Wharton vs Regular UPenn College

ivyparent43
Mon, 21 Apr 2014 22:39:54 +0000

It’s not easy to transfer into Wharton, and there aren’t a huge amount of successful transfers each year, so that strategy wouldn’t be my first choice. Wharton >> than CAS/Econ in my opinion, but both are solid choices as a college choice.

I’d say definitely apply in the ED round if you’re sure that Penn is your first choice of schools. If Wharton is your first choice but CAS / Econ isn’t right behind it before other college choices, then it’s simple…use your ED round application for Wharton. If both Penn options are your first choices and you’d be happy with either, then that makes it tougher.

Yes, it’s tougher to get into Wharton than into CAS. Here’s the “middle 50%” of scores for incoming students at Penn, regardless of which internal school (so Wharton’s range would logically be higher than this one):

Testing Means for the Middle 50 Percent of Enrolled Students
(25th-75th percentiles)

TEST RANGE
SAT: Critical Reading 680-770, with a median of 730
SAT: Math 700-790, with a median of 750
SAT: Writing 690-790, with a median of 750
ACT Composite 31-34

Characteristics of Enrolled Students
INCOMING CLASS BY GENDER PERCENT OF CLASS
Female 52%
Male 48%
All information is accurate as of July 17, 2013.

Top area of this “middle 50%” range would be a good place to be to have a reasonable shot. Keep in mind though that if you have a hook or two (URM, first gen, recruited athlete, famous or famous parent, legacy, huge contributor, etc) that would certainly help. Also keep in mind too that low end and lower of the above chart range is (IMO only) likely taken up by a higher ratio of hooks than typical.

Reminder that applications are looked at holistically though, so it’s not just GPA + class rank + SAT / ACT scores.