<p>Which “multiple” econ professors, exactly, told you that Penn does not place its students in top PhD programs for “whatever reason”? No econ professor at Penn would tell you that, and if they did, they would provide a more educated reason as to why that’s the case and wouldn’t simply say that it’s for “whatever reason.” </p>
<p>It’s hard for me to believe you’re telling the truth since, if you were smart enough to get a 4.0 your freshman year at Penn, you’d also be smart enough to know that staying at Penn and maintaining that sort of GPA would open up so many doors to top programs later down the road.</p>
<p>Perhaps you’re confusing Penn’s general pre-professional proclivity with its inability to place its students into top PhD programs. The former is true - most econ majors major in econ to vie for the sort of jobs Wharton students get. The latter is false - there may not be as many in the econ department majoring in econ to actually a PhD, but those that are do well.</p>