<p>For all the work you have to put into it, will getting a dual degree between lets say, CAS & Wharton, really help you in terms of job placement?</p>
<p>I believe the stats don't show too much boost in terms of job placement, but it's fun to do if you enjoy both subjects studied.</p>
<p>Is it possible to do without having to take summer courses or an extra semester?</p>
<p>Possible but very difficult -- the amount of required courses shoots up a fair amount. I'm doing a dual myself and am going to be staying the summer, as are most of my friends who are duals. You can certainly finish everything in four years without needing a summer, but then you'll find that you'll have to start taking as many as 6 courses a semester, which can be really stressful depending on what you take.</p>
<p>Which two schools are you doing?</p>
<p>Wharton and College. Would have done Wharton and Engineering (I'm a computer science sort of person at heart) but I didn't have too many credits coming in because I came from an IB School, so I did not have the slew of AP's that a lot of dual degree students have. Doing Wharton & Engineering at this point would require five years, even with the summers. There is a huge Engineering "core" that's like 17 cu's or something sick like that in addition to the Wharton core. You really have to start early. Most engineering/Wharton duals began in Engineering, I would say. </p>
<p>It's much easier to dual with the College due to the overlap in classes and doublecounting, but then you run into cases like me where I would rather do engineering but can't afford a fifth year, so plan ahead if you want to dual.</p>
<p>So if you want to do Wharton & the College--would you apply to CAS or Wharton as a freshman?</p>
<p>You can apply for Wharton/College joint-degree programs like Huntsman and choose either CAS or Wharton as your "backup" in case you don't get accepted to the program -- it's like a dual degree only much more specialized and doesn't require you to fulfill every single requirement of both schools like a dual degree does. Research the joint-degree programs to see if any of them are interesting.</p>
<p>You can apply for a dual degree as a CAS or Wharton student -- it doesn't matter where you begin, but you'll usually need a good GPA to pull it off (if you're in the College it's like a 3.7+ GPA, for Wharton students it's like 3.4).</p>
<p>would it be hard to start from the college and major into wharton as wharton is the most prestigious and selective of the penn colleges?</p>
<p>penn admissions will probably notice if you're trying to backdoor into wharton depending on your ECs etc</p>
<p>That's just speculation. I don't think they look for backdoor people because they know that the college and its studies are perfectly respectable anywhere. Econ (the "college equivalent" of business at most places) is a perfectly fine path for anyone obsessed with business.</p>
<p>Don't be disillusioned by prestige. It will not play a decisive role anywhere.</p>
<p>legend, what is your CAS major? I'm considering doing Wharton + Math, but really am not sure if I want to take all that accounting, OPIM, and other crap. Also, do AP credits help by getting rid of electives or something else?</p>
<p>I'm not trying to backdoor into Wharton; I'm deciding whether to apply to CAS or Wharton. </p>
<p>I kind of want to study something other than business during undergrad, since that's basically the last time I'll have to do that. And I'm planning to get an MBA anyway, which I've heard is the same as Wharton undergrad. But I know I want to go into business for sure, and the Wharton classes seem really intriguing...so I'm not sure which school to apply to yet.</p>
<p>You should apply to the school whose overall curriculum interests you the most, as that is where you will be spending 4 years and getting a dual degree or transferring is never a guarantee once you are here. </p>
<p>And yes, admissions does look for the fit between the applicant and the school they applied to. Just as the College will get applicants who write all about Wharton and business, Wharton also gets applicants who say very little about business. Both of those situations will bring up issues of fit.</p>