There are many ways we could dive into this subject, but there’s no preface shorter or sweeter than this: money talks. As an Ivy, Penn has competitive academics and reputable departments across disciplines, but it is most recognized for its stellar business school. In fact, Penn’s internal business college — the Wharton School — has name brand recognition that could rival the general university itself.
So how exactly did Penn earn this reputation — and does it still deserve it? In our “deep dive” blog series, which we lovingly call by its alternate title “Is This School Good for That?”, we’ve been shedding light on the history of elite education’s most-talked-about programs. We’ve made a career out of evaluating college hype, and we’re here to share our knowledge so that you know whether a school will live up to its name or whether its reputation is just an empty promise.
Applying to college as an aspiring business major places you in the thick of a saturated applicant pool, but we’ve been getting future CEOs and economists into their top programs for years. Reach out to us for personalized counseling as you navigate the application process, and in the meantime read on to see if Wharton is the place for you.
The History of Business at Penn
If it’s unprofessional to sum up Wharton’s edge with “you snooze, you lose,” we’ll just say instead that, in higher education as in sample sales, winners get there first. their status as a driving force in the professionalization of business: “Established as the first collegiate business school in 1881, Wharton played a crucial role in transforming the study of business from a trade to a rigorous and respected profession. Here are a few of the milestones we celebrated along the way.”
Wharton’s accolades as early adopters of business research, new technologies, and academic models continue steadily from the end of the 19th century and include the following milestones:
Wharton becomes the first school in the world to found a business school research center in 1921. The Industrial Research Unit cements “Wharton’s shift to a strong interdisciplinary approach to research and engagement with the business community.”
Opening in 1953, Wharton’s Securities Industry Institute becomes “the first and longest running custom executive program among business schools.”
Wharton becomes the first to offer masters in a spate of business subfields now considered essential offerings: “the first MBA program in Health Care Management, considered one of the world’s best,” in 1970; “a fully integrated program in entrepreneurial studies” in 1973; a business and engineering “joint-degree program, now the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology, the first undergraduate program of its kind” in 1979; “the world’s first MBA/MA program in international management” in 1983; “the first integrated undergraduate global business program, now the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business” in 1999; “the first doctoral program in legal studies and business ethics” in 2003; and many more
Candidly, this list barely scratches the surface of Wharton’s bragging rights, which you can find in complete detail . Suffice it to say, however, that Wharton has always been on the forefront of understanding the logistics of business, studying its social impacts, and supporting promising scholars who go on to become cultural leaders and innovative academics. In 2014, Wharton become the first business program to have its own radio station on Sirius XM, but that obviously pales in comparison to historical feats like Professor Lawrence Klein’s Nobel Prize for “creating econometric forecasting models that help predict global economic trends” or the little-known fact that Penn’s business program features in the NAACP’s origin story (yes, really). Here’s how they frame it on their timeline at 1896:
“Through a Wharton fellowship, W.E.B. DuBois undertakes his classic study of the social and economic conditions of urban blacks. DuBois goes on to co-found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.) in 1909.”
The State of WHARTON at Penn Today
Basically? Business is booming. Or, we mean, Wharton’s undergraduate and graduate programs continue to thrive. So it’s not just that Wharton has continued to develop the programs it was integral in pioneering, although they have — for example, they have expanded the first doctoral program in legal studies and business in 2003 into “nine PhD programs in every business discipline.” It’s also that they have hard data to support the success of their alumni.
A lot of collegiate institutions hide the financial impact of seeking an undergraduate or graduate degree in particular programs, or they fail to cultivate representative data at all. Not Wharton, though. In recent years, Wharton has dominated “best business school programs” lists and on the U.S. News report for the first time in 2019 precisely because students see such a reliable return on their investment.
, for instance, had incredible success on the job market, reporting high levels of post-graduate employment and the highest median starting salary of any MBA program cohort.
$175,000? Not bad! Not bad at all…
So our consensus? Wharton has been a leader in business education for 150 years for good reason. It gets the 91̽ stamp of approval for best undergraduate business school. If you’re looking to be a titan of industry, you’ll be in good hands at the University of Pennsylvania. Imagine us putting on tailored suits and packing up snazzy briefcases as we reaffirm an age-old adage. The NUMBERS. DON’T. LIE.
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