@JHS “There’s a huge difference between having some sort of screen for applying to a special major and having a situation where students are regularly told when they are already two years into college that they can’t have that major – as with film at UCLA, or people trying to transfer in to Wharton at Penn.”
Unlike some colleges, Penn students don’t apply to Wharton after being at Penn for a year or two. Students who want to be in Wharton apply to Wharton initially. A few spots will usually open up for transfers from SEAS and CAS, but it is a bad plan to enroll in any school at Penn that isn’t where you want to be, and I think that the vast majority of students are exactly where they want to be. The outside perception by some that SEAS and CAS students are all clamoring to get into Wharton is just not accurate. Salaries for graduates of SEAS (~$82,900) average about $6,700 more than Wharton (~$76,200).