CAS & Wharton; acceptance rate difference/transfer?
Hi, I am a rising senior who is considering UPenn for ED.
My ultimate goal is Wharton.
If I get into CAS ED, I will try to transfer to Wharton for my spring semester. I heard students generally need a 3.7 to apply.
If I try Wharton ED and get in, it will be the best Christmas gift so far.
If I get rejected from CAS ED, then I will go to some other school with a strong econ/math department (i.e. Chicago) and try Wharton for MBA.
1. Upenn's ED acceptance rate is about 30%. Does Wharton ED have a significantly lower acceptance rate?
2. Is it common for a Econ/Math major @ CAS to transfer to Wharton? How difficult is it? What are some of the specific requriements for Wharton transfer? (if it is not too difficult and common for a CAS student to transfer to Wharton, then I will do UPenn CAS ED, which has a higher acceptance rate compare to Wharton, then transfer to Wharton)
3. UPenn ED - Wharton ED. What is a wiser decision? If I get into Wharton, I wish to double major in finance @ Wharton and Math @ CAS.
+ I am confident that I will eventually go into this field (IB, PB, Finance in general, Business...)
1. Yes, Wharton has significantly lower acceptance rate for both ED and RD, although Wharton ED has a "higher" rate than Wharton RD. However, given the pool of applicants during ED vs RD, this may or may not be a skewed statistic.
2. Internal transfer is very difficult but obviously not unheard of. Typically, if you are transferring into Wharton internally you would be in those fields. I believe there is a GPA cutoff and some testing/class requirements, but check the website to be sure. Here: Penn Admissions: Transferring into the Wharton School I don't know if doing ED CAS would be a good idea -- if you are a qualified applicant there are many non-Penn schools that would offer you a good shot at transferring into Wharton (maybe better than internally).
3. If you do Wharton ED and get rejected, you can not apply again to any UPenn school for the rest of the year. However, since Wharton ED is a low-chance for almost anyone, and you know you want it, I would say go for it. Also, if you are majoring in finance at Wharton I would say to drop the Math at CAS. That's not necessary for IB and might hurt your GPA a bit.
My opinion: Apply to Wharton ED and if you get in, great. If not, apply to other schools (if you even have a shot I'm assuming you are a solid applicant and can probably get into another high-ranked/well-regarded school) that would give you a solid shot at transferring into Wharton. Anyway, if you don't get into Wharton for undergrad, don't worry too much about not getting a job in IB. IB recruiting is almost everywhere and although Wharton is the undisputed "top-dog" most of the time, target schools are changing. Georgetown is more heavily represented than Wharton at SOME banks (this year, at least). Other schools also have a significant amount of students going into IB.
Ivies, Stanford, MIT, Duke, Georgetown, even UChicago, UT-Austin, UMich, CMU, and many others. Wharton is not the only option if you want IB. Best pick a school that is still a target that you enjoy - you're gonna be there for four years.
I was actually also thinking about CAS Econ/Math major. Am I better off at some other school such as chicago or columbia if I want to major in econ and math? Will investment firms and MBA schools put chicago and columbia before penn?
Will investment firms and MBA schools put chicago and columbia before penn?
In general, no. Penn CAS does as well as those schools in terms of recruitment by investment firms, if not better.
Keep in mind that all on-campus undergraduate recruiting at Penn is handled through the same Career Services Office, and most of the investment firms that are attracted to Penn's campus by Wharton, will also interview interested CAS students. To see how successful Penn CAS students have been in this regard over the last several years, check out the Career Plans Survey Reports for the College Classes of 2005-2011:
I want to be in the investment banking in the end. But these firms do not like undergrad business majors. So I will go to a school with a top 10 econ department and that offers some business classes from Wharton.
I think a CAS econ major with a math double major and lots of wharton classes is a very strong resume for any investment firms/MBA schools. (over chicago and columbia)
I would say that Penn does . . . worse than Columbia for IB.
Based on what? Do you have any hard data to back that up? Do you know the percentages of students at both schools who get those jobs out of the total number who seek them?
If not, visceral "feelings" on questions like this aren't really relevant (or perhaps even correct).
I think the only thing that UPenn can possibly lack compared to Columbia is the prestige.
I will literally cry out loud if someone asks me if I go to Pennstate and get my ass creamed after having taken 13 aps/2300sats/superb ec's to get into UPenn...
I will literally cry out loud if someone asks me if I go to Pennstate and get my ass creamed after having taken 13 aps/2300sats/superb ec's to get into UPenn...
For better or for worse, all Penn people get used to that as a part of the Penn experience. And it's been that way for centuries. After a while, it becomes part of the understated elegance, coolness, and dare I say, charm of the place.
But don't worry--people who need to know (employers, grad schools, etc.), will know the difference.
As someone who was considering many target schools earlier (Ivies, UChicago, Stanford, and yes, BC (CSOM is a great program)), and was not as dead set on IB as you were, I would say if you were looking for a great Econ/Math program (I was myself, but for the sake of Math/Econ) you should look at Dartmouth and MIT as well. Dartmouth has great representation on Wall Street, MIT is great at Econ/Math (obviously), and surprisingly, Brown has one of the best Applied Math departments in the nation (Gourman report).
Brown's Applied Math-Economics major is something you should look at when considering finance, as I hear many APMAECON kids are trying to break into finance and are generally successful. As for your math/econ double major, this is purely anecdotal but I have close family friends (no Wharton, but think top 5) who all are now in HF or IB (no PE) and your extracurricular activities are important as well, so if the Econ/Math double is too heavy (a math major will be very theoretical and unrelated generally speaking to IB vs. applied math), try to focus your interests more. More anecdotes -- I have several friends at Penn, and it is still possible to get into IB from Penn CAS doing regular econ major and I do not know how much math would help. Unless you are going to own it at PUTNAM I would discourage it. But I'm only a little bit older than you, so I can't speak too much from experience. Good luck.
Edit: Your 13 APs/2300SAT/Superb ECs is overkill for UPenn CAS, no offense to the school. That sounds more like Wharton status. I know many who got into Penn this year with significantly less, and yes, some were obviously affirmative action, but for the most part that sounds like a solid app. I still say Wharton ED.
I'm actually waiting right now to hear whether I successfully internally transferred from CAS. If I don't get in I'll major in Econ or possibly Mathematical Economics (it's a new major and it's definitely something to look into.) But to be honest, like 50% of the econ majors end up going into IBanking anyways so it really doesn't matter whether you get into Wharton or CAS. The experience is different but you'll most likely end up at the same place
I just finished my freshman year at Penn CAS, intended econ major.
I agree that the only area where Penn is weaker than columbia is the prestige. I went to penn after getting dinged at all the other ivies, and it did **** me off when people assumed i was some dumb kid at penn state despite my credentials. But you get used to it. Then again, very few schools have that awe-inspiring prestige and social status, aside from harvard/yale/princeton/mit/stanford.
Penn CAS econ and math majors do reasonably well in finance/consulting job placement. It's a bit tougher because we have to compete with wharton kids for the same jobs, and wharton gets a preference for finance jobs through OCR. Banking and consulting are definitely doable for CAS students if they took a lot of quant courses and did well on them. The very prestigious buyside firms though, like blackstone, bain capital, kkr, citadel, aqr, etc., won't even look at your resume unless you're at wharton.
Overall I liked my freshman year at Penn but will be applying for transfer next year. The school is not a good fit for me on a number of levels, and to be honest, I do want to be somewhere more prestigious.
Yeah, your stats are more than fine. Penn CAS is actually quite easy to get into for solid students compared to other ivies, mit, stanford, duke. Most of my classmates here in CAS either applied ED or got dinged at all the other top schools.
And it's been that way for centuries. After a while, it becomes part of the understated elegance, coolness, and dare I say, charm of the place. 
