Econ. Major VS Wharton - QUESTIONS! Help!

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>I want to study business and I absolutely fell in love with Penn. I would apply to Wharton; however, I'm afraid certain aspects of my app. basically disqualify me.</p>

<p>(i.e. I am not in the highest level of math (which a Wharton admissions officer essentially stated in an interview is necessary), and I do not have the ability to take the SAT II Math II. I only have the Math I).</p>

<p>Anyway, I'm already a long shot for Penn in general (never-mind Wharton), but I love the campus too much to pass up applying just because Wharton is seemingly out of the question. Also, I am under the impression that the school of arts and science would provide me with a very valuable business education as well.</p>

<p>However, I have some questions about life as an Econ. Major:</p>

<ol>
<li>How hard/competitive is it?</li>
<li>How many classes can you take at Wharton? Are there certain ones off-limits?</li>
<li>How do the Econ. Major classes compare to those of Wharton classes? How do the overall educations differ? </li>
<li>Is there more or less math involved for an Econ. Major rather than a Wharton student?</li>
<li>How much of an advantage do the Wharton students have to recruiters (in terms of landing wall street jobs, investment banking, etc.)?</li>
</ol>

<p>Lastly, from a personal standpoint, if I am already a rather uncompetitive applicant, is my logic correct in that I should get the idea of Wharton out of my head all together? Is my understanding correct that it is in fact THAT much harder to get into Wharton than the school of arts and science? </p>

<p>Please answer any questions you can, even if not all. Thanks :)</p>

2

<p>I’m an incoming student, so I can only answer a few of your questions but I’ll give it a go.</p>

<p>1.) Difficulty is relative, but Econ at the College is definitely one of the tougher majors from what I’ve heard.</p>

<p>2.) You can freely enroll in Wharton classes as long as you have any necessary prerequisites. </p>

<p>3.) The Econ. major is quite a bit different from the Wharton curriculum. In general, it would seem that the Econ. major in CAS is more theoretical and the Wharton curriculum is more practical. </p>

<p>4.) The Econ. major is far more quantitative in nature than the typical Wharton curriculum (unless maybe you concentrate in statistics or something).</p>

<p>5.) CAS students have access to the same OCR opportunities as the Wharton kids. I doubt recruiters care all that much about which school within the University you go to as long as you have a good GPA, but I’m obviously not the best source on that particular issue.</p>

<p>6.) I don’t think Wharton is necessarily more difficult to get into than the College, but I do believe they stress different things when looking to admit students. I feel that Wharton cares more about having students that have a lot of initiative and self-motivation, whereas the College tends to care more about academic qualifications and intellectual capability (note that these are not mutually exclusive qualities by any means). It would be impossible to assess your specific chances of getting into the University however unless you provide some info on your background.</p>