Wharton EMBA (Philly/SF) 2020 Intake - Class of 2022

(1) How quickly the social bonds formed and how much fun the whole experience is. The residential requirement on class weekends/weeks is really helpful. Everyone is stuck in the same place so we make the best of it. There are plenty of late nights and social events. For example, we have a themed formal event next Friday (our next class weekend) with spouses/SOs that’s ~100 people RSVPd for. There are also plenty of opportunities to travel. In fact, about 50 students leave for the British Virgin Islands (where one student calls home) either today or tomorrow. There’s also a ski trip in the works for sometime in February. It’s been a really amazing experience and quite different from the accounts I’ve heard from people in other EMBA programs.
(2) I looked into Booth and Kellogg as backups for R2 applications if I failed to earn admission to Wharton in R1. In R1, I only applied to Wharton.
(3) I was surprised by the workload. I’ve worked long hours in M&A and I’ve been through the CFA program so I though I would be well-prepared. I was certainly better-prepared than some peers but still underestimated it. It got especially rough around the midpoint of Term 2 (this past fall). I would say the heavy workloads come in waves. During those periods, I’ll spend in excess of 25 hours a week on schoolwork. But there are also weeks where I’ll only spend 5-10 hours preparing for the next class weekend. There are people that do less and are happy with their experience. I struggle to settle for “good enough” and it’s been an internal battle for me. I want to relieve some of the pressure on myself to do well so that I can relax a little more! Make sure you go in with eyes wide open. You’re attending school full-time while working full-time. It’s hard. I have a two year-old daughter and it really hurt me when I had to miss her first daycare “performance” because I had school that Friday.

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