Brown vs Penn CAS

I would go to Brown. Less pressure and more fun

current rising senior at penn cas. would choose penn.

im well aware of the competition with wharton kids – its real and firms in finance usually prefer to give wharton students heavier consideration (not all tho). however, know that wharton is still just a part of penn (unlike how barnard & columbia works). you can still reach out to all penn graduates both when u r at penn / after graduation. the penn network (inc. both wharton & other undergrad schools) is just so massive and powerful, and, although your home school is not wharton, you have the same access to the network.

also, any penn student can take classes at any undergrad school, and wharton is no exception. youd consistently see a very considerable amount of non-wharton students in wharton classes (not just intro but all levels). think thats something many ppl didnt rlly know before coming to the school.

that said, competition is real. but I think the upside outweighs the downside.

I'd say Brown bc less competition, more fun, etc

But I think you can transfer from CAS to Wharton, in which case I'd probably say Wharton.

I know I wasn't much help, but do what feels best dude and make the choice based on where you think you will have the most fun bro

Brown no question. The stories my Brown colleagues tell make me wish I went there sometimes.

UPenn is better hands down. I think you can still pursue certificates at Wharton / take Econ classes. The real decision maker however is the far superior STEM education that Penn offers. Math at Penn is world class. The CS education provided be Penn is better than what one would get at Brown.

I’ve seen penn CAS kids do well, but ultimately both schools require you to be proactive in a similar sense where it doesn’t matter and I’d say go with the place you like more, but you can still connect with people from CAS -> Wharton. I known people get interviews because they were in CAS but friends of friends with people in Wharton who knew full timers etc. so that might be something you can think about. That aspect might be underrated. At Brown, you don’t have the competition with a super mega vacuum of opportunities but you don’t have the potential to network with them either haha. You compete with your grade but get to connect with anyone.

And I don’t see anything wrong with reaching to alumni as a rising junior at Penn, not Wharton. People can say penn and mean Wharton or just CAS, let them assume if you can until someone asks and be straightforward then. Just 0.02

Unrelated but penn’s social scene is 10x better than brown (obviously important for future banking studs) and add that to the increased networking/opportunities from having a huge alumni base in finance —> Penn > brown

Honestly I think it's up to you in terms of what you want out of a college experience. Both are great schools and will allow you to pursue anything you want to do post-grad. I wouldn't worry too much about competing with Wharton kids at Penn. Full disclosure, I'm a rising senior at Penn CAS interning at a top banking group this summer (MS M&A, GS FIG/TMT, EVR M&A). If you go to Penn, you can always shoot to transfer into Wharton if your GPA is high enough. Still though, not the end of the world if you don't (I was still able to get interviewed for buy-side and the above banking groups for internships while not being in Wharton).

You will have some interviewers asking why you aren't in Wharton, but those are people who are too focused on a misconception that top talent only comes from a select few places. At Penn, you can still take classes outside your major and leverage the recruiting pipeline that comes through the school. I would suggest regardless of your decision, you would need to focus on trying to build up some relevant experience in whatever you want to do (or think you may want to do) post-grad. This helped me be able to have talking and reference points in my interviews. Penn also has a better social scene than Brown if you care about things like that (some of the smartest kids I know are also the biggest partiers I know). Either way, you'll find your way just don't focus too much on what other people are doing because the only thing you can control and focus on is your own path. Best of luck

All about the student experience you’re looking for, not marginal recruitment advantages. Good candidates do well from both and both can be loads of fun in different ways.

-current Brown student