Tag Archives : Wharton

Last week Wharton Admissions Director Ankur Kumar posted an update on how Wharton’s team-based discussions went during Round 1. It sounds as though the experience has been very positive so far, both for the school and for applicants. While we were quite skeptical when Wharton officially rolled out the team-based discussions, and still wonder how authentic the setting truly can be, it’s worth revisiting now that we have some real data coming in.

The feedback we have been hearing from students is that the discussions haven’t turned out to be the shark tanks — with applicants elbowing each other for air time — that some had feared. (We will put ourselves in this group.) If anything, the opposite has occurred, with applicants going out of their way to show how courteous they can be. Multiple outlets and our own clients have reported seeing this effect in action as the discussions have taken place.

After piloting the program this past year, Wharton has announced that it will officially roll out its team-based discussion as part of the Wharton MBA admissions process. The news came in an announcement on the Wharton MBA admissions blog.

We were pretty skeptical when Wharton announced last year that it would run a small test of the program with a “randomly selected” group of applicants. Just knowing how stressed that applicants get about anything that involved performing in front of admissions officers in real time, we expected the pilot not to go well. This was our take when the news broke last fall:

This past Sunday, Penn’s Wharton School crowned another batch of new MBA graduates. Dr. Mehmet Oz, the author and TV personality who dispenses advice on a variety of issues related to health and well being, gave this year’s commencement address. In his speech, he offered Wharton grads his “Top 10 Tips for Success and Happiness.”

We admit that our first reaction upon hearing that a TV personality would deliver Wharton’s commencement address was something like “Huh?” But, the advice he gave in his speech was pretty timeless and universal. While there weren’t many MBA-specific nuggets in his address, these grads have spent most of the last two years having MBA-specific knowledge drummed into their heads. So, perhaps some more general “life balance” advice was just what these graduates needed before heading back to the real world.

Without a doubt, a Wharton MBA is one of the most sought after graduate degrees in the world. And every year we at Veritas Prep certainly get our share of applicants who want to spend two years in Philadelphia. It’s no wonder — very few schools can match its reputation in finance, and in recent years Wharton’s pace of curriculum innovation actually seems to be accelerating.

But how well do you really know Wharton? Today we dig into three things that contribute to Wharton’s unique, high-energy learning environment. If reading about these attributes make you even more excited Wharton, then the school might be a good fit for you:

Wharton has released its MBA application deadlines and admissions essays for the coming year. Last year Wharton really stirred the pot by introducing radically different essays. Let’s dig into this year’s application and see how much things have changed this year.

Here are Wharton’s deadlines and essays for the Class of 2014, followed by our comments in italics:

Ever wondered what it would be like to be a Wharton MBA, but only had 2 minutes to ponder?  Thanks to the crew at Wharton Follies, including Veritas Prep GMAT instructor Dan Garblik, here’s a quick-and-quirky look at the life cycle of an MBA student.

Every year we get countless inquiries from applicants who are certain they want to go to Wharton. Once we dig a little deeper to get at their reasons, though, many of them realize they still have a lot more homework to do. Without a doubt, Wharton is one of the top business schools in the world, and for good reason: Very few schools can match its reputation in finance, and in recent years Wharton’s pace of curriculum innovation actually seems to be accelerating.

But how do you know if Wharton really is a good fit for you? More to the point, how do you know if Wharton’s admissions committee will decide that you’re a good fit for Wharton? Today we look at five things that might make Wharton you’re first choice among MBA programs:

Last week the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School voted overwhelmingly in favor of approving the first overhaul to the school’s curriculum in 17 years. As reported by Bloomberg and Bloomberg’s Businessweek arm, Wharton will roll out parts of the new curriculum in the fall of 2011 before fully implementing it in 2012.

The new curriculum represents more than a shuffling of electives or tweaks to first-year requirements. Most significantly, Wharton announced that it will deliver executive education to its alumni free of charge. All MBA grads will be eligible to attend enrichment classes every seven years. The school provided few details about the new lifelong learning mode, but it will be interesting to see how other schools respond.

As top business schools continue to make a concerted effort to attract high-potential applicants who may not be on the traditional MBA path, Wharton has announced its 2010 Social Impact Visit Day will take place on November 11. This event is designed for young professionals who plan on pursuing a career in public service or social entrepreneurship, and are unsure of whether an MBA will help them achieve their goals.

As strong and as well known as Wharton is, it’s not always the first business school that comes to mind when people think of non-profit or public sector careers. Yale SOM and Haas are probably the best known MBA programs in this space. However, Wharton offers an impressive array of courses, clubs, and study programs that make it a very viable option for someone considering such a career path.

After releasing its application deadlines a few weeks ago, Wharton has just released its admissions essays for the Class of 2013.

University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School has not yet released its admissions essays for the coming year, but the school recently released its application deadlines for the coming year:

Today’s issue of The Daily Pennsylvanian, U. Penn’s student-run newspaper, featured an article about applying top business schools with a blemish or “black mark” in one’s background. The article was mostly written with Wharton in mind, but the article’s main takeaways are applicable for anyone applying to any top business school.

Continuing our series of admissions insights clipped from Veritas Prep’s Annual Reports, our in-depth insider’s guides to 15 of the world’s top business schools, this week we take a closer look at Wharton’s first-year core MBA curriculum. (Our Annual reports are absolutely free with registration, but we thought we’d share some snippets here to help get you started in your Wharton research.)

MBA Podcaster’s MBA PodTV team has just launched a new video titled “Getting Into The Wharton School,” featuring our own Director of MBA Admissions, Scott Shrum. In addition to some great advice from Scott, the episode also features admissions insights from Wharton admissions officers, current students, and recent alumni:

In a brief post on the official Wharton blog, the school announced today that the 2009-2010 application is now available. You can access Wharton’s online application system here.

Several weeks ago Wharton released its application deadlines for the coming admissions season. Now, the school has released its admissions essays for the coming year. If you plan on applying to Wharton, even if you don’t start working on your essays for a couple of months, we recommend that you at least review them now to familiarize yourself with the subject matter you will need to cover in your Wharton application.

While the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School has not yet released its admissions essays for the coming year, last week the school released its application deadlines for the coming year:

Earlier this week Wharton announced a new student loan program for international students that will not require borrowers to have U.S. co-signers. The program, launched in partnership with Digital Federal Credit Union, is the long-awaited replacement that the school has been searching for since Citi canceled its program last October.

The new loan program will cover tuition and living expenses for international students at Wharton. The loan terms are quite attractive given the current lending climate: an interest rate of Prime plus 3% (reduced by 25 basis points if the borrower signs up for an automatic payment plan), plus no origination fee. Wharton will share some of the risk of default with DFCU, which indicates how badly Wharton wanted to make this new loan program happen.

This week Harvard Business School and Wharton provided important updates for applicants on their blogs. For anyone who is currently waiting to hear back from HBS or Wharton, the next couple of weeks figure to be an important time.

On the HBS admissions blog, Dee Leopold provided an update for applicants in all three admissions rounds.

She wrote:

Yesterday the Wharton admissions committee posted an update on its blog for everyone who just applied in Wharton’s third admissions round. Since they understand that waiting on one’s application status can put an applicant on pins and needles, Wharton’s admissions officers are deliberately over-communicating about what Round 3 applicants can expect in the coming weeks.

First, know that if your status currently reads “Received” or “Complete for Round Three,” then you are in good shape. “Received” just means that the office needs to match up your hard copy submissions with your electronic files, and within a week or so you should see your status change. “Therefore,” says the admissions committee, “please allow the Operations Team until Thursday, March 12 before inquiring about the completeness of your application.”

Yesterday the Wharton admissions office posted an update on its blog to let applicants know that the school will release all Round 2 interview invitations by tomorrow (Feb. 19).

The Wharton School, which had been operating without a full-time director of admissions since Thomas Caleel stepped down last summer, has just named Jonathan “J.J.” Cutler its new director of MBA admissions and financial aid.

Last week the University of Pennsylvania announced a new three-year JD/MBA program between the Wharton School and Penn Law School.

JD/MBA students will spend their first year taking law courses, followed by a summer of four more law and and businesses courses designed specifically for the JD/MBA program. In their second and third years students will take a combination of law and business courses, including capstone courses in the third year. While they won’t work during their first summer, JD/MBA students will take a law- or business-related job between their second and third years.

As promised in a post on the Wharton admissions blog, the school’s online application is now live for the 2008-2009 admissions season.

Wharton has released its application deadlines and admissions essays for the 2008-2009 season. Here they are, taken from Wharton’s site. Our comments are in italics:

Wharton Application Deadlines
Round 1: October 9, 2008
Round 2: January 8, 2009
Round 3: March 5, 2009

On Monday Wharton announced on its blog that Thomas Caleel has vacated his role as Director of Admissions and Financial Aid, effective June 30. Anjani Jain, Wharton’s Vice Dean and Director of the school’s Graduate Division, will temporarily fill the role until a permanent placement is announced.

Earlier this year, we posted a message from Wharton regarding the departure of Dean Patrick Harper. Dean Harper will assume his new position in Delaware on August 1, and we now know who will take his place at Wharton: Thomas Robertson.

Wharton recently announced a new dual-degree with the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) at Harvard. The announcement came on their MBA Blog, and it’s interesting to see them add yet another dual/joint-degree to their program, as they offer plenty already. Unfortunately, the announcement did not offer too many details, but I would encourage interested applicants to do some more research, and maybe contact the school itself, and see if this is a program worth applying to.

Thought this was pretty cool:

Wharton and the University of Utah have a collaborative effort called the University Venture Fund, that aims to introduce students to the venture capital industry via hands-on experiences. The students are responsible for securing capital and making deals & investments. The University Venture Fund was started in 2003 at the University of Utah, and Wharton jumped on board in 2005.

To: Wharton School Faculty, Students, and Staff

From: Amy Gutmann and Ron Daniels

Date: Friday, December 1, 2006

As we delve deeper into the new millennium and further into all things