Wharton undergraduate degrees

legendofmax
Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:11:50 +0000

I’d also like to add one thing. Recruiters are after people who can add value – who are smart and can make use of their opportunity. Yes, being in Wharton exposes you to a broad range of important and useful financial concepts, but this doesn’t give you an automatic step-up. A person in the College could be just as smart, and be able to show a deep understanding of similar topics.

I’ve run into plenty of College students who read/watch the news/stock market religiously and have a good knowledge of important economic events/concepts, and this sort of interest shows through in the interview. Compare this to a Whartonite who isn’t all that interested… yes, he may have taken a slew of Finance/Accounting courses, and he may have even done well in them, but if the College guy shows that he’s intelligent and has a good understanding of things and seems more fit for the position, recruiters are going to prefer the College guy to the Wharton guy in an interview. Furthermore, College students are allowed to take a few Wharton classes as well, thanks to the One University policy.

So, really, the school you choose as an undergraduate is really a function of your personal interests. When it comes to getting a job or doing well in the recruiting/interviewing process, it comes down to how you think and how you act, and there are infinitely many sources available to improve upon both of those things. It’s not simply about being in Wharton.

The mere fact that you see a large number of non-Whartonites getting similar jobs should be pretty indicative of this.

Therefore, it’s pretty silly for a Whartonite to “look down” upon a College student for having similar ambitions, because it obviously shows a certain degree of misplaced elitism.