UPenn - vibe with CAS vs Wharton

[Anonymous]

I'm being told that there is a pecking order at Penn that is felt by the kids and wider world. as in, "You went to Penn? Wharton?" "No, I was in the college of arts and sciences." "Oh never mind"

I'm older so that's def not my experience. Penn is Penn.

But is there a feeling currently on campus that kids in CAS are second tier citizens?

[Anonymous]

Within the Wharton school the vibe is that every non-Wharton student is 2nd class

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Within the Wharton school the vibe is that every non-Wharton student is 2nd class

OP I get that. I care less about what the Wharton kids think. I think this can be true at every schools -- the SFS kids think they're top at Georgetown, I know the aerospace and other majors can look down on mech eng majors at MIT. To the wider community, there's some acknowledgment that this is mostly bullshit and that people have different interests.

I worry that the issue is bigger at Penn and that the CAS students think this as well and that maybe a humanities kid would be better off at another school because of it - even though Penn otherwise seems like a great fit.

[Anonymous]

Wharton is Wharton. Not sure I’d let a kid go to Penn for anything other than Wharton undergrad. For example, choosing UVA over Penn “CAS” would be a no brainer.

[Anonymous]

Yes. This is absoluately true.

[Anonymous]

Is anyone going to asks kid majoring in English if she goes to Wharton? Come on. Who cares.

[Anonymous]

Wharton really dominates Penn. It's one reason why my kid declined to apply. But if you visit, you really sense that there are two tiers at Penn - there's Wharton, and then there's the rest of the school. It's like Wharton is the varsity team, and the rest of Penn muddles along on the JV team. It's not for everyone.

[Anonymous]

We were in the same dilemma Son was accepted into cas but declined to go for Econ because he felt like they would treat non Wharton kids different due to recruitment. He didn’t apply Wharton because he knew it would be very hard to get in.

[Anonymous]

I agree that Wharton kids think they're kings and queens.

Out in the real world, anyone who tells an interviewer or a new colleague that they went to Penn will find that most people are very impressed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wharton really dominates Penn. It's one reason why my kid declined to apply. But if you visit, you really sense that there are two tiers at Penn - there's Wharton, and then there's the rest of the school. It's like Wharton is the varsity team, and the rest of Penn muddles along on the JV team. It's not for everyone.

This isn't really true...nobody in the Penn Engineering school thinks for a second that Wharton is the Varsity school considering anyone accepted into Engineering could have been accepted into Wharton...Penn Engineering has like a 2% acceptance rate, by far the hardest admit at UPenn (and the engineering kids are highly recruited by Wall Street/fintech/quant funds, etc.).

[Anonymous]

Yes direct reflection from one of our friends sons currently at Jerome fisher. If your not Wharton, and want to study business he highly recommended any public ivy with top business programs over cas and even Vanderbilt, northwestern and Dartmouth. Because he said recruitment and networks and volume of companies are better at uva, Michigan, ucla, ucb for top tier consulting and investment houses. The other schools you have to get lucky and work harder and they only hire a select few.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes direct reflection from one of our friends sons currently at Jerome fisher. If your not Wharton, and want to study business he highly recommended any public ivy with top business programs over cas and even Vanderbilt, northwestern and Dartmouth. Because he said recruitment and networks and volume of companies are better at uva, Michigan, ucla, ucb for top tier consulting and investment houses. The other schools you have to get lucky and work harder and they only hire a select few.

This doesn't make any sense...while Wharton is the #1 feeder to Wall Street/finance..UPenn non-Wharton is in the top 5 feeders. Consulting is even less Wharton-centric for recruiting.

[Anonymous]

We just got back from an admitted students day at Penn. Kids were fully integrated and just excited and busy connecting and looking for friends. My wharton admit kid couldnt care less which school kids were in. I think most of their new friends are in CAS and engineering. Most kids from our hs are in CAS and very happy! There is one career service office, so everyone has access to same job resources.

[Anonymous]

That’s been a debate over years cas vs Wharton. It all depends on the student and his ability to get into the Wharton clubs. Penn engineering is great and if your goal is the quant clubs doable but it’s definitely easier the Wharton route. I am not sure if it’s still very very difficult. To transfer into Wharton from cas my guess it’s the same.

[Anonymous]

Recruiters want the smartest kids so they don't care what school they are in.