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.
If business is your primary interest, there is truly no better place to be than Wharton. The opportunities to immerse yourself in an actual business education at Penn are unparalleled. And it’s true, nearly 2/3 of Wharton undergrads find that they do not need to return to school for an MBA because their undergraduate educations taught them more than enough of what they would need to know for their professional lives. But if you do decide to return to get an MBA, you will be far ahead of the curve with your undergraduate education from the world’s best undergraduate business program. (Scroll down to see the 2/3 of Wharton students statistic: http://undergrad.wharton.upenn.edu/why-wharton/top-10-list/)
Furthermore, about 40% of your classes as a Wharton student will be taken outside of Wharton, across Penn’s other undergraduate and graduate schools. That means that your education will be truly interdisciplinary and you will not miss out at all on the Ivy League liberal arts education. Penn’s one university policy is also a huge advantage over peer schools as Penn undergrads are permitted to take courses in any of the four undergraduate schools and most of the graduate/professional schools which all reside on Penn’s contiguous campus. So if you want to take a course in engineering to supplement your knowledge of the technology driving the startups in NYC and California, or if you want to take a course at Penn Law that will illuminate the regulatory world of finance from a legal perspective, those are all options. But they’re only options on a campus like Penn’s where the top notch graduate and undergraduate schools are geographically close to one another and intellectually integrated in such a way that gives undergraduates unparalleled access to the ENTIRE university. Whether it’s for class or for research opportunities (which are usually always open to undergrads), a university without as many graduate and undergraduate schools on campus and without equally low barriers between disciplines could never match the educational opportunities at Penn.
Additionally, for job recruitment related to business, there is no better place to be than Penn. Penn has the strongest job placement statistics and the Wharton brand is unimaginably valuable from Wall Street to Silicon Valley and abroad. And that brand value is only growing (http://www.upenn.edu/spotlights/university-pennsylvania-and-wharton-school-launch-penn-wharton-china-center). (Career services Report for Wharton: http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/files/WHA_2014cp.pdf)
Finally, while your intellectual interests seem to match most closely with Wharton, I can understand the appeal and charm of Princeton’s quiet suburban campus. To that I would say, Penn’s bustling, urban campus is also incredibly beautiful in a different way that speaks to the vibrancy and dynamism of Philadelphia and the University as a whole. Keep in mind that you will be spending four years at college which is a long time to spend in the suburbs if you enjoy an urban environment and the art, culture, food, and fun that go along with it. While Wharton students are planning their Management 100 projects in which they take on real clients from the Philadelphia community and Penn students are taking Academically Based Community Service Courses in which they are able to apply the knowledge they learn in class to projects in the surrounding neighborhoods, schools that are not in an equally robust, populated, and open setting simply cannot offer those intellectual and academic opportunities. Socially, however, Penn’s campus life and location in Philly cannot be matched. You can be downtown in 15 minutes, checking out some of the largest art collections in the world or attending a baseball game. You have access to some of the world’s best restaurants when you grow tired of the dining halls or if you even want to look beyond University City for more varied food options. Part of Penn’s campus is Philadelphia and ALL of the academic, intellectual, social, leisure, and service opportunities that Philly possesses. The strong balance between Penn’s robust campus life and the many wonderful and exciting opportunities that exist just beyond Penn’s borders make attending Penn an unmatched experience. But if a quieter, suburban lifestyle is more interesting to you, Penn’s campus may not be exactly what you’re looking for; As you know from living on campus this summer, there are many places at Penn that make you feel as though you’re in the middle of a beautiful suburb and there are other places on Penn’s campus that feel as urban as the most urban campus you can imagine.
Of course, both Penn and Princeton are outstanding universities and you cannot go wrong with either.
@Austen2 what @PennCAS2014 said is very accurate about Penn. Just to add to that it really depends on what kind of undergraduate experience you want. If you want an experience more focused mainly on academics and a quieter campus Princeton is the way to go. If you want a combination of pre-professionalism and liberal arts and also hone your business acumen, interpersonal skills through intensive extracurricular involvement ( almost every penn student is involved in some sort of club, organization and striving to obtain leadership positions in them) then Penn should be your choice. In terms of recruiting no school does better than Penn and also Penn seems to be at the top end of the ivies in terms of starting salary.
http://www.thedp.com/article/2015/03/penn-seeking-employment-rate-one-of-lowest-in-country
http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/05/30/50-college-diplomas-with-the-highest-pay/
Also it goes without saying that Wharton is the number one undergraduate business program by a mile, and the fact that you can supplement your business education with liberal arts classes is a very unique/valuable characteristic and an opportunity you cant have at Princeton.
By the same token studying Economics ( CAS) at Penn is an amazing choice if you want to break into the business world. ( i assume that you would study economics at Princeton). Economics majors are very sought after by business recruiters cause they tend to have strong quantitative skills and at Penn they have the advantage of
supplementing their econ education with business classes from wharton which puts them in an advantage for business recruiting against econ majors from other schools. Penn is prob the best college for business recruiting along with Harvard, and this is true accross all of Penn. The career statistics for economics and engineering majors in addition to wharton students show how well all students do in securing top jobs right out of college. ( you can find them in Penn’s career services website). In fact Penn economics was ranked the econ degree with the best ROI for those seeking to enter business careers:
http://www.phillymag.com/business/2015/07/03/penn-tuition/
Yes Princeton is ranked higher for economics than Penn, but the rankings refer to the Phd programs and at the undergraduate level the actual departmental quality difference between the top 10 schools is negligible and in fact the combo of econ /business curriculum that you can have as an econ major at Penn i believe is a better deal for your interests than Princeton.
( also it goes without saying that you will get to have a better, more vibrant social life at Penn…)
@Penn95 makes some great points. Penn’s College of Arts and Sciences offers one of the best economics educations in the world and you can add classes from Wharton if you want exposure to some of the more practical applications of econ. Both Wharton and the College would position you well for a career in business. Can’t go wrong with a Penn education 
Thanks for all of the wisdom, it is very helpful!