<p>Well, it seems that one of the most persistent myths about Wharton is that the students are cut-throat to the point of sabotage. The way some Princetonians on the board describe Wharton, you would think that Whartonites poison each others' drinks, tear pages out of reference books, and literally stab each other in the back over a Management 100 class grade.</p>
<p>Personally, I think that is a load of crap; but I'm just basing that on what family members of mine who went to Penn tell me. So, for the Whartonites out there, could you describe the learning environment at Wharton? Since most RD Whartonites are cross admits with Princeton, MIT, Yale, Harvard and such places, surely, one must assume that the student bodies are largely homogenous. Princeton has curves too, (though, admittedly, Princeton's females seem to lack the voluptuousness Penn's fine females posses). However, you rarely hear anyone describe Princeton as cut-throat. </p>
<p>I think this whole "cut-throat" nonsense is spread by people who know that the opportunities Wharton posses are too strong of a draw. As a result, HYP (mostly YP) are bleeding cross-admits to Wharton. The "cut-throat" argument is the only one they seem to be able to muster credibly against Wharton. I think the whole liberal arts argument has been handily dealt with by Wharton's administration (since half of your courses are in the liberal arts at one of the world's premier colleges). Almost all of these people have never attended Wharton themselves and therefore are commenting based upon hearsay. But as Vladimir Lenin said, "a lie told often enough becomes truth." I may be wrong though. What is the back story? Is Wharton cut throat? I assume that any top tier university is challenging and competitive, but there is a distinct difference between healthy competition and cut-throat competition. Which is it at Wharton? </p>
<p>My cousin attends Wharton and we’ve talked about this topic many times. She tells me that there are a few people who are cut-throat but that they are eventually marginalized. Wharton requires many group projects and sooner or later the cut-throats wear out their welcome. My cousin’s husband attends Princeton (economics) and wishes he was at Wharton. According to him, Princeton wears you down. Between grade deflation and an all-consuming workload, you never have time to enjoy life. My cousin received three offers to work on Wall Street in investment banking. Her husband received less-stellar offers of employment.</p>
<p>I just wrote this on the Princeton forum. Someone was trying to decide between Princeton and Brown PLME. I just realized that what I said there also applies to Wharton too.
I’ve paraphrased myself below:</p>
<p>I feel that you should never enter a school fearing failure and thinking that you are going to get beat down. Cowering from a challenge is uncontainable. Will Wharton be a challenge? Yes. But so will life, you might as well face the music now. If, at every turn, when a challenge is presented to you, you cower and look for the easy route out, you will never make a lasting impact on this world. If you think that you can overcome whatever challenge is presented to you, you will. The competition you face will prepare you for competition in life. Man up. </p>
<p>Now, it is important to note that I am not arguing in favor of cut-throat behavior. Neither am I suggesting that it exists at Wharton, nor am I excusing it if it does. What I am saying is that competition is natural and is not necessarily a bad thing. Since competition is natural it is inescapable. </p>
<p>Now, there are boundaries to competition. I am not asking if Whartonites all strive to suceed, of course they all do. When you have a collection of highly motivated and intelligent students, and a system where not all of them can succeed, obviously there is going to be competition. That is as true at Harvard or Yale as it is at Penn.</p>
<p>I suppose what I am asking is: do Whartonites take that competition to the cut - throat level? Do Whartonites compromise their morals and intentionally sabotage their peers for the sake of competition? Is competition between students so great that it becomes the primary focus of the student body (as opposed to learning, enjoying school life, etc.)? If the answer to both of those question is yes, that is what I would define as a cut-throat school, if both are no, the school is not cut-throat. If the poster above me is correct, then Wharton is not cut-throat and all of our fears are unfounded. We can look forward to attending Penn in peace knowing that we can have a liberal arts education, the best business education possible, get top jobs, and have a wonderful social life on top of all of that. But let us wait to hear from current Whartonites, I am sure they can shed light on this topic.</p>
<p>Maybe I’m naive, but I don’t think the competition here is as bad as people make it out to be.</p>
<p>For sure, MGMT 100 ****ed me off because there’s a touchy situation where your teammates need to grade each other, and to be honest, that’s probably just the class’ problem, not the students’ fault. It’s like a reality TV show in that class, because even if you make some great friends, you still need to vote some people off the island.</p>
<p>But yeah, I’m just a freshman, but I think people just assume business students lack morals or something.</p>
<p>So you are essentially saying that people do not intentionally sabotage people to get ahead? If I am understanding you correctly, you are forced to make decisions, as you will be in real life, about the relative strengths of your team members in MGMT 100, and of course there is competition in that - no one wants to be kicked off the island. But that is very different from cut-throat behavior. No one is intentionally sabotaging anyone else and students are able to work and help each other (as you must do since you work as a team and are graded by the team). </p>
<p>Wharton definitely encourages competition and the curve may or may not push you to work harder (depending on how quickly you learn) but no, ppl don’t sabotage each other etc. If anything, you quickly realize that you need to cooperate to get ahead since information is king in business. The curve isn’t so bad though. If you take your studies seriously, its not hard to get the same gpa you would at other schools. Many people have lower gpas because they compete in other areas (internships are a big one). Generally, students share information and tips etc on how to find internships with one another and the real race is there.</p>
<p>Wharton probably isn’t any more cut-throat than any other ivy league school. Competition healthy, or unhealthy is in every top school, and just because a place is competitive doesn’t mean it is cut-throat. I always hear people tell stories of pre-med students at Johns Hopkins tearing pages out of books and sabotaging each others work. However from what I’ve actually heard from people who did pre-med at Hopkins is that this is totally exaggerated. People are competitive, but not abnormally so.</p>
<p>Well, it seems that we can put this cut-throat nonsense behind us. It clearly does not exist at Wharton; not, at least, in the way others describe it. Sure there is internal competition that every individual must have to succeed, but there is collaboration between people as well just like at any other top school. </p>
<p>If any other current Whartonites have anything to add to this topic, please do. In future, if anyone calls the competition at Wharton cut-throat, just link them to this page.</p>
<p>Im a current sophomore and would like to try to give a better, less speculative answer to some of the issues brought up.</p>
<p>1) The Curve
It is not as bad as you make it out to be. The times the curve has helped me (a 47% curved to a B) have far outnumbered the times I have been adversely affected. The fact is that most curved classes (which are mostly the core – the upper level classes are curved less often) give around 70% A’s and B’s. If you ask any Wharton student, the grade you get is commensurate with how much work you put in. Many students also focus on things other than academics, however if you devote enough time to class work you will get a GPA that matches your efforts. Sure, some people are very smart and do well without studying, but if you put in the time, go to class, do the readings and study hard you have a good shot at getting the A.</p>
<p>2) Cutthroat
What people have said is true. People find out who the cutthroat people are early and they get shunned. You have to branch out and meet new people that you can depend on. Since you will see many of the same faces as you complete the core in the first two years you will find good people and bad people to work with. I’d say the general mentality is competitive, but in the sense that people just want to succeed.</p>
<p>I completely agree with dlesk; yes, there are obnoxious people at every school and at every point in life, but learning to deal with (and consciously ignore) them is a part of the life skills you develop while in college. I usually describe Wharton as being collectively competitive but individually collaborative. It is true that the thought of the curve and its standard deviations is on your mind for every exam, but it is also true (at least for me) that I feel very comfortable helping and being helped by my friends for whatever class.</p>
<p>I’m not in Wharton, but I’m taking a Wharton class this semester and have to say there definitely is more cutthroat behavior exhibited in this class than any others I’ve taken so far. Stuff like students going out of their way to withhold information about notes, quizzes and homework from someone who wasn’t able to make it to class, students making deals on how they’re going to grade each other (ex. MGMT100) so that they aren’t actually honest on the evaluations, etc…</p>
<p>That being said, people will be competitive in the real world and you’ve got to learn to fend for yourself eventually anyway. And I’m sure there are competitive students everywhere.</p>
<p>Most wharton courses are competitive, but if you study hard enough, you can do well. There are some courses like the dreaded mgmt100 where I’ve heard that it turns into survivor. People arent voted off, but we are asked to rank our team and follow a distribution. That encourages students to make side deals and try to outwit outplay outlast.</p>
<p>of course, if you have a good mgmt team like mine where people are ethical, then that is minimized.</p>