<p>I had a long talk with a wharton alum. She told me she was not really enjoyed in wharton because of its culture is quite negative. Relationship among classmates is tight and hard to find real and trust friends. Friends are usually fake and superfacial. Everything there seems to be driven by $$$$$ and work work. I don’t know if this is one side of the story or a general case.</p>
<p>Alumi and Whartonites, please comments.</p>
<p>I don't find this to be the case at all...even in Management 100,where you're competing against your own temmates to get a fixed number of A's, everyone works together and is friendly both inside nd outside of class.</p>
<p>May be junior grade is ok, but i was told that up to senior grades like the 3rd and 4th year, everyone is compete but in negative way...hard to have real friend,,,they are fake and make use of each other to survive, for job.....</p>
<p>Well, duh...that's business. Want friendships? Go to Vassar lol. Or just make some friends in the College!! I'm sure not everyone is like that. Maybe they just seem that way to Wharton outsiders.</p>
<p>"Friends are usually fake and superfacial"
i sure hope it ain't going to be that way. </p>
<p>Think it's more of a myth. Anyway i'm not that competitive because i just want to have a good time!</p>
<p>Theres this book on book shelves out there called "The Running of the Bulls" which is basically all about Wharton and how it's very competitive when it comes to grades and getting jobs and internships. But Penn students know how to relax and party hard so it will be a good ol' time.</p>
<p>I just had a Stat 102 exam today, in a class of sophopmores and juniors. One kid forgot to bring his calculator, and at least 8 people immediately pulled an extra one out of their bag and offered to let him use it. This is in a class where the curve really counts. </p>
<p>We're competitive in the sense that we work hard, but not in the sense that we try to knock others down.</p>
<p>Wharton students are notorious for being self-serving, pre-professional tools. It's my belief that * almost * every wharton student has no problem stepping on someone else if it means them getting somewhere better. It's the quintessential business education - corporate America in a school setting. Get used to it - it's where you're going to work. It's a GREAT education - you couldn't ask for more; jhowever, if wharton is not for you - corporate america is not for you.</p>
<p>If you guys think wharton's like this, why the hell would you apply? If you see Wharton as a place to step on people to get a future, you're gna have NO future. Wharton is a place that gives you a future because you make contacts; it's wharton that gets you the first job but the contacts that gives you the edge once you have the job. Trust me, being a prick never pays off when you're in a place like wharton. If you choose to be a prick in highschool and you know you'll never see anyone again; as flawed as that is you may be ok. But do yourself and everyone else a favor by not going in with that attitude cuz A) you lose in the end and B) you just tick people off along the way. Just my two cents</p>
<p>That is a myth that is overly exaggerated. Sure, it is good to be careful about who you trust and make friends with, but it is absolutely not impossible to make good friends in Wharton and at Penn in general (remember, not everyone at Penn is in Wharton and the students in all the undergrad schools mix together socially). Of course you will meet people who will have no trouble stepping all over you to get a good job (as you will at any top school), but those are the kind of people you just learn to stay away from, or learn to play their game when around them. However, I have noticed these people are not the ones to get the best jobs anyways.</p>
<p>There is a lot of pressure built up among classmates, but this is not a bad thing. It is only preparing you for what you will face after graduation.</p>
<p>Well, it's a dog eat dog world out there. The top CEOs didn't become CEOs because they helped their competitors out. C'mon, there is going to be healthy competition, however in the end I'm pretty sure Wharton students know how to make the distinction between their social lives and their business lives.</p>
<p>my uncle is a prominent investment banker and he derives his success from great social skills. he resisted the urge to screw everyone over, and as a result, all the people he has helped have aided him in his career. we go to wharton to network, not **** off a group of talented business people. the corporate america depicted movies isnt real, and although business is extremly competitive, being overly aggressive and creating enemies will not help you in the long run.</p>
<p>I'm a Wharton alum from a few years ago..and here's what I think about competition and friendship.</p>
<p>Yes, it is competitive but its healthy competition. If you think people are hiding each others notebooks or stealing books to get ahead, they're not. Most people at Wharton are very driven and grades matter a lot to them, so they won't go out of their way to help those who screw around--i.e. if some kid doesn't come to class all semester and then suddenly wants to borrow all your notes to study 5 days before the exam, you won't help them because it may cost you your A. But people do help each other--their friends and even their classmates. As a soph especially you get to know a lot of people because your entire class takes the same classes--you all have FNCE 100/101, STAT 101/102 etc. So even though you may not be best friends with them, you see the same people day in and day out and get to know them as classmates. Thus, like the poster above said, when one of these classmates forget a calculator for the exam--you don't screw them over and say 'i have 2 but you can't have one.'</p>
<p>As for making friends, its like any place. I mean you compete with people you don't know but you don't compete with your friends--you're not saying, I hope my best friend at college gets a C and doesn't get that IB job so that I can have it. </p>
<p>As for it being more negative, competitive and fake during junior and senior year? I think that is sort of true but its a function of college in general, not of Wharton. During frosh year everywhere and during soph year at Wharton [because of the class set-up], people are really open and receptive to everyone to make friends. But by the time you're a junior, you have your established friend group. Thus, you don't go out of your way to befriend many people--sure you're nice to them but it may be a superficial 'yeah you sit near me in finance so i'll ask you how you are and how recruiting is going..but i dont care all that deeply' attitude. By that time you're really immersed in your own life and your own friends--so you want to keep your own grades up, get good internships/jobs, hope the same for your friends but you don't go out of your way to help/be interested in others that you haven't gotten to know. At a competitive place like Wharton that comes off as a back-stabbing attitude but by and large it isn't--just because people don't act all friendly doesn't mean they want to see you do badly, they're just worried about themselves. Its kinda sad I guess but I think this happens at every college--once you have your friend group, you become more distant to everyone else.</p>
<p>Current Wharton students..do you agree/disagree with this?</p>
<p>"Well, it's a dog eat dog world out there. The top CEOs didn't become CEOs because they helped their competitors out. "</p>
<p>well put</p>
<p>Perhaps you should read this: <a href="http://undergrad.wharton.upenn.edu/classof2010/profiles.html%5B/url%5D">http://undergrad.wharton.upenn.edu/classof2010/profiles.html</a></p>
<p>I agree with aj.</p>
<p>If there is any time when people are fake and superficial it's during the summer before freshman year and the first few weeks of school when everyone is trying to make friends and facebook everyone and their mom. And guess what - this happens at EVERY college, not just Penn.</p>
<p>I found that I got the closest to my classmates during junior and senior year because I was seeing those in my concentrations on a consistent basis. Sophomore year felt the most "competitive" because every class in the core is curved. But my upper-level classes didn't feel that way at all.</p>
<p>Wealth - "Wharton students are notorious for being self-serving, pre-professional tools. It's my belief that * almost * every wharton student has no problem stepping on someone else if it means them getting somewhere better." If this is based on people that you know, then I suggest you make new friends. If this is based on no personal experience, I suggest you get some before you make such harsh generalizations of Wharton students. </p>
<p>One of my advisors used to always say that competition is not a bad word. And it's not. Especially at Wharton. If anything it is healthy, motivating, and boosts confidence and encourages teamwork.</p>
<p>i agree with whartonalum. most people won't step on their friends to improve their grade. keep in mind, classes don't just have five people (especially the core classes) so the mentality of "either me or him" is not prevalant. In Accounting 101 there are about 700 students so getting a higher grade than one more student really doesn't change your standing. on another note, do i believe that there are vultures? absolutely. but these people are everywhere. do i think its ridiculous when a random person i have never met comes up to me ten minutes before stat homework is due and asks me to explain the answers to her? definitely. The bottom line is I don't know every student in that class and I certainly wouldn't feel better inside knowing my friends did crappy on the midterm. I believe aj explained it well and his situation is very similar to my current situation. in many cases it actually feels more like you are competing against the teacher's curve not the other students in the class so the teacher seems more like the villian. and i think that mentality brings students closer. when we sit around at 4:30am in a huntsman study room getting ready for the final we can all agree on at least one thing....the teacher is an a**hole for only giving 20% of the class A's.</p>
<p>thanks for all the info, i'm far more from scare, but will the current junior and senior Whartonites share more of your responses on this issue</p>
<p>Why are you more worried about junior/senior years--is it because of competition for recruiting and jobs?</p>
<p>If so, yes, you are competing for the same pool of jobs. But it doesn't feel like competition because there isn't much you can do with regards to other students; all you can do is interview well and make sure that you come off sounding good so that firms want to hire you. And you hope for the best for yourself and friends. Its not like people are sabotaging each other to get jobs. I'm not saying that its a rosy glamorous process because it isn't--in my class [as with every class i'm sure]--there was some resentment because certain kids with lower gpas got jobs that others with higher gpas didn't even get second round interviews for, certain students would act like suck-ups at recruiting functions etc. But junior/senior year recruiting isn't any reason to be that scared of wharton competition.</p>
<p>some will overwhelm with the name of wharton when they first get into, but after one or two semister, they will be in a more objective position to give comment on the culture and atmosphere of the school, and in their 3rd or 4th year, they are in a position to give overall fair evalution based on the experiences. That attribute why I like to have some responses from senior grade whartonites.</p>
<p>my bros gf went to wharton and loved it, so dont lose all hope :)</p>