<p>@giantman: Rule of thumb for undergrad prospects are 1. Wharton, 2. Harvard, 3. Princeton… and then the other top schools (YS, Dartmouth, Duke, etc.) in a cluster after that. The top students at Wharton will have the best options, as there are some elite firms that will only recruit there.</p>
<p>@Madaboutx: Generally speaking, the Wharton curve that students experience in the core (as well as some upper-level courses) will serve as a grade deflator. There are, however, ways to make sure your CUMULATIVE GPA remains as high as possible. In some cases, this will be taking upper-level courses with more lenient curves or no curves at all (this is a mixed bag), but the easiest way is to take less challenging courses in liberal arts requirements. At the end of the day, on your app or resume, you’re listing your overall GPA, so many Whartonites will try to take choice courses outside of Wharton to keep the average respectable in case the curve is dragging them down. Considering 43% of courses are taken outside of Wharton to earn the degree, not not surprising for a good number of folks to end up above 3.5 and that the average GPA is usually reported to be somewhere in the 3.3-3.4 range. But, of course, there are also just rockstars who kill at everything and get those 3.8+ GPA’s. The cream of the crop.</p>
<p>@goblue2018: I would agree a 3.3 at Wharton would not be as competitive as a 3.8 at another top target, provided that student had relevant coursework. But, I could see a 3.5 at Wharton being just as competitive as a 3.8 at Duke, for example. Then again, I’m not a recruiter, so I am speculating some.</p>