I am a parent of a student who is a freshman in Wharton, so take what I say with a grain of salt bc he/we may not have the whole Wharton vibe yet… but my son has not AT ALL found fellow students in Wharton to be cut throat or trying to sabotage anyone. He is currently home on Fall break and just gave me an in-depth 4 hour run down…
He has found everyone to be super friendly and extremely willing to collaborate. He has several courses where it is imperative for students collaborate to succeed. Penn CAS and Wharton, along with management 100 course where Wharton students are put in groups to run a non profit project, are implementing these S.A.I.L. courses for several mandatory courses. SAIL stands for Structured, Active, In-Class, Learning courses, which emphasize self-reliance in education. (basically you have to teach yourselves the material in small groups)
http://www.thedp.com/article/2015/01/sail-courses-met-with-criticism
While he hates this type of learning, because it is very hard to teach yourselves the course , he said it makes it imperative that you learn to work together. He mentioned that while there are many super bright students in his classes, there are also many athletes (guessing about 35%?) that are struggling. This helps out the “curve”. He said he felt there is definitely a disparity between the two groups… and feels bad that many are struggling but at the same time, its not bc of cut throat competition or anything its just that some may get things much quicker… Penn does have free tutoring help available.
As far as the music industry connections… he has no idea, but did mention that he has heard a freshman in the college is transferring to pursue the music business in LA. I am sure Penn (and Wharton) does open many doors including the music industry, but you do have to be willing to sacrifice 4 years to pursue the college education/degree and this student didn’t want to wait.
That said, my son said if you told him last year he would be spending this much time studying, reading, and working, he wouldn’t have believed it. But what is more amazing to him, is that it is not at all un-manageable. It is manageable, he is thriving and growing more inspired by the day. He loves that everyone is committed to this education environment. Its a heady environment for him…
What has been frustrating for him so far, has been the fact that the clubs are uber competitive to join. So to be accepted into a club, you have to submit a resume and an application, go on 4 rounds of interviews, only to be told you didn’t get in. If you do this for 20 clubs, you will be lucky to get in 1 or max 2. And this is all in the first month of freshman year. You really need to figure out which clubs you want to join before school starts and then bring your A game to compete.