<p>I am by no means a Wharton fan and I am a College student myself but I completely disagree with some points made by chrisw.</p>
<p>Regarding your Penn state friend example:
First, no, Goldman and JPMorgan internships are not only for rising seniors. They take rising juniors as well. Second, I know plenty of juniors with higher salaries than that. Perhaps you’ve heard of hedge funds. Third, great, you know a guy from Penn state who makes a decent salary. That in no way proves any point you try to make regarding Penn state not really being less prestigious than Penn, or prestige for undergraduate institutions not mattering at all. It is a fact that the prestige of your undergraduate institution matters a great deal in everything from going to grad school to the kinds of jobs you have access to. Sure, all of this may still be accessible from less prestigious institutions, but it is harder. Prestige matters for undergraduate, and it does because higher prestige usually implies higher quality of education.</p>
<p>“You miss out on a lot at an institution like Penn.”
You do not really miss out anything that you would be having at another institution. If what you like is English literature in small classes, like you mention, you can find that at Penn. Sure, if someone loves English literature and he goes to Wharton, he may not be making the right choice, but that’s not enough for you to say that “you miss out on a lot at an institution like Penn”.</p>
<p>“Professors, for the most part, care about their research FAR more than they care about teaching.”
Not like having professors that are not the top leaders in their fields and care A LOT about teaching is any better. I’d rather be taught from the best. It’s not like they don’t care about teaching either.</p>
<p>“I know three people at Penn who have transferred into Wharton or been accepted into a dual degree with Wharton and the College. I know FOURTEEN people who have transferred OUT of Wharton and INTO the College. That should pretty much say it”</p>
<p>Perhaps that’s because 1) it’s harder to transfer into Wharton than out of Wharton, or 2) people found the Wharton course load to be too much or not really their thing, so they took the logical step and switched to the College. I know plenty of people who want to transfer to Wharton but can’t. Your example doesn’t say anything at all.</p>