Is Wharton really as selective is it sounds??

<p>Supposedly, from what I'm seeing on this forum, Wharton is as difficult to get into as HYP and the like, and CAS is thought to be less selective. Is this the actual reality, or is it being exaggerated? Is Wharton on par in terms of selectivity with HYP or UPenn CAS?</p>

<p>My sense is that HYPS are slightly more selective than Wharton (though not by much), which is quite a bit more selective than CAS. Also keep in mind, however, that given the subjectivity of competitive admissions, the ranking of schools’ selectivities does not imply that one’s acceptances/rejections will always reflect that general trend.</p>

<p>When I went to Penn Previews in spring 2007, they told us that Wharton’s acceptance rate for that year was about 10%.</p>

<p>Hmmm, I see. Also, in terms of admission, women seem to have the leg up in engineering schools. Would this also be true in a male-dominated profession such as business? Would women have an advantage when applying to Wharton?</p>

<p>@Masala2012: I don’t know what is the official policy for women recruitment for Wharton. I wouldn’t be surprised if women get a “leg-up” though because there are fewer women than men at Wharton.</p>

<p>Wharton is very selective. Certain HYPSM schools have lower acceptance rates, but keep in mind that wharton is also self selective. it’s a hardcore business education, and it attracts kids who are interested in business and strong in math/leadership. HYPS draws from a broader pool of applicants. if wharton drew a similarly broad applicant pool, it would have an even lower acceptance rate. </p>

<p>I still think HYPSM are better unless you want to get a finance/consulting job straight out of college. If you want to go to grad school, HYPSM. If you want a job, then Wharton(although Harvard is also great for this).</p>

<p>Also, as a wharton student, most kids in CAS/Engineering/Nursing at Penn will claim that Wharton is not special or better in any way. However, these are the same kids who claim that Princeton is their rival, so take what they say with a grain of salt.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, there is no certified theory on how to get into an ivy league. Heck! You could get into Wharton with a 1800 SAT and a 3.8< GPA if you have good EC’s and fantastic essays.</p>

<p>Ivy League/Stanford selectivity is completely based on subjective processing.</p>

<p>My take on this based solely on what I have seen from the wharton student body/results threads here on CC is that Wharton is not as selective as HYPS. It is on par with a Dartmouth/Columbia. It’s a great, great place. It’s certainly one of the best schools for business. However, I don’t believe people who say Wharton=Harvard.</p>

<p>I’ve actually decided to apply to CAS Econ over Wharton mainly due to the selectivity… I mean if I go to CAS Econ I’ll still apply to Wharton MBA or another graduate business program so it’s fine. I just can’t get myself to add another high high high reach school to my list.</p>

<p>It is still a step below HYPSM though.</p>

<p>You can always apply for a transfer into Wharton from another school within Penn. Just have really good grades your freshman year.</p>

<p>But isn’t Wharton’s acceptance rate floating just above 8% nowadays? That would put it on par with HYP in terms of selectivity right?</p>

<p>@IceCreamIsYummy</p>

<p>Yes that is a possibility as well. But it’s easier said than done. If I get accepted to CAS I’ll spend my 4 years there and then apply to a MBA program.</p>

<p>So then CAS is MUCH easier to get into than Wharton? So much that people are giving up Wharton to go to CAS, just so they can go to Penn???</p>

<p>D is a freshman at CAS. The school announced that CAS had a 10% acceptance rate this year.</p>

<p>Penn provides little admissions data for each of its individual schools. The overall university acceptance rate [including admitting half the class ED] was 14.3%. CAS enrolls 60% of Penn’s undergrads. It’s probable the CAS admit rate is similar to or higher than the university average.</p>

<p>The CAS admit rate is actually pretty low. the engineering and nursing rates are very high(engineering around 25% and nursing even higher than that) according to the admissions people I’ve talked to. this was corroborated by a family friend on the board at Penn.</p>

<p>but CAS draws the weakest applicant pool of the 4 schools. the weakest penn applicants will apply to CAS. undecided students will also apply. all those kids who want to go to an Ivy, they’re gonna choose CAS. it gets a high volume of applications.</p>

<p>^ Those are some outdated admit rates. For example, the Nursing admit rate was 20% for the Class of 2014:</p>

<p>[Nursing</a> School admits 20 percent for 2014 | The Daily Pennsylvanian](<a href=“http://www.thedp.com/article/nursing-school-admits-20-percent-2014]Nursing”>http://www.thedp.com/article/nursing-school-admits-20-percent-2014)</p>

<p>Also, keep in mind that the overall admit rate fell significantly for the Class of 2014, to 14.3%. Given the 18% increase in ED applications for the Class of 2015, and significant fall in the ED admit rate to 26%, it’s very possible that the overall admit rate (and admit rates for Nursing, SEAS, etc.) will also fall siginificantly for the Class of 2015. Sometime in January, we should find out how many RD applications were received.</p>

<p>All my info was outdated by about 3 years. But the relative differences should still hold up(Wharton most competitive, Engineering and Nursing competitive but self selective, CAS also competitive but low admit rate based on app pool that isn’t uniformly qualified)</p>

<p>Engineering is around 16.9%, so it’s not 25%. Higher than Wharton but not necessarily enormously high at all.</p>

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