ED or RD - Upenn Wharton

Applying to College
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I’m currently having a dilemma regarding whether I should ED or RD for Upenn Wharton.

All my application materials are ready, but I can’t make a decision as to whether I should ED or not.

For some context, I am not a legacy nor am I an athlete. My demographics are Indian-American female from California, and my family income is upper-middle class. My parents will be paying for my college, however, my family is at the point where they can’t easily afford Penn (the NPC estimate is very pricy for us, but if they really sacrificed a lot, they would be able to cover it.) I am very grateful for this, but it’s hard for me to ask them to contribute so much for me, even if it’s for my higher education. They have already done so much, and I feel guilty asking them to pay this huge sum of money.

I have heard from others that you should ED only if you can 1. comfortably afford it (even if the fin-aid package is above the NPC) 2. its your top choice.

For me personally, USC Marshall is my more “realistic” dream school, as I would love to stay close to home while also attending a top business school. Wharton is pretty much the only school I would consider going out of state for, but even then I would feel hesitant to sign a binding contract with the school. I do really like the school (based on YT vlogs I’ve been binging LOL) and its programs, as well as the leg-up it provides me with professionally. My stats are somewhat within Wharton’s range & I put a lot of care into my ECs, so it’s not extremely unlikely that I may get in. But judging from my school’s history (public school), no one has ever gotten into Penn before (we had Stanford and Cornell last year, but other than that mostly top UCs).

I do really like Wharton, but I’ve heard that it has a very stressful/cutthroat environment, and I personally value my overall happiness and time with my family more. At the same time though, it’s WHARTON and probably something I may regret not ED-ing to in the future. How much of an advantage would applying as ED give to me? And is it worth all of these other things I have to consider? Or should I just apply RD (hoping my chances wouldn’t be greatly impacted) and hope for the best?

I have to apply as soon as possible, so please let me know your thoughts on this, I would really really appreciate it <3

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IMO, it sounds like you have enough doubts to not warrant an ED application. For an unhooked applicant the ED bump is no where close to what it looks on paper.

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I would not ED since Wharton does not appear to be comfortably affordable. In addition, you have never visited and don’t seem totally “sold” on the school (other than perhaps the prestige factor).

Is USC more affordable? CA has a number of excellent in-state public colleges that may be more budget-friendly.

FWIW, you can have a great career coming out of MANY colleges - at some point it will be more about what you accomplish during you college years rather than which fine college you attend.

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USC is probably just as expensive, but I’m hoping that I have a chance to get one of their merit scholarships on top of financial aid. UCLA is another in-state option that is more affordable for me, but they don’t have a UG Business school. I would still be really happy to go there!

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I agree with others that you should not apply ED to Penn. Are you a NMSF? USC offers a half-tuition scholarship to NMSF. Be sure to apply by the EA deadline for scholarship consideration. Then you can apply RD to Penn and other schools and compare financials from all of your acceptances. Good luck!

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Agree with previous posters. You write that one of the things you like about USC is that it’s close to home. Getting to California from Philadelphia will be a long journey and will take the better part of a day.

Consider that Thanksgiving break is only two days, one of which is the holiday itself. I live closer to PA than you, but it’s still a six hour travel day home for my child; most of break is spent traveling. You may not get home as often as you would like. Only you know how important that is.

From what you write, USC sounds like the better fit. And you can still apply RD to Penn.

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ED would give you the best chance but you absolutely should not do it. In fact, I’m not even sure you should apply RD although you can just for kicks.

You have to be somewhere for four years, day after day after day.

It’s great to get in - but then what? Now you are actually there.

But back to stressing your family - you would have the same issue with USC - so hopefully you are applying to UCD/UCI, etc. and their b schools - which won’t put your family into a financial strain.

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Thank you! I applied to USC EA already. However, I unfortunately missed the NMSF cutoff by a few points :frowning:

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When you put it that way, it definitely puts things into perspective. That seems like a big sacrifice for me to make, so you’re right that I would be a lot happier at USC.

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Thank you for your view on this! And you’re right–it is not just about the acceptance letter, but the course of the next 4 years of my life.

I am applying to 7/9 UCs as of now! They are all great options for me too, but I prefer USC. I hope if I get into USC it works out financially… it’s been my dream school for a long time now.

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I have a secret for you. There’s no such thing as a dream school.

Marshall is great but like all schools there are potentially bad profs, bad roommates, bad food. It most certainly will, based on what you write, cause financial strain to your family. We are already seeing posts from kids miserable at their dream schools.

Don’t know your Uw GPA but with the UCs and CSUs like SDSU plus likely to be inexpensive and excellent publics like Arizona Eller, you have a chance to get a great degree without putting your family on a strain like noted above. Or for an SC sub with merit, you might also look at U of Denver as a likely safety. Daniels is a very solid b school.

What is your major and ultimate goal.

I hope USC works out for you but please get the dream school idea out of your mind. There isn’t one although there are likely many schools you can be happy at.

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You’re right, and honestly, it’s my bad for having this mentality. I think the toxic culture surrounding college & “prestige” has rubbed off on me, and in reality, USC is definitely not perfect (I may not even end up liking it).

My UW GPA is currently at 4.0 & weighted is at 4.5. I would like to major in business/finance alongside a minor/complimentary major in data science, AI, or computer science. Career-wise, I’m open to any finance (or even tech/consulting) careers that have a nice work-life balance and good compensation.

Thank you for your words of wisdom though, I appreciate it. I’ll try to slowly let go of this mindset I’ve cultivated, but in all honesty, it might be a little hard (I’ve been attached to USC since touring it in around 8th grade, and now I’m a senior who’s applying). I’m sure eventually I will realize that this all isn’t as important in the grand scheme of things–even though right now it seems like my whole world.

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Applicants are told here to focus on fit.

This applicant feels USC would be the best fit, so it becomes their dream school.

Is fit no longer important?

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Agree fit is important. I’m just saying there’s more than one school that works and the poster may look great but it doesn’t mean it is. How many - I’m at my dream and I’m miserable threads will you read. Kids can’t even get into clubs.

Listen, Marshall is a top B School. Wonderful. If a student wants, for example, investment banking, it’s great. Of course, Wharton would be better but the student wants to be, at least for now, closer to home.

At the same time, it’s likely if the student gets into Marshall, their family will have to make sacrifices. It’s great if they’re ok with that - but what if it puts their retirement back years?

With a 4.0 unweighted, they’d be high 40s at Denver. They’d be $25K at Arizona Eller (a fine school but not USC perception wise). $52K minus merit at U Washington Foster. Likely $50K or so with merit at IU Kelley. USC is over $90K - and who knows maybe the student gets need aid. It will be perhaps $100K by the time the student graduates.

UCD will be $41K - as an example. So cost wise, and certainly equal to a UC not named UCB in Business IMHO, would be Arizona Eller with $32K off.

But that’s not factoring fit. But that is factoring the family saving $250K.

Finance is a part of fit and you can see the student struggling with the finances up front.

So i’m just laying out another perspective for OP to consider.

A lot depends too on the end game - what’s the desired outcome?

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Unfortunately, you just cannot ED to Wharton - you can’t put that financial burden on your family. The only place that you could ED would be someplace your family could afford.

Plan your applications so that you have a safety and a match that are both financially and academically possible, that you would want to go to. Sure, apply to Wharton RD. Maybe they’ll give you enough fin aid that your family could swing it for you.

I’d recommend spending your time on identifying places that you want to go that will be less of a financial burden on your family.

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Exactly - ED is a choice. Nobody “has to” ED.

Fortunately, USC is the one school that works perfectly for kids in this situation - it’s my top choice but it might be a financial strain…as they don’t have ED.

The kids don’t need to be put into that situation!!

Kudos to USC.

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Fit is important, of course and should be an important part of choosing a college. But, for every student there are probably many schools where they could be happy. Many schools where there is a good fit. That is critical because there is no guarantee a kid will get into a “dream” school or that they will be able to afford it.

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My nephew was considering EDing UPENN, full pay, cost not an issue. As they were driving to the campus, struggling a bit to find it, he said don’t bother mom, keep driving, he did not like the area (Chicago native, loves city life, but apparently not Philadelphia). He did love swarthmore.

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California has a number of public schools that offer an undergrad Business major:

  • UC-Berkeley
  • Cal Poly SLO & Pomona
  • Virtually (?) all of the CSUs

If you want additional UC options, I would spend time poring through offered majors and course catalogs to see if you would be able to fashion a course schedule that would provide enough of the types of courses you desire.

For instance, just taking a quick peek at UCSD’s Majors page, they list “Business Economics”. That might be worth looking into.

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Wow, that is quite shocking. Penn’s campus is very nice, and the area around it has gentrified, especially to the west. It has as much or more of a campus feel to it than do the other inner city Ivies, in my opinion. Incredible to me that they would have been put off by city traffic and the slum areas on the other side of Drexel I suppose that they were probably driving through, and not even look at the campus, when they had come so far. Certainly, Swarthmore feels very self-contained, very safe, very suburban. The suburban train line can take him into center city. To write off all of Philly because of driving through a bad neighborhood on the way to campus? By that criteria, he should only be considering colleges in suburban or rural locations, because every city is going to have slum areas. Hope he bothered to look at Haverford, too, which is quite similar in campus feel - self contained in a wealthy suburb of Philly with a suburban train station nearby so can get into the city. Or is he already at college?

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