Established in 1881, Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania (also known as “Penn State”) is the world’s first collegiate business school and is one of four undergraduate degree schools at the University of Pennsylvania others include Arts, Sciences, Engineering and Nursing. It was founded by American entrepreneur and industrialist Joseph Wharton whose vision for the school was for graduates to become “pillars of the state, whether in private or public life.”
Wharton is an Ivy League Business School and has been ranked and rated among the most prestigious in the nation – renowned for innovative teaching methods as well as a range of academic programs and resources. Because of this, admissions are competitive and selective. Typically, the undergraduate program receives about 5,500 applications per year, and less than about 10% are accepted.
Wharton School offers B.S., MBA and Ph.D. degrees and offers concentrations in Accounting, Business and Public Policy, Entrepreneurial Management, Environmental Management, Finance, Health Care Systems, Human Resource and Organizational Management, Insurance and Risk Management, Legal Studies and Business Ethics, Management, Marketing, Multinational Management, Operations and Information Management, Real Estate, Retailing, Statistics and Strategic Management.
Approximately 30% of B.S. students graduate with more than one undergraduate degree, and 35% of students study abroad. Wharton has an alumni network of 85,000 graduates and the school has more than 4,900 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA and doctoral students. Thousands more students in other undergraduate and MBA majors choose to take public policy and management courses in the school of business as well.
Aside from the first Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, other campuses reside in other locations. These include San Francisco, California on the top floor of the Folger Building in the city’s business and financial district; Fontainebleau, France; and Singapore – the latter two through an alliance between the Wharton School of Business and INSEAD, one of the world’s largest graduate business schools, founded in 1957.
Wharton School of Business is also known for their online research journal Knowledge@Wharton. The journal is a multi-lingual, free biweekly online resource consisting of podcasts, research papers, books, conferences and more. Knowledge@Wharton has over 1.30 million subscribers worldwide and has over 2,000 articles in its database.
Stats
Current Students: 4,950
Undergraduate: 2,621
MBA: 1,730
MBA Programs for Executives: 411
Doctoral: 188
Standing Faculty: 219
Associated Faculty: 71
New Faculty: 23
International Faculty: 95
Women Faculty: 59
Alumni: 85,000
Endowment: $656 million