<p>Of course Wharton gives you a good overall education, but the point is that there’s a bit of a trade-off involved. Wharton may get you that job at Silver Lake which Princeton can’t, but Princeton does the “broadens your mind” fields (social sciences, hard sciences, and humanities) better than Penn, and in doing so, gives you greater options and flexibility.</p>
<p>Look, no one at Wharton says “Damn, if only I had gone to Princeton, I would have come out educated,” just as no one here says “well, damn, if only I’d gone to Wharton, I’d get that job I really wanted.” At the end of the day, your personal performance will make a bigger difference than the school you go to, so go to the school at which you see yourself thriving.</p>
<p>Do check it out, there are a lot of misconceptions floating around about Wharton, you would do well to be able to differentiate between the fact and the fiction.</p>
<p>What actually drew me away from Princeton was their reputation that students there are overly competitive about academics/GPA (yes even more so than Wharton).</p>
<p>Placement figures are deceiving since everyone in Wharton goes for finance while most at Princeton do not. In my year, Princeton and Penn were the two most represented classes at GS and typically the rungs for recruiting among the top targets were HPW-YS-M-Dart/Columbia</p>
<p>Wharton is obviously a great school but to Awped’s statements, in my experience, Wharton-ites are decidedly far more fierce/competitive. EVERYONE in Wharton is trying to get the same jobs, etc. Tons of people are at Princeton just because they enjoy their subject, etc.</p>
<p>I’m in the same situation. I know that I don’t want a career on Wall Street, it’s just not my style (at least I don’t think so.) BUT I am still kind of interested in business, just not 100% sure on it. What would be a better option then?</p>
<p>Meh, look I love Pton and am a HUGE advocate for the school…even tho I didnt get in =/. However, saying “Pton is a much better education overall” isn’t really true. No one can beat the financial education you will receive at Wharton. True, Pton does come close. However, in terms of business, Wharton probably does a slightly better job. </p>
<p>As a whole, though, both schools will really give you the liberal arts base you want. Pton probably does do a better job; however, Wharton now wants its students to take 43% of its classes in the College. So, you definately get widespread exposure to multiple fields at Wharton now too. However, both Wharton and Pton are similar in that they do not have widespread grade inflation like our pals down in Cambridge (Harvard…not MIT) and New Haven. In both schools, there probably is some heavy competition going on for grades. </p>
<p>Thus, I am not really sure what you mean by “a much better education overall.” Clearly both schools are OUTSTANDING. Yet, both colleges do things slightly differently and I wouldnt just say one university does a better job than the other.</p>
<p>Just one note though: Wharton is generally considered to be more quantitative among the business schools (I’m not including MIT here, that one is a no brainer). This is part of the reason why people are so finance oriented. </p>
<p>My recommendation: If you want to make a career out of finance or business in general eventually, then I would recommend Wharton. The skills you learn and mindset that they teach do prepare you quite well. Above all, its more about immersing yourself in the community you want to be in. If you want to do a 2 year stint in ibanking and then bail then Wharton may not be for you. For any kind of serious investor or trader, I’d recommend Wharton hands down though. Ibanking is one of those ‘a monkey could do it’ jobs (not saying it isn’t hard work, just that difficulty isn’t so high). Investing is much more difficult and is worth learning the fundamentals for (I seriously doubt anyone can argue 4 years of education can be made up for by a 3 week training program).</p>