The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (also known as Wharton Business School, The Wharton School or simply Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, the Wharton School is the world’s oldest collegiate school of business. The Wharton School awards Bachelor of Science in Economics degrees at the undergraduate level and Master of Business Administration degrees at the postgraduate level, both of which require the selection of a major. Wharton also offers a doctoral program and houses, or co-sponsors, several diploma programs either alone or in conjunction with the other schools at the university.
Wharton’s MBA program is ranked No. 1 in the United States according to Forbes and No. 1 in the United States according to the 2020 U.S. News & World Report ranking. Meanwhile, Wharton’s MBA for Executives and undergraduate programs are ranked No. 3 and No. 1 in the United States respectively by U.S. News. MBA graduates of Wharton earn an average $159,815 first year base pay not including bonuses, the highest of all the leading schools. Wharton’s MBA program is tied for the highest in the United States with an average GMAT score of 732 (97th percentile) for its entering class. Wharton has over 95,000 alumni in 153 countries, including SpaceX founder Elon Musk, ex-president of Argentina Mauricio Macri, and billionaire investor Warren Buffett. Current and former CEOs of Fortune 500 companies including Alphabet Inc., General Electric, Boeing, Pfizer, Comcast, Oracle, PepsiCo and Johnson & Johnson are also Wharton School alumni.
The Wharton School also operates the Aresty Institute of Executive Education (commonly known as “Wharton Executive Education”), a center for continuing business education for senior executives. The institute is named in honor of civic leader, business owner, philanthropist, and Wharton alumnus Julian Aresty and his brother Joseph Aresty, who together endowed the Aresty Institute for Executive Education in 1987. Wharton Executive Education offers programs for executives in areas such as finance, marketing, strategy, and innovation. Each year, more than 10,000 professionals from around the world attend Wharton Executive Education programs in classes taught by full-time Wharton faculty. Wharton offers more than 50 open-enrollment programs for individuals on campuses in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Beijing, China. Wharton also overs three long duration open-enrollment programs that confer alumni status upon successful completion. These programs are the Advanced Finance Program, Advanced Management Program, and the General Management Program. In addition to a large portfolio of open-enrollment programs for individuals, Wharton Executive Education also offers customized programs for organizations. Custom program topic areas include Finance & Value Creation, Leadership Development, Marketing & Sales, and Strategy & Innovation. Industry areas of expertise include Consumer Products, Retail, Energy, Transportation, Financial Services, Health Care, Pharmaceuticals, Manufacturing & Industrials, Professional Services, Technology & Communications.
The Philadelphia campus of the Wharton School has four primary buildings, Jon M. Huntsman Hall, Steinberg Hall-Dietrich Hall, Vance Hall and Lauder-Fischer Hall. In addition, the Steinberg Conference Center houses the Aresty Institute of Executive Education. Jon M. Huntsman Hall is the Wharton School’s main building. The building is a 324,000 square foot structure with 48 seminar and lecture halls, 57 group study rooms and several auditoriums and conference rooms. It was constructed through a donation from Wharton alumnus Jon M. Huntsman. It also has a 4,000 square foot forum, as well as a colloquium space on the top floor. Steinberg Hall-Dietrich Hall is a joint 180,000 square foot structure comprising two adjacent halls. It was built in 1952 and expanded in 1983 through a donation from Wharton alumnus Saul Steinberg, and houses the offices of several academic departments at the Wharton School. It also contains lecture halls, conference rooms and common areas for faculty and students. Vance Hall is a 107,000 square foot structure built in 1972 to house Wharton’s graduate programs, administrative offices, lecture halls and meeting areas. Lauder-Fischer Hall houses the Joseph H. Lauder Institute for Management and International Studies, and focuses mainly on international business teaching and research initiatives. The Lauder Institute was founded in 1983 by Wharton alumni Leonard Lauder and Ronald Lauder. In 2014, the Wharton School launched the Student Life Space in Philadelphia’s central business district. It is a 20,000 square foot space with conference rooms, meeting rooms and over 20 group study rooms. It also serves as an incubator space for startup companies. In 2018, it was announced that a new 70,000 square foot campus building for student entrepreneurship would be constructed, following a $25 million donation from hedge fund manager and philanthropist Nicolai Tangen. The building will be located at 40th and Sansom Streets, and is set to be completed by 2020.
In 2001, Wharton launched a new campus in San Francisco, California. The San Francisco campus serves as a hub on the west coast for its students and alumni. As of 2012, the campus is open to executive MBA students and to full-time MBA students, who can decide to spend the spring semester of first year, or fall or spring semesters of second year of the MBA program in San Francisco in the Semester in San Francisco Program. For the full-time MBAs, the Semester in San Francisco Program focuses on entrepreneurship, technology, and venture capital.
[responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Past posts of the EU series have focused on the EU as such, its different political fields and institutions, and culinary aspects. In this post, the EU and its federal states can be experienced at first hand. The EU s...
