@class0f2017 ED is helpful mainly for legacies. This is what drives the ED acceptance rate so much higher. For a non-legacy, non-athlete student the advantage is small, if any. Not necessarily. You don’t have to have started a business or interned at a top company to get into Wharton, although there are many students who have done either or both before they even set foot at Penn, but they are not the majority. Most Wharton admits are just traditional, very accomplished students who have had meaningful involvement in extracurriculars and have taken leadership positions in them. The ECs don’t even have to be business related and often if they are not, it could be a plus because Wharton values diversity and you’ll stand out this way. They do want to see leadership though. I know people at Wharton who were very STEM focused throughout their high school career but decided end of junior year they wanted to go into finance. They had ECs like head of robotics club, or math club etc but nothing finance specific.
Also, another point about difference between Wharton and non-Wharton. I guess the key difference is that most RD Wharton admits do not even consider other non-HYPSM schools, whereas there are non-Wharton (CAS, SEAS) RD admits who turn down Penn for schools like Chicago, Columbia. However the majority of students in both groups (Wharton, non-Wharton) were rejected from HYPSM.