<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>