Why I Chose Wharton

Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise: culture fit is important at business school.  I chose Wharton and had a great time there, but it certainly wasn’t the first school I looked at.  In fact it was one of the last.  A lot of that had to do with Wharton’s (somewhat well-deserved) reputation.  I had worked with a few grads from Wharton’s undergraduate program – many of them were every bit as brilliant but highly competitive as advertised, but that’s not what I was looking for.  I work best in collaborative environments and definitely wanted to be somewhere where I would get the most out of my classroom experience.  So Wharton got put on the backburner while I checked out some of the other programs.

I ended up circling back to Wharton in the course of my due diligence on programs.  It was highly regarded, and it’s quantitative lean fit well with how I had attacked and solved some problems in my earlier jobs.  Finally I had a strong interest in pursuing a career in pharma after school and Wharton is very strong in healthcare.  So since I lived in New York at the time I decided to go on an unofficial visit and check it out.  So while it may sound cliché, it really was the people who made the difference for me there, unlike some schools who build their reputations on that concept but don’t always follow through in the execution.  I was really impressed with the facilities (Huntsman Hall had opened the year prior to my visit), but the class I sat in on was dynamic and the students in it went out of their way to make me feel welcome.  I connected with some of the organizations I was interested in joining and had a similarly great experience.  It was very easy to see myself studying there for two years.