Wharton or the College of Arts and Sciences?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>I'm having a hard time deciding which school I should apply to at Penn. See, ever since I was little, math has been my passion. I love numbers, and I would gladly sit in math classes all day long.</p>

<p>The thing is, though, the only career that really appeals to me at this time involving math is finance. Finance, naturally, falls within Wharton, while math itself falls within the College of Arts and Sciences.</p>

<p>I haven't really had any business experience, though, so I'm not sure whether I'd truly end up liking business or not. And if I'm in Wharton (thinking very positively here...), then what happens if I don't?</p>

<p>There's also the issue of whether I'd get into both. For a quick rundown of my stats: </p>

<p>2400 SAT, 800 Math II, 800 US History, 780 Physics
Taken 3 APs so far, all 5s, and in 6 AP classes this year (including BC Calc). All classes taken have been highest level available.
Rank 1/480 (though the number isn't supposed to officially "exist"...so I hope my guidance counselor disobeys that school rule anyway...)
ECs: Model UN (very strong club, I've won multiple awards personally from Harvard, Brown, etc.), Mathletes (VP), Math All-Star Team, World Language Honor Society (Pres), National Honor Society (Treasurer), Key Club
Worked as camp counselor/math tutor/babysitter
Awards in MUN, National Italian Exam, Long Island Math Fair gold medalist, etc.</p>

<p>^Note that none of that includes any business experience whatsoever. </p>

<p>So, what do you think in terms of which school I should apply to?</p>

2

<p>Either one you'll get in.
If you want a "balanced" version of both apply to Harvard which will give you the same shot as Wharton for finance AND give you the flexibility to explore.</p>

3

<p>Penn would also give you the opportunity and flexibility to explore. Indeed, you could pursue dual degrees in both Wharton and the College and get the best of both worlds. In fact, over 30% of Wharton undergrads graduate with more than one undergraduate degree from Penn:</p>

<p>Wharton</a> Undergraduate Program: '+pageName+'</p>

4

<p>A math major from the college with good grades, work experience, social skills, etc. will have just as good of a shot to get a job on wall street as someone in Wharton or Harvard. The same people come onto campus to recruit Wharton and college students. While you might not be offered the largest salaries with a math major (those kids are the M+Ters) math from Penn is more than good enough to get you a good job outside of college (assuming that you do stuff in college to build your resume and have social skills to do well in interviews. if you don't have these you're finished no matter where you went to school). My peer advisor said that if I wanted to go into business but didn't want a Wharton degree the best major would be math, so I'll assume that you'll be pretty employable with a math degree.</p>

5

<p>how hard is it to transfer between the schools if you get in? the OP could always do that</p>

6

<p>it is difficult to transfer, esp with a major like math where gpas tend to be lower. math majors are heavily recruited, so i would just apply to the college and study your passion. wharton classes don't actually include that much "real" math, so i would expect you to be disappointed with curriculum.</p>

7

<p>Plus, you can still take Wharton classes as a math major in the College.</p>

8

<p>Personally I'm trying to decide between just being a math major and taking a few finance classes on the side, and transferring into Wharton to do a dual degree. Just not sure if I'll be able to transfer since my GPA is a little low.</p>

9

<p>^ Too much time spent working on the DP. :)</p>

10

<p>Forget about transferring - getting into Wharton via a transfer is harder than getting in in the 1st place, and it's not easy to get in in the first place. The idea (which a lot of people seem to have for some reason) that they should apply to the College and then transfer as a "back door" way of getting into Wharton is one of the dumbest concepts around but it seems to be an idea that just won't go away.</p>

11

<p>For the reasons cited by Percy, if there's any chance that you'd be interested in a Wharton degree--whether singly or jointly with a degree from the College--you'd be better off applying to Wharton, and then pursuing the joint degree in the College (or transferring into the College if you decide against a Wharton degree), once you got there.</p>

12

<p>I'm a math/finance dual major at penn. Started out in wharton, picked up math later. I never liked math in hs and now I enjoy it much more than finance. Math beyond calc is really different from what it is in high school. The emphasis, at least at penn, but I think this is true across most math programs, is heavily on abstract theory and proof rather than computation. </p>

<p>If you find you are in to that kind of thing, I think you'll find most of finance very unsatisfying. </p>

<p>Apply to the college. If it turns out that when you graduate you still want to do finance, your math major will be just as good as your business major. If you want to do anything else, a math degree is much more flexible.</p>

<p>And lastly, it's really not that hard to transfer into wharton if that's what you're set on. Sure, math classes are hard, but if you're good at math you'll get A's in them.</p>

13

<p>Percy,</p>

<p>If you do it honestly, yes internal transfer is probably hard. But if you come in with that as your plan, and your sole goal in your freshman year classes is to get as high as possible a GPA, it's not hard to backdoor. People will hate you if you do it, but backdooring really will work.</p>

14

<p>I personally have better things to do than hate people who transfer to wharton--especially since half of them seem to transfer right back out when they realize undergrad business school ain't too fun lol.</p>

<p>Wharton has a lot of requirements outside of math/finance that you have to do. SAS will let you focus more on math, and you can cherry-pick the wharton courses that are relevant to your plans and desires.</p>

15

<p>
[quote]
Forget about transferring - getting into Wharton via a transfer is harder than getting in in the 1st place, and it's not easy to get in in the first place. The idea (which a lot of people seem to have for some reason) that they should apply to the College and then transfer as a "back door" way of getting into Wharton is one of the dumbest concepts around but it seems to be an idea that just won't go away.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>That's not true at all. Like PhatAlbert said, transferring to Wharton internally can be easy if you have that goal in mind and take easy classes, since they only consider GPA. Getting into Wharton via regular admission is much harder, I think. And I don't see how backdooring to Wharton is a "dumb" concept. The problem is that there is a loophole in the internal transfer admissions policy, and as long as they don't change that policy, taking advantage of it is smart and valid.</p>

16

<p>Thanks so much for all the thoughts...</p>

<p>I still don't know what I'm doing though, hah.</p>

17

<p>If you really like math, either just major in math in the college or do a dual degree.</p>