<p>^A major reason that particular building, Huntsman Hall, is so well built is because much of the $50 million Jon Huntsman has donated to Wharton was used to help pay for the construction of that building. So, it’s not really that Penn favors Wharton per se, it’s more that Wharton has extremely generous alumni.</p>
<p>This is purely speculation on my behalf, but I would suggest that since Penn’s increase in prestige roughly corresponded to the booming stock market and finance sector in the 1980s and 1990s, perhaps this economic environment led students to value a business education at Wharton more highly, which in turn increased the quality of the other academic departments at Penn. </p>
<p>And as 45 Percenter’s links pointed out, as of late Penn has been very successful raising capital to strengthen the university’s endowment. (However, it is important to note that their endowment is still significantly smaller that of HYP, especially when looked at on a per student basis)</p>