The Wharton School
The following article will break down the Wharton essays (2) this year and provide a comprehensive approach for how applicants should handle it.
Wharton Essay Tips: Understanding the graduate program
Essay 1: What do you hope to gain professionally from the Wharton MBA? (500 words)
Essay 2: Taking into consideration your background – personal, professional, and/or academic – how do you plan to make specific, meaningful contributions to the Wharton community? (400 words)
Preparing to Write
As we have done with these articles so far, we will begin the Wharton strategy with a summary of important historical information that will shed light on what Wharton’s core DNA is.
Founded in 1881, Wharton markets itself as the Nation’s first business school. A school rich in tradition and filled with legacy, its gatekeepers have built a post-secondary university that epitomizes the name: “The School of Finance”. Looking at the historical summary of MBA graduate placement reveals the success with which Wharton branded its name – nearly 50% placement in investment banking and management consulting.
The Wharton Learning Environment – Core Themes
While it is important to understand what made the Wharton School the Wharton School, we also need to be privy to the organization-wide shifts that may not be perceptive to the casual viewer/applicant of this business school but are nonetheless happening.
Over the years, with the succession of University Presidents and shifts in market demand for MBA graduates, Wharton has placed considerable emphasis on revamping its image towards a more modern approach to finance. In particular, the school has invested vast sums from its endowment to cultivate resources geared towards Entrepreneurship, Technology, and Analytics.
We need to explore each of these themes separately to get a flavor of where the school is looking to head in the future of education.
1. On the Entrepreneurship side, Wharton opened a San Francisco campus that is offered to MBA students on a one-semester basis as a way for students to get more exposure to the start-up scene in Silicon Valley. The school has also created a student-run fund dedicated to providing seed capital to student founders who create a new venture while in school (Penn Wharton Innovation Fund). Also, Wharton sponsors two external start-up funds dedicated to investing in social impact startups (Wharton Impact Investing Partners and Wharton Venture Partners).
2. On the Technology side, Wharton created the first external-facing business school club promoting financial technology (FinTech). The organization’s blog and podcast series attract thousands of followers and regularly interviews top executive managers and investment partners from across the FinTech landscape.
3. On the Analytics side, generous donor support has brought about new school-run partners and programs to promote data science in business. The Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance was created in 2019 with the goal in mind to educate MBA students on a variety of analytics techniques and initiatives. Analytics was created at Wharton to be a combination of Marketing, Finance, and Statistics professors to create new curricula for data scientists in business school. Now the school offers several certification programs available to the public and a new Major available for MBA students (Business Analytics).
Writing
With these changes occurring at the organization level, we can begin to understand the quality and type of students Wharton seeks to attract to its classrooms. These aspects of the school are ever-evolving and provide a lens through which the Admissions Committee will consider your application.
Essay 1: What do you hope to gain professionally from the Wharton MBA? (500 words)
For this essay, it is critical to create the following causal link:
Your previous experience & interests as demonstrated through your career to date and prior education
Your short-term goals (next 2-5 years) for what you hope to accomplish after graduating from Wharton and specifically why Wharton will help you achieve those goals
Your long-term goals (10 years+) on how your career will shape the lives of others
The key to nailing the progression in this flow chart is on the intermediate step where you specifically outline why Wharton, in particular, is the necessary platform for you at this stage in your life to take your knowledge, experience, and skills to the next step in your career journey. I would use the framework outlined above for where Wharton is attempting to change its narrative. Below are additional unique characteristics of the school to show you did your homework.
Essay 2: Taking into consideration your background – personal, professional, and/or academic – how do you plan to make specific, meaningful contributions to the Wharton community? (400 words)
For the second essay, it is important again to be specific about connecting your background to the teachings of the Wharton community. Humility and self-awareness go a long way in this essay as Admissions wants to see that the applicant understands the business school experience is a “give and take”. If you are successful, the school is choosing you because they feel you have strong ideas and a unique experience that enables other students to learn from you in the classroom and beyond. In many ways, this portion of the essay would resemble other schools since a major significant contribution to the business school experience is “the network” and what you learn from your diverse and varied classmates.
Unique Characteristics of Wharton
To summarize the identifying characteristics of Wharton, included is a sample (not exhaustive) list of features with which the school prides itself on:
1. Large alumni base. At roughly 850 students per class, Wharton is among the largest enrolling business school classes of any graduate business program. With a large class, and a long, storied history comes a very large alumni base - totaling close to 100,000 globally. The alumni community is a valuable asset in recruiting and networking and one that is specifically unique to Wharton.
2. Entrepreneurial focus. As mentioned above, the opportunity to take a semester and study in the San Francisco Wharton campus provides an element of flexibility that other schools may not afford. Wharton offers various resources and funds that the school has invested in growing the Entrepreneurship curriculum at the school, which presents a unique characteristic of Wharton.
3. Diversity & Inclusion. The school has done an excellent job broadening its initiatives in social impact and diversity under the leadership and guidance of the new Dean, Erika James. With Research, Curricula, and Club Organizations dedicated to furthering these goals, the school takes its progress in these areas very seriously.
4. Technology & Analytics. As mentioned above, the school is successfully making the shift away from “The School of Finance” and into other more emerging areas. Banking and Consulting jobs represented half of MBA placement just ten years ago. Today, that percentage stands at around one-third (the difference largely redistributed into roles in Technology and Analytics).
What Not to Write
This is not Harvard Business School. Unlike their famous question, “what more would you like us to know,” your essay should not veer off into a generalization of your candidacy. Instead, fulfill the essay prompts regarding “What do you hope to gain professionally from the Wharton MBA?”
Example UPenn Master Essay with Analysis
Now that you know some general principles for how to approach and write for Wharton, it is time to put some of these ideas into practice.
What follows is a great but imperfect (nothing is perfect) example. The applicant is writing to the JD/MBA Program, but do not let this throw you off. The prompt is identical, as is the approach and rubric.
Have a look and see for yourself:
Following completion of the Carey JD/MBA Program at Wharton, I intend to practice law at a white-shoe firm in New York. My goal is not to make partner, but instead to gain real world experience in law and specialize in the aspects of Intellectual Property law involved in Mergers & Acquisitions. I intend to build a portfolio of knowledge and to work within my community to effect change and positive results. The unique skills at Carey will supply me the tools to make this dream come true.
After my stint in New York, I intend to move to the center of business and technological innovation: Silicon Valley. Combined with internship experience gained during my years of study, I aspire to work for Google, Facebook, or Amazon, beginning as in-house counsel and then managing product developments of my own. With an eye towards the ability of technology to effect dramatic change, I am eager to take on the unique challenges in the competitive Silicon Valley landscape, even while I maintain presence in community service and space research and beyond.
Commentary
This segment of a Wharton essay shows a clear career progression and displays knowledge of how industries can require multi-faceted professionals. Because Wharton has a Silicon Valley program and since world-famous business leaders are interested in space, the text is specialized for success and argues for the candidate’s close match to Carey/Wharton.
