Is BusinessWeek accurate about unis?

[Alexandre]

<p>Xiggy, Wharton is not the only undergraduate Business program that has a liberal arts component. Ross, Haas and McIntire also have such components, requiring their students to take at least one year in the college of Arts and Sciences before enrolling in their Business programs.</p>

[45_Percenter]

<p>

@xiggi

Fwiw, 45%, the differences between a LAC-based program such as Wharton and the typical factory produced BBA are far from being of a simple hypertechnical nature. There are a lot fewer differences between a “business” education one can obtain at Wharton, Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and other highly ranked economics/finance programs than at the typical BBA producing schools.

Indeed (my use of “hypertechnical” was a bit facetious). As Wharton, itself, likes to emphasize:</p>

<p>

<a href=“4”>b</a> The emphasis on liberal arts.**
We believe that students need a solid liberal arts education. That’s why we require that one-third of your coursework be taken outside of Wharton. Want more? You can take up to 43% of your degree requirements in the arts & sciences. In fact, we want you to!</p>

<p><a href=“5”>b</a> The flexibility of the curriculum.**
We designed our curriculum to give you the flexibility to shape your own education. Need evidence? 20% of our students study abroad. 15% pursue minors. Over 30% graduate with more than one undergraduate degree from Penn. Even within Wharton, you have more courses and areas of study to choose from than at any other business school — 11 different departments and 18 different concentrations.

</p>

<p>[Wharton</a> Undergraduate Program: ‘+pageName+’](<a href=“http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/undergrad/subPage.cfm?pageID=7]Wharton”>http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/undergrad/subPage.cfm?pageID=7)</p>

[xiggi]

<p>Alexandre, I fully expected you to counter with such argument. That is why I talked about the differences between Wharton and say Harvard and the differences between Wharton and the BBA-centric programs you describe. This is akin to make differences between theory and practice. The basic underlying philosophy of what the undergarduate education should cover is not exactly the same, regardless of what a class catalog might present.</p>

<p>Fwiw, it is not a secret that many academics at Wharton are openly lamenting the changes at Wharton towards a more vocational instruction fueled by a slow change in the composition of the student body. There’s a growing overemphasis on what professional education can do in practical environments, and this limits the development of other skills needed later on in careers. Most Penn students switch from their first job within two to three years, according to Penn’s Career Services.</p>

<p>In the meantime, few of the BBA programs would have their dean state “Liberal arts help you confront who you are. You have to know yourself first to be a great leader in the business world” as the dean of the Wharton School said.</p>