University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business was founded in 1881 by Joseph Wharton and is the oldest US business school. Wharton MBA program is consistently ranked as one of the top 3 business schools in the world. In fact, Forbes has been consistently ranking Wharton School of Business as the number 1 business school. Wharton MBA program is known for its rigorous finance curriculum. In fact, 36% of Wharton’s MBA class of 2019 found employment in the finance industry. In this article, we have talked about all the general information of the Wharton School.
Here is the outline of the article:
- Trivia on Wharton School of Business
- General information on the Wharton School
- Wharton MBA program – Class profile, cost of attendance, median salary
- Wharton’s 2019-2020 MBA Application Deadlines
- Wharton MBA employment and salaries
- Wharton School of Business – Notable Alumni
- Other MBA programs you should consider
General trivia on Wharton School of Business
- The Wharton School was called the ‘Wharton School of Finance and Economy’ from 1881 to 1901 and the ‘Wharton School of Finance and Commerce’ from 1902 to 1971.
- Wharton began awarding MBA degree in 1921.
- Wharton Professor Simon Kuznets work on creating and analyzing data on national output, prices, investment, and capital stock laid the foundation for measuring the GDP and GNP. He won the Nobel prize in Economics in 1971.
- Wharton professor George W. Taylor is credited with founding the academic field of study known as industrial relations. He was known as the industrial peacemaker and settled more than 2000 strikes.
- Wharton professor Solomon S. Huebner is known widely as “the father of insurance education.” He originated the concept of “human life value”, which became a standard method of calculating insurance value and need.
- According to this US News article, Wharton has produced the third most CEOs of the top 100 companies on the Fortune 500 list.
- According to this Forbes article, Wharton has produced the most billionaires in the US.
General information on the Wharton School
Location – Jon M. Huntsman Hall, 3730 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Dean – Geoffrey Garrett
Admissions Office – The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Vance Hall, Suite 111, 3733 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Phone: +1-215-898-6183
Fax: +1-215-898-0120
Email: mba-admiss@wharton.upenn.edu
Social media – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram
Wharton MBA program – Class profile, cost of attendance, median salary – Class of 2021
Below are the details on the Wharton MBA program’s class profile, cost of attendance, median salary. In terms of tuition fee, the Wharton MBA is the most expensive MBA program. Here is the list of the total cost (tuition fee + living expenses) of top MBA programs across the world.
| S. No. | Wharton School of Business | Numbers |
| 1 | Average GMAT | 732 |
| 2 | Average GPA | 3.6 |
| 3 | Class Size | 856 |
| 4 | GMAT Range | 540 – 790 |
| 5 | Work Experience (Average) | 5 years |
| 6 | Tuition Cost (per year) | $81,378 |
| 7 | Average Age | 28 |
| 8 | % Employed after graduation | 98.5% |
| 9 | Median Salary | $150,000 |
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Wharton’s MBA class of 2021 profile
Wharton’s MBA incoming class of 2019 (class of 2021) has students from 52 countries, which is one of the highest among the top US business schools. The number of female students slightly jumped to 44% in 2019 from 43% in 2018. As far as the pre-MBA industry is concerned 25% of the class of 2021 class came from Consulting followed by 12% and 12.8% from PE/VC.
Here are the detailed statistics on the Wharton MBA class of 2021:
| Applications received | 5,905 |
| Enrolled | 856 |
| GMAT Scores (middle 80%) | 540 – 790 |
| Undergraduate GPA (middle 80%) | 3.2 – 3.9 |
| Work Experience (middle 80%) | 3 – 15 years |
| Average age (middle 80%) | 25 – 31 |
| % of women in the class | 44% |
| % of international citizens | 30% |
Pre-MBA industry of Wharton’s incoming class 2018
Below are the detailed statistics on the pre-MBA industry of Wharton incoming class of 2019
| Industry | Pre-MBA work experience |
| Consulting | 25% |
| PE/VC | 12% |
| Tech/Internet Services | 9% |
| Investment Banking | 9% |
| Nonprofit/Gov’t | 9% |
| Other Financial Services | 6% |
| Health Care | 5% |
| Investment Management | 5% |
| Consumer Packaged Goods/Retail | 4% |
| Energy | 3% |
| Media/Entertainment | 3% |
| Other | 10% |
Wharton’s 2019-2020 MBA Application Deadlines
Wharton School of Business acceptance rate was 19.2% for 2018 admissions. The admission process is highly competitive and we recommend applying either in Round 1 or Round 2. Click on the links to know Wharton’s advice to International students, and reapplicants.
Here are the details on the application deadlines for Round 1, Round 2, and Round 3 of Wharton MBA admissions.
| Wharton admissions rounds | Application Deadline | Interview Invites | Decisions |
| Round One | September 17, 2019 | October 29, 2019 | December 18, 2019 |
| Round Two | January 7, 2020 | February 13, 2020 | March 26, 2020 |
| Round Three | April 1, 2020 | April 16, 2020 | May 8, 2020 |
Wharton MBA employment and salaries – Class of 2019
The maximum number of Wharton’s MBA graduates find employment in finance and other related industries. For the outgoing class of 2019, 35.8% of students accepted employment in finance and other related industries followed by 25.1% and 14.9% in Consulting and Technology respectively. Below are the employment statistics of the Wharton MBA outgoing class of 2019 by industry and function. The median salary was $150,000.
Wharton MBA Class of 2019 – Employment by industry
| Industry | Percent accepts | Median Salary |
| Consulting | 25.1 | $165,000 |
| Consumer Products | 3.4 | $117,500 |
| Food/Beverage | 2.1 | $121,000 |
| Other/Diversified Products | 1.3 | $112,500 |
| Energy | 0.3 | — |
| Financial Services | 35.8 | $150,000 |
| Hedge Funds/Other Investments | 2.4 | $150,000 |
| Insurance & Diversified Services | 1.8 | $125,000 |
| Investment Banking/Brokerage | 11.8 | $150,000 |
| Investment Management | 4.6 | $142,500 |
| Private Equity/Buyouts/Other | 11 | $167,500 |
| Venture Capital | 4.2 | $150,000 |
| FinTech | 1 | — |
| Future Mobility | 1.8 | $127,000 |
| Health Care | 4.3 | $137,500 |
| Pharmaceuticals/Biotechnology | 1.3 | $135,000 |
| Services | 1.6 | $132,500 |
| Legal & Professional Services | 1.9 | $190,000 |
| Manufacturing | 2.4 | $125,000 |
| Media, Entertainment & Sports | 1 | — |
| Real Estate | 3.2 | $127,500 |
| Retail | 3 | $120,000 |
| Social Impact | 1.4 | $115,000 |
| Technology | 14.9 | $135,000 |
| Travel & Hospitality | 0.5 | — |
Wharton MBA Class od 2019 – Employment by function
32.2% of students of the Wharton MBA class of 2019 accepted offer in Consulting followed by Private Equity (13.4%) and Investment Banking (11%).
| Function | Percent accepts | Median Salary |
| Analytics/Data Science | 1.4 | $140,000 |
| Business Development | 3.7 | $136,000 |
| Consulting/Strategy | 32.2 | $152,500 |
| Corporate Finance (Analysis/Treasury) | 1.6 | $130,000 |
| Entrepreneurial Management | 1 | — |
| General/Project Mgmt/Mgmt Development | 5.6 | $125,000 |
| Human Capital | 0.3 | — |
| Investment Banking | 11 | $150,000 |
| Investment Mgmt/Portfolio Mgmt | 9.2 | $150,000 |
| Legal Services | 1.8 | $190,000 |
| Operations/Production Mgmt/Supply Chain | 3.1 | $130,000 |
| Private Equity | 13.4 | $165,000 |
| Product/Brand Marketing | 3.9 | $124,200 |
| Product Management | 6.4 | $139,000 |
| Real Estate | 2.7 | $130,000 |
| Research | 0.5 | — |
| Restructuring | 0.3 | — |
| Risk Management | 0.2 | — |
| Sales | 0.5 | — |
| Other | 1.6 | $146,000 |
Wharton MBA Class of 2019– Employment by location
The majority (87.7%) of the outgoing MBA class found employment in the United States itself. Post-MBA salaries are also higher in the US as compared to Asia, Europe, and Latin America.
Major Wharton employers
Below is the list of employers who hired more than 3 Wharton MBA students of the outgoing class of 2018.
- Accenture Strategy
- Amazon
- Apple
- Bain & Company
- Bank of America Merrill Lynch
- Boston Consulting Group
- Credit Suisse
- Deloitte Consulting, LLP
- Deutsche Bank
- EY Strategy
- Goldman Sachs & Company
- Google, Inc.
- IBM
- J.P. Morgan
- McKinsey & Company
- Microsoft
- Novartis AG
- PepsiCo
- Tesla Motors
- World Bank Group
Wharton School of Business – Notable Alumni
The Wharton School of Business has over 98,000 alumni in more than 150 countries. Here is a list of the notable alumni of the Wharton School.
- Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
- Elon Musk, founder and CEO, Paypal; CEO and CTO, SpaceX, CEO and Product Architect, Tesla Motors
- Sundar Pichai, Google CEO
- Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet, the parent company of Google
- John Sculley, president of PepsiCo (1977–1983), CEO of Apple (1983–1993), partner at Sculley Brothers, LLC (1995–present), co-founder of Zeta Interactive (2007-present)
- Leonard Lauder, CEO, and chairman, Estée Lauder
- Ronald Perelman, chairman, and CEO of MacAndrews & Forbes Group
- Anil Ambani, chairman, Reliance Group
- Ayman Asfari, British-Syrian billionaire, CEO of Petrofac
- C. Robert Henrikson, chairman, president, and CEO, MetLife
- Vernon Hill, founder, chairman, and CEO, Commerce Bank
- Henry Jackson, founder, and CEO of Merchant Equity Partners
- Robert S. Kapito, founder and president, BlackRock (world’s largest asset manager)
- Vivek Kulkarni, founder, and MD, Brickwork Ratings
Other MBA programs you should consider
Following are some other schools that are a close match to Wharton in terms of GMAT and GPA, age and work experience. We have listed the programs by stretch, match, and safety. Note that these options are presented on the basis of the schools’ brand image and ranking status as a general yardstick.
Stretch Schools: Harvard, Stanford
Match Schools: Booth, Columbia, Kellogg
Safety Schools: MIT Sloan, Duke Fuqua, NYU Stern, Yale SOM
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