<p>In the business world, the two are equally respected. Neither will lead to a ‘better’ or ‘higher-paying’ career, and both are recruited at heavily by firms in finance.</p>
<p>I can’t speak from personal experience at Penn, but I’ve heard a lot of not-so-nice things about Wharton - that they’re arrogant, etc. My intuition is that Stanford is more social; I’ve heard that Wharton students tend to self-segregate from the rest of the student body. Take these with a grain of salt, since I don’t have personal experience with Wharton - this is just what I’ve heard from friends who chose Stanford over Wharton (two of them my freshman year chose Stanford over Huntsman and M&T), and what I’ve read on these forums.</p>
<p>In terms of global prestige, it’s hard to say. UPenn definitely doesn’t have Stanford’s reputation (see [this](<a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/reputation-rankings.html]this[/url]”>World Reputation Rankings 2012 | Times Higher Education (THE))</a>), but I don’t know about Wharton specifically. My intuition is that in the circles that matter (top-flight business circles, that is), people will know and respect both. If I had to say which one had a better reputation abroad, it’s probably Stanford because it does have more general prestige.</p>
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<p>In general, business degrees are better left to the MBA; that’s why schools like HYPS don’t offer undergrad business. Usually, to go far with a business degree, you need an MBA. An econ degree from Stanford will take you just as far as an undergrad business degree from Wharton.</p>
<p>If you care for rankings, Stanford’s #1 in business according to US News and #1 in economics.</p>
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<p>No, they don’t have a record of who was accepted at the university as an undergrad and turned it down.</p>
<p>Are you interested in pairing business and engineering (like the M&T program at Wharton)? If so, you should look into [url=<a href=“http://msande.stanford.edu%5DMS&E%5B/url”>http://msande.stanford.edu]MS&E[/url</a>].</p>
<p>My advice: forget about which will lead to a better career or salary, as they are equal in that respect. As you said, you really can’t go wrong with either, so this should come down to which environment you like more. Are you able to visit both?</p>