<p>kafka, don’t ■■■■■ and don’t flame. wharton has some things. but columbia has many things that wharton doesn’t nor couldn’t offer.</p>
<p>and in the end there are multiple paths that may end up in the same place. there are solid reasons to think about wharton, but rarely would i ever describe it as leaps and bounds above columbia. why? let’s just expand our scale a bit, in the pantheon of universities, columbia and upenn have more in common and are closer in terms of opportunities than let’s say columbia is to lehigh or the like. differences are marginal.</p>
<p>in the world of competition we like to parse differences, and certainly i wont deny wharton’s standing (though i think probably we could veer toward hyperbole in praising it, as recent surveys show, it is not the top dog for ugrad biz no mo, now doesn’t mean it isn’t fantastic, but let’s not flame for the sake of it).</p>
<p>in the end, i am happy you wrote 10 posts about wharton myths, as if the best known biz school needed it. but in many ways, you could replace what you wrote there with another school, hell with penn proper and similar questions abound - am i stuck in one discipline, what are the possible outcomes, how do i compare in getting X job. it is not specifically about why wharton is good, but it is very defensive sounding.</p>
<p>the ultimate factor that you leave out…the student him or herself. they are the ones that really get the job, the university is just the catalyst for it. if you aren’t smart, if you don’t work hard, and if you aren’t in the environment that makes you feel comfortable to work hard, it doesn’t matter. you’re smart, you got into wharton obviously, and if you keep it up, you’ll get a great job - in part because firms will recruit you for being at wharton, but perhaps most obviously because you got the job.</p>
<p>i like columbia for the ‘soft’ reasons, and that’s what i hope to pass along to the reader. it is the culture it has, it is the sense of adventure it instills, these are qualities that enhance your experience not just today, but forever. because ultimately the ‘hard’ reasons, the outcomes that each offer are marginally different in the grand scheme of things. and i hope to emphasize that if a student arrives at columbia and feels at home in this unique environment - a place that pushes you and yet gives you home, gives you focus and opportunity. if they like it, they’ll thrive, go on and make tons of money doing something hopefully that is not that soulless, and enjoy the perspective that their ugrad years provided.</p>