I’m applying to Wharton ED for Economics. I was thinking of doing Dartmouth ED, but my parents were unhappy with that and we decided that I’d go for Wharton. I like that it’s a great school and there’s a lot of hands-on application.
However, I’ve been learning that Wharton has an incredibly high-stress environment. I looked through other forums on the site, and the people that attended Wharton there are saying that those rumors are inflated and there’s actually a collaborative environment at the school.
However, I was talking to one of my friends today and she was saying that one of her friends goes to Wharton and says that the school is incredibly high-stress and there’s a lot of backstabbing. Apparently she stays up until 4 AM every night studying.
I really don’t know if I want to learn in a place like that. I’ve been investing in stocks since I was 13, and my philosophy has always been about being relaxed, and I feel like Wharton is going to kill me. I spent all of high school being incredibly stressed. I don’t want to do that in college too, especially in a place where everyone’s going to be super smart and the backstabbing’s going to be really serious.
Which rumors should I believe. I have my Dartmouth application essentially ready, so I can change I guess, but my parents are going to be very upset by it.
I’d like to add that I have no problem working hard. Partying and stuff doesn’t interest me and never has, so I think I’ll be focused, but I’m still incredibly nervous.
And also, I decided to switch from Dartmouth because it’s Economics program wasn’t ranked as high. Thanks again!
You’re both kinda correct. The College has what would be considered an orthodox economics program. In the Whart school, you get a BS in Economics with a concentration in something like finance or marketing. My (probably ill-considered) thought: apply to the College if you think want to go to grad school for Econ and Wharton if you want to be in I-banking.
I don’t remember it being particularly harsh competitively but I’m not likely to have noticed as finance didn’t interest me in the least. It might’ve been different if I had wanted an entry-level position at Goldman.
There is a lot of confusion about this. At Wharton you will get an undergraduate business degree (they call it BS in Economics for historical reasons). This is a similar degree you would get at Sloan, Haas, Stern, Ross. At CAS you will find the traditional economics degree (it is called BA in Economics) which is similar to the degree you would get as an econ major at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Dartmouth, Brown, Stanford,MIT (not Sloan) etc. If you wanna get a Phd in Econ then you need a traditional econ degree. If you wanna go into business, you can do it equally well from CAS or Wharton so choose whatever interests you the most. In a any case, whichever of the two you choose you will be able to take as many classes in the other one as you want, or even do a dual degree with these two.
With the minimum requirements required in your major combined with a relatively long list of sector requirements at Penn it is rarely the case that you can take more than a handful or so of classes at the college where you’re not a major.
While a dual degree is of course possible. if you’re at the College of Arts and Sciences and decide to double major at Wharton you’ll need to get accepted to the Wharton program. Transfers into Wharton are generally very difficult. Very few transfer applicants are accepted. So practically speaking you shouldn’t plan on a dual degree after you get accepted into Penn. Wharton does offer several “dual” discipline options. You would need to apply explicitly for these.
Generally, as you’ve learned in your research, there isn’t a “backstabbing culture at Penn”. Far from that, Penn students collaborate.
No, Wharton is not full of backstabbing crazy cutthroats. At any university, including Penn, you will find students who pull all-nighters and stay up until 4am studying. Does this have to be your life? No, definitely not. Even if you want to go into notoriously competitive fields like Finance, you do not have to spend your whole night studying. What you will find in college is that your experience at a place like Penn will be defined by what you make of it. If you want to go be an insanely competitive person and spend every waking moment trying to outdo the person next to you, that’s something you can definitely pursue. You won’t have many friends… but hey, you do you. If you want a more balanced approach to your education in which you collaborate with your peers, spend a reasonable amount of time studying, and enjoy a robust and fulfilling life outside of class, that’s totally in your control too. Contrary to the horror stories that a minority of college students love to tell, the majority of your peers will be pretty friendly no matter where you go. You might like the environment at Penn more because students are frequently working to live up to the reputation of being the “Social Ivy” which partly means knowing when to put away the books and chill. But you will find collaborative, bright, friendly students at both Penn and Dartmouth. You should choose the school that will fit you best. Since it sounds like business is your primary interest, Penn is an outstanding choice given that it has the best undergraduate business program in the world. And with regard to partying, keep in mind that Penn is in a city and has many more students than Dartmouth which means you are more likely to find a diversity of options for socialization as compared to what you might find in Dartmouth’s more isolated location. All that being said, you will be the crafter of your college experience. Seek out friendly faces and enjoy the company of supportive peers-- eschew the cutthroats and you’ll be just fine!
And I don’t agree that it is rarely the case that you can only take a handful of courses outside of your homeschool.
Wharton students take about 40% of their classes outside of the homeschool.
"2. Business AND Liberal Arts
As an undergrad, you can take classes in any of Penn’s undergraduate schools and in eight of Penn’s graduate schools. In fact, 40% of your classes will be taken at other Penn schools. Where else do undergrads get that kind of access at an Ivy League school?" http://undergrad.wharton.upenn.edu/why-wharton/top-10-list/
And as for College students taking classes outside of their homeschool, you can definitely take much more than a handful. You can complete the college requirements in as few as 7 courses and some of those 7 might even be able to count towards your major. That means that an econ major could take fewer than even 19 courses they would have to take in order to fulfill the major and school requirements leaving that student with as many as 16 courses with which to supplement their education.
Furthermore, if you take a non-college course, it can count towards some of your CAS requirements and wouldn’t even count toward the number of courses from your non-homeschool that you can apply towards your degree if your petition to have it count towards a college requirement is accepted. Finally, even if you were not judicious about the courses you took, there are almost no administrative barriers to taking extra courses in a semester which means you can be taking 6-7 courses in a term, some of which could easily be non-college courses. https://www.college.upenn.edu/foundational-policy
It’s all about crafting your own education but there are few barriers to taking more than a handful of classes outside of one’s homeschool for those interested.
^^^ you can definitely take more than a handful of classes at other schools. Specifically for CAS and specifically for the economics major you need 32 credits to graduate. this is 4 classes a semester, which is not much at all. you can take one extra class a semester to bring it to 5 credits per semester. so you could easily have 8 classes outside CAS plus you can fulfill 4 credits of the CAS curiculum (electives) with courses from other schools. so for example you could very well end up taking 12 classes at wharton if you wanted to, which is def more than just a handful.