Wharton EC

I have the chance to go abroad this summer and study business and entrepreneurship At the Unviersity of Cambridge for two week. While I’m there I will how to develop my own business ideas in teams and learn about th most important aspects of business design. I will also be developing a business model, pitching it, determining hypotheses and experiments to validate my key assumptions, and developing a minimum viable product and action plan. While I am in England, I will have the chance to come out of my shell and network with others and meet kids from several other counties. I will also receive a certificate at the end of the course, signed by Oxford university Alumni. Will Wharton AdComs see this as a passionate and good EC. In other words, If I talk about how it changed me as a person and how my experiences helped me, will it strengthen the chance of me getting into Wharton undergrad?

I would say, Average EC. It may show your interest and passion, not much beyond that.

If it is a program you pay a lot to attend it is one thing – if you had to go through a very rigorous application process to get it it would be viewed more favorably. In any event it is a two week program so don’t make it out to be more than it is – I’m not sure I’d write my essay on it. It is more what you do with what you learn there that will be important. Also keep in mind that while admissions is holistic, academics is a primary component so be sure those are in order.

As a bit of unsolicited advice – you have three threads here all about getting into Wharton. I’d recommend that you give up the idea of having one dream school and work to create a solid college list that includes reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable (find out your parents’ budget and run the net price calculator for each school) and that you would be happy to attend. The people I see who get hurt by the college admission process are the ones who focus on one or two hyper-competitive schools and then don’t get in. Cast a wide net and recognize that (assuming no major hook) Wharton is a reach for pretty much everyone.

Wharton’s LBW may be more useful. It is a selective program.

https://www.wharton.upenn.edu/leadership-business-world/

@SRK6782 It will be good to have but it will not be something extraordinary. Tons of kids do summer programs. What Penn wants to see i terms of extracurriculars is that you have really applied yourself in 1-2 areas and have really done in-depth work and have shown leadership potential.

^As suggested above the LBW program would probably be a better use of your time given your goal of attending the school as an undergrad.

In terms of passion I would say my favorite thing to do is volunteer. However given that I want to study business, I thought the two-week course would appeal to adcoms more. Now I either have the opportunity of traveling to Pakistan with my uncle and volunteering to help the Rohingya people and the unfortunate in general or going to England and doing the two week course. What should I do?

Both will be seen as privileged summer activities.

The Oxford course is 2 weeks of what is probably a 10-12 week holiday. What are you doing for the rest of the summer?

How do you reconcile your charitable impulses with your reasons for going for a hard-core business degree? Imo, what will do you the most good - from a life and from an admissions perspective- is to find a summer activity that connects those dots.