Hello,
I am currently a sophomore in high school interested in applying to Wharton, but I have been hearing different things about the programs for undergrad students. Some people have told me there is a combined BA/MBA program, while on the website it does not show this. Can anyone please confirm?
@shortema Penn has an option called submatriculation, where as an undergraduate student you can apply to pursue a graduate degree at Penn. Wharton has such an option but it is extremely difficult and rare for an undergraduate student to do that. You need essentially a perfect GPA and near perfect GMAT scores. Also this submatriculatio option is open only to Wharton undergraduates so you would be earning a BSE/MBA. BSE stands for Bachelor of Science in Economics and it is the name of the degree you get as an undergraduate student at Wharton. Despite the title, this is not an economics degree, but rather a business degree. The name has prevailed for historical reasons. The traditional economics degree, which you will find also in schools that don’t have undergraduate business schools, is called a BA in Economics and it is offered by the College of Arts and Sciences at Penn.
Many would argue that doing an MBA before you get some work experience is sort of pointless anyway, and I would agree with that.
Thank you so much. The reason why I was interested is because I plan on going into investment banking, and therefore it would be better to get an MBA at the same time, but thank you anyway.
Very few people do BS/MBA at Wharton. It’s an option, but I remember talking to an advisor once who said only like 3 people have done it in the past 5 years. I don’t see why you’d want to get an MBA (in the form of a submat) if you plan to do banking. Investment banks hire undergrads all the time as analysts (from Wharton and many other institutions). MBA graduates often are hired as associates, but no top-tier investment bank is going to hire a 22 year old with little experience to be an associate just because he submatted into an MBA program. If your goal is to go into banking, just stick with the regular BS degree from Wharton, and you’ll be fine. You can look up on Penn Career Services’ website the positions graduating students accept, and you’ll easily see that you can get a job at a bank as an undergrad pretty easily if you have good grades.