I recently attended at summer camp and Wharton and saw the business focus. I then visited Princeton and fell in love with the campus, but it seems like they do not have a good enough focus on business with everyone just majoring in Econ. Also I heard if you go to Wharton you do not need to go back to Business School. Can anybody compare the two different schools and talk of the opportunities of both.
This blog post may help you narrow your choices: http://www.quora.com/Why-do-most-Ivy-League-schools-only-Cornell-and-Wharton-do-and-Stanford-not-have-an-undergraduate-business-major
Really interesting stuff
That Quora.com link is really interesting though it doesn’t really apply to Wharton.
First the person answering the question indicates that business educations can be very focused and similar to vocational training which is not true for Wharton at all. In fact, Wharton students will take about 40% of their classes across Penn’s other graduate and undergraduate schools, ensuring that every student has a strong foundation in the liberal arts and many disciplines that will prove useful in any career from I-Banking to Publishing and all those in between.
Second, while it’s certainly possible to construct a set of majors and minors that will closely approximate your areas of interest, none will offer you the specific classes in Business that Penn’s undergraduate business program can offer. Therefore, if you want a well balanced liberal arts education with as much focus on the practical application of the theoretical principles you learn in class, Wharton is really the only place that has the resources to provide those opportunities.
Finally, while it’s true that an overly specialized education can be limiting, Wharton’s education is in no way overly specialized- so that issue doesn’t really apply to Penn at all. And if you ever felt it was overly specialized, Penn’s one university policy allows you to take classes in almost any school (graduate or undergraduate) across the university, ensuring the broadest possible education that still suits your specific needs and interests. You can even take on minors in other schools or do a “university minor” which will combine resources from several schools into one minor program.
Wharton alums go onto an enormously diverse set of careers just like every other Penn undergraduate in the other 3 undergraduate schools. I wouldn’t fear being pigeonholed into anything by being a Penn student.
Just to add my own stats: Major: Comparative Literature. Career: Executive in the software/Internet industry. However, I do believe there’s a trend in the US towards earlier and earlier specialization. Whether that is the right path for one individual or another, only they can know.
Princeton also offers a major in Operations Research and Financial Engineering http://orfe.princeton.edu/. Many students who major in the area wind up at Wall Street firms, as do those majoring in economics and a host of other areas.
You’ll have great opportunities coming out of either school, but Wharton definitely has a stronger Wall Street/business network. If you want to study business, it’s the place to be. And yes, you don’t have to get a higher degree after graduating from Wharton, because its B.S. in Economics prepares you for the business world better than a liberal arts degree. If you want to get an MBA afterwards, you’ll probably do it for the connections.
My D’s final choice was Wharton or Princeton. She loved Penn and didn’t feel the same way about Princeton. Either place can get you where you want to go… I do think more Ivy Economics BA’s do get MBA’s something that isn’t as necessary with a BS in Economics from Wharton.