Wharton vs. Princeton

<p>Which has better recruiting? There's a (limited) debate going on here:</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/princeton-university/792031-princeton-economics-program.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/princeton-university/792031-princeton-economics-program.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Who cares? </p>

<p>They’re both among the best.</p>

<p>agreed - best to worry about it when you get into both</p>

<p>otherwise, there are definitely firms that prefer one over the other</p>

<p>though just recently, my friend thought that princeton’s career fair was somewhat empty, while i thought that penn’s were okay… we both help with recruiting for our respective consulting firms</p>

<p>^ <em>Jealous of Whartonite</em></p>

<p>not technically a whartonite, just a proud penn alum!</p>

<p>as someone who just finished a full time recruiting, I can tell you that wharton kids are held to a different standard, and I’m not trying to be all high and mighty here.</p>

<p>What I mean is that Wharton kids are expected to know finance/accounting (and they are asked more technical questions in interviews), whereas princeton/harvard/other top schools with no undergrad business programs are not. It’s simply a difference of expectations.</p>

<p>There are still plenty of princeton kids that get opportunities on wall street, but a lot of the very elite firms (think BX and other top PE shops) will still prefer wharton kids for those reasons. And in some cases, firms will only recruit from wharton (e.g. Rothschild).</p>

<p>EDIT: this is just for finance/banking, etc. For consulting firms, I don’t see a huge advantage for either school.</p>

<p>Honestly, there is far from a big advantage by picking either school - the difference is definitely marginal. If your biggest dilemma is choosing between W and P, then you are indeed a lucky student. W may off the bat be expected to know more finance/accounting and possess a strong technical skill set, but if someone from P has already held an internship in IB or PE, or some other technical discipline ahead of interviewing, they too will be tested extensively. </p>

<p>Simply put, you can’t test someone on fin/acct who haven’t had the opportunity to ever really be exposed to it. P and other non-business students will be given general and “easier,” to business students, that is, technical questions such as “what are the 3 financial statements and define them,” as well as more brain teaser type questions and more behavioral type questions. Depending on your background, you might prefer technical questions than an interview like that - if someone with a finance background had to choose between getting more technical questions and a few behavioral, or being drilled on behavioral questions, many would probably choose the former. </p>

<p>In short, go to whichever school you think you will fit the best with and enjoy the most - the recruiting and opp aspect will come naturally at either place.</p>

<p>IBanker</p>

<p>^Agree, whill all banks have their favorites, as many love Princeton as love Wharton.</p>