<p>I'm a high school senior going to the University of Chicago this fall. I got into Chicago under EA, and didn't end up applying to Penn because I prefer UChicago's college to Penn's college. I didn't discover my interest in business until a few months ago, after the application deadline has already passed.</p>
<p>Assuming that I have a great GPA at UChicago (3.8+), and elaborate my newly found interest in business in my application, what do you think my chances are? Are my chances greater if I apply during freshman year or sophomore year?</p>
<p>I understand that Wharton takes very few external transfers.</p>
<p>I have 1600/1600 and 2360/2400 on my SAT, 3.7 GPA in HS (top 10 prep school in the nation, where 3.7's typically can get into Penn).</p>
<p>Yeah, you’ll be a pretty strong applicant. It’s a crapshoot since there are just so few spaces available for transfers (only 10 or so per year for Wharton, or so I hear), but your chances are relatively quite good.</p>
<p>honestly my answer is no. the only way to get into Wharton is with a 4.0 in college since its so damn competitive, also penn’s wharton admission is totally random. you’ll need stellar essays and theres going to be tons of kids with the same stats as you applying for the small Wharton spots, who also might have connections. you dont. good luck</p>
<p>…But someone has to get in, right? Wouldn’t people who have connections apply during HS and will be already accepted?..</p>
<p>a 4.0 at greendale community college is not the same thing as a 4.0 at UChicago, right? (And honestly, being one of the few schools without grade inflation, I’m not even sure if ANYONE graduates with a 4.0 from Chicago)</p>
<p>I feel like I’m very bipolar with college selection. 6 months ago, all I cared about was the “life of the mind” and becoming a Renaissance man – I seriously despised people who go to business school for undergrad; now, all I care about is a job at Goldman/McKinsey. maybe I’ll change my mind again… I guess I will give Chicago a try – maybe it will bring back the intellectual side of me and make me fall in love with the school again.</p>
<p>If you have a 4.0 GPA at Chicago, you will have a much better chance at getting a job at McKinsey or Goldman Sachs from Chicago than transferring to Wharton and getting the job from there.</p>
<p>^^agree with JHS. If you can get a 4.0 from Chicago I would personally kiss you…very difficult to do (I only knew of one person when I graduated and he was a humanities major). I have yet to meet an econ major or premed with 4.0 since I graduated in the early 80s.</p>
Not sure he’d have a much better chance, but certainly a comparable one. Last year, Goldman Sachs hired at least 32 members of Wharton Undergrad’s Class of 2012, and McKinsey hired at least 14, out of a total of 639 graduating Wharton seniors:</p>
<p>And that doesn’t even include the hires from Penn’s College or SEAS. I have no idea what the numbers are for Chicago, but those and other top banking and consulting firms consistenly make an exceptionally large number of job offers to Wharton graduates relative to the size of the graduating class.</p>
<p>But I take your point (and fully agree): a 4.0 Chicago grad will have few, if any, opportunities denied to him/her.</p>
<p>I am NOT AT ALL claiming that I can get a 4.0 at Chicago, in fact, I’m almost certain that I won’t. I think a realistic goal for me would be a 3.8, and I suppose that a 3.8 will open some doors as well?</p>
<p>While I’m impressed by Wharton’s numbers, I’m not really surprised at all, considering how competitive/business-oriented the pool is even before they got into wharton. How much of their success is because of the school, and how much of it is because of the type of students the school tends to attract? And does anyone have those types of numbers for Chicago as well? I’d be curious to see!</p>
<p>And also, are there A+'s (4.3) in college?</p>
<p>And lastly, I’m still curious to hear what people’s opinions are on my chances of transferring. Would it be easier to transfer during freshman or sophomore year?</p>
<p>Actually, my point included the difficulty of getting accepted as a transfer at Wharton in the first place. A 4.0 from Chicago would probably help there, too, but no matter how strong your resume is, external transfers into Wharton are very rare. What’s more, I have a sneaking suspicion that you have to adjust the already-low rate downwards to correct for the effect of athletic recruitment (i.e., some of the transfers accepted to Wharton are athletes who are being poached from other colleges, or getting recruited from juco).</p>
<p>I think you almost have to transfer into Wharton at the end of freshman year, especially coming from Chicago. Wharton has a pretty rigid curriculum with a lot of prerequisites, none of which match up with the core curriculum courses that would take up a lot of space in your schedule at Chicago your first two years. (You would have to take core courses at Chicago even if you hoped to transfer, because the chances of being able to transfer to somewhere that really offered more opportunity than Chicago would always be highly iffy.) If you waited until your second year to apply to transfer, you would be way behind.</p>
<p>If you’re curious, you can examine the last 6 years of Career Plans Survey Reports for Wharton Undergrad–as well as Penn’s other undergraduate schools–here:</p>
<p>My only concern about transferring is how that might change my professors’ opinion of me, if the transferring thing doesn’t come through in the end. I suppose that just like regular admission, transfer applications also require two professor recommendations. So If apply at the end of my first year, does that mean that I’ll have to ask two college professors for their recommendations? Or can recs from high school be re-used? (note: I did not apply to Penn this year)
Also, what college grades will penn see? grades from the first two trimesters I suppose?</p>
<p>You haven’t even set foot at college and you are already thinking about transferring? That is not a good mindset to go in with and will likely prevent you from enjoying your freshman year. I also think that you will have a hard time knowing how to set realistic expectations grade wise until you have started college. Many freshman have a hard time adjusting to college work because they were not prepared academically, or outside factors get in the way (roommate issues, homesickness, anxiety, etc).
While Wharton has a great reputation as an undergraduate business program, it is not the only good option for those who want to pursue business. For example, there are plenty of people in CAS who get the same/similar jobs to people in Wharton without having done undergraduate business.
How do you know you want to do investment banking or consulting? Do you have any idea of what it’s like? I feel that a lot of people get sucked into this path for the wrong reasons.</p>
<p>I transferred from UChicago->Wharton for this past year (as a sophomore) so message me if you want any advice about applying/etc.</p>
<p>I agree very much with those saying that you should not go in with the mindset of wanting to transfer, as it will limit what you get out of your time at UChicago. You’ll have to apply towards the end of winter quarter (mid-March) and then spend most of spring quarter wondering where you will be next year. It isn’t particularly fun, especially as you’re trying to meet people, make plans for housing next year, etc. You definitely become less engaged.</p>
<p>As for whether or not its worth transferring…there’s zero doubt that a Wharton degree is more “valuable” on the job market (for finance/business) than a UChicago degree. Recruiting is significantly better here for sure. That said the actual education is not better and is probably worse overall depending on how much you value the Core. UChicago also has, IMO, a better campus, better dorms, and is in a much nicer city than Philadelphia.</p>
<p>Yes, you’ll need two recommendations from College professors. I found it a bit awkward to ask profs, although it’s not likely you would have them as a prof in the future anyway if you stayed at Chicago. Depending on the academic calendar and specific admission deadline for 2014 this could vary, but for me only my Fall grades were available when applying. However, I had to fill out a “Midterm Progress Report” where I got my profs to “predict” what my grade would be thus far in the course. I also sent my transcript with Winter grades once it came in, which fell about a week after the Wharton deadline.</p>