Is Wharton significantly harder to get into than the other colleges or is it relatively similar?
What does “HYPS Level in terms of admissions selectivity” mean to you?
Wharton is significantly harder to get into than the other schools at Penn.
@lostaccount Not really anything objective so I guess that was a bad way to word it, I’ll take it out. The original question still stands though, is Wharton significantly more competitive than SEAS, CAS, and nursing?
@Classof2017 @lostaccount Wharton is definitely not HYPS level in terms of selectivity. The vast majority of Wharton students who applied and were accepted RD, were rejected from HYPS, just like the rest of Penn students. Penn’s coordinated dual degree programs are on HYPS level in terms of selectivity, and students routinely reject HYPS for them, but general Wharton not as much.
All that said Wharton is definitely a huge draw for people to come to Penn and its general admission rate is probably around ~ 8% vs the general Penn acceptance rate of 9.5%+.I am sure that a very significant part of ED applicants are applying to Wharton. Also keep in mind that Wharton is relatively self-selected, since not so many kids wanna study business straight out of high school. So Wharton tends to attract those kids who already know for sure what they want career-wise.
I wouldn’t say Wharton is significantly harder to get into nowadays, but prob slightly harder. The dual degree programs at Penn (M&T, LSM, Huntsman and also Vagelos, VIPER) are definitely significantly harder to get in and in general you can tell there is a difference between these students and the rest of Penn.
SEAS has become increasingly selective over the last few years and the outgoing dean of SEAS even claimed that SEAS has become the most selective school in his farewell email, but he didn’t give any more statistics to back this up so who knows how true it is (prob isn’t true tho…). CAS is thought to be a little bit easier than SEAS. Nursing is extremely self-selected so its acceptance rate is quite high.
@Penn95 Would you say a large portion of Wharton admits had started a business, interned at a top company, or something else relating to business? I am pres of FBLA and treasurer in some clubs but I don’t really have business experience. Also, does ED help at all if you are unhooked(or antihooked…) or is it only helpful for legacies?
@class0f2017 ED is helpful mainly for legacies. This is what drives the ED acceptance rate so much higher. For a non-legacy, non-athlete student the advantage is small, if any. Not necessarily. You don’t have to have started a business or interned at a top company to get into Wharton, although there are many students who have done either or both before they even set foot at Penn, but they are not the majority. Most Wharton admits are just traditional, very accomplished students who have had meaningful involvement in extracurriculars and have taken leadership positions in them. The ECs don’t even have to be business related and often if they are not, it could be a plus because Wharton values diversity and you’ll stand out this way. They do want to see leadership though. I know people at Wharton who were very STEM focused throughout their high school career but decided end of junior year they wanted to go into finance. They had ECs like head of robotics club, or math club etc but nothing finance specific.
Also, another point about difference between Wharton and non-Wharton. I guess the key difference is that most RD Wharton admits do not even consider other non-HYPSM schools, whereas there are non-Wharton (CAS, SEAS) RD admits who turn down Penn for schools like Chicago, Columbia. However the majority of students in both groups (Wharton, non-Wharton) were rejected from HYPSM.
“However the majority of students in both groups (Wharton, non-Wharton) were rejected from HYPSM.”
Certainly many were, but not most. First, over half the Penn class is ED, so no one turned them down. Second, Penn pulls more cross admits than you may think from these schools, especially Yale, Princeton and MIT.
However the majority of students in both groups (Wharton, non-Wharton) were rejected from HYPSM.
I also disagree. To many students, Wharton is better than HYPSM.
@much2learn I only spoke about RD applicants. Of course there are many applicants who apply ED who would have otherwise been able to gain admission at HYPSM. And the fact that the are willing to commit to Penn says a lot about Penn.
“Penn pulls more cross admits than you may think from these schools, especially Yale, Princeton and MIT”.
Penn has a sub 50% yield rate ( around 47-48%). Don’t you think that most of this 53-52% are students who turn down Penn for HYPSM? Of course there are students who turn down HYPSM for Penn but if you look outside the dual degree programs at Penn the probability of that happening goes down dramatically. Also yes it is true that Penn is more likely to win cross admits over Yale or Princeton or MIT, than over Harvard or Stanford but the fact still remains that it loses the cross-admit battle with these three schools too (although I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a pretty close with Yale).
“To many students, Wharton is better than HYPSM.”
To many yes definitely, but not to most. This has not been my experience at Wharton. The majority of Wharton students who applied RD were rejected from all or some of HYPSM. There is a small number that turned down Yale, Princeton, MIT and even maybe Stanford but it is the minority. Very very few Wharton kids were accepted at Harvard. Of course Wharton has many students who applied ED and many of whom could prob have gotten into some of all of HYPSM.
There is just that general perception that people have when they first come here that HYPSM is a bit superior. You can hear it in conversations throughout NSO, and the first few weeks of the semester. But then most fall in love with Penn and its uniqueness, understand that quality matters more than prestige and they wouldn’t change Penn for anything.
@Penn95 Why are you putting down your own school? “even maybe Stanford” Like as if it’s no one? I’m sure you know people who turned down Stanford for Wharton…I know at least 3 (I say at least b/c what schools you turned down for Wharton isn’t a conversation I have too often with people, but I know 3 kids as a fact who did). “Very very few” for Harvard…again that’s an exaggeration. You are right that most people prefer HYPSM to Wharton, but there are a lot of us (me being one of them - I applied ED not RD b/c I knew I wanted to go to Wharton) that had Wharton as our #1 and many of us (not me b/c I was ED but others) who turned down one or more of HYPSM schools to go to Wharton (one kid I know turned down 4 out of the 5 for Wharton).
@WhartonPenn2017 jeez i am not putting down my own schoolI. I m being objective here. You are saying exactly what I am saying so where exactly do we disagree?!? Of course there are quite a few people who turn down HYPSM for Penn and Wharton, but not A LOT. Statistically speaking the majority of RD applicants were rejected at one or more of HYPSM. Also I know a few people who applied ED in order to increase their chances of getting to an elite school, even though Wharton/Penn was one of their top but not their 1st choice. At least this is what I have seen from my experience at Penn.
In my time at Penn the vast majority of the people I ve met who have turned down HYPSM have been dual degree kids.
Of course there is a significant part of the population that applied ED because Penn was their absolute first choice, not denying that, and that says a lot about the quality of the school. I am just talking about the average trends here based on the perceptions high-schoolers have about elite colleges and how they make their decisions.
If you think by being not biased I am putting down my own school then ok whatever…I am one of the biggest Penn advocates out there, and I sing Penn’s praises every chance I get. However, I like to remain objective and look at the facts.
@WhartonPenn2017 “Why are you putting down your own school? “even maybe Stanford””
He isn’t trying to. He is just trying to be objective and provide honest information.
@Penn95 “Penn has a sub 50% yield rate ( around 47-48%). Don’t you think that most of this 53-52% are students who turn down Penn for HYPSM?”
Yes, I agree with you that most probably are. Columbia, Brown, Cornell and Dartmouth are also going to get some too, and some will just have a full ride somewhere.
Penn loses more cross admits than it wins against HYPSM, but it wins more of those students than many people might think. At that level of decision, many students may initially lean toward HYPSM, but if they feel more at home at Penn the ranking is close enough that the may decide to go where they think they fit in the best.
@Penn95 “Statistically speaking the majority of RD applicants were rejected at one or more of HYPSM”
True, but that is a true statement for HYPSM too. lol
@Penn95 It’s good to be honest. I’m sure everyone here appreciates it. Just some of the stuff you wrote came off a different way (at least to me). It was just the “very very few” and “even maybe” stuff that I thought was silly. Like you made it seem that single-digit amount of people in the whole school turned down Harvard for Wharton and maybe one or two people out there turned down Stanford for Wharton. What you now wrote as “quite a few” is more accurate. There’s a big difference between “very very few” and “quite a few.” That’s the difference.
So it looks like Wharton is easier to get into than HYPSM but still a lot harder than Penn overall?
I’m confused. The yield rate was 66% last year. Am I missing something?
http://www.thedp.com/article/2015/05/class-of-2019-yield-rate
And I guess my kid would be in the bunch that was rejected by Stanford and MIT, but he had no business applying to those schools anyways (Applied to MIT cause his MIT brother told him to, and applied to Stanford for the good financial aid). He didn’t apply to Yale, Princeton or Harvard. Penn was a much better fit because of all the animation classes it has, since my son’s interested in animation/game design. Worked out great for him.
“However, I like to remain objective and look at the facts.”
There aren’t statistics for Wharton versus SEAS, SAS, and Nursing. And there certainly aren’t cross-admit statistics for Wharton vs HYPSM. This is speculation based off of your own interactions @penn95
@sbjdorlo “I’m confused. The yield rate was 66% last year. Am I missing something?”
66% is the overall yield. The 47-48% yield, is for regular decision only.
In this case:
The applicant was rejected by M&T but accepted by SEAS (CS) and Princeton, and decided to attend P. Theoretically, P wins Penn in this cross-admit but who knows if M&T would win over P. Many applicants for Penn are for Coordinated Dual Degree programs. If they don’t get in CDD but in a backup, then, most of them may go to other options. If considering very low acceptance rate of these CDDs, hundreds, if not thousands, admits may give up their backups and go to other options, most would be HYPSM.
Penn does not publish the number. My guess is that the rate for Wharton is about 6.4-7.4%, and 4.5-5.5% for M&T and Huntsman.
They are not looking for the same kind of students. Some students got in HYPSM and could not get in Wharton. Vise versa.