<p>I'm planning on perusing a career in Investment Banking after college. It's my dream. I'm looking at UPenn (Econ) and Wharton (Finance) majors but can't choose which I should use my ED on.</p>
<p>I have a fairly strong application, but Wharton is still a coin toss. Should I apply to UPenn as an Econ. Major in CAS or as a Finance Major at Wharton?</p>
<p>To what extent is Wharton a target school OVER Penn? Can someone elaborate on some ratings for these two in comparison to others?</p>
<p>Also, I plan on getting an MBA at some point, so could applying to Wharton (or another Ivy) as a graduate be just as advantageous?</p>
<p>Any advice is appreciated. I can answer any questions if they'd help get my am accurate response. </p>
<p>If you want to do Ibanking and its your passion, I would say apply to Wharton. Wharton’s acceptance rate back in '09 was about 7%, and has probably gone down since then. I don’t know CAS’s acceptance rate but I’m going to guess that it is around the 12-13% range. The classes at wharton and at CAS are really different, Wharton offers a more practical business study while CAS tends to be aa bit more theoretical and research oriented. However, you can still take classes at wharton, have access to Wharton professors and transfer if you really want to switch schools even if you are at CAS. I think the opportunities are great at both places and Ibanks hire from CAS as well but, like I said before, if you really want to go into Ibanking and are dead sure about it, then choose Wharton.</p>
<p>Scores:
(waiting for results) projecting ~34 ACT
~3.75/4.0 UnWeighted (low I know :/, ****ty Freshman year. should be raised up, have gotten mostly all A’s since)
~4.5 Weighted
Haven’t tested in SAT II Math Level 2, projecting mid-upper 700s.</p>
<p>Senior year Courseload:</p>
<p>I am pursuing the IB diploma, so all of my classes have been IB. here is what senior year is looking like, though:
IB Math HL (Calc BC)
Band (highest band at HS)
IB 20th Century World Topics HL
IB Bio HL
Adv. Physics
IB World Lit 2 HL</p>
<p>ECs
Drum major (leadership)
Math tutoring
Pres. of Nat’l Honor Society (leadership) (more volunteer/involvement is to come b/c of this)
Committee member of Youth Leadership organization (leadership)
Board member of District School Improvement Committee
Business professionals of America National competitor
Science Olympiad (competitions haven’t taken place, maybe going to states)
Youth in Government State Rep
~225 volunteer hours between Sophomore & Junior year
Potential summer job at large hedge fund
Founded political club at school
Pole vault on track team
(there’s a few more but off the top of my head)</p>
<p>White
male
<$70k</p>
<p>Should I risk going for Wharton ED? I just don’t want to waste the opportunity to go to Upenn in general. It’s my dream school but Wharton is what I want more than anything.</p>
<p>@thomasT: Lol, they’re off of wikipedia, not the most reliable source but a source nontheless. They make sense, given the general trend of admissions selections in the recent year. </p>
<p>@Jt, you look pretty solid, the only thing I see that is kind of a black mark is the unweighted GPA, but it shouldn’t be too bad given your really high weighted unless you got mutiple B’s in Math. I’d say give Wharton a shot, you never know, you might just make it. Also how’d you get a summer job at a hedge fund in high school? im really curious. PM me if you want.</p>
<p>In a word, no. Economics majors in the College do quite well in investment banking, benefiting from the presence of Wharton and the on-campus recruiting it attracts. Check out the Career Plans Survey Reports for the College for the past 6 years (look in the section for Economics majors in each year’s report):</p>
<p>Hmm, I’m sorry to ask 45Percenter, but according to the charts that you linked me to, it doesn’t seem like Economics majors at Penn CAS have a great chance at investment banking. I may just be looking at it wrong, but if I wanted to go to investment banking as a career, would it be wise to try to internally transfer?</p>
<p>Not as many Economics majors want to go into investment banking. It’s more common for them to go into fields like consulting. There seems to be this assumption by some people that everyone at Penn wants to go into investment banking. This is not true by a long stretch. Working in investment banking requires a really grueling lifestyle and it is unclear what you are actually doing to provide any benefit to society because all of the games they play the market.</p>
<p>@wharton; I am good friends with a branch manager at UBS and while UBS couldn’t offer me an “internship”, he knew a friend at another corp. that had something to offer me. It’s obviously not an analyst position but it’s something in the field.</p>
<p>I may have the opportunity to work with a current Wharton prof this summer. He could potentially write me a LoR. Do you think that this could outweigh a B and a B+ back in freshman year Honors Geometry? :/</p>
<p>^A minor mistake freshman year such as a B in geometry will have pretty much no bearing whatsoever on your admissions, just FYI. Although they are often distant and detached, admissions officers are still human beings and realize we all make small mistakes from time to time. For reference, a classmate of mine who had only so-so grades freshman year but blossomed academically afterwards made it into Penn’s Huntsman program this year.</p>
I just don’t want to waste the opportunity to go to Upenn in general. It’s my dream school but Wharton is what I want more than anything.</p>
For reference, a classmate of mine who had only so-so grades freshman year but blossomed academically afterwards made it into Penn’s Huntsman program this year.</p>