<p>These are the acceptance rates, but they doesn't reveal SAT/GPA/Rank differences:
Wharton - ~10%
CAS - ~17%</p>
<p>How much harder it to get into Wharton than it is for the College? Are the average SAT/GPA/Ranks higher? How much higher do you think?</p>
<p>The reason I am asking: I want to study economics and go into business/law, however since I am applying to general economics programs like that at Stanford and Duke, I would be perfectly happy at CAS if it's easier to get into. However, if both are truthfully equally easy to get into, I will apply to Wharton. Again, I would be perfectly happy at either school and just want to get into Penn in general because I really like the school as a whole. Thanks</p>
<p>note: I will also apply to Huntsman as a first choice.</p>
<p>Wharton is way harder to get into than CAS. The calibre of Wharton students is on par with HYP. </p>
<p>I know, because I had this question earlier too about this. Looked around on the forum, asked some teachers and Penn students. The accepted RD+ED thread for past years is a good place to look at for the differences. </p>
<p>Harder, yes. “way harder” is a gross exaggeration. Moreover it depends on the student type as the schools are looking for different student profiles. Some people could be a shoo-in for Wharton and an unimpressive CAS applicant depending on their extracurriculars, essays, recs, etc…</p>
<p>You’re better off in a general econ program for undergrad, so you should apply to CAS anyway. You’ll be happier and get the same jobs.</p>
<p>Examples?
Do you know of students who have been rejected at CAS yet accepted at Wharton?
Do you know something about both schools’ admissions standards that we don’t know about?</p>
<p>This is untrue. Wharton wants an overall stronger application. And Wharton is a much more focused program(there’s only one possible major) than CAS, so while fit may become an issue for Wharton, it’s much less likely to play a role in CAS admissions.</p>
<p>You can only apply to one school. It’s a good thing too, because I’m sure you can imagine the dynamics/atmosphere of a school where a portion of the student body was rejected from Wharton but accepted into CAS or vice versa. The way it is, you have to make a decision and never get to know “what could have been”.</p>
<p>I literally met a kid at Penn who got waitlisted at Wharton, but accepted to CAS after a few calls from his GC. His ‘Why Penn’ was all about Wharton and he didn’t have to rewrite it.</p>
<p>Wharton is harder to get into, but not by much. Wharton’s accepted students are more analogous to HYP, while the College’s main competitors are Columbia, Brown and Dartmouth. As you might imagine, there’s a ton of overlap. I believe SAT averages between the two schools are almost identical (they were 7 points apart in 2001, according to the book “Running of the Bulls”).</p>
<p>Penn beats Duke in cross admits, by the way. Penn is harder to get into, ranked higher, has a higher selectivity index, etc. Either CAS or Wharton.</p>
<p>The Wharton/CAS match-up is really less clear cut than you might imagine, though.</p>
<p>Hmm ok. I still can’t decide if I should apply to Wharton or CAS. I want the best resources for getting into Business, but a more comprehensive undergrad education is also what I’m seeking.</p>
<p>I understand that at Wharton, a significant portion of classes are taken at the college. On the other hand, I also understand that being in the college nevertheless brings many of the benefits of Wharton…</p>
<p>Wharton is on par with Harvard in terms of yield and selectivity, whereas the CAS is probably somewhere between Dartmouth and Cornell in terms of selectivity. At my school 2 years ago, 10 people (2 off the waitlist) were accepted by Penn(the 2 waitlisted and later accepted were the only Wharton admits - and both had probably the strongest stats of anyone applying to any Penn school). But here’s the important part: ALL 10 applied ED (I think 4-5 were legacy). Nobody got in RD.</p>
<p>No opinions needed, really. Wharton is more difficult to get into (fact). But here’s the thing: Penn is one of the most selective schools in the world, and if you’re good enough for CAS, then you’d probably be able to get into Wharton.</p>
<p>This however, doesn’t make sense. Saying Wharton is harder somewhat contradicts this.</p>
<p>But if you’re interested in business, Wharton is definitely worth a try. It’s one of the best places to do a ugrad business major (which I wouldn’t exactly recommend doing on a whole but it’s your call).</p>
<p>What are the number of slots between the two schools…Wharton has maybe 500 slots and CAS has 1500? It is always more challenging to get a slot when there are fewer to begin with…however, it is even harder to move to Wharton from CAS once a student at Penn…</p>
<p>The admission rate at Wharton is lower. That’s the main sense in which it is “harder”. But this can get pretty misleading, as the inference made by srrinath and statements like “The calibre of Wharton students is on par with HYP” show. Wharton, CAS, HYP all have way more qualified applicants than there are places for. In addition, the size of the admitted class varies from place to place. In addition, the profile that business schools look for is more focused. All you have is an admissions rate. From the admissions rate, you can’t really make any inferences on the quality of the particular students who got accepted, using the admissions rate, or the yield, as your metric. To see the absurdity of this reasoning, consider the admissions rate of the Curtis Institute of Music, which is in the single digits. Any statements like “Curtis is on par with Harvard”, “Curtis is harder to get into than X”, “the calibre of Curtis students is the same as HYP” is just meaningless, because what the schools look for is very different.</p>
<p>The admission rate is lower at Wharton, thus it is more selective. There are overlaps in statistics (GPAs and SATs scores) in admitted Wharton students and HYPS students, therefore the claim that
can be made.</p>
<p>If the students at Curtis Institute of Music have similar statistics as the students from Wharton, HYPS, then yes, we can assume they are on par. But we are not just looking at admissions rate.</p>
<p>However, the allegation that Wharton and CAS look for different profiles of students cannot be substantiated because one can only apply to one school. A minority of admitted students at Wharton will have prior “business” related experience but most don’t have any real experience (they are HS students after all) except an interest in business.</p>
<p>The admissions stats (with GPA and SAT scores) at undergraduate Wharton aren’t published but are told to parents during orientation.</p>
<p>“The admission rate is lower at Wharton, thus it is more selective.”</p>
<p>Depends on your definition of selectivity. Once again, any inferences you make from “the admission rate is lower” only help obscure the issue. You don’t seem to get the epistemological issue.</p>
<p>The claim that "“The calibre of Wharton students is on par with HYP” can be made, as can be made any claim, but that doesn’t make it correct. I am contending it is meaningless. What are you contending? Are you contending it’s true? That’s impossible to verify. Are you contending it makes sense? That’s pretty subjective.</p>
<p>You say you’re not just looking at admissions rate. Yet, you also say that the characteristics are similar. So the students at Wharton are comparable to HYP because the admission rate is similar and other characteristics are similar. Yet, the characteristics of CAS students are also similar, except in the admissions rate. The only significantly distinguishing factor is indeed the admissions rate. If you say Wharton = HYP, yet CAS != HYP, you’re only relying on the admissions rate as the distinguishing criterion. How similar the other characteristics are is another issue in itself.</p>
<p>You said it yourself: “If the students at Curtis have similar statistics, then yes, we can assume they are on par”. Yes, you can <em>assume</em> it. Once again, you can assume <em>anything you want</em>. You don’t need to justify them. What I’m trying to make clear is, precisely, that these are nothing but ASSUMPTIONS.</p>
<p>The allegation that schools look at different profiles can be made. Nursing looks for different kind of students than Wharton. The fact that they can only apply to one school is not enough to defeat or substantiate the claim. If you don’t believe the claim, that’s fine, but my argument does not rest on that claim.</p>
I’ve been stressed lately about my oh-so-minimal chances of acceptance. :(</p>