Wharton School
The Wharton School
| Mission | Apply unparalleled intellectual resources to prepare business leaders who fuel the growth of industries and economies throughout the world |
|---|---|
| Established | 1881 |
| Official name | The Wharton School |
| University | University of Pennsylvania |
| School type | Private |
| Endowment | $615 million [1] |
| Dean | Thomas S. Robertson |
| Faculty | 304 |
| Undergraduates | 2,304 |
| Graduates | 1,671 |
| Alumni | 81,000 |
| Location | Philadelphia, PA, USA |
The Wharton School is the business school of University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was established in 1881 through a donation of Joseph Wharton, making it the world’s oldest business school.[2] In conjunction with the other schools and colleges of the university, Wharton grants the B.S., M.B.A. and Ph.D. degrees, and conducts several diploma programs.
Since the 1990s, the popular press has repeatedly ranked Wharton as one of the top institutions for business education in the world.[3] Moreover, it has been ranked the best business school in the world by Financial Times in every year in which the magazine has ranked business schools, except for 2005, when it tied with Harvard.[4] Wharton usually receives the highest reputational scores from academics and recruiters.[5]
Wharton School has over 300 standing professors, the world’s most published and most cited business school faculty,[6] and its 8:1 student-to-faculty ratio is one of the best among U.S. business schools. With the most electives of any business school,[7] Wharton offers concentrations in Accounting, Actuarial Science, Business and Public Policy, Entrepreneurial Management, Environmental Management, Finance, Health Care Systems, Human Resource and Organizational Management, Insurance and Risk Management, Legal Studies and Business Ethics, Management, Marketing, Multinational Management, Operations and Information Management, Real Estate, Retailing, Statistics, and Strategic Management.
Wharton's endowment and annual research expenditures are among the largest of any business school.[8]An article in a prestigious academic journal ranked Wharton as a top school for the combination of scholarly achievements and excellence in teaching.[9]
The admissions process at Wharton is highly selective — it is one of the most competitive business schools in the U.S. A high GPA, high GMAT score, strong work experience, and evidence of leadership potential are typically prerequisites to admission.
The school publishes an influential online journal, Knowledge@Wharton, that has been described by The Economist as "the envy of every other school,"[10]. In addition, the school recently established a publishing house Wharton School Publishing. Wharton maintains the world's largest financial, economics, management, marketing, and public policy data warehouses accessible through state-of-the-art web-based data management services, called WRDS [11].
History
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The Wharton School, the world’s first business school, was founded in 1881 by Philadelphia industrialist and philanthropist Joseph Wharton. A native Philadelphian, Wharton became a leader in industrial metallurgy and built a fortune through his American Nickel Company and Bethlehem Steel Corporation. The anvil, a School symbol, reflects Wharton’s pioneering work in the metal industry. Joseph Wharton envisioned creating a new collegiate foundation that would produce educated leaders of business and government. From the beginning, he defined the goal of the Wharton School of Finance and Economy (its original name) to be: "to provide for young men special means of training and of correct instruction in the knowledge and in the arts of modern Finance and Economy, both public and private, in order that, being well informed and free from delusions upon these important subjects, they may either serve the community skillfully as well as faithfully in offices of trust, or, remaining in private life, may prudently manage their own affairs and aid in maintaining sound financial morality: in short, to establish means for imparting a liberal education in all matters concerning Finance and Economy."
Setting an early standard for innovation, Wharton published the first business textbooks, established the first research center at a business school, created the first center for entrepreneurship, created the first program in international management, established the first MBA in health care and real estate, and developed the first executive education program. To this day, it is regarded as one of the world's leading business and management schools, and employs the world's largest, most cited faculty with 304 standing and associate members.
Academics
The school has 304 standing and associated faculty, 11 academic departments and 20 research centers and initiatives. The institutional mission of the Wharton School: to apply unparalleled intellectual resources to prepare business leaders who fuel the growth of industries and economies throughout the world.[12]
Academic departments
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Research centers
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Wharton MBA Program (MBA)
Eighteen majors are available to Wharton MBA students, who can also elect to pursue double majors or individualized majors. During their first year students pursue a required core curriculum. After completing the first year, electives are available. The MBA program offers nearly 200 electives within Wharton's 11 academic departments, the "largest" selection of any business school.[13] Thousands of other University electives are also offered through other Penn schools. Wharton also offers MBA Program for Executives which is a two-year, weekend residential program built on the same curriculum as regular MBA program. Executive program is offered in two locations: on the Wharton campus in Philadelphia and at Wharton West in San Francisco
Wharton's required pre-term includes coursework, waiver testing, and the "Learning Team Retreat". Coursework includes introductory and review courses in financial accounting, microeconomics, statistics, and financial analysis. Preparatory courses cover material not included in Fall coursework that students are expected to understand. In addition, Pre-term includes classes on business history and languages, as well as short seminars in communication skills, computing technology, trading simulations, and career management. [citation needed]
Offered on a quarterly schedule throughout the first year, core courses cover traditional management disciplines finance, marketing, statistics, and strategy, as well as the leadership, ethics, and communication skills needed at senior levels of management.
Academic Honors for MBA Program
The top academic honor in the Wharton MBA Program is the Palmer Scholar designation, given to the top 5% of the graduating MBA class. Students who rank in the top 20% of the graduating class after both their first and second years are awarded Graduation with Honors. Students who rank in the top 20% of their class after the first year are awarded First Year Honors.
The student (or students) with the top cumulative GPA at the end of the first-year of the MBA Program is awarded the Ford Fellowship.
Only grades earned from courses taken at Wharton qualify for academic honors. Courses taken Pass/Fail or electives taken outside of Wharton do not count towards the eligibility for academic honors, but do count towards the MBA degree.
Wharton Doctoral Programs Wharton grants PhD degrees (as opposed to some programs, which grant DBAs.) It take approximately four to six years to complete the program. Eleven fields of specialization are offered by the program: Accounting, Business and Public Policy, Ethics and Legal Studies, Finance, Health Care Systems, Insurance and Risk Management, Management, Marketing, Operations and Information Management, Real Estate, and Statistics. The entering class of 2005 contained 34 students, half of which were U.S. citizens. The average age of an entering student is 26. All Wharton doctoral students are funded.[14]
International study Options for international study and experience include Wharton's Lauder Institute, the Global Immersion Program, Leadership Ventures, Global Consulting Practicum, and exchange programs with schools in 11 countries, including an INSEAD alliance.
Dual and joint degrees
Wharton MBA students may pursue a dual degree with Lauder Institute, Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies or in one of the graduate schools at the University of Pennsylvania:
- Biotech - MBA/MB with the Penn School of Arts and Sciences
- Design - MBA/MArch, MBA/MLA, MBA/MCP, MBA/MHP with Penn School of Design
- Education - MBA/MS with Penn Graduate School of Education
- Engineering - MBA/MSE with the Penn School of Engineering and Applied Science
- International Studies - MBA/MA with The Lauder Institute
- Medical Sciences - MBA/MD with Penn School of Medicine, MBA/DMD with Penn School of Dental Medicine, and MBA/VMD, MBA/PhD,and MBA/MS with Penn School of Veterinary Medicine
- Law - MBA/JD with Penn Law School
- Nursing - Nursing and Health Care Management, MBA/MSN, MBA/PhD with the Penn School of Nursing
- Social Work - MBA/MSW with the Penn School of Social Policy and Practice
Wharton Undergraduates may pursue joint degrees in engineering through the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology, international business through the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business, Nursing & Health Care Management, and a joint program in life sciences and business through the The Roy and Diana Vagelos Program in Life Sciences and Management. Undergraduates may also, independent from these programs, pursue dual degrees with any of Penn's three other undergraduate schools.
Alumni network
Wharton alumni network has 81,000+ members in 142 countries around the world. There are eighty-two alumni clubs providing support to the School. In addition to the annual campus-based Wharton reunion, Wharton partners with its alumni clubs to mount three annual Global Alumni Forums around the world. Notable alumni include:[15]
Rankings
On December 5, 2003 Wharton enacted a policy of declining to provide email addresses of students and alumni to external organizations ranking business school programs,[16] citing concerns for alumni and students' privacy.[17] Some recent rankings were:
| 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995 | 1994 | |
| Business Week (MBA/USA) | 2 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Business Week (Undergraduate/USA) | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Financial Times (MBA/Worldwide) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| US News (MBA/USA) | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | |
| US News (Undergrad/USA) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Wall Street Journal (MBA/USA) | 11 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 18 |
Books on Wharton
- Nicole Ridgway, The Running of the Bulls: Inside the Cutthroat Race from Wharton to Wall Street, Gotham, 2005.
- Steven A. Sass, Pragmatic Imagination: A History of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania Press,1983.
- Emory Richard Johnson, The Wharton school: Its fifty years, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1931.
External links
 | This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. (September 2007) |
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Official university sites
Wharton history Publications |
Student life
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References
- ^ "Wharton Annual Report to Investors," Page 4, 2007
- ^ "Encyclopedia of American Economic History: Studies of the Principal Movements and Ideas," Page 839, Glenn. Porter, 1980
- ^ Business school rankings; "Business Week", 16.10.2000
- ^ Business school rankings; Financial Times, 22.01.2007
- ^ Best Graduate Schools; U.S.News & World Report, 27.04.2006
- ^ Wharton Faculty; Wharton School, 06.05.2007
- ^ Wharton Curriculum; Wharton School, 06.05.2007
- ^ "TheCenter Research University Data". 2005. Retrieved 2006-12-15.
- ^ James S Trieschmann. "Serving Multiple Constituencies in Business Schools: M.B.A. Program Versus Research Performance." Academy of Management Journal, 2000, 43(6), pp. 1130-41.
- ^ Business-school rankings; The Economist, 22.09.2005
- ^ Best in Class, CIO Magazine, 02.01.2003
- ^ 125 Years of Wharton; Wharton School, 15.06.2006
- ^ MBA curriculum; Wharton School, 01.09.2006
- ^ Doctoral Program Quick Facts; Wharton School, 01.09.2006
- ^ Wharton Leadership Inventory; Wharton School, 01.11.2002
- ^ Why Harvard And Wharton Are Wrong; Business Week, 19.04.2004
- ^ Why Wharton and Harvard Are Missing; Business Week, 29.09.2005
