<p>The Wharton admission officers kept telling me to make sure I mentioned my interest and experience in business in my essays. Sadly, I don’t have much. I go to a school that only offers the bread and butter courses, so nothing like economics. The only work experience I have is being my dad’s secretary (although I was in charge of all his advertising campaigns). I think in my essays I will talk about how I took a global business class at Brown in the summer, tried to run all the clubs I led like they were businesses and how I devised and executed my dad’s advertising campaigns.</p>
<p>Are my chances even worse than usual without a strong history in business?</p>
<p>P.S. My evaluation from the Brown program was very good, should I include that as well?</p>
<p>You seem to be focusing on experience to the exclusion of interest. You seem to have plenty of experience from what your posts detail......now how do you develop the interest part of your application?</p>
<p>Although I'm not the best person to say this, you do not need business experience. I know many people here who were accepted into wharton without any.</p>
<p>Obviously it helps. After all, how can you say you really like something without actually having dealt with it. The truth is, though, that there aren't that many high-schoolers who've been exposed to business environments. So don't worry too much about it.</p>
<p>The most important thing to show is how much you want to come to Penn. Research this school. Spend time learning what we have to offer. It will pay off. Don't sound pompous; don't try to impress; just show that you're sincere and that you have done a lot.</p>
<p>Big words don't make you smart---explaining a complicated idea in a simple way does.</p>
<p>They really wanted an emphasis on experience and interest in business? The second essay deffinitely seems more along the lines of a personal statement. Do you think in the Why Penn they're looking for more of "...since I organized my dad's advertising campaigns, the ----- program greatly interests me?" Did you get the impression that they wanted the essays to focus on the school or your own personal activites?</p>
<p>It shouldn't be a list about you... they have the application for that. You really need to focus on why YOU are a good match for Penn + School you apply to, and vice versa.</p>
<p>You don't need any business experience to apply to Wharton and I find it hard to believe that admissions officers would say that (Wharton doesn't even have its own admissions officers).</p>
<p>I think what they mean is that you need to show an interest in business - or how else would they know if you are a good fit for the school? This doesn't mean you need to have taken business classes, worked, or done business EC's. It could be something like being fascinated with Superbowl ads and the marketing strategy behind that, or the fall of Enron, or Vanilla Coke. Business is a part of everything you do so it's not hard to show an interest in it.</p>
<p>OK thanks everyone. I went to a multi-cultural open house yesterday and during the Wharton part they kept talking about making sure you showed an interest in business through your essays.</p>
<p>P.S. I think some of you guys read my first post wrong, I was trying to get across that I DO have a lot of interest in business, but I wasn't sure if my past experience has highlighted this well enough.</p>