Wharton

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>I applied SCEA to stanford but if that doesn't work out (which given the statistics it most likely won't) I will applying to Wharton. While I have a fairly good idea of what other schools look at and want to see the most, I don't know much about Wharton, so I was thinking maybe you guys could gauge my chances, and maybe tell me what I should emphasize</p>

<p>I'm white, male
My GPA is around a 3.8 unweighted, but if you take out freshman year its over a 3.9. If you take out spanish its also over a 3.9, and if you take out both its a 4.0 but I doubt they will do this.
My school doesn't rank, but I'm well into the top 10%
SAT I 800 800 780M = 2380, which is kinda weird given that math is by far my best subject. I just overlook the simple math I guess.
SAT II 800 Math II, 800 Physics, 790 Chem
APs all 5s BC Calc, Stats, Chem, Physics B, US History
I took BC Calc, the class and then exam, freshman year
This year I have AP: Euro, Physics C E&M, Lit, Spanish, Bio
I took Diffeqs at a local college, had a final average of 111% which unfortunatly is still just an A </p>

<p>My ECs are mostly sports and community service, and I have a good amount of leadership. One of my msot significant ECs is tutoring, which I do alot of, in calc physics and chem. I've seen that Wharton looks heavily at ECs, I haven't done anything very businessy as a structured EC but I have a good deal of investments (about $5k in the market) and I work for a financial advisor but not a significant number of hours per week...I'm not sure how they could know this though</p>

<p>I think my common app essay is good but its not about business, its about my work over the summer and my impact and such. I haven't even started my penn essays, I'm honestly not sure what to write yet.
My recs are very good, my guidance counselor and I are very close, he read me part of his, one of my teachers let me read his whole one, I thought they were very good</p>

<p>so?</p>

2

<p>You got a shot, but nothing is definite at Wharton.</p>

3

<p>looks good to me. good luck!
emphasize leadership. problem solving ability and drive</p>

<p>p.s. do you even have to bother chancing yourself with a resume like that?</p>

4

<p>i wanted to make this less of a chance thread and more of an "am I what they're looking for thread"</p>

5

<p>Yeah, play up your leadership. Aside from grades and test scores, leadership is the biggest factor in Wharton admissions. Work hard to highlight that. Don't worry about your lack of business ECs. They're not as important as many think.</p>

<p>Good luck though. Wharton is just as selective as Stanford, but there aren't many that can have better chances than you at either school. And if you get into both, pick Penn!!!</p>

6

<p>thank you chi-town</p>

7

<p>Why would you go from Stanford's arts & sciences undergrad into a business program? It seems to me the only reason you'd be applying would be for prestige, which strikes me as the a poor reason.</p>

<p>But hey, be my guest. Wharton apps are down this year, so you can help us out.</p>

8

<p>I'd say you have a pretty good chance. Your standardized test scores are amazing.</p>

9

<p>bagels, stanford has a top notch undergraduate economics program</p>

10

<p>Yeah, GimmeStanford's plans make sense. Instead of going Wharton -> Work Force, he'd be going Econ -> work -> MBA most likely.</p>

11

<p>A big difference is also the environment. Wharton is more intense than Stanford ( I go to Wharton, my brother went to Stanford). As far as I can tell it's because of a) the "get a job at all costs" culture at Wharton and b) the fact that everything is curved (and everyone that goes here is competitive).</p>

<p>People often hear about how intense Wharton is, but until you actually go there and experience it, you don't really understand it. </p>

<p>Right now it is especially bad with the economy, but by the time you're a junior, things should be back to normal.</p>

<p>Hopefully, you get into both Stanford and Wharton and then can choose. But just know what you are getting yourself into with Wharton.</p>

<p>Also, this is not to say that Stanford is not competitive, but the culture is very different. They are more entrepreneurial, start your own start-up type thinking; Wharton is more Wall-Street, ibanking, finance focused. Both are gross generalizations of course, there are always exceptions.</p>

<hr>

<p>Also, your scores, GPA etc. are certainly strong, but you need to have a great essay to really distinguish yourself. That's cliche, of course, but true.</p>

<p>More importantly, you have to actually like business. If you don't, you really won't like Wharton.</p>

<p>If I were to interview you, I'd ask you, "Name me three stories on the front page of today's Wall Street Journal."</p>

<p>You don't have to know everything about it, but you have to have an appreciation for business and like to follow current (financial/economic) events.</p>

12

<p>thanks for the info JML</p>

13

<p>JML, I have heard that this is really just a myth and that most Wharton students say that few students are actually extremely competitive.</p>

14

<p>Millhouse, </p>

<p>I am a current junior undergrad at Wharton. In my experience, they are competitive, but not in a "sabotage" type of way. No one has ever ripped up my notes or told me wrong information when I ask a question or any of those horror stories.</p>

<p>People help each other on test studying, projects, etc., but at the end of the day, you're all gunning to be in the top 25% (top 25% is "A" and "A-" range).</p>

<p>Also, it depends on who you ask and who that person hangs out with. In my experience, I've found that my friends are very competitive, so I probably feel it more than the average person.</p>

<p>I think an example will kind of solidify what I'm talking about. I'm currently in Accounting 201, and we had a final project in which we had to produce a set of 10-Ks (10-K is a financial statement filed with the SEC). One part of it is something called an MGA; the details aren't important, but it's just something written by management of a company describing various aspects of the business.</p>

<p>Anyways, these MGAs vary in length; some firms do 2 page ones, some do 20+ page ones. In class, the professor said that "2-3 pages is adequate."</p>

<p>THe night before the assignment was due, the entire second floor of Huntsman Hall (main Wharton bldg) was packed with groups writing up MGAs. My final MGA was 17 pages, I literally stayed up till 8:30 am, then went to class, and slept at 3am the following night because i had projects and a test to prepare for.</p>

<p>What I'm trying to say is that although "2-3 pages" may have been adequate, if all the other groups do 10 pages, then all of a sudden 10 pages is now "average" or "adequate." It's not about how good you are, its about how much better than the next person you are, and that is what drives the competition.</p>

<p>EDIT: more pages doesn't necessarily mean better, but the fact is that real firms have long MGAs because they have more sophisticated analysis etc. that simply takes up space and time. So in this case, more pages correlates to better analysis which means a better MGA...get it?</p>

<p>(also keep in mind WHY people care about grades: GPA increases your chances for a getting a better job, which this culture is based upon)</p>

<p>A lot of people criticize it, but Wharton BREEDS competition from day 1 (have you heard of Management 100 ?). Personally, I'm fine with the competition, I'm just kind of naturally competitive I guess.</p>

<p>There are a LOT of crazy stories about how hard core kids are (e.g. Goldman Sachs in their training program takes away your computer's mouse and makes you learn to use Excel with only the keyboard, so a lot of kids here try to do that when doing day to day work), but that's for another post.</p>

15

<p>JML 98, I'm an ED applicant to Wharton, and I've actually heard a lot about about the Wharton competitive culture but I would like to ask you about the drinking and partying culture at Wharton. Do these very competitive students join traditional Fraternities and Sororities? Or is it largely purely business EC's to boost CV's? </p>

<p>Also are your classes -on average- large, lecture type non-interactive classes, or smaller more intimate ones?</p>

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<p>Wharton students are active participants in the same activities that CAS and SEAS students are--frats and every other kind of social/interest group.</p>

17

<p>JML thanks for your response... and it does make sense :)
over the summer i interned at a hedge fund and read lots of 10Ks... can get boring</p>

18

<p>greencapitalist,</p>

<p>Plenty of Wharton kids join frats/sorrorities, both professional (business, law, etc.) and social ones (think Animal house..but not as crazy here). </p>

<p>People also join clubs and it's pretty amazing to see how smart these kids really are in stuff that we don't even have a class for. I, for one, have a lot of respect for Vantage Traders (an underground kind of club that loves value investing...their interview to get in is to pitch them a stock; these kids are pretty passionate, they go to Omaha for Berkshire's annual meeting and stuff like that).</p>

<p>I also like Penn Investment Alliance (basically a mutual fun run by the kids, their portfolio is only about $50k though).</p>

<p>There was an interesting article in an old Business Week (or was it Newsweek?) about Harvard/Yale/Stanford kids doing these kinds of clubs. I will say that the clubs profiled in those clubs are all ones we have here already, i guess they chose not to profile schools with undergraduate business programs (they ignored Sloan, Haas, etc. also). I think that issue was mid-march, GM was on the cover about going Green. If you're interested in club life, read that; the kinds of clubs they have there are the ones we have here.</p>

<p>Then of course there are the standard kind of Finance Club, Consulting Club, and then there's Wharton Latino, Wharton Women, etc.</p>

<p>Also, since downtown Philadelphia ("Center City") is close by, a lot of frats go downtown a lot. Some will rent out clubs on Thursdays and Saturdays. Usually, those are the more international ones though.</p>

<p>Some clubs/frats are pretty elitist too and some are "underground." </p>

<p>The MOST competitive students, I find, do not join frats though (again a generalization). If anything, they join business related clubs. Frankly, though, their competitive nature drives them to invest, etc. on their own. For example, I know a few kids that don't like Penn Investment Alliance (that mutual fund i mentioned above) because they only take long positions and stick to equity.</p>

<p>Classes are pretty much standard across the board, especially the ones you take as a frosh/soph: lecture hall style, can ask a few questions but can't really slow things down too much. Not much interaction, especially at lower level classes, upper div are more interactive. </p>

<p>There is a class in the Spring that I'm really excited for and I hope it's interactive. The class is pass/fail only and it is a series of guest professors talking about the current financial crisis. Classes like this one are the reason I came to this school.</p>

19

<p>milhouse, i'm curious, what fund did you work for? and what was their style?</p>

20

<p>i dont want to say because it was small
but as a high school senior it was more just to see if i liked what i saw...
i was deciding between an undergrad bschool and math/econ and I decided on bschool :P
basically, I read stuff, listened to conference calls, went to company meetings, and was an analyst (without the ability to analyze the numbers)...
i know i would l9ike more quant based funds but i got some experience</p>