Why did you choose Wharton?

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
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<p>As a recent Wharton admit, I've been doing a lot of thinking about my college decision and the whole liberal arts vs finance education schlep. Personally, I feel that Wharton provides opportunities to me that are unparalleled anywhere. That's probably why I choose to apply ED and forgo schools such as Harvard. That being said, I'm curious what some other Whartonites' logic was when choosing between these schools. </p>

<p>I suppose what I am asking is: since Whartonites' are supposedly on par with HYPSM applicants educationally, why would/did you choose Wharton over HYPSM ?</p>

<p>While I was reading WSO, I came across this post seems to surmise the argument for a liberal arts education, what i suppose I'm looking for is what would a Whartonites response to a post like this be:</p>

<p>Non-wharton Ivy here. Here's my perspective. I think that while it is true that you see kids at Wharton are INITIALLY better equipped to dissect balance sheets. build models, etc., I would not give up the education that I received for the world.</p>

<p>During college, I've taken classes ranging from the Classics (plato, herodotus etc.), to music (Mozart, bach, jazz, modernism) to the metaphysics (Russell, Quine, Loux), to Cognitive Neuroscience, to Quantum Mechanics. Ive become friends with people passionate in politics, violin virtuosos, amazing writers, and incredible atheletes. I'll be the first to admit that I'm pretty sure none of these will explicitly help me make a buck in the future... but at the same time I'm glad I know them.</p>

<p>I know it sounds incredibly sappy, but I guess at the end of the day for me, my knowledge, my ability to appreciate and contemplate the natural world, and humanity is something I find enriching. I can imagine that if I had gone to Wharton--- and here's the worse part-- I wouldn't even have known how much I didn't understand about the world. I see myself as only living once--- how sad is it if you lived your only life striving to earn something that you can never make enoug of, and can't take away with you when you pass?</p>

<p>And to be honest, the few firms that recruit exclusively at Wharton aside, really, how longdoes ittake to learn the "technicals" that will get you into a BB? A week? Two?</p>

<p>Great</a> Debate: Wharton vs. HYPS. Which is best for Finance? | WallStreetOasis.com</p>

<p>Sorry for this epically long post but I think we can have a good discussion here.</p>

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<p>Some of the reasons I chose Wharton was because I knew I would be more disadvantaged at getting accepted into HYPSM. My SATI/ACT scores were below average for Ivies and none of my ECs would be considered stupendously commendable or outstanding. For Penn, I have the advantages of being a Philadelphia student coming from a high school that has already been long recognized as the best in the city, and also having a special scholarship. Plus I already knew that I wanted to go into business… it’s not illogical for anyone who wants to succeed in business to want to go to the top business school. Wharton isn’t one of the top b-schools for no reason after all. </p>

<p>Personally, stressing that this is only my own opinion for myself, I rather jump into preparing myself for what I want to be doing in the future rather than beating around the bush with taking a number of liberal arts classes beforehand. I agree that they can be very enlightening, but I want to be utilizing more of my time for the direction I already know I’m going towards. You can still meet and connect many other people from the other schools in Penn when you take some of the liberal arts classes or when joining a couple of the numerous student organizations available at Penn. It’s just all about how you put yourself out there to meet other people outside of Wharton and the business-mindset. Plus it’s not like being in Wharton means there’s no “people passionate in politics, violin virtuosos, amazing writers, [or] incredible athletes”, there are plenty of those in Wharton and the rest of Penn as well.</p>

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<p>Practicality?</p>

<p>I dislike math and science, and while I find history and whatnot interesting, at the end of the day, I do not know what I would do with a history degree.</p>

<p>While I do find learning things interesting, there IS a lot of stuff to be learned at Wharton. I actually get kind of excited thinking about how little I know about “business” still, and all the stuff that is included in it.</p>

<p>Plus, if you really want to, you can always minor in something you like or take electives.</p>

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<p>Well I’m playing the devil’s advocate here but it could be argued that the “practicality” of a Wharton degree is unessential as you are taught everything that is “practical” during on the job training. If true, what is the value-added of a Wharton degree? </p>

<p>The opportunity cost, from a HYP liberal arts graduates point of view, is clear: If Wharton grads are indeed on par with HYP grads then they forgo layman’s prestige by attending Wharton instead of a HYP school that they could have attended. Bet that’s non-essential. What they would really argue is that while it is easy for them to gain financial skills either on the job or in business school the Whartonite misses out on a broad liberal arts education that ranges from Newton to Nietzche and extends the mind. Remember, a liberal arts grad would argue the point of college is not whether what you learn is useful, but the fact that you learn how to think. Would you argue that this is equally true of a Wharton education? Now I’m aware that a Wharton grads are in fact obligated to take some liberal arts courses but why not just go for the entire liberal arts experience and go to HYP?</p>

<p>What is specific to the Wharton experience and a Wharton education that makes it worth forgoing a liberal arts HYP education? What does Wharton give you that these other schools do not or cannot? </p>

<p>Do the benefits outweigh the costs?</p>

<p>yuenie also brings up an interesting point. He seems to suggest that he applied to Wharton because he could not get into HYP. Correct me if I am mistaken, but it seems to me that the pervasive view on CC is that Wharton kids are on par with HYP kids academically. So would that discount his argument? Aren’t Wharton kids as smart as their HYP counterparts?
Again I am not criticizing Wharton in any way. I am thrilled I have been admitted and I cannot wait to attend. I have my own reasons, Siegel and Souleles mostly, that make me believe a Wharton education is worth it and is, in my estimation, superior to the education I could have received at a HYP school. I for one find finance as “intellectually stimulating” as philosophy and biology. In my limited view, there is nothing intrinsic about Machiavelli’s work that makes it more intellectual than say Graham’s work. But that’s me. I’m just curious to hear your viewpoints. Wharton alums and current students feel free to pitch in as well! We are newly minted Whartonites after all and have not actually experienced the school and therefore cannot comment as effectively.</p>

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<p>you’re discounting the rest of the his post, which cites advantages specific to the University of Pennsylvania, such as living near Philly and receiving a “special scholarship.” </p>

<p>but all else equal, I don’t think it’s necessarily fair to compare the admissions process of Wharton with those of HYP. I think Wharton looks for a considerably different set of skills and experiences, such as mathematical ability and proven interest in business. just my opinion, but I believe that Wharton would be far more impressed with a successful business EC than would HYP.</p>

<p>sure, academically, Wharton students are probably on par with HYP kids. but college admissions evaluate far more than just academics.</p>

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<p>kafkareborn, I too chose Wharton because finance is intellectually stimulating. I don’t see how Security Analysis is any less philosophy than any given text in a HYP curriculum.</p>

<p>Also, I’d like to offer a bit of a spin on this liberal art vs business discussion:
Liberal art kids are selfish. They take their gift (advanced cognitive abilities) and use them to their own enjoyment (arts / literature / history / intangibles). If great power comes with great responsibility, then it is kids of WHYPSM caliber who should be guardians in both societal design (politics) and resource allocation (economics and business processes).</p>

<p>Think about it: at the end of the day, people are better off with innovative businesses than with righteous discussions 99% of the population cannot comprehend anyway.</p>

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<p>wow, major utilitarianism up in this thread</p>

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<p>Guys, guys… If you’re serious about business, don’t just go to wh for UG, go there for grad and earn an MBA. I’ll tell you having an MBA gets more respect than just finishing UG from wh.</p>

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<p>Completely agree with the above poster-- an MBA from Wharton means a great deal more then an undergraduate degree.</p>

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<p>In reference to the above two posters: considering that you are still in high school and have not even stepped foot into an invesment bank let alone attended a college lecture, I would take your claims with all the salt in the dead sea. </p>

<p>Now I consulted with two of my friends when i was making my college decision. One worked at Lehman and is a Harvard alum he is now CEO of his own companyin HK, the other was a director at Lehman and went to Cambridge. They would both dispute what you said. </p>

<p>Only a third of Whartonites get MBAs precisely because their degrees are so respected. Undergraduates take MANY of the same courses as the MBAs, with the same Proffesors, and often do better in these same courses. Both said that a Wharton Undergraduate degree gets approaches a Wharton MBA in terms of respect. Now that does not mean that you are going to be hired as an associate out of college, but it dos mean that 5 years out if one guy has a Wharton MBA and a Harvard college degree, and the other guy just has a Wharton BSE they will be viewed and put up for promotion in the same bucket. Their finance skills are equal, what matters now is their on the job performance and job experience, both of which the Wharton BSE is more likely to have more of considering he did not take the time out to do an MBA. He’ll also be a 100k out of debt. </p>

<p>A wharton BSE also allows you to go and get a law school degree or something simmilar given you the best finance skills in the world AND the knowledge of law etc. So you come out with even a better package in that sense. I can show you MDs at Blackstone with only wharton udnergraduate degrees. You would be unable to do likewise for HYPSM.</p>

<p>“Undergrad business programs are getting MBA-like respect”
<a href=“Businessweek - Bloomberg”>Businessweek - Bloomberg;

<p>But we are not here debating whether a Wharton BSE is superior to a Wharton MBA, instead we are debating whether a Wharton BSE gives us advantages over a HYPSM undergraduate liberal arts degree. Are we, as Whartonites, missing out on something that the HYPSM guys get? Are they the ones missing out? </p>

<p>But i’d like to hear what Wharton alums / current students / recently accepted students have to say about this. Awped ?</p>

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<p>Do Discuss.</p>

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<p>No offense, but you come off as a pretentious person.</p>

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<p>^ I would tend to agree</p>

<p>Its pretty obvious people go to Wharton because its the best undergrad business school in the world. Not really much else to it…</p>

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<p>It strains credibility (once you think about it) to believe that two weeks of on-job professional training makes up for four years of class-based undergraduate business-intensive curriculum at Wharton. </p>

<p>You miss discussions about things like proper firm management, options theory, behavioral finance, buyout economics, marketing, and you understand it much better at an intrinsic level rather than the pragmatic (“this knowledge is close enough” level) of bootstrapped Merrill Lynch i-banking training.</p>

<p>Of course you miss taking upper-level liberal arts classes although your electives at Wharton allow a handful of opportunities, but the NPV of not going to business school and continuing to rise in your chosen niche in finance, if you chose that and did excel, is massive.</p>

<p>The choice has more to do with intensity of commitment to finance. If you know this is what you want, then go to Wharton. If you still want to explore, which a good % of students to, even if they eventually say finance at age 21-22, you’ll be fine at HYP. Your ability to pursue greater knowledge/relationships in liberal arts post-age 22 is a function of your own intrinsic motivation anyway.</p>

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<p>Finance and business have far-reaching tentacles that demand knowledge in not only mathematics, but statistics, technology, human nature, markets, and politics. It’s extremely fun, interesting, and stimulating stuff (even if some of it is a little fluffy and/or dry). </p>

<p>Meanwhile, I can study things that also genuinely interest me on the side such as physics, foreign languages, computer programming, art, and music. If you truly have intellectual curiosity, you won’t necessarily pigeonhole yourself based on where you go to school. </p>

<p>But, for me, I felt that I would rather study something that I could directly apply in a value-adding way to the real world no matter where I go. I can’t necessarily go anywhere I want and leverage a history degree to get a job I find ideal, nor would I ever be as good as a native speaker in Japanese or Chinese (even if I studied it intensely), nor would I enjoy studying CS only to get stuck being a code monkey for years on end.</p>

<p>What I really wanted was a strong set of central skills that I could AUGMENT with my side hobbies/abilities/skills. Instead of being a CS or Japanese/Chinese major with a little bit of business knowledge, I am a business/finance major with foreign language and CS abilities – the latter of which is a much stronger combination, I think. This way I become more well-versed in something extremely versatile and practical while supplementing those skills with things I do purely for fun anyway. </p>

<p>In the end, I think studying finance/business leads you to study a HUGE range of relevant topics, whereas liberal art educations tend to be a bit more narrow in their scopes.</p>

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<p>Sorry to revive an old thread but here’s how I think of it.</p>

<p>Like previous posters said, studying the fundamentals of business over a four year process will give you a much stronger foundation for future growth. Depending on which area of business you go into, that may or may not be as important but either way, you do get a head start on experience that your peers would not. </p>

<p>I forget where I heard this but it’s been said that you need to spend 10k hours on something to truly master it. Well, you’re getting a headstart on that by going to Wharton.</p>

<p>As for what you’re missing out, I doubt its very much. The wharton core isn’t significantly more credits than liberal arts majors so you still have time to reach out and expand the breadth of your education especially if you’re coming in with ap/ib credits. Those who complain about the wharton core in the first place probably would be better off elsewhere though. When you commit to a major, any major, you had better be interested enough to at least finish your requirements. If business isn’t your passion in the first place, there’s no need to be at a business school but if it is, why wouldn’t you major in business? It’s like a philosophy major saying he wants to try take physics because he wants breadth. You still have electives, it makes no sense not to take what you’re most interested in as your major :/.</p>

<p>PS - the impression I get from wharton is that we’re much more quant oriented than many of our peers although not nearly as much as such institutions as MIT. Of course, I’m talking about comparing business programs here (mostly on mba level). Econ probably has more advanced math required than most wharton concentrations.</p>