<p>Are the internships at Penn generally good or is everyone cutting each other for a few good ones?
I’m not sure what you mean by this. Lots of great companies come and recruit at Penn. Penn does not “provide” the internships and give the positions to a select few. Penn will attract some big names to campus, and provide you with other ways of searching for internships, but it’s up to you to seek them out and work for them. I think on-campus recruiting is definitely more competitive for Wharton, but you might want to ask someone who has actually gone through it.</p>
<p>Are any majors at CAS worthless moneywise? If so, what are they?
Are “worthless” majors at CAS will be equally worthless at any other school. Are there less practical majors? Yes. It’s very difficult to say it will have a significant bearing on your career or salary, though, because different students will ultimately end up pursuing different paths. Slavic Studies might seem to be an impractical major, but what if a student majors in it, goes to law school, and ends up with a hefty salary? This ties in to the last post–no major is going to make you rich, you have to have the drive and initiative to use the opportunities around you.</p>
<p>Will taking a specific major at CAS lead to a better salary than the same major at a “lesser” college?
Penn, nor any other school, will get you a good salary. You have to use Penn to help achieve whatever it is you want. </p>
<p>Will the UPenn “name brand” effect wear off after my first career?
In all likelihood it won’t be terribly important.</p>
<p>Will the less competitive students at Penn drown…opportunity-wise?
If you don’t have the drive to seek out opportunities for yourself, you won’t be successful anywhere. Things are not handed to you. That is not to say everybody at Penn is super ambitious and has lined up 8 internships for the summer, because that is not the case at all.</p>
<p>But ultimately what I’m getting at: If a student is highly motivated and gung ho about their education and making money, will they…on average…end up with big bucks from a “college of lesser prestige” than they would from Penn CAS?
I’m pretty sure there will ultimately be very little, if any difference if you choose to attend school x vs. school y. Now BusinessWeek has released lists of schools with the top 10 average graduating salaries, and several Ivies, including Penn, are among them. Wharton certainly helps a lot in this case, but it’s my belief that it’s the type of students at the schools–the smart, ambitious, talented ones who gained acceptance in the first place–are what leads to high average salaries, and not any result of the school’s prestige. The students make the school, not the other way around. So whatever school you attend, the end result will likely be quite similar, because it’s up to you. Penn might have more opportunities to take advantage of than state school X, but you need to be willing to take advantage of them. I realize I have repeated myself on this, but it’s something a lot of pre-frosh don’t understand at all, and they think that going to Harvard or any other elite school will somehow give them whatever they want. Not true. The path to those opportunities will be opened, but the rest is up to you.</p>