<p>platosrepublic- (or kafkareborn, I mean, why do you spend so much time posting under two cover names on the Yale forum???)</p>
<p>1) Make no mistake about it. I am very happy to have a Wharton MBA, but for influential people abroad, the holy grail is a Harvard, or maybe a Stanford, MBA. Wharton (as well as Columbia, Chicago and Sloan) are respected afterthoughts, known and targeted by a smaller group of people, and seen as a second-best result in the MBA admissions process.</p>
<p>2) On the undergraduate level, foreign businessmen people view an Oxbridge or a Harvard/Yale degree as the ultimate mark of educational cachet (with Yale a tiny notch below; and yes, ouch, that hurts to type that as a Yale BA). Stanford is rising fast, particularly in Asia. (Interestingly enough, Yale has connections in China that date to 1870, and Yale is extremely popular as destination; Yale’s President Levin is an educational rock star in the Chinese media). Penn/Wharton does NOT enjoy the same prominence at all.</p>
<p>3) In dealing with many foreign clients as someone involved in emerging markets finance, the Yale connection has helped MUCH than my Wharton MBA connection. Clients seem much more impressed being taken to the classy Yale Club for drinks and looking at the pictures of Clinton on the wall or Bush senior playing baseball than when I take them to the Marriottesque “renovated” Penn Club. Blecccccchhhhh!</p>
<p>4) Do you honestly look up to Donald Trump as an inspiration? A creepy, arrogant guy who screws over people routinely who just inherited his Daddy’s real estate business, has gone bankrupt more than once – his casinos are now bankrupts YET AGAIN? And Buffett often talks about his time at Columbia studying under his heroes Graham and Dodd, but I never hear him say anything about Wharton; he fled the darn place, as far as I remember. </p>
<p>5) If Penn/Wharton produce so many incredibly successful business people, and has the strength of its Wharton alums to manage its funds, how did it end up so relatively poor compared to Yale and Harvard??? Even with last year’s cataclysm, Yale has almost 3 times the endowment that all of Penn has, and it has an alumni network about half as big!!! On a per capita basis, Yale has SIX times the wealth that Penn has! The only explanations I can see are 1) Penn people aren’t as successful as Yale people, so can’t give as much, or 2) Penn people are as successful or more successful than Yalies, but are so preternaturally cheap or so turned off by their experience they keep their purses shut, or 3) Penn people are successful and give a lot to their beloved alma mater, but their “hot shot” Wharton money mangers screw up the long term returns. You decide!</p>