Wharton vs Chicago BoothWharton and Booth offer world's best MBA programs. These are two of the best business schools in the world, and to have been admitted to them both opens up a world of opportunities for your future career and life. We decided to compare their MBA programs on various factors such as class, ranking, curriculum, placements, etc. to help prospective applicants as well as those who have already been admitted and deciding which one to choose.
We compared class profiles, curriculum, strengths and weaknesses, rankings, and placements of these two. Both are best for all those who are looking to go in to Finance, Consulting, Healthcare, or start their own venture. We noticed that Wharton's brand and alumni network are its biggest strengths, whereas Booth has phenomenal student culture and very flexible curriculum tailored for applicants' need. Below is the detailed comparison of these schools taking all factors one by one. Article ends with main conclusion and winner of this competition.
Class Profile
- While GPA, WE, and proportion of female and international applicants is roughly the same at both schools, Wharton surpasses Booth on all other fronts, most important of them are yield rate, acceptance rate, and application volume.
- Wharton's yield is higher by 10 percentage points than Booth's, and this is value valuable input to measure the percentage of admitted students who actually go to a school rather than turn it down.
- Wharton's acceptance rate (19%) is also lower than Booth's acceptance rate (24%), which reveals the intensity of competition at Wharton.
- Although proportion of international students at Wharton is slightly lower than that of Booth, Wharton has representation of 71 countries whereas Booth only has 54 countries. These figures makes us to believe that Wharton's class is likely to be more diverse than Booth's
- We can see Wharton taking lead over Booth in this area of comparison.
Booth vs Wharton: Class Profile |
| Wharton | Booth |
Length of Program | 2 Years | 2 Years |
# of Applicants | 6679 | 4284 |
Admitted | 1302 | 1047 |
Enrolled | 851 | 585 |
Yield | 65.3% | 55.8% |
Avg GMAT | 730 (570 - 780; 80% between 700 - 770) | 726 (570 - 780) |
Avg GPA | 3.6 | 3.6 |
Avg Age | N/A | 28 |
Avg WE (Months) | 60 | 60 |
Female Students | 44% | 42% |
International Students | 32% | 34% |
Countries Represented | 71 | 54 |
Booth vs Wharton: Feeder Industries |
| Wharton | Booth |
Consulting | 23% | 23% |
Banking and Finance | 36% | 37% |
Retail and Consumer Products | 11% | N/A |
Edu, Govt, Military, & Non Profit | 12% | 11% |
Technology/E-Commerce/Internet | 9% | 2% |
Media, Entertainment, and Sports | 3% | 2% |
Real Estate | 2% | 3% |
Telecom | N/A | 6% |
Energy & Utilities | N/A | 3% |
Healthcare & Biotech | N/A | 4% |
Manufacturing | N/A | 4% |
Other | 4% | 5% |
Academics
Booth is well known for its flexible curriculum and it's reflected well in this comparison. From core to advanced courses, students have several options to choose from. LEAD is the only required class, where students work on key management skills such as negotiation, team-building, and giving feedback.
In Interdisciplinary programs too, Booth offers 8 joint degrees, where Wharton only 3. We can confidently say Booth has more flexible curriculum than Wharton and this fact was also evident in our student surveys the details of which can be found in
comparison of strengths and weaknesses.
Wharton
- Program Length: 20 months, including summer internship of 3.5 months. Year 1: Early Aug to May; Year 2: Early Sept to May.
- Campus: Philadelphia, with the opportunity to study for one semester in San Francisco by application
- Total Credit Units: 19.0 CU (Core: 9.5 CU + Major: Typically 5.0 CU, including a maximum of 1.0 from the core + Electives: 5.0 CU)
- Core: 6 required fixed core courses to be completed in 1st Semester. You will get 3.25 Credit units for fixed cores.8 flexible core courses; Can be completed in first semester or anytime thereafter. You will get 6.25 Credit units for flexible cores. List of cores https://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/mba-curriculum/
- Major: You can choose from 19 majors; Approximately 40% of students complete their degree with 2 majors. List of majors https://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/mba-majors/
- Electives: You can choose from nearly 200 elective courses. Courses of study include at least 9 electives, five of which form a major. Up to 4 electives can be chosen from Penn’s 11 other Schools. List of electives https://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/mba-electives/
- Cluster System: A cluster is a group of about 210 students and is comprised of three cohorts (each cohort consists of about 70 students). This is your community, which helps you create close friendships and connections within the larger school.
Cluster 1: Cohorts A, B, C
Cluster 2: Cohorts D, E, F
Cluster 3: Cohorts G, H, I
Cluster 4: Cohorts J, K, L
Each cohort moves through the core curriculum as a unit, sharing the first year of their academic experience. Additionally, the cohorts will unite for other, non-academic purposes, including intramural sports competitions, community service activities, and other activities that foster a sense of fun and community on campus. Wharton's cohort system provides a built-in support network: students bring their individual expertise to the group, helping those with different experience and business backgrounds to meet common goals. Cluster and cohort assignments are made primarily at random while ensuring equal representation of genders, nationality, and work experience. They remain fixed throughout your MBA career.
- IInterdisciplinary Programs: Many Wharton MBAs choose to extend their education beyond the Wharton School with one of the dual-degree or interdisciplinary options. There are three integrated interdisciplinary programs at the University of Pennsylvania.
1) MBA/MA Lauder Joint Degree in International Studies https://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/lauder-program/
2) The Francis J. & WM. Polk Carey JD/MBA https://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/carey-jd-mba-program/
3) MBA in Healthcare Management https://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/health-ca ... t-program/
Booth
Booth offers a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of business. With only one required course, you can design a program to meet your career goals. Four major components make up the curriculum.
- Foundation courses to develop analytical tools and knowledge that supports the rest of the curriculum. There are three 3 categories in foundation courses - Accounting, Microeconomics, and Statistics - and you have to choose 1 course for each category. There are several basic and advanced alternatives available in each category to choose from.
- Function, Management, and Business Environment: In this component, you have to choose 6 courses from 7 categories: Finance, Marketing, Operations, Decisions, People, Strategy, Business Environment. There are several basic and advanced alternatives available in each category to choose from. Click here for detailed course listing https://www.chicagobooth.edu/programs/f ... curriculum
- Electives: 11Courses
- LEAD: All students take Leadership Effectiveness and Development (LEAD) to initiate their leadership development journey at Booth. More info on LEAD can be found here.. https://www.chicagobooth.edu/programs/f ... mics/lead/
- Joint Degrees:
MBA/MPP https://harris.uchicago.edu/degrees/join ... f-business
MBA/JD https://www.law.uchicago.edu/joint-degrees
MBA/MD https://pritzker.uchicago.edu/page/md-mba
MBA/MA https://www.ssa.uchicago.edu/joint-ammba
MBA/MPCS https://csmasters.uchicago.edu/page/mba-mpcs
MBA/MA in International Relations https://www.chicagobooth.edu/programs/f ... -relations
Area Studies https://www.chicagobooth.edu/programs/f ... ea-studies
Certificate in Health Administration and Policy https://www.chicagobooth.edu/programs/f ... ion-policy
- Booth’s The Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation runs an accelerator program, New Venture Challenge, for current students and alumni to boost creation of new ventures and technology commercialisation within the UChicago and surrounding community. This program has helped launch more than 160 companies worldwide.
Key Strengths and Areas of Improvements
(
According to Current Students/Alumni Reviews)
- Here we studied reviews of 22 Booth students/alumni and 15 Wharton students/alumni submitted in Business School Reviews section of our forum to understand what they feel are core strengths of their schools and what needs to be improved.
- 82% of students say Booth's curriculum and professors are its core strengths whereas 64% students say brand Booth and student culture are its major strengths. This is on the expected lines; We often hear from applicants in forum discussions that they apply to Booth primarily because of its flexible curriculum, brand, diversity, student culture, and career opportunities. 32% students think Speclizations offered at Booth need to be improved. 5% students also found dining in campus restaurant expensive.
- It's well known that Wharton's brand is its core strength; 93% students who we survey have endorsed this. 67% student also felt that Wharton's 95000+ strong alumni network is its major strength; however, an alarming fact is that 60% students think Curriculum/professors needs to be improved. Wharton's curriculum was redesigned in 2012 and all student reviews we studied have been posted on forum after 2012, so even after re-designing, 6 out of 10 students find it as an area of improvement.
- Facilities is another area that, 47% students say, needs improvement.
- To conclude this comparison we can say Curriculum, Faculty, Brand, and robust student culture are Booth's major strengths whereas Wharton primarily relies on its brand, alumni network, and career opportunities.
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Rankings
- A little bit tricky situation to deal with, specifically because both schools are generally considered in top 5 US schools. If we look at historical US News rankings, Wharton was constantly placed ahead of Booth until current year, in which US news ranked Booth 2nd whereas Wharton has fallen down to 4th position.
- Booth is also placed ahead in all other major rankings, except Financial times.
- Consider all these facts and current rankings, Booth is clear winner in this area of comparison.
Booth Vs Wharton: Current Ranking |
| Wharton | Booth |
US News 17 | 4 | 2 |
Economist 16 | 12 | 1 |
BusinessWeek 16 | 6 | 4 |
Forbes 15 | 7 | 6 |
Financial Times 16 | 4 | 8 |
Placements
No doubt Wharton and Booth both have one of the best career management facilities; Last year both of them had best placement results. Avg salary and employment rates are also same so clear tie in this area of comparison.
Booth Vs Wharton: Placement Stats |
| Wharton | Booth |
Placement Rate (Class of 2016) | 98.3% | 98.4% |
Avg Base Salary | $125,000 (Range $27,600 - $250,000) | $125,000 (Range $60,000 - $215,000) |
Top Recruiters at Wharton A.T. Kearney, Inc.
Accenture
Airbnb
Amazon
Apple Inc.
Bain & Company
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Barclays
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Boston Consulting Group
Citadel – Surveyor
Citi
Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP
Credit Suisse
Elliott Management Corporation
Facebook
Fidelity Investments
General Mills, Inc.
Goldman Sachs & Company
Google, Inc.
IBM
J.P. Morgan
Jet.com
JPMorgan Chase
L.E.K. Consulting
McKinsey & Company
Microsoft Corporation
MFS Investment Management
Morgan Stanley
National Basketball Association
Nike, Inc.
Nomura Holding America Inc.
PepsiCo
Pfizer, Inc.
PwC
Tesla Motors
Samsung Global Strategy Group
Uber
Unilever PLC
Walmart Stores, Inc.
Top Recruiters at Booth (Companies that hired 3 or more graduates) McKinsey & Company, Inc. (35)
The Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (23)
Amazon.com, Inc. (19)
Bain & Company, Inc. (15)
Accenture (13)
Google Inc (12)
Bank of America Merrill Lynch (11)
PwC Strategy& (10)
Deloitte Consulting (9)
Morgan Stanley (9)
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (8)
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (8)
Deutsche Bank AG (7)
Lazard Freres & Co. LLC (7)
Citigroup, Inc. (6)
Fidelity (6)
Pepsico, Inc (6)
A.T. Kearney, Inc. (5)
Apple Inc. (5)
Cisco Systems, Inc. (5)
Credit Suisse (5)
William Blair (5)
Barclays Capital (4)
Cornerstone Research, Inc. (4)
PIMCO (4)
Samsung Group (4)
Decisions by previous GMATClub members
Here we are presenting select cases of previous GMATClub members who had been admitted to Booth and Wharton and had to make a choice.
adrama - Admitted to Booth, Wharton, and Tuck.
- Post MBA Goal: Consulting at MBB
- Decision: Booth.
adrama wrote:
There were many reasons why Booth was the right decision for me: exceptional career services, obvious commitment to student's success, very responsive student body, and yes -- according to the MC recruiters I spoke to, exactly the same employment opportunities. There's a reason why I'm pursuing an MBA, namely bc I believe in stuff such as ROI. The programs being equally as expensive and believing that Booth simply offers a better experience & more support, I had to seriously ask myself whether the marginal prestige Wharton offers will make a difference in my future return. And in conversations with alumni I was given a much needed wake-up call from my reverie -- students from neither one or the other get preferential treatment over each other, you need to prove you worth.
From a social perspective, I would add that I actually thought Booth students are a lot of fun (from some threads I did not expect to find a whole crowd at our welcome parties ...) and I appreciated that there was a balance between partying and social gatherings. I love partying but I also like begin able to meet people and have a decent conversation with them where we can hear each other.... If I wanted drinking & partying to be my focus, I wouldn't have to bother myself and uproot to Chicago.
poem - Stats: International student (Singapore), Engineer, Work Experience in Hi-tech industry.
- Admitted to Booth, Wharton (with no $), Booth (with $60k), and MIT Sloan (with no $)
- Post MBA Goal: Internal strategic planning or consultant in hi-tech for short-term, entrepreneurship & trading for long-term.
- Post MBA Location: Does not matter.
- Decision: Wharton.
poem wrote:
I hope this piece of writing helps someone out there who is making decision in 2nd round.
I have talked with a great number of staffs, alums, and students from all 3 schools. From all of the conversations I have, it comes down (only apply to me) the 3 golden aspects to look for business schools: branding, career help, and fit/network. I already discounted other aspects like living environment, weather, partners club, etc … I think it is just inappropriate to have factors in the picture.
Branding: Wharton has an edge
I went to mid-ranked undergraduate school (top 30-50, I guess), so school branding & solid MBA stamp on my CV is an important factor for me. When you say you are from this school or that school, ppl may look at you differently. I know in US, Wharton and Booth is more less similar school, in fact, some of my friends in US told to choose Booth over Wharton. However, Wharton name is huge in Asia, especially in India (?? I can’t explain myself??), I have talked with a few Indian friends who are going/hold MBA as well, they told me it’s no-brainer answer, Wharton is definitely the choice. People here in Asia perceive Wharton is prestigious, Booth is very good. This is to show how popular Wharton is. I think it is due to the old historic H/S/W, and Booth, even though is quite strong in recent 5 years, still need some time to catch-up in global context.
MIT is definitely is a big name for tech, but most of the people don’t think MIT is for business.
Having said that, I have a chat with a Wharton alum (’08 or ‘09), with 5/6 years post-MBA working experience, she said no one cares, choose what you like, employers care what you have done and what you bring to the table. All are same schools to her. Perhaps, she is my favourite alum I have talked so far, for being so honest and not selling me on her school.
Career help: MIT, MIT and MIT
For the short-term goal of internal strategic planning in big tech firm, I think all schools could land me this job. I have shifted in my career plan, I am seriously considering doing start-up during schooling or just after MBA. Given my tech background, and MIT’s extraordinary entrepreneurial ecosystem, MIT is the winner (of course, after Harvard and Stanford). Please see this report:
https://poetsandquants.com/2013/11/18/th ... eurship/3/
When I reach out to Wharton/Booth: the A, B & C resources may help you, you may want to reach out to X, Y & Z institute as well … When I reach out to MIT Sloan: which field you want to start-up? Are you interested in D, E & F? Do you want to work part-time in start-up while schooling? Send in your CV we have a student club to help you, etc … Start-up is like a norm in MIT, and entrepreneurship is everyone business. Another plus point is that students can find partners from other schools in MIT (world-class MIT engineering school is a dream place to look for strong-tech partner)
Wharton/Booth are also strong in start-up, but that could not beat MIT.
Fit/network: perhaps Booth
I put them together because no mater how big the network is, if I don’t fit in, I am not going to be able to make friends. MIT is definitely a fit. It is so easy (for me) to connect to MIT people, from adcoms, alums, students, to newly admitted students, given that more than 50% of them from tech/engineering background. It is too much comfortable until I wonder: do I go out of my comfort zone? I promise myself to take risk during MBA, to try new/crazy things, to network with new people, to do whatever I like w/o being concerned of finance or family.
And Booth just has nice subsets of all kind of people, in the other words, diversified. I can find lots of people like me, and lots of people not like me. I have a feeling that, at Booth, if I want to take a step back, I have a community behind me, if I want to reach out, I will have plenty of people to challenge me. Wharton, yes, is also very diversified, but I have hard time to connect with students. It’s not that all bad, I will be trained to work with not-my-type classmates. Wharton is well-known for party & wine, I’m not so big on that, but call me for good food! In other words, choose MIT to pamper myself, choose Booth to go out of comfort zone, and choose Wharton to go far from comfort zone.
Wharton alumni network is the biggest, and Booth comes very close. MIT has small class size, and not a lot of students go to Asia post MBA, I found MIT network is limited compared with the other 2 schools in Asia context. Booth has a big plus because of EMBA campus was in Singapore (moved to Hong Kong last year). But Booth will still keep a small campus in Singapore for career office, executive training as well as alumni gathering.
In this regards, perhaps Booth is the choice for fit/network.
pway - Stats: International student (India), 770 GMAT, Work Experience of 2 years as Assistant Merchandiser.
- Admitted to Booth (with $50K) and Wharton (with no $)
- Post MBA Goal: Retail and luxury industry
- Decision: Wharton.
- Reasons: Wharton is much stronger brand in India. Wharton, being closer to NYC, might be better for working in luxury industry.
EZKL - Admitted to Booth (with substantial $) and Wharton
- Decision: Wharton.
EZKL wrote:
I was admitted to both Wharton and Booth, (Booth with a substantial scholarship), attended both welcome weekends, and ultimately decided on Wharton. Here were my impressions:
Students: Wharton seemed to accept a ton of consultants, and lots of people with international experience. Booth seemed to have a lot more people with 'corporate' jobs. I think the Booth pool was more concentrated around the 'middle' in terms of experience, aptitude, etc, while Wharton was more of a barbell (i.e. very high quality people with cookie-cutter backgrounds (consultants, private equity, traders, etc), and then people with very nontraditional backgrounds). Overall, the Wharton admits were noticeably more polished and professional. Wharton also had some impressive military careers represented (special forces, air force pilots, etc), to a greater degree than Booth. Winner: Wharton.
Campus: Booth has all of its classes in one building, and while it is a nice/new building and despite being totally encased in glass - there are no windows in the classrooms. And all of the classrooms we went into were in the basement. And the classes are 3 hours long. To me, that much time without natural light is a huge negative. There are also no undergrads in the Booth building (pro or a con, depending on your perspective. It definitely makes it less lively.). University of Chicago's campus is classic gothic, but as an MBA student you will live far from it. Penn has a bright, airy campus, right near center city, with natural light in every classroom, and Huntsman hall is buzzing with undergrads and grads. Winner: Wharton.
Social: Wharton is a huge party school. They don't even try to hide that fact. In my opinion, they actually take it too far. After 4 years of fraternity life in college, 5 years of working and blowing off steam on the weekends, I personally don't get excited about the prospect of drinking face 4 days a week in Philadelphia. The Wharton programming also spent a decent amount of time disparaging other schools in a way that was neither flattering nor gracious. Booth is a sociable school with a collegial vibe and places priority on the program itself, not the extracurriculars. Winner: Booth.
Career: Booth put on a pretty good show, and to be honest I think if you are a standout student you could be aided by the slightly weaker class profile and would be likely to attract a lot of attention and institutional resources in your placement efforts. That said, the placement diversity felt more narrow. Lots of finance, decent amount of consulting and tech. Every firm in Chicago comes here. But no question to me Wharton had a more fully-baked and commercial program in terms of career placement. Every industry at Wharton was well-represented; the way they structure their career services department, by industry, felt sophisticated, and the department talent was impressive. If you want to follow a more nontraditional path - entrepreneurship, media, not-for-profit, Wharton has highly-developed institutional knowledge and legacy to support those plans. Feels like you would be competing against a more competitive set, however. Winner: Wharton.
Overall, Wharton felt more commercial and professional, and those institutional qualities filtered down to the students. No doubt Booth would be a very comfortable place to be, however. The welcoming sense of the Booth community, the lip service paid to the actual academic programming, and the generally more approachable student body almost outweighed my perceptions of Wharton as an efficient, highly polished, marketable brand.
chromium73 - Admitted to Booth (with $60K), and Wharton (with no $)
- Post MBA Goal: Private equity or general management
- Decision: Wharton.
chromium73 wrote:
Over the past 6 weeks, I was trying to decide if money alone was a reason to go to Booth. If I had not received any fellowship money, it would not have been a question for me at all. Anyway, I attended both admit weekends, and spoke to upwards of 10 people at each school. I'm leaning toward Wharton... and here's why:
1) I'd rather live in Philadelphia than Chicago... at least right now. It's close to both my wife and my family, and I've lived in Philadelphia before.
2) I am still a bit undecided on what direction I will take in school. I either want to stay in private equity or do something quite different and enter a general management program. I feel Wharton's PE network and placement is significantly better than Booth. On the GM side, one could argue its a wash but I still had a better feeling in talking to folks at Wharton about this. The energy network at Wharton is also pretty superb.
3) Student body: I felt like I gelled with folks at the Wharton admit weekend better than I did at Booth. I found a nice cohort of people with similar interests that I could see myself getting down in the trenches with. Booth, albeit a more limited sample size, didn't hit the same way with me.
These reasons may sound stupid. Many people will say turning down a year of free tuition is downright crazy. At the end of the day I'm trusting my gut and what I think will make me happy. I'd rather be a little poorer and get the most out of my experience than be richer and constantly wonder "what if?"
No advice on a message board will help you make these types of decisions. They are intensely personal.
elbie - Stats: 730 GMAT, 3.56 GPA, Tech
- Admitted to Booth, Wharton, & Kellogg MMM
- Post MBA Goal: General Management (Have an interest in Biotech and want a strong California network)
- Decision: Booth.
elbie wrote:
- Booth blew me away with their dedication to welcome potential applicants and I felt at home with the "nerdy" culture.
- Kellogg facilities certainly can not compare and the students I met were mostly typical marketing-types that are the stereotype of the school - I did not feel a great connection with them. I think I likely would connect more with the MMM students, but I have only met a few alum - not enough to really be able to tell.
- Wharton.... I did not get a great vibe. They just seemed so proud of themselves for being Wharton - the admissions office barely lifted a finger to help me get a sense of the school - even when I was interviewing. My stock question to interviewers is "Why X school?" and the guy at Wharton said he had never been asked that before. That mentality just rubbed me the wrong way - but I think I should give it another chance because I think it would be different now that I am in.
I mostly wonder if it makes sense to choose Booth despite the fact that it is likely the worst of the 3 for what I want to do. There are so many finance people there that I likely will never utilize in my career network. Kellogg people are much more likely to work for companies that I want to work for, and I think Wharton too.
So who is the winner??
1) Wharton has better class profile than Booth for obvious reasons. It's brand is unmatched so it attracts many high quality applicants from all over the world. Booth is really a great school but brand building is a slow and gradual process so it will take time for Booth to be on par with Wharton in this area.
2) In academics, Booth has left Wharton far behind. It may sound bit exaggerating but Wharton might not be cautious about reshaping/rebuilding its curriculum and facilities, or it may not yet realised the threat Booth has posed to them, or Wharton is relying too much on its brand value..... We can go on and on in speculating. But we can not deny one fact - Wharton is one of the best MBA brand in the world and 32% of its students saying Curriculum and Facilities are its weaknesses.
3) Perhaps ranking agencies have also taken note of things cited above so this year in every major ranking, except FT, Booth has let Wharton behind.
4) Placements are same at both schools; In fact Wharton set record this year by placing 98.3% students but there are several external factors that affect placement rates. e.g. current state of economy, govt policies, industry trends, etc... And of course how can we forget the role brand Wharton plays in getting its students placed in the market
5) So all in all Wharton is indeed a part of H/S/W league but it may lose its position if the current trend continues. Booth on the other hand is really a bright spot in the MBA industry
Booth: 3 Wharton: 5
The Winner is: Wharton -