<p>Hey guys, I was a moderate CC user back in high school. I was browsing this forum and saw there was a thread by a wharton internal transfer which is cool. I figured people may be interested in a thread like this as well. </p>
<p>I'm a rising sophomore, and transfered from SEAS to M&T. I'm going to attempt to be pretty general about myself to preserve some semblance of anonymity as to who I am (you have 6 guesses), but we'll see how that goes.</p>
<p>Just for some quick stats: this year 7 students were accepted as transfers into M&T. I think this is a little higher than usual; I've talked to M&T transfer students from previous years who said the number has usually been about 5. The number of applicants was about 40, so ignoring the fact that the group is probably self-selecting to some extent, this comes out to be a ~18% acceptance rate. Not too bad!
Some breakdown: 6/7 transfers were from SEAS, 1 was from Wharton. Of the 6 in SEAS, 2 are bioengineering, 3 are computer science, and 1 is computer engineering.</p>
<p>I don't frequent this forum too frequently these days, but I'll be sure to check in at least once every couple of days if people have questions, so have at it!</p>
<p>Ok then…What was your GPA and how did it compare to other applicants? Did it seem like GPA was the main factor in the decisions or were essays/activities more important? Just wondering, because the Wharton internal transfer made it seem like a GPA cutoff was not as prominent as in previous years.</p>
<p>Do you know anything about the acceptance rate of normal dual degree applicants? I am hoping to apply to some kind of dual degree with Wharton from SEAS at the end of the year.</p>
<p>Hi,
Congrats on your M&T acceptance. I am going to apply this year to Penn in ED. I am thinking whether to apply for just SEAS or to apply for M&T, I am figuring M&T is super tough to get into. Any thoughts? Does anyone have acceptance rates college wise? I know they have stats ED vs RD etc, but they are for all schools not specifically SEAS. Since you are already at Penn, you might know these. Thanks for replying!</p>
<p>Superman:
My GPA was 3.9+. I would imagine most applicants are in the 3.8+ range, but this is just a guess. The program restricts transfer applicants to those who have a 3.6+; there is probably a fair bit of self-selection that goes on there as well in terms of reducing the number of potential applicants. I know of at least one person who had <3.8 and got in, though. Which addresses the next point. I think this person is enough of a counterexample to the belief that GPA is the main factor. It’s hard to tell exactly since I don’t really know what the “stats” of other accepted students are, but I think that GPA is not as important as the essay (but still important!). </p>
<p>I don’t know any hard stats about the regular dual degree. Many of my friends who applied were accepted, but I know at least one person, who is a smart guy and I think just as qualified as anyone else who got in, who was rejected. Especially because of the change in the process of dual degree transfer, very little info is known about criteria, etc. The other thread about the person who did the internal transfer might be relevant for that question, though, as in the past internal transfer and dual degree applicants were considered in the same pool - don’t know if this is still the case.</p>
<p>arcfromconn:
You can actually apply to M&T, and then choose to be considered for SEAS if you are not admitted to the dual degree. If you’re interested in Penn SEAS, I would suggest this. As to college-specific acceptance rates, I have no clue. I heard once that the number for SEAS was 20+%, but note of course that this is (to repeat a word I’ve already used in this post) a relatively self-selecting group. Part of the reason Wharton has so much lower of an acceptance rate (ok this might not actually be true, but it makes sense to me and is sort of backed up by anecdotal evidence) is that many students, if they are not super passionate about Penn but still want to apply, will just default apply to Wharton. At any rate, I’d guess that ED rate is a fair bit higher than RD, so it may be as high as 30% for SEAS. That seems pretty high to me, but I stopped pretending I even vaguely understood anything about the college admissions process long ago. That doesn’t really answer your question, but hopefully it gives at least a little bit of insight.</p>
<p>What did you write about for the essays? (did you now you wanted M&T as soon as u started frosh year?)
How much harder did you have to work in your classes to get a high GPA?</p>
<p>Thanks for info MnTTransfer. Other than M&T program, is it possible for SEAS students to do a dual degree or atleast double major if dual degree is not possible? (one from SEAS and another from Wharton?)</p>
<p>Is economics the only major available in Wharton? There is also Econ major from CAS, how different is that from Econ major in Wharton?</p>
<p>I am really interested in doing a major from Engg along with another business related major, so exploring all choices.
Thanks</p>
<p>HarvardCO2016: Keeping up my GPA was pretty challenging. Ultimately, though, it just boiled down to prioritizing. For better or for worse, I prioritized my classes over everything else last year. Obviously, I was still involved in stuff outside of class (probably just as necessary for the app) and hung out with friends, etc, but the transfer app was pretty important to me. I don’t have the best work ethic by any means, but it’s really possible to get a high GPA if you are focused on that and get classwork done with reasonable timeliness and are on top of the material. I’d rather not disclose my major here - if you really want to know, PM me and we can talk over that medium.</p>
<p>liveforit: I did know I was interested in M&T at the beginning of the year. For the most part, I addressed the prompt - I talked about my interests in Engineering, and my interests in Wharton. Basically, I talked about what I think I want to do in life, and how M&T would help me achieve those goals. Along those lines, I discussed how I am weak in the “soft skills” on the business side that would be relevant to me, and how various aspects of M&T (the classes, the network, the peers) would work to make me better in such areas. Regarding “how much harder” I had to work, to what/whom are you comparing? I may have answered that question in my response to HarvardCO2016, if not, let me know and I’ll try to be more specific.</p>
<p>MnTTransfer: you say at the beginning of your freshman year you wanted to transfer into m&T. Are you behind your required Wharton classes? (i.e. Econ10 BPUP and MGMT100) Or were you allowed to take them in anticipation of pursuing the dual degree?</p>
<p>Good question. Non-Wharton students are not allowed to take Econ 10. However, I had an AP waiver for Econ 2, so I took Econ 1 in the fall, which along with my waiver satisfies the Econ 10 requirement. Non-Wharton students are also not allowed to take MGMT 100 in the fall (it is open to all students in the spring), so I am indeed behind in that. However, it is standard for most transfer students, be they M&T, another dual degree, or just internal Wharton transfer, to take MGMT 100 in sophomore spring, so that’s all right.
Non-Wharton students <em>are</em> allowed to take bpub 250. I chose instead to take Econ 101, which is an equivalent credit to bpub, and gives me the prereq to take upper level econ classes like game theory, which I am interested in and most likely will take. </p>
<p>Wharton doesn’t, as you suggest, allow non-Wharton students to take Wharton-only classes even if those students are intending to do a dual degree. Unfortunate, but you can get by.</p>
<p>I was curious about the fact that 6 out of 7 accepted into the transfer were SEAS students. I am a wharton freshman hoping to transfer at the end of this year.</p>
<p>Do you know if M&T prefers students currently in SEAS, or is it just that more SEAS students apply? </p>
<p>Also, if I am not accepted into M&T, do you know how difficult it is to complete the uncoordinated dual degree in four years?</p>
<p>@ c0nfused11:
I don’t know much about M&T’s preferences. I would guess that the number of SEAS students who apply M&T transfer is much higher than the number of Wharton students, but maybe not 86% of the total. Still, one factor may be that it’s easier to make a case for the added value of M&T to an engineering degree than to a Wharton degree (many of the “intangible” factors that made me interested in M&T, like network and general breadth of opportunities, are already pretty good for Wharton students). Also, my general read has been that the highest achieving engineering students are more academically intense/determined than the highest achieving Wharton students (though I’m biased since I know many more engineering students than Wharton students), which could also tilt the ratio in the SEAS direction.</p>
<p>Completing the uncoordinated degree in 4 years is hard but doable. Unless you have a large (8+) amount of AP credits coming in, it will probably require multiple 6.5 credit semesters (if not 7), and that will be with minimal room for flexibility/“elective” courses. This means you don’t have as much time as you’d probably like to do things outside of class. I’m not entirely sure that it’s worth it.</p>
<p>@Gratisfaction: Yes. And I really spend far too much of my time there.</p>
<p>Hmm…just wondering. Do you think there are any drawbacks to the MnT program?</p>
<p>I primarily want to pursue engineering, but want to gain leadership skills from the Wharton school. Would it be beneficial for me to go to SEAS but take courses at Wharton that suit my interests? I’m not planning on pursuing business, I’m just interested in the leadership and organizational skills that business entails.</p>
<p>(Late response, sorry) There certainly are some drawbacks to the program - no academic program is perfect. For your purpose, I don’t think doing M&T would be necessary; taking Wharton classes would definitely be sufficient.</p>