Chicago vs Wharton

Some more thoughts:

Wharton is probably the most recognized B-school on earth (perhaps even more than HS), I don't know if you guys remember when I asked what is the importance of the main institution at the B-school? Well, when I was thinking whether or not I should apply to Wharton (after being admitted to GSB) I made some research of the B-schools academics and prestigiousness (is it a word? ):

Claimed Nobel Laureates:
University of Chicago: 81
University of Pennsylvania: 19
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Priz ... ffiliation

Economics Nobel Laureates:
UofC: 10
UPenn: 1
For the B-schools it would be (6 for 1)
https://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/

Total University Endowment:
UofC:U$6.2Bi (total undergrad and grad students: 14,700)
UPenn: U$6.78Bi (total undergrad and grad students: 19,800)

B-School Faculty Number:
GSB: 175
Wharton: 304

In terms of ranking we all know that Wharton has always been among the TOP3 schools, while GSB among the TOP5, I'd say that rank wise Wharton is the clear winner here.

I met a bunch of people during GSB admit weekend who were deciding between these 2 schools, and from what they told me most of them were leaning towards GSB (not sure though if they told this because they were in Chicago at that time).

Once again: You can't go wrong with neither of them, so if you have to choose, good for you.

Its going to vary a LOT. If you take Kevin Murphy's Turbo Microeconomics course, its not uncommon for people to quote figures like 20 hours a week -- just for his class. Other super popular courses are also heavy workloads -- the new venture challenge for instance, I think averages 11 hours.

Most courses seem to require approx 3 to 4 hours outside of class. With four courses per week, thats 12 hours in class, with approx 16 outside -- lets say 30 total for attending class and doing the homework. If you push yourself a bit, expect a bit more, maybe 35. Throw in a couple group meetings here and there that tend to take longer than you always think they will, and 40 seems like a reasonable figure. Now, layer in some extracurricular activities, volunteering, etc, and 50 hours isn't hard to get to. Layer in recruiting dinners, social cocktail hours, meetings with career services, mock interviews, actual interviews, resume editing, company research, cover letter editing, day-at-company events, coffee chats, conversations with alumni, meetings with current students, flying out for 2nd rounds, going to 3-hour long back to back consulting interviews, commuting.... and for a few weeks there in the winter, yea, you'll cry uncle.....

Let me be clear: If you think graduate school is going to be a time to 'work on your tan' or 'improve your golf game', if you plan on going to a top 10 - or even a top 15 probably - I'd say you had best adjust your expectations. Wharton, Chicago, or other.... expect to earn your MBA.

Re-Finance: Wharton has dominated Finance for years, except in the academic realm where Chicago fares better. Sure, it may not matter if you want to do IB/Trading, but for PE/VC it makes a HUGE difference.

Example: a study of 497 Venture Capitalists in the United States reveals the following educational backgrounds:

HBS: 24%
Stanford: 20% (v. large relative to size of school)
Wharton: 19%
Chicago: 4%
Columbia: 3%
Kellogg: 3%
Other/non-MBA: 27%

Wharton tops the list if finance, marketing or consulting is what you're after.

Kellogg is the top marketing school. Wharton and Chicago are very close in finance, if you are planning on working in Chicago afterwards then GSB has the advantage but everywhere else wharton probably has the advantage.

As for class size, Chicago is a larger school. While its not as large as Wharton, it and Kellogg are about the same size and are only smaller than Wharton and HBS. I dont think that GSB is going to be less work than Wharton, especially if you are taking any of the advanced finance classes. Both have reputations of being very academically challenging. Personally I agree that Chicago is better than Philly but thats just my opinion...not sure if Wharton is similar to GSB where students live all over the city and not in one real defined area but that could be something that you should look at.

If I wanted finance I would probably go with Wharton, slightly better brand and I would be prefer to work on the east coast over chicago because thats where my family is. A scholarship would easily send me to GSB. Basically if you have to make the decision you cant go wrong, go to admitted student weekends and see which you prefer, both will give you amazing opportunities and world class educations.

Chicago of course.

Lots of reasons.

Slightly biased there, eh?

Chicago vs Wharton

xerox, I think river was correcting your statement that "Wharton tops the list if ... marketing ... is what you're after". Maybe you meant "the list" as Wharton and Chicago, but I think others can interpret it as "Wharton is the best marketing school"

Subject: Chicago vs Wharton



Well my friend I chose already GSB in this case. I don't think that the Wharton brand would be enough for me to live in Philadelphia (after today rhyme knows a better word for Philly right? ).

You can't go wrong with neither of them, the 2 most finance heavy schools in this planet (LBS comes right after).

IMHO, your choice depends on what you want. I decided not to even apply to Wharton after my GSB admission, because I think that in 2 years of my life I want to live in a great city, and now I'm SURE that Chicago is a great city. I know that it may be controversial, but almost all people I talked to told me that Philly kind of sucks. If you don't care about it or you like Philly it's another history.

I'd recommend you to go to both ad weekends, see the cities if you don't know them, and let your guts tell you what to do, as a business man, you will have to rely on your guts in many ocasions, so why not to start practicing right now ?

BTW, I'm really confortable with my avatar...

So it's GSB > Sloan for you? Rhyme has managed to cleanse you of your demons eh?!?

Thanks for everybody's input.

I would just like to come back to a point: how "time-consuming" each school is.

I believe that both schools can be very challenging if you want them to be challenging. However, I heard that the workload in Wharton can be very heavy, leaving little time for other activities, in comparison with Chicago.

I just wanted to have your opinion about this issue.

I'm not looking for a walk in the park if I go to an MBA school - I actually do want to learn something - but I also don't want to work 70h a week for the MBA. Am I dreaming? And how do the schools compare to each other on that aspect?

I believe that the social life can be cut in both Wharton and Chicago. The schools have heavy academics and agressive/competitive recruiting. However, if you manage these two major things, people say that both in Phily and Chicago you can actually have a party almost every day. Phily might have a privilege over Chicago in that it has an easier access to NY and Washington (you can get to NY in just 1,5 hours and have a fun there. You may actually live in NY on weekends ).

I have some good comments on this stuff, but im very hungover at the moment, so I'll try to come back later when my eyes dont feel like they are being squished.

I think Wharton is also has a GND policy- the students have to vote on it every year but it does get by with about 99.9% of the students voting for a GND.

If I recall correctly, wharton's GND was taken away by the administration and then added back by the student body on their own terms... i might be wrong.

I met a friend at Chicago GSB who had picked GSB over wharton. Her logic was :
- There is almost no difference between Chicago and Wharton in terms of rep in finance
- Her husband would not have to move to Philly and find another job
- She got a scholarship at GSB
- she felt that larger class size = Less of a community

bottom line - GSB catered for her personal circumstances better. I think you should think along those lines too.

ps. Its a myth that Chicago caters better for mid-west and not so well for East Coast. I met plenty of students with offers in NYC both for internships and for permanent roles at GSB. It is also a myth that work rate is less intense than Wharton.