<p>I’m probably not the only high school student who has heard daunting rumors about the Wharton School at Penn. Bell curves, backstabbing, and deadly competition- sounds like the perfect environment for future business leaders.</p>
<p>Questions:
How does the intense competition at Wharton affect one’s social life?
What does it take to succeed academically at Wharton?
How uptight is the student population, and does one have to spend his entire time watching out for competitive backstabbers who want to sabotage his success?</p>
<p>Yes those are daunting rumors, key word being rumors.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The competition is not intense. If competition affects your social life, that means you are being a jerk (read: highly competitive) and no one wants to study with you or be on teams with you.</p></li>
<li><p>Succeeding at Wharton requires doing your work, managing your time, playing well with others (being a good teammate), and seeking help when you need it.</p></li>
<li><p>Wharton students are not uptight, although people can be high strung and perfectionists (just like all the other top schools). You don't need to spend any time watching out for competitive backstabbers because there aren't any.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I don't know where you heard all of these rumors, but I recommend not listening to whomever told them to you.</p>
<p>What's up with this "bellcurve" thing everyone keeps talking about? It seems to be like the fashion these days to talk about grades being "curved" and complaining about it. It is natural to determine grades according to the grade distribution. How else do you determine them anyways? Seriously, if you do well on the subject, you will get a good grade. Don't worry about the horrible curves being there to haunt you and to make your life miserable. You are going to a top school. To get good grades, you need to be good within the good, and if you do, you will get top grades. If you are average, you will get average grades. That's how grading works.</p>
<p>I have a friend who is a freshman in Wharton this year. She said that EVERYTHING is bell curved to B average. That means the professor is free to place a curve that decreases everyone's GPA, like my friend received 96 in economics and ended up getting A- in class because of the bell curve. (Econ was Non-Wharton class) She does study a lot but it also seems like she's having a lot of fun and she's pretty activity in several clubs.</p>
<p>Stern(NYU) apparently has a notorious curve that makes the average GPA a 2.7 </p>
<p>I wouldn't be surprised if MIT has a curve that's tighter than that or Wharton...come on, these people (MIT students) study math and science all the time.</p>
<p>I think it's silly that college professors think that they HAVE to make SOMEONE get a C or D. If everyone in a certain class did C quality work, everyone should get a C. Conversely, if everyone did work that merits an A, everyone should get an A.</p>
<p>I would think the curve would cause some sabotaging and backstabbing, since your grade depends on everyone else's and vice versa.</p>
<p>Typically the courses in Wharton's core classes are curved to a B- (which is a 2.7). For upper-level classes it depends on what department they are in and how large the classes are. I took a lot of smaller classes in marketing and management that weren't curved. There is no regulated Wharton curve - it is completely up to the faculty member.</p>
<p>The professors will tell you up front what the curve for the class is. In many cases, if everyone does well on an exam the professor won't curve it because they don't want to punish students.</p>
<p>You all need to realize as Rudess said that curving is a natural way to evaluate people in a class. College isn't high school. If you spend all your time worrying about the curve and how other people are doing, you'll just scr3w yourself over.</p>
<p>I'm a wharton student right now. I actualy tranferred here from another business school (stern).</p>
<p>This "intense competition" is overrated. I mean sure, you get a bunch of students who are used to getting straight A's and being the best at everything and put them in a class room where half are made to get below a B or whatever, and you'll find that people work hard. </p>
<p>People are not backstabers. I'd say the vast majority are down-to-earth, good people. There's also a majority of people that are at Wharton just to get a good job after graduation and are willing to put in the effort to achieve that end. I don't like that part, but oh well.</p>
<p>Wharton does not equal death. Wharton = put in time and effort, ask questions when you don't understand, work well in teams, don't worry about beating the curve and you'll do fine academically. also, don't think that a wharton degree will get you anywhere by itself. wharton is about challenging yourself, so don't be afraid to do so.</p>
<p>I can assure you that no one will try to sabotage your work.</p>
<p>"There's also a majority of people that are at Wharton just to get a good job after graduation and are willing to put in the effort to achieve that end. I don't like that part, but oh well."</p>
<p>Isn't that the main reason why anyone would go to Wharton. I'm sure there are several buisness schools that give students comprable education, but Wharton has the best reputation.</p>
<p>Has anyone here read "The Running of the Bulls" by Ridgway? I just started it and I have begun to think that the workload is going to be too intense at Penn and that maybe I should look elsewhere for my college experience. Can anyone comment on how well Ridgway's assessment of Wharton matches up to their own experiences there?</p>
<p>Also, I am trying to get into the Huntsman Program (the main reason I want to go to Penn). Does Huntsman = Death? How much more work/more difficult is Huntsman than getting only a Wharton degree? I am a good student and plan to focus on academics in college, but I love having a good time outside of class as well. I think that college is made up of much more than just the academic side of going to school, and I want to make sure that I will have time to chill, join clubs, and experience Philadelphia while at Penn if I do choose to attend. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>By the way, the other school I am currently considering is the University of Texas at Austin. It is ranked 5th nationally in undergrad business programs, and Austin is an awesome city. Also, it will be like 15k/yr cheaper, which means much less loans I would have to pay off after graduating. I know I can have a great time in Austin as well, not to mention that the weather doesn't get quite as cold as at Penn :-) Obviously UT is much larger, but I do hope to get into the Business Honors program there which will allow me to have smaller, MBA-style classes while having the benefits of being at a large public university. Any comments, thoughts, advice would be appreciated.</p>
<p>About the Hunstman = Death question, I can only tell you that it's definitely possible to do what you want to do (be in clubs, chill, etc) while being in the Huntsman Program.</p>
<p>First, "Running of the Bulls" just hypes up the i-banking and consulting wannabees. She picked these intense, over-achieving, workaholics to write about for a reason... to sell books. My experience was nothing like what was written about in the book.</p>
<p>As far as Huntsman goes, it's only 42 credits to complete the program, and just doing Wharton is 37. I'd say that most Wharton students come in with AP credits and graduate with more than 37 credits... So it's completely doable to be in Huntsman and be involved elsewhere, have fun, etc.</p>
<p>Did they really stop giving credits for AP scores? That would really make a joint program harder... already the M&T program requires 46 credits (for BSE).</p>
<p>Yeah, I was wondering about all of that. I'm pretty sure I saw it on the Penn site, though. I'll look around and see if I can find it again (assuming it was there in the first place).</p>