Should I apply SAS or Wharton?

ilovebagels
Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:10:51 +0000

Econ in SAS is a solid top 10 department, though IR is not that great at Penn.



Yeah right. Penn IR isn’t a powerhouse of IR research (it has no graduate program) but it excels in undergraduate education.

The major itself is very rigorous, with prerequisite courses (and grades achieved in them) just to be let into the major. The required course are at the upper limit of what Penn majors can require, and the major requires a 2-semester thesis project. Only the dedicated get through, and those that do go onto the top law schools (one IR classmate was admitted into Harvard, Stanford, and Penn Law), top “prestige” jobs (Goldman, McKinsey, etc) and government service.

I wouldn’t come here for a graduate degree in IR (again, there is no grad program, the program exists to devote 100% of its resources to undergrads), but for undergrad it is an absolutely top-notch program.