and then apply to McIntire.</p>

9

<p>Thanks for that info, when you say to transfer i would need a GPA of 3.8, would that be my GPA for my first year of college, or my high school GPA.</p>

10

<p>College GPA of course…</p>

11

<p>3.8 = first year of penn (college / engineering / nursing) for internal transfer into wharton</p>

<p>this is the only criterion that is evaluated</p>

<p>and there have definitely been stories of people in wharton or engineering who get owned their first year and want to transfer into the college, but have below a 3.0 and therefore cannot until they bring their gpa up</p>

12

<p>Hi, this is my first post on these forums. I am a high school junior and am looking at entrepreneurship and business as a serious major. I want to apply to Wharton but have a bunch of questions, so here goes.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>When I apply do I apply directly to Wharton, or to University of Pennsylvania then Wharton, how does that work?
When you fill out the commonapp (Upenn exclusively uses it) you select your first choice major, and that will be something like business, finance, etc. Then on UPenn’s supplement to the commonapp you select which college you are applying to (College of Arts and Science, Wharton, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Nursing). If you are accepted to UPenn, and you selected Wharton, you will be in Wharton, nobody can get into UPenn but not into the school they selected.</p></li>
<li><p>Do I have to do Extracurricular activities that show i am interested in business or is that not considered. (might be a stupid question) If i do, then what do you guys here reccomend i do, like a mentorship, internship, or maybe start a small business on the side.
From all of my Whartonite friends (I’m double degree with engineering and the College), they seem to have a variety of extra-curriculars in high school. It’s not about showing you’re interested in business, they obviously assume you are if you are applying to Wharton, it’s more about bringing something special to Wharton and UPenn as a whole. Ex: I was president FFA and raised animals for the county fair in high school, was president of Spanish club, and did nothing in the realm of Mu Alpha Theta (math honor society), Science Club, Robotics club, and basically had no math/science clubs and I got into engineering because I had the grades and brought something different to the program.</p></li>
<li><p>Could i apply to and get into University of Pennsylvania and then transfer into Wharton or is that impossible/hard to do.
It’s considered damn near impossible to transfer into Wharton or Engineering. Basically everyone in Wharton or Engineering can pick up a second degree outside of their school, and very easily transfer outside, but nobody can get in. To apply for a dual degree or transfer to Wharton, you need at least a 3.8 GPA to be considered, and on top of that, they don’t take many people. Only a few people do it every year out of the thousands of undergrads.</p></li>
<li><p>Is it vital that i apply/go to one of Wharton’s summer programs or is that also not a major factor.
Doesn’t matter at all. I don’t know anyone in Wharton that had any connection to the school or did a summer program here.</p></li>
<li><p>What are some of the other top colleges in Business/Entrepreneurship studies, that i should look at.
Depends what interests you. Please don’t base your college selection off of purely what you think is the “best school” in terms of rankings, choose the best school for you. I almost made such a huge mistake picking my college (I was committed to going to Caltech until the end of May precisely because I thought it was the best school for engineering–which may be true–but it was a completely wrong school for me). Look at what else interests you and what you want out of college (city, rural, climate, study abroad, dual degree options, core requirements, class size, location, student body, size, etc.)</p></li>
</ol>

13

<p>Thank you for such an in depth reply, that really clarified my questions about applying. I am glad to know that you kinda have to apply to one of the schools when you apply to UPenn, that takes the worry of what if i had just applied to UPenn and had made it out of my head. Thanks for the info on the whole ranking thing, i realize i need to pick a school for me but i want to search for that good school within the top ranks of business schools.</p>

14

<p>I have one more question regarding Extracurricular activities and UPenn/Wharton. I am independently considering out of my own interest to start a computer repair/building website, and marketing it locally, also me and a friend are considering creating a small t-shirt making operation and selling it near school. Now if these two ideas got off the ground would i be able to list them as EC’s and would they hold weight like other “official” EC’s. I want to reiterate that i am not doing this for college but out of a passion for starting a business that i care about. Would UPenn and other colleges see this as a plus or useless. Also would i have to provide official documentation of the businesses or would they take my word for it.</p>

15

<p>bump sorry</p>

16

<p>there’s no such thing as an unofficial extracurricular</p>

<p>either you did it, and got something positive out of it that you can speak to in written or oral form, or you didn’t</p>