Wharton vs Yale vs Dartmouth

NiceUnparticularMan
Thu, 24 Apr 2025 12:18:16 +0000

I agree first you have to decide if you even want to go to an undergrad business school.

I note many people who want to go into business choose not to. They prefer a different sort of education and experience for college, understand they can still get jobs in business out of college, and understand they could later go to a graduate business school if that made sense for their career. And to me it doesn’t matter if Wharton is arguably the best undergrad business school in the US–if that is not what you want for undergrad, you shouldn’t choose it.

But other people DO want to go to an undergrad business school. They like the idea of the focused curriculum, being around a lot of other kids with similar interests and ambitions, and so on. So if you do want that, then of course you should choose Wharton, because Yale does not have an undergraduate business school.

Then I think this observation is secondary to that central question, but I note a lot of social life at Yale in some way centers around the residential college system. Some people find that system very appealing, but I do think it means Yale students may spend more time “on campus” than they might at some other colleges. That said, there is in fact lots to do in New Haven, the ocean is nearby, NYC is not far away, and so on. But again, I think it is true that Yale students often just choose to do less of that than they could if they wanted.

If that sort of typical social life was a major issue for you, but you didn’t want to go to an undergraduate business school, then the better choice might actually be Penn CAS. The problem is as I understand it, Penn will require you to do two semesters in Wharton before you can look to transfer to CAS. I would not do that lightly–your first year in college is pretty important in terms of making the transition, meeting people, and generally setting the foundation for your next years. So I don’t tend to favor plans where you do not start as a first year where you want to be. If it happens accidentally, like you think you want one thing then change your mind, sure, go ahead. But if you already know you do not want to be in an undergrad business school, I would not start in Wharton.

However, if you are actually think you DO want to start in an undergrad business school, then know you might have the option to transfer to CAS if you changed your mind. Here are the basic policies:

college.upenn.edu

Policies Governing Transfer Within the University | College of Arts &...

As they note there, transferring IN to Wharton is usually quite difficult, but transferring from Wharton to CAS is not necessarily difficult–you need the two semesters, you need to be in good academic standing, and you need a reason based in your academic interests and goals. But usually it will be easy to articulate that reason if you decide an undergraduate business program is not for you and you would rather do something that CAS offers.

Again, I would stress this should not be your Plan A in my view. But if you do want to give Wharton a try, but want to know if you would have options if it turned out you would prefer something else–yes, such options would probably be available.