Calling all Wharton 2011 Applicants

Business School Guide: http://gmatclub.com/forum/penn-wharton-103701.html

Please use the following form to add your stats to the spreadsheet

Form link

Edit link: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ArkyKRSo74XNdHJDT0RoNUFqYWhyQ0c2aVV3TDV2WHc&hl=en&authkey=CPS16ccG

Spreadsheet

MBA Program
	Application Deadline	Decision Release Date
Round 1	October 4, 2010	December 17, 2010
Round 2	January 4, 2011	March 24, 2011
Round 3	March 3, 2011	May 12, 2011

Essays

• Required Question (same for first-time and reapplicants):
  
  • What are your professional objectives? (300 words)

• Respond to 3 of the following 4 questions:
  
  • Student and alumni engagement has at times led to the creation of innovative classes. For example, through extraordinary efforts, a small group of current students partnered with faculty to create a timely course entitled, “Disaster Response: Haiti and Beyond,” empowering students to leverage the talented Wharton community to improve the lives of the Haiti earthquake victims. Similarly, Wharton students and alumni helped to create the “Innovation and the Indian Healthcare Industry” which took students to India where they studied the full range of healthcare issues in India. If you were able to create a Wharton course on any topic, what would it be? (700 words)
    
  • Reflect on a time when you turned down an opportunity. What was the thought process behind your decision? Would you make the same decision today? (600 words)
    
  • Describe a failure that you have experienced. What role did you play, and what did you learn about yourself? How did this experience help to create your definition of failure? (600 words)
    
  • Discuss a time when you navigated a challenging experience in either a personal or professional relationship. (600 words)

Stats, rankings and other relevant links
FT: http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/university-of-pennsylvania-wharton

BW: http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/rankings/full_time_mba_profiles/wharton.html

Career report: http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/mba/your-career/career-trends.cfm

Great resource to get questions answered by current students: http://engage.wharton.upenn.edu/MBA/forums/

Quick facts: http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/mba/admissions/quick-facts-and-dates.cfm

Wharton vs. Booth: http://gmatclub.com/forum/chicago-vs-wharton-74034.html

Previous Threads
Class of 2010 Thread - calling-all-wharton-fall-2010-candidates-78775.html

Class of 2009 Thread - calling-all-wharton-fall-09-applicants-66548.html

Class of 2008 Thread - calling-all-wharton-2008-applicants-50294.html

Whenever I read Wharton essay prompts, I catch myself wondering what could possibly be relevant in half of their prefaces. I don't know what to make of it - I think it's an awesome school and my experience with most W graduates is that they are a half-notch above those from schools in the lower end of the Top 10, but I wonder how they can discern that quality based on these essay questions.

I actually really like the "what course would you create" question. Lots of opportunity in that question. Either that, or I'm complete trash at behavioral questions and never feel like I really nail it. Must work on that!

I'm surprised "Why Wharton?" isn't explicitly asked. I've been having a difficult time leaving that out of my responses (and I'm not even 100% convinced I should completely leave it out).

The 700 word limit (vs. 600 for all others) of "what would you create" means this one should probably be answered. It feels a lot like "what matters most to you and why?" + back it up with tangible experiences. I've been racking my brain on how to answer this one.

As a reapp, I'm hoping they'll ask for a beefed up professional objective essay (300 words professional essay, ~200-300 words how have you improved) and also answer two of four. If they do, I'm going to answer "what would you create" and... I have no idea. But the essay will be personal!

Those are great questions and mark a departure from past Wharton questions, which tended to be similar year-to-year over the last five years or so. There is a lot of room in those questions to create an outstanding application if you know how to address the questions strategically, in a way that helps you draw attention to your strengths as a candidate.

How strict are the word limits for these essays? Say my professional objectives essay is 330 words. Is that a problem? Its so hard to squeeze that essay into just 300 words! I mean there's a lot to say about one's professional objectives especially if you want to provide the proper context and background!

From my experience, they aren't strict but I just went over a few words here and there. You are prob fine with 330 in a 300 limit but I'd try to get it down to 310 or so.

Im happy to take a read through if you want

In for Round 1.

In for Round 2. Good luck everyone!

Count me in for Round 1!

Anyone have thoughts on the absence of "Why Wharton?" Should we still slip it in or do they not really care (like HBS?)

Daniel

In for R1 + Lauder - can we keep a track of Lauder apps as well? (maybe something like R1 w/ Lauder, R2 w/ Lauder)

Duckpond, thanks for the feedback, I'll PM you about my essay.. thanks!

probably doing rd2, but may move this up to rd1 if application is ready by then

updated roll call.

Add me to Round 1. App season cannot be complete without the W.

Seems like all schools changed their essay topics with unconventional funkyness, including W.

Add me to R1 too. Like staind, I'm having a tough time squeezing in the objectives to a 300 word limit, especially because there's no other place(essay) to expand on work accomplishments.

Updated roll call.

count me in for rd 1

Count me in for Round 1 (tentatively). I am on the summer waitlist for the 2010 round (apped in Rd2), but want to get a move on next year's app since the chances of acceptances from the summer wait-list at this stage are probably as likely as one of them p***s-enlargement claims ever working out.

roll call updated.

Signing up for R1. Looking forward to the discussions. Good luck everyone!