University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)

FT 2005 ranks Penn as tied for #1 in the world with Harvard.

EIU places Penn #8 worldwide and #7 in the US - just above IESE and just below Chicago GSB.

Penn's best showing on BW has been #1 (four times) and the worst showing was #5. Only Northwestern has enjoyed more #1 rankings by BW.

Penn/Wharton started in 1881. However, Wharton's offerings in the early years barely resembled a modern program. Indeed, most of the early students at the Wharton school were non-degree seeking students. It is intriguing that J. Wharton himself was a protectionist who worried about the spread of free trade ideas and credited the rise of the US steel industry in part to protectionist actions by the US govt. (contrast this view with that espoused at most business schools today). Courses in history, politics, and business law were all important in the early years of the school. In 1904 an evening division was started, although it was initially separate from the Wharton School. In contrast with the stress on personality at Harvard (est. 1908) Penn emphasized the functional areas. Accounting in particular was viewed in high regard at Penn since it was both professional and rigorous. c. 1921 Penn started offering a 2 year graduate level degree from students without training in business at the undergrad level that was far more specialized than the Harvard's graduate degree.

The social sciences/policy sciences continued to play an important role at Penn in the 20th century. In the early part of the century sociology influenced the school and then in the 1920's free trade economics become more prominent. The post WWII era introduced even more of the policy sciences into the Wharton curriculum and even had the danger of causing too much overlap with the social sciences at Penn. A masters in government was offered in the post war period as well.

http://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/mba/

http://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/mba/action/apply.php

Good idea- I hope to incorporate these links in the future.

Best,

Hjort

Employment Stats

http://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/mba/profes ... tatistics/

Information on the Lauder Institute MBA/MA in International Studies Program

http://lauder.wharton.upenn.edu/lauder_advantage.asp

Value Considerations

Est Total Outlay at List Price: 129k

http://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/mba/admiss ... budget.php

FT2005 Value For Money: #72, #2 among the ultraelites

I was looking at Penn Wharton's site on an unrelated topic when I came across their section on how to research programs. It is certainly commendable to include this information on the school's website but I was a little underwhelmed by the factual accuracy of this portion.

http://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/mba/admiss ... search.php

For instance

"MBA candidates use various media rankings, including BusinessWeek (U.S. and Europe), U.S. News & World Report (U.S. only), Financial Times (U.S. and Europe), and Which MBA? (worldwide)."

This information is simply incorrect. If the information in parentheses refers to the regional coverage of each periodical it is blatantly wrong- FT includes schools in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America and BusinessWeek includes schools in Canada and considers at least one school from Asia and one from Mexico in its international ranking. If the information in parentheses refers to the regional use of the rankings that is incorrect as well since many students outside of the US and Europe refer to BusinessWeek and FT.

To be fair, I concede that maintaining the accuracy of this portion of the website is justifiably not the school's greatest concern during the admissions season. If nothing else it serves as a valuable reminder: Don't believe everything you read -even when it comes from one of the top schools.

I am a Chartered Accountant with about 9 years work-ex after grad. I want to do MBA in Finance with specific focus for financial services industry. Think Wharton is a good bet--

Can anyone list the top few US b-schools for Finance.

Thanks,

Dev

Thanks. Is this in order of their reputation for MBA Finance?

Why Warton ?

What are the major features of Wharton and what are the primary advantages for going to Wharton MBA ?

Do you think an online MBA from penn state imba (wharton) will be good program if the goal is to switch career ? I am in finance domain and would like to switch from IT to business