As the title says, Harvard Economics vs Wharton if you want to go into the field of finance (CFO, investment banking, etc). I don’t want to start a major fight. I just want to know what your opinion is and why.
Did you get accepted by both. If not don’t worry about it.
You may very well be surprised that the Wharton undergraduate degree and the Harvard economics degree course requirements and focus are quite different. To get a sense of why so take a look at http://economics.harvard.edu/concentration-requirements
The Wharton undergraduate degree requires much less math than the Harvard economics degree. What’s different about it is the requirement of courses in accounting, finance, management, business, etc. – a significant number of qualitative business courses. See:
https://spike.wharton.upenn.edu/ugrprogram/academics/curriculum/requirements.cfm
In any case the degrees are quite different. At Harvard a business degree is a post graduate program, itself with special admissions rules. You can directly compare the Penn Econ major with Harvard’s. You’ll see that they are quite similar.
There’s no major or minor fight possible. The Wharton degree differs significantly from an Econ degree.
Harvard’s economics major and intermediate economics courses offer both a light math (first semester calculus and statistics) and a heavy math (multivariable calculus and statistics) option. Of course, those intending to go on to PhD study in economics will take the heavy math option and additional math and statistics courses.
Penn Wharton requires a course called “calculus, part 1” that is really second semester calculus (Penn seems to assume that most students have had high school calculus). So it actually requires a higher level math course than Harvard’s economics. Penn’s economics major (Arts and Sciences) requires multivariable calculus.
The difference between economics at Penn Wharton and Penn Arts and Sciences is described at http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/undergrad/academic-excellence/BS-versus-BA.cfm . Penn Wharton is much more of a business major, versus a liberal arts economics major.
It should also be noted that Penn’s Economics Department offers both an economics major and a “mathematical economics” major, the latter targeted at students planning to pursue a graduate degree in economics and obviously involving a lot more math:
http://economics.sas.upenn.edu/undergraduate-program/majors-and-minors
I agree that first you need to see where you get in. And yes, the curriculum will be very different. Economics at Harvard is a liberal arts degree which while Wharton offers a business degree which will also involve a major in a specific area of business and a business core which will include introductory classes in subjects such as finance, accounting, IT, business law etc. One is not better than the other, it is really a question of what you want to study.
- Be inordinately thrilled if you are admitted to either undergraduate school.
- For the professions you've cites (CFO, senior i-banking) in major financial enterprises, you'll almost certainly eventually want an MBA from a first-tier university; either Wharton or Harvard College will likely provide superb preparation.
Cross admits are very unlikely.
I would definitely go to an Ivy or SM if interested in finance. The two career paths where it seems to make the biggest difference obtaining a degree from these top tiers vs. other schools is banking and management consulting. Your undergraduate degree is not that important as these training programs look for brilliant students who did well in a prestigious university. A high GPA at HYPSM or equivalent as a sociology major will open those doors to finance provided you can perform well doing analysis in an interview. If you get into both schools you can decide if you would prefer a liberal arts economics focus or a more business oriented degree.
I got accepted into Wharton but still waiting on Harvard Eco @artloversplus
Im 85% sure I an going to accept the Wharton Offer
If you got into Wharton isn’t it ED? Then you are obligated to go.
This.
Wharton is ED and in OPs other threads, he’s applying to MBA programs.
Accepted into Wharton ED but not withdrawn from Harvard 2 months later without turning down Wharton on the basis of insufficient aid? You should choose the school with the better business ethics training.
^^^
Perhaps not; some individuals are a lost cause.
In [this thread](http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1745670-mba-harvard-stanford-berkely.html) OP says he’s a junior undergraduate business major at a Canadian business school, with a 3.9+, wondering if he can get into Harvard, Stanford, or Berkeley’s MBA programs. [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1745575-question-about-online-courses.html#latest%5DThis%5B/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1745575-question-about-online-courses.html#latest]This[/url] thread seems to continue along that trend, with OP referring to him/herself as a junior and wondering whether taking one class online senior year will hurt him/her when applying to American universities.
Then here he says he got accepted to Wharton ED and is waiting on Harvard economics (but Harvard doesn’t admit to specific majors, although perhaps he just meant he was waiting on Harvard period).
So…which is it, OP?
I don’t think he is accepted by any, he just want to get a run around with CCers. Most questions like that title implies is a run around for CC’ers to answer aimlessly. Wasting everyone’s time. How could you be a Sr. in HS and a Sr. in a Canadian College at the same time? In addition, I don’t think any one right out the college is going to be competitive for TOP MBA programs anyway, regardless your stats.
Hate it when people use cc this way. Just be honest and ask what you wNt to know. No need to make up a back story.