The Wharton MBA

MBA Admissions and Financial Aid Office Closed on Friday

MBA Admissions Blog — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:32:00 GMT

The MBA Admissions and Financial Aid Office will be closed on Friday, May 17, 2013 for an off-site meeting. Regular office hours will resume on Monday, May 20th at 8:30 am. Should you have any questions, please contact the MBA Admissions and Financial Aid Office directly at 215-898-6183.

Meet Wharton students in your city this summer!

MBA Admissions Blog — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:53:00 GMT

In the coming months, current Wharton MBA students will be spread across the globe for their summer internships. To take advantage of having so many student ambassadors around the world, Wharton MBA Admissions offers informal 'coffee chats' with these students for prospective students to learn firsthand about the Wharton experience and life in Philadelphia.

If you are interested in learning more about the Wharton MBA, register today for a meet-and-greet near you, as space is limited (click on the 'Coffee Chats' tab). Additional dates and cities will be added soon.

The students look forward to meeting you!

Best Regards,
The Wharton MBA Admissions and Financial Aid Team

June Kinney Recognized by the Business School Alliance for Health Management

MBA Admissions Blog — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:24:00 GMT

With its 18 majors and over 200 electives, the Wharton MBA Program prides itself on the strength and variety of its curriculum. Within this curriculum, one of the most unique programs is Health Care Management (HCM). HCM is the only major within the full time MBA program where students must indicate their interest at the time of application. This major helps students strengthen their management skills and expertise within the health care industry. Leading the way for the HCM program is June Kinney, Associate Director and Lecturer in the Wharton School Health Care Management Department. Recently, the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and The Wharton School joined together to congratulate June as the inaugural recipient of the Business School Alliance Health Management (BAHM) June Kinney Achievement Award for “outstanding service” in advancing health care-related education, research and practice at Penn. You can read more about this award here.

The MBA Admissions & Financial Aid Office would like to congratulate June on this wonderful accomplishment and thank her for her ongoing enthusiasm for the program!

1st Year

John Pettengil WG14 — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:20:00 GMT

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1st year done. I can't believe it. It moves faster than you expect, I find myself frantically planning out my last couple weeks, grabbing coffees every day with as many of my classmates as I can.

This summer I'll be at Facebook in NYC, working as a "Creative Social Media Strategist". (My 4 favorite words, mashed up into one job). The position is a combination role; Facebook needed someone as creative as they are quantitative, as imaginative as they are practical. This role actually appeared through the campus internship listings, which is pretty amazing given how nontraditional it is. It's definitely a testament to the Wharton Career Management Office; their advocacy for us has made finding awesome jobs like this one a lot easier on us students. As a "Creative Social Media Strategist" I'll be working with top advertisers and their creative agencies to invent new ways for them to engage with their customers. Obviously effective monetization is extraordinarily important to Facebook, so they have a vested interested in developing a new suite of tools for businesses to use, making Facebook an even more valuable channel for those businesses.

Favorite Parts of my first year at Wharton

Creating Marketing for Out4Business – Club life is really rewarding at Wharton. This is where you meet students outside of your cohort and outside of your graduation year. Pulling off huge events is really rewarding and lets you play around with roles you may never have had a chance to fill before.
Student Entrepreneurs – I've met so many students who are perusing their own projects, from psychiatric telemedicine, to restaurants to toys. These students are passionate, driven, and they add a lot to classroom discussions.
My Professors – I had some great professors this year. Learning how to perform regression analysis with Robert Stine was my favorite part about my 1st semester. He was so focused on making what we learned actionable, on making sure we retained the bits that we might need for our careers. He also didn't accept sloppy thinking or bad work. He was fantastic. My second semester I had Eric Bradlow as my marketing professor. He was very engaging; his class made you realize how exciting marketing is. He cold called, which got more students speaking in class and ensured everyone did the readings.
The Walk Home – After class is through for the afternoon I like to network my way home. I find a classmate that I don’t know very well and we chat as we trek back to center city. My classmates are fascinating, both professionally and personally, and this is a great way to meet more of them.
Welcome Weekend – Meeting newly admitted students is always a blast. They are so ready to get here, to get started, that it makes me remember why I decided to go to Wharton in the first place. They’re also going to be an important part of my next year here. They’re going to come with experiences and networks to share with us, and I hope to share with them how to get the most out of their time at Wharton.

Where to Live

Esther Sun Jang WG14 — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 01:40:00 GMT

During Welcome Weekend, I gave an apartment tour to a group of incoming students as a volunteer for a classmate's startup, The Rent Scene. Here are my thoughts...

What does my building say about me?

1500 Locust - I'm pretty baller. I have an indoor pool, and I drive a Porsche to school. What? Not all buildings come with concierge service?

The Wanamaker - I'm Asian.

1930 Chestnut - I hate being alone. I need to be around Wharton kids ALL THE TIME.

Riverloft - I'm an international student.

Brownstone (< or = 2BR) - I'm a grown up.

Brownstone (> 2 BR) - We are going to PARTY. Regulation size beer pong table? Check. Grill? Check.

Where do I live? I live in a 4BR brownstone. And yes, we are throwing a party this weekend. The party is called Armin's Last Ball. (Armin is our dog, and he's getting neutered on Monday.)

Cheers,

Esther

1-1-1

Tami Zakaria, CFA, WG14 — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:59:00 GMT

The Wharton School's 1-1-1 initiative is a new program that will encourage Wharton MBAs to pledge 1% of their future earnings to help address the abject poverty of 1 billion people who live on less than $1 a day. This program is in the process of selecting the executive committee of students from my class to jumpstart the initiative. This is one of the countless reasons that make me humbled to be a part of the Wharton School.

And, my first year at Wharton has come to an end! The year went by in a flash. When I look back, I see around 840 bright and humble people from different parts of the world coming to a great city, the MBA Program office and second year student body welcoming the class of 2014 as family, great professors inspiring us to think differently, unparalleled learning opportunities outside the class through school-organized and student-led ventures, crazy parties giving us unforgettable memories, dream jobs becoming reality, and making friends for a lifetime. I am sad that my first year at Wharton is gone, but super excited about the upcoming year which promises to be even better!

With summer internships secured, and treks planned before or after the internships, the coming summer looks interesting for all of us. We are looking forward to returning to campus on the 28th of August to start our final year with Wharton. We are eager to welcome the incoming class of 2015. To all those who are starting at Wharton this fall: get ready for what will be two of the best years of your lives!

Notes from the Director: Spring Welcome Weekend Recap

MBA Admissions Blog — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:13:00 GMT

Greetings from Philadelphia,

It was such a pleasure to see so many familiar faces on campus last week for the Spring Welcome Weekend events. Despite the initial torrential downpour (Wharton umbrellas to the rescue!), we had a wonderful turnout with over 400 of our Round 2 admitted students from around the globe in attendance. Last week also marked the completion of the Round 3 interview process on campus. Needless to say - it was a busy week here in Philadelphia!

Welcome Weekend is not only an exciting time for our admitted students, but it also helps to bring together the greater Wharton MBA community – from our faculty to staff to current students. Along with our Welcome Committee, we had over 300 current students participate throughout the weekend – from club-related events to dinner soirees, such as the ever popular Spring Welcome Soiree at the Ritz Carlton.

Welcome Weekend serves as a way for our admitted students to get a real feel for the Wharton experience. It provides an opportunity to learn more about academic offerings, student-led clubs and career services, while also being able to attend social events such as the MBA Pub and Follies. New to the Welcome Weekend scene, we had over 200 admitted students attend a housing fair at our new 2401 Walnut Street facility. We had local property management companies, realtors, student start-ups, and Penn housing services available to speak about housing options in Philadelphia. Early feedback from students and local buildings has been extremely positive!

The Partner’s Club saw over 80 partners registered for the weekend and the current Wharton partners ran a fantastic program educating incoming partners about Wharton, Philadelphia, accessing the community, and resources available to them. All in all it was a fantastic weekend and it’s always wonderful to see so many recent admits on campus after meeting you on the road.

Not only was last week a busy time for us at Wharton, but it was also a trying time for many of you around the country. It is with heavy hearts that we, here in Philadelphia, extend our deepest condolences to those affected by the events in Boston. Please know that our thoughts are with you all during this very difficult time.

Wishing everyone a safe and restful week ahead,

Ankur Kumar

Campus Visit Program Ending on Friday, April 19th

MBA Admissions Blog — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:19:00 GMT

The Campus Visit Program will officially end for the academic year on Friday, April 19th. The full campus visit program will start back up again in late September 2013.

Information sessions will be held at 3:00pm on the following days:

Monday, April 22, 2013
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Friday, April 26, 2013

4th Street Deli Reflections.

Kate Epstein — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 04:14:00 GMT

A few weeks ago, I went to 4th Street Deli with some friends for traditional Jewish appetizing. We ate bagels and lox, pastrami sandwiches, pickles and coleslaw – the works. (I can’t recommend this place enough….Get the white fish salad, and you’ll be happy you did.)

Over brunch, we reflected on our past three quarters at Wharton and each shared our most meaningful experience so far. The answers varied. For one friend, it was a Communications class that finally made her comfortable with public speaking. For another friend, it was gaining access to CEOs he never dreamed he’d connect with. It took me only a few seconds to find my own answer. The Executive Coaching Feedback Program (ECFP) has been my best developmental experience so far, hands down.

The ECFP was piloted last year and officially rolled out to our class this year. Students begin the program by soliciting feedback from peers, former coworkers, and current classmates. Students review their aggregated feedback with their assigned Executive Coach (professionals who have mentored Fortune 500 CEOs and would otherwise charge thousands of dollars per hour), and then identify leadership strengths and developmental areas. We meet with our coaches for one-on-one sessions each quarter to review progress and continue to work towards goals.

I entered the program a bit skeptical – thinking I was already quite self-aware – but my coach has taken my self-awareness and multiplied it tenfold. In one-hour sessions, my coach notices things about my style of communication or mannerisms, for example, which people I have known for years (including my own mother!) have never noticed.

My coach has uncanny intuition and is extremely quick on his feet, with helpful perspective no matter which direction our conversation takes. Most importantly, he provides practical, easy-to-execute advice that is invaluable in any setting – whether it’s at home, in the classroom, or in the office. I am truly awe-struck by my coach, and grateful to have such an amazing advisor in my life.

Round 3 Update and Spring Welcome Weekend

MBA Admissions Blog — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:53:00 GMT

We are excited to announce that our Round 3 interview invitations were released on Friday, April 5th. If you have not done so already, please check your application status through your myWhartonMBA account and be sure to register for an interview if you have been invited. We look forward to meeting many of you in the upcoming week!

Congratulations again to our Round 2 admitted students! We look forward to seeing many of you in a few days for Spring Welcome Weekend!

If you have any questions, please contact our office directly office via phone at 215-898-6183, or e-mail at mba-admiss@wharton.upenn.edu.

Sincerely,

The Wharton MBA Admissions & Financial Aid Team

Updates from the Office of Student Life

MBA Admissions Blog — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 15:38:00 GMT

Dr. Kembrel Jones, a.k.a. Wharton's "Dean of Happiness"

Greetings,

Only at Wharton!

It is hard to believe that it is already Quarter Four at Wharton…time flies when you are busy and enjoying your life! The action has been nonstop for the Office of Student Life and shows no sign of abating until graduation in May. Already this quarter we have had our Student Life Fellows Retreat. The Student Life Fellows (SLFs) are rising second years who, along with the Cluster Directors, will serve as advisors and activity coordinators for the Class of 2015. The retreat was held at our newly opened MBA space at 2401 Walnut Street in Center City, already being referred to as simply “2401.” Philly Fight Night was held last Saturday where 1,500 Wharton and Penn Law students gathered to support their classmates in boxing matches with each other. Needless to say, Wharton men and women knocked out the competition! The event also supported the Philadelphia Boys and Girls Club to the tune of $85,000. Last night a thousand Wharton MBAs gathered to watch nearly 300 of their classmates shake it at the annual Wharton Dance Studio show. The audience was thrilled with dances ranging from a classic Broadway tap number to a cosmic collision of hip-hop dance styles, with a big Bollywood production featuring bhangra and garba to spice things up! Still ahead this quarter, Wharton will produce the Annual Cultural Show, the Charity Fashion Show, the Wharton Relays, and the Battle of the Bands. O.A.W., I say. Only at Wharton!

Congratulations and Welcome Round 2 Admitted Students!

The Welcome Committee and Student Life Fellows are busy prepping for our big Spring Welcome, where we share two days in the life of Wharton with admitted students from the second round. The first day of Spring Welcome begins with academics, moves into careers and ends with the Pub and small group dinners in Center City (downtown Philly where 95% of Wharton MBAs live). The second day focuses on leadership programs and student life and features the “The Follies” spring production. In its 37th year, the Follies performance is a beloved Wharton tradition. The Follies’ mission is making most laugh and some squirm as they poke fun at the countless nuances of life at Wharton both inside and outside of the classroom through musical satire. The show is a distinctive collaboration of the talent of the 100 members of the Follies’ team – the writers, producers, techies, orchestra and cast. We will close the weekend with the Spring Soiree at the Philadelphia Ritz Carlton - the perfect way to celebrate an acceptance to Wharton!

If I can be of any assistance to you as you navigate Wharton, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or to any member of the Student Life team. I look forward to meeting you.

Go Wharton!

Dr. Kembrel Jones
Deputy Vice Dean, Student Life

Notes from the Director: Round 2 Decision Release and Round 3 Update

MBA Admissions Blog — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:28:00 GMT

Greetings from Philadelphia,

With the close of March has come spring (finally!), and we hope that the weather stays after a last hurrah for winter and bout of snow earlier this week. In addition to the change in season, March also brought our Round 3 application deadline and the much-anticipated (from our end and yours) Round 2 decision release. Tuesday morning, the Admissions Committee and our Welcome Weekend Committee had the always delighting opportunity to call and congratulate our extremely excited new members of the Class of 2015. For our admitted students on the West Coast, it was the best kind of wake-up call and for those in Asia, a great way to end a long day of waiting to hear the news. For all of us, it is hands down one of the best days of the year – and from your excited reactions (we love you, our screamers and criers!) we know it was for you as well.

Yet, not unlike the weather, I recognize that this is also a season of highs and lows and mixed emotions, as we were unable to offer admission to every outstanding candidate that we met during the process. On behalf of the entire team, we sincerely appreciate your engagement throughout our process and truly enjoyed getting to know you. We wish you all the best in your future professional endeavors and have no doubt of your incredible accomplishments to come wherever your journey takes you next.

For our Round 3 applicants, we know you are eagerly awaiting interview decisions as your next step. All interview decisions will go out next Friday, April 5. Round 3 Team Based Discussions and 1:1 interviews will take place in April on campus. Should you have any questions around the application or interview process, please contact our office directly by phone at +1.215-898-6183 or via email at mba-admiss@wharton.upenn.edu.

Looking ahead, for those of you considering applying to Wharton next year (or for admits who have not been able to visit yet) please note that this academic year’s full Campus Visit Program will conclude for the year on Friday, April 19. We will offer limited information sessions at 3:00 p.m. Monday, Thursday, and Friday during the week of April 22 as well. Please consult the website for details or call us with any questions. Our full campus visit program will start up again in late September. Keep an eye on the website for exact dates to come later this summer, and we will certainly keep you posted on the blog as well.

In the interim, we are excited to bring Wharton and life in Philadelphia to you! Beginning in June, the Admissions Committee will be back on the road and hosting information sessions around the globe. The schedule and registration for these events will start to be posted on our website in late April. Please stay tuned for more details to come. As always, don’t hesitate to be with our office by email or phone for any other questions.

We look forward to seeing many of you on campus or around the world soon!

Sincerely,

Ankur Kumar

Stretch Spring Break

Esther Sun Jang WG14 — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 03:26:00 GMT

Hey everyone,

As expected, I went surfing over spring break. The Wharton Surf & Beach Club visited Cabarete, DR for a week of surfing, suntanning, and rappeling down 50 foot waterfalls.

Pretty much everyone on the trip was a beginner, but by the end of the week, everyone looked like pros! I was so proud of everyone for pushing themselves and putting themselves through a stretch experience. How awesome would it be if we could all surf North Shore next year...pipe dream? (Pun intended)

Although I am pretty bummed to be back in the cold weather, there are tons of activities ahead - Hockey All Stars/Fall Stars games, Wharton Fashion Show, Dance Studio, Spring Gala, First Year Brunch, etc.

I can't wait for my recently accepted Class of 2015 friends to visit me during welcome weekend! Congrats!

P.S. - For students looking for housing remotely (as I did from SF last year), reach out to my classmate's startup The Rent Scene: http://www.therentscene.com/

They'll set you up with awesome apartment tours, or will scope out legit apartments for you. I had a terrible experience when I first moved to Philly (had to fight for over a month to get 4 months deposit back) and had to move again during Pre-Term, which was not pleasant.

Cheers,

Esther

Grad school: a good time to do what you're bad at

Alex Smorczewski JD/MBA, WG14 — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 14:41:00 GMT

Critical to getting the best return on your grad school investment is making a concerted effort to identify and remediate your biggest weaknesses. And if you can leverage one of your strengths in the process - even better.

For me, one of my most obvious weaknesses coming into Penn was my communications skills. I knew I needed to seek out opportunities to improve my ability to communicate before re-entering the workforce.

Two opportunities at Penn – one at Wharton and one at Penn Law – have given me the chance to make significant progress in this area. At Wharton, the communications coursework in the core curriculum forces me, on a weekly basis, to get up and make a persuasive speech to my classmates, often on a controversial topic. For me, this used to be the stuff of nightmares. However, I now look forward to these speeches as I know the discomfort – much like a weightlifter who is grunting out those last few reps – is a sign that I’m pushing myself and growing in the process.

Another opportunity, Penn Law’s Keedy Cup moot court competition, has similarly afforded me a chance to go outside of my comfort zone. In this competition I argued, before two separate panels of alumni judges, a position on an actual case that was pending before the Supreme Court. Thus, my first message to any prospective JD/MBA would be to hone your speaking skills regardless of your career aspirations - I am applying lessons from my communications coursework as much at Penn Law as I am at Wharton.

My second message, as mentioned, would be find a way to leverage a strength when remediating a weakness. I knew coming in to Penn that I was relatively more effective at thinking analytically than communicating my ideas verbally, and thus I searched for some kind of analytical framework to guide my development.

I slogged through a lot of writing on persuasive speaking before finding a very robust and workable framework in Jonathan Haidt’s “The Righteous Mind”. (Haidt, a professor at NYU Stern and Penn Ph.D., spoke at Wharton recently.) This book isn’t actually about public speaking, but its theory of morality has played a critical role so far in guiding my efforts to improve the effectiveness of my communications.

In this book, Haidt further develops the theory that in making moral judgments (such as in the context of listening to a persuasive argument to adopt a certain law or policy) human beings respond to certain moral intuitions first, and reason second. The six fundamental moral intuitions Haidt identifies are care/harm, fairness/cheating, liberty/oppression, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion and sanctity/degradation. Every human being responds to all of these fundamental moral drivers, which are grounded in our evolutionary history. However, each individual’s relative weighting of these moral dimensions varies and can be highly predictive of outcomes such as career path and political affiliation. For example, Democrats and Greens tend to value the care/harm dimension more highly, though as mentioned they don’t ignore the other dimensions. Republicans are especially responsive to liberty, loyalty and sanctity. You can guess where Libertarians start their analysis.

What this book has enabled me to do is construct each one of my persuasive speeches, whether at Wharton or Penn Law, within a flexible yet rigorous framework. For example, as part of a recent assignment requiring that I advocate a junk food tax to my classmates, I anticipated a possible hostile reaction from any Republicans in the audience. Certainly, they might object on the grounds that such taxation is an unnecessary restriction on liberty by a nanny state and would lead to government bloat and waste.

I also anticipated that any rebuttal requiring an appeal to the care/harm moral dimension, such that the obese, poorly educated and children are hurting and need help and guidance in making dietary decisions, would not find much traction with a Republican audience member. This is not to say that Republicans are uncaring; rather, policy-making requires evaluating difficult tradeoffs and when the moral intuition of caring comes into conflict with other intuitions regarding individual liberty and responsibility, sometimes one simply has to trump another if the decision is yea or nea on a specific law.

The cause was not lost however. After looking across the other moral dimensions I prepared a rebuttal argument based on the concept of fairness – that not taxing junk food is unfair because of the substantial health care costs and economic externalities that those with poor diets impose on the rest of us. Perhaps fairness still didn’t get me quite the same currency as liberty with the Republicans in the audience, however I knew that Republicans intuitively respond to accusations that certain groups are taking out of the system (via Medicare and Medicaid) more than they are paying in. And I certainly knew it would go a lot further than appealing to care/harm – the preferred moral dimension of the enemy tribe, the Democrats.

Thus, whenever I’m speaking in front of a group I try to anticipate which moral intuitions are driving my audience members’ judgments; the arguments themselves are more or less superstructure that I subsequently construct on this foundation. Maybe a year from now I’ll be using an entirely different framework – but for the time being I’m having success with this method. Regardless, my message is identify your weaknesses and go after them! If you can bring a tool along to help you, such as some kind of analytical framework to refer back to, then all the better.

Round 3 Deadline and Update on Round 2 Interviews

MBA Admissions Blog — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 13:20:00 GMT

Tuesday marked the Round 3 deadline, closing out the application submissions for the 2012-2013 admission cycle! Congratulations to everyone who submitted their application and we look forward to reading them in the upcoming days as we continue to wrap up the Round 2 interview process.

Over the past few weeks, we have enjoyed meeting many Round 2 candidates in Dubai, Mumbai, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo and on-campus. In the remaining days of interviews, we look forward to meeting many more of you in London, Mexico City, New Delhi, Sao Paulo, San Francisco, Shanghai and Philadelphia. Similar to Round 1, we are overwhelmed by the amount of positive feedback that we are hearing from you, and our alumni, regarding the new Team Based Discussion. Your enthusiasm and level of engagement continues to make this process more difficult for the Admissions Committee every day!

Regardless of the outcome on March 26th, we wanted to take a moment to thank you, again, for taking this journey with us over the last couple of months. Whether you’ve ventured to campus or we’ve met you in a city around the globe, we have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to get to meet you in person and see you in action.

Should you have any questions over the next few weeks, please do not hesitate to contact the MBA Admissions and Financial Aid Office at mba-admiss@wharton.upenn.edu.

Campus Visit Program Will be Closed March 4th-8th

MBA Admissions Blog — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 18:29:00 GMT

The Campus Visit Program will be suspended during the University's Spring Break, which will occur during the week of March 4th. The full campus visit program will start back up again on Monday, March 11th. Please be sure to register online to take full advantage of all that the visit program has to offer.

DIP into snow

Esther Sun Jang WG14 — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 05:49:00 GMT

The dreaded Dedicated Interview Period (DIP) week is over! I can hear people exhaling from relief all around me. DIP is mostly for finance, consulting, and more established companies, but Wharton also has great resources for students that want to spend their summers at startups: http://entrepreneurship.wharton.upenn.edu/awards/internfellow.html

We have returned from an epic weekend at Breckenridge, CO. Imagine spending 3 days snowboarding and partying with over 900 fellow Whartonites at one of the best ski resorts in the country! I can't believe that I spent February 7-10 snowboarding at Breck and will be spending March 2-9 (spring break) surfing in the Dominican Republic. Talk about polar opposites! But anything is possible when you're at Wharton. It's a crazy life.

Wharton Ski Trip!

Elena Castañeda WG14 — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 07:51:00 GMT

As a first year, I’m wondering what my favorite Wharton experience will have been. Will it be landing that coveted job? Perhaps. Making hundreds of new friends? That too. Parading around downtown Philadelphia with a “Business on top, Party on the bottom” outfit this past fall? That’s up there.

But I’m getting a good feeling from the annual Wharton ski trip, which takes place in Breckenridge this year. It’s one of the largest gatherings of MBA students in one ski resort (last year more than 800 students “Descended” on Park City, Utah).

So, after completing a second round interview this morning, I flew back to Philadelphia and promptly boarded a plane of mostly Wharton students bound for Denver.

The atmosphere on the plane is positively giddy. Students are meeting fellow students, catching up with old classmates, and enjoying a beer or two. Many are celebrating recent job offers coming out of DIP, or Dedicated Interview Period. First years have spent months preparing for these last grueling few weeks, networking, "case"-ing, prepping and ultimately performing in a jam-packed week of interviews. We’re all glad it’s over (for now).

So here we are, not sure quite what to expect when there will be literally hundreds of us on one mountain tomorrow. Bring it on, Breck. We’re ready to let off some steam!

Making up for lost blogs: Q2, December Break, and DIP

Kate Epstein — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 22:20:00 GMT

I’ve been terribly remiss on the blogosphere lately and that needs to stop! Here’s a quick recap of what I’ve been up to:

Last quarter (Q2) was dominated by recruiting. Between employer information sessions, coffee chats, informational interviews, and writing cover letters I had little time for much else. I applied to more firms than most people because I knew the internship process would be competitive (it was) and I wanted to give myself options. I have no regrets but it was truly a time suck!

To recharge, I spent December break in Colombia and Peru. This was my first foray into South America and it did not disappoint. The architecture and plazas had a European feel and reminded me of Spain more than I had expected. In Colombia, I met up with my friend Lucas – a Wharton student originally from Bogota. He drove me all around the city, pointed out the hot spots of his childhood, and took me to what turned out to be my favorite Colombian restaurant. In Peru, the food was even better. For approximately $3 USD I ate an elaborate three-course lunch every day. What more could a girl want?

I returned to school with that special relaxed feeling that only a vacation will induce, and decided to keep that feeling with me for as long as possible by sleeping more, eating healthier, and exercising more often. I’ve done a pretty decent job at keeping these new years resolutions so far, even in the midst of DIP (Dedicated Interview Period). I will tell you more about DIP some other time – that topic deserves a whole new blog post! (Spoiler alert: it wasn’t that bad).

Now that DIP is over, I’m looking forward to re-focusing on academics and getting involved in more clubs… maybe the yoga club, maybe the culinary club, who knows? I’m also starting to think about my next big trip, which might be in May. That’s all for now!

Notes from the Director: Updates on Round 2

MBA Admissions Blog — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:41:00 GMT

Greetings All,

Winter weather officially arrived in Philadelphia, surprising us with the first few inches of snow in the new year just last week. For the Admissions Team, this weather could not have come at a better time as we are hunkered down inside reading the Round 2 applications. We are thoroughly enjoying getting to know each and every one of you through your personal written story.

In the upcoming weeks, we look forward to the opportunity to meet many of you for interviews. Interview invitations will begin to go out on Tuesday, January 29 and continue through Friday, February 22. As a reminder, interview invitations are not released in any particular order as we do not read applications in a particular order. The timing of your invitation to interview does not indicate anything about your candidacy. I know waiting to hear from us is always nerve wracking and appreciate your patience with the process.

After the remarkably positive feedback that we received during Round 1, we cannot wait to see what Round 2 has in store. The interview process is not only a wonderful way for the Admissions team to get to know our candidates “off the page" but also a wonderful way for our candidates to get to know each other. Should you be invited to interview, we look forward to meeting you in one of the following locations: on campus in Philadelphia, Dubai, London, Mexico City, New Delhi, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, and Singapore. All Round 2 applicants received an email with more details on the interview process last week; we’ll be in touch with further details as well. You can also read more about the interview process in a blog posting from the summer here.

Thank you all for your patience during this time. We look forward to being in touch over the next few weeks regarding interview invitations and next steps.

Hope the new year has been off to a great start!

Sincerely,

Ankur Kumar

Seeing first-hand how proper government can be a market’s best friend

Alex Smorczewski JD/MBA, WG14 — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 16:01:00 GMT

Free markets and government agencies are often portrayed in the press or in political rhetoric as in a state of constant opposition, however it is important not to overlook the many instances when a market’s efficient functioning is owed in some degree to a proper level of government intervention. The landlord/tenant legal work I am currently doing as part of Penn Law’s pro bono requirement serves as a constant reminder of this fact.

For example, take the question of the physical condition and habitability of a rental property, something that is an issue for many renters in Philadelphia, especially those in low-income housing. Almost all U.S. jurisdictions, including Philadelphia, enforce an implied warranty of habitability (“IWH”), the implication of which is that regardless of the language of a written lease (such as an “as-is” provision), a landlord’s obligation to keep the premises compliant with local housing code cannot be waived or modified by private contract. An example would be the obligation of landlords in Philadelphia to heat apartments to a minimum of 68 degrees during the winter months.

To understand what life would be like without an IWH, imagine that upon moving to Philadelphia, you had to, in addition to considering the location, appearance, and price of any given apartment, also inspect the boiler to determine whether it would be able to heat the property sufficiently in the winter, check the roof for signs of leaks or water damage, and examine the foundation of a house for signs of damage. You’d also have to thoroughly examine each and every lease to determine which of these potentially catastrophic risks your landlord would be asking you to bear.

Students with access to significant financial resources might go apartment hunting with mom, dad and a hired, professional inspector in tow, or painstakingly negotiate leases that guaranteed habitability with the help of the family attorney, however undoubtedly many students would wind up either intentionally or unintentionally signing leases that asked them to bear some of these risks. After all, these kinds of inspection and transaction costs are significant for a lease that may run for as little as 9 or 12 months. And imagine the collective action problems when it’s up to you and your building-mates to take the initiative and share the costs associated with fixing a leaky roof.

Thus, clearly the IWH greases the wheels of commerce in Philadelphia’s market for rental housing, much in the way that food safety regulations allow us to shop freely in a supermarket without researching each and every food manufacturer’s safety record. Of course, one still knows to research the reputation of a landlord prior to signing a lease, but the risks would be much greater without the safety net of the IWH.

Nonetheless, even with a law that functions well in concept, the danger of ineffective regulation remains. For example, it currently takes the Philadelphia department of Licensing and Inspections an average of 30+ days to pay a visit to a property to assess a possible IWH violation. Additionally, many renters are unaware of their legal rights under the IWH, and the ability of certain unscrupulous landlords to take advantage of elderly, foreign, poorly-educated or otherwise vulnerable renters leads to many inefficient outcomes. An IWH cannot function as simply a piece of paper – the proper enforcement mechanisms must be sufficiently funded and monitored to make it work.

Certainly, there is much more to discuss here and it would be misleading to portray tenants as always blameless and victimized. However, the point stands that when you look at a market such as that for rental property in Philadelphia, the question isn’t really do we need more or less government, rather what type of government intervention can best facilitate commerce, protect the vulnerable from predatory practices and lead to a more transparent, efficient market. The answer to this will vary of course depending on what kind of market we are looking at, but the point is to bring to this type of analysis an open mind rather than an ingrained bias that more government is necessarily good or bad.

MBA Admissions and Financial Aid Office Closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

MBA Admissions Blog — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 19:57:00 GMT

Please note, the MBA Admissions and Financial Aid Office will be closed on Monday, January 21, 2013 for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

We look forward to seeing you soon, as our campus visit program starts back up on Monday, January 28th. Please be sure to register online to take full advantage of all that the visit program has to offer.

Best,

The Wharton MBA Admissions & Financial Aid Team

Happy 2013!

Esther Sun Jang WG14 — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:11:00 GMT

First of all, CONGRATS to all of those who have been accepted to Wharton thus far (including my dear friend A.K.)

Winter break is over and spring semester starts tomorrow. I can't believe I am 25% done with b-school! If you think college went by quickly, just wait til you get to b-school.

Tons of students went on amazing treks over winter break - Peru, Taiwan, Tahiti, etc.

I spent most of my winter break at home in NYC and opted to take an intensive marketing seminar during the last week of winter break. The class consisted of about 70 students and was based on the SABRE marketing simulation. To be honest, I was dreading having to take a class during my last week of winter break, but the class was actually a lot of fun. Professor David Reibstein taught the course and he was really engaging. He also happens to be the Chairman of the Board of the Amercian Marketing Association. (Baller.) We were broken out into teams of 5 or 6 and competed in 6 rounds to earn the highest market share in 2 different industries. I was on Team Orange and we launched products such as Navel, Mandarin, Kumquat, and Blood. The next few products that we planned to launch were Fanta and Sunny-D. The Yellow Team launched a product called Fever...HA. I got to know a bunch of students that weren't in my cohort. My groupmates and I went to Rosie's every night for beers and story-telling. Overall, it was pretty awesome to be at Wharton in a group of only 70 students outside of my own cohort.

What lies ahead for the glorious Class of 2014? Dedicated Interview Period (DIP) week, and a semester of 4 day weekends for me since I got marketing done over winter break! Muahaha.

Cheers,

Esther

New Year (and new classes)

John Pettengil WG14 — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 20:43:00 GMT

The fall semester finished with a bang, I did really well in my classes and performed best in stats and operations (definitely my two favorites. I've sent in one internship application (to IDEO) and will be sending out another 6 this week to other innovation firms and to innovation groups inside of health care companies.

The spring semester begins tomorrow, and I have a great class lineup. Mondays are Macro, Legal Studies, and an Innovation and Applied Technology class i'm taking through the nursing school. Tuesdays I have Marketing, Corporate Finanace (which I'm looking forward to) and a class on managed health care systems. Wednesday and Thursdays are repeats of my non-health care classes. I have late starts everyday, which means I can keep up with errands, cooking at home, and the gym in the mornings. On top of all this I'll also be doing a Field Application Project (FAP) with Johns Hopkins. We'll be applying technology to help strengthen and extend their service offering (that's all I can say for now).

I'm also working on the Health Care Business Conference, promoting Wharton 54 (the large party that Out4Biz throws in the spring semester) and helping out with a business plan competition.

This semester I hope to renew my focus on product development and creative applications of technology. I also hope to connect with my classmates on awesome, spur of the moment trips. The health care majors are talking about Vegas, so maybe that's my next stop.

I'm excited about welcome weekend, which is coming up in February. Admitted students will get a chance to visit campus and see what business school is all about. I had a ton of fun last year, and I can't wait to be on the other side, helping out, this year. Happy new year y'all!

Happy New Year & Good Luck Round 2 Applicants

MBA Admissions Blog — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 20:46:00 GMT

Happy 2013! We hope that you had a wonderful start to the New Year and enjoyed a safe and relaxing holiday season.

As always, we look forward to kicking off a new year with the close of our Round 2 application deadline. We know that all of our Round 2 applicants have worked diligently to get to this point, and we are eager to review all of your applications in the coming weeks. As you know, our interviews are by invitation only; you will hear back from us in the near future with further information about the interview process if you are selected. In the meantime, enjoy this time, relax, and we will be in touch soon.

Best wishes,

The Wharton MBA Admissions & Financial Aid Team