Penn<<<Wharton?

Hi,

I realized late in the game(late sophomore year) that I could no longer go to grad school and just do research because of my family's financial concerns.

Without having taken the necessary coursework, GPA (I have a 3.1), I was NOT able to apply to Wharton as dual-degree/transfer. I am currently a Chemistry major with Environmental Science minor. However, I am able to either add on Econ minor or take Finance and other courses without recognition as minor. Which is better?

Please advice the best course of action for me in terms of positioning myself for an internship junior summer in consulting/finance.

I was also wondering if, and to what degree do recruiters/peers look down upon non-Wharton Penn students going into finance? Will they typically question why you didn't just go to Wharton? Also, does the Wharton alumni connections work for non-Wharton Penn students?

Thanks!

( Sorry writing is definitely not my strong point! Any advice or insight you can provide is much appreciated!)

 

Penn is an awesome school, but unfortunately the non-wharton students have little prestige and are looked down upon. Whenever my friends say they went to Penn, they are immediately asked whether they did Wharton. And if they did not, they get embarrassed, and the people's reaction reflects that they don't take non-wharton penn seriously.

 
Best Response

I can tell from mbavsmfin's post that he actually hasn't started attending Wharton/Penn yet. His perspective is common amongst the MBAs that are usually more prestige obsessed but it has little to no bearing for undergrads.

Within the school this reaction is completely irrelevent, especially for recruiting purposes. Mrb87 is completely right, despite his dig at Wharton sophomores haha. I heard that of GS's sophomore program this year, they took 75% of the kids from CAS. I know five or six single engineering degree students who got offers for both MS's tech office in Menlo and GS's TMT office in SF. Recruiters like to emphasize the point that they do not highly differentiate between CAS and Wharton kids and while it might seem like bull, it actually isn't. You might not be able to get BX and Silverlake, but that's pretty much it.

What's really the problem is not the fact that you're in CAS, but that you're in CAS with a 3.1. The vast majority of kids in CAS who compete with Wharton students in OCR have at least higher than a 3.5, a lot have close to a 3.8/3.9. Chemistry is balls hard though (I placed out, didn't want to deal with the nigthmare that is Chem 101) - but even with that benefit your GPA is on the low side. Reach out to non-Wharton alumni in CAS and network as best as you can with them. They will respond more favorably than Wharton alumni because they've been in your shoes, and there are a lot of them. You're going to need someone to flag your resume in the OCR drop so you can get an interview, so start reaching out as soon as you can. It's definitely possible, I knew a kid in computer science that managed to snag an offer with CS IBD with a 3.2. Whenever I went to his place to play FIFA he was always on the phone with a banker though.

Apart from that take the following courses:

ACCT 101 - Intro to Financial Accounting FNCE 100 - Corporate Finance FNCE 207 - Corporate Valuation (the prior two classes are pre-reqs for this).

PM me for any more advice! I'm more geared towards finance myself, so I can't speak for consulting.

 

your situation is not unique at all. Do some research on your own. This site is filled with helpful threads. Don't just post a new thread because you're too lazy to look. That type of attitude won't get you an internship/job.

And yes, upenn non-wharton kids still get offers. I have a friend who worked at JPM and Apollo from CAS.

"Look, you're my best friend, so don't take this the wrong way. In twenty years, if you're still livin' here, comin' over to my house to watch the Patriots games, still workin' construction, I'll fuckin' kill you. That's not a threat, that's a fact.
 

The non-Wharton connection works fine. I've never met a Wharton grad who cared I went to CAS; in fact, my current job is thanks to networking with a Wharton, not Penn alum. I've worked at two large banks as well (one BB and one MM) and nobody cared either. People in the industry know the Penn brand just as well. The only people who care are Wharton sophomores on WSO.

CAS students are only at a marginal disadvantage (eg unlikely to get BX) in OCR but otherwise it's mostly a function of self-selection.

As for your current situation, keep the Chem as it will definitely impress people. Don't bother with Econ but you should definitely take a couple accounting and corporate finance classes so that you have a clue in interviews. You will probably need to do some self study as well.

 
mbavsmfin:

Penn is an awesome school, but unfortunately the non-wharton students have little prestige and are looked down upon. Whenever my friends say they went to Penn, they are immediately asked whether they did Wharton. And if they did not, they get embarrassed, and the people's reaction reflects that they don't take non-wharton penn seriously.

preftig

"Mr. Perkins poses an extreme risk to the market when drunk."
 
mbavsmfin:

Penn is an awesome school, but unfortunately the non-wharton students have little prestige and are looked down upon. Whenever my friends say they went to Penn, they are immediately asked whether they did Wharton. And if they did not, they get embarrassed, and the people's reaction reflects that they don't take non-wharton penn seriously.

Strong contender for worst comment of the year.

 
mbavsmfin:

Penn is an awesome school, but unfortunately the non-wharton students have little prestige and are looked down upon. Whenever my friends say they went to Penn, they are immediately asked whether they did Wharton. And if they did not, they get embarrassed, and the people's reaction reflects that they don't take non-wharton penn seriously.

Man, I know a couple of Penn grads and I've never even asked what their major was, let alone what school they attended.

 

Depends on what your other options are. In general, Penn Non-Wharton is highly regarded and very, very well recruited. However, if your other option is Harvard, then in terms of recruiting, Upenn non-wharton has horrible recruiting.

 

^not really relevant because the OP is talking about Penn CAS relative to Wharton, not a non-target vs. an ivy league. I'm not a student there but know that a good number of Penn CAS kids (usually econ) get good jobs in IB and M/B/B consulting based on employment stats. Wharton is better, but CAS is still well-recruited. You might be asked "why not Wharton?" by interviewers, but that's not too hard to answer.

 

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