Check out these five facts about consulting at Wharton:

• Every year since 2005, more Wharton graduates have accepted positions in consulting than in investment banking.
• Wharton’s Consulting Club is one of its largest, with more than 800 members—that’s approximately half the students in the MBA program.
• One of Wharton’s most popular electives is “Strategy and Competitive Advantage.” Professor Nicolaj Siggelkow, a protégé of strategy guru Michael Porter, is notorious for pushing students to clarify their answers, but if they use trite buzzwords like  “adding value” and “frameworks,” they may find themselves in the hot seat for 30 minutes of additional questioning!
• The 2010 Consulting Conference was the largest student-run consulting event ever held at Wharton, featuring keynote speeches by the managing director of strategy of Accenture and the vice president of Bain & Company (Los Angeles), as well as panels on topics ranging from new media solutions to sustainable social impact.
• In recent years, Wharton’s Consulting Club has hosted an annual case competition for first-year students; winners have been offered summer internships with Boston Consulting Group.

For more information on Wharton or 15 other leading MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.

The Wharton Follies is both an annual musical comedy production that pokes fun at MBA life at Wharton and one of the school’s largest clubs, and affords students the opportunity to shine in creative and business roles alike. Entirely written, produced and performed by students and boasting a six-figure budget, it is one of the largest and longest-running such productions at any graduate program. Wharton has produced the Follies for 35 years, and the production typically features prominent members of the administration (including the dean, vice dean and director of admissions) and popular faculty members in cameo appearances. The specific theme changes every year. In 2011, it was “Assets and Liabilities.”

For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at Wharton and 15 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.

Known for being a protégé of the strategy guru Michael Porter, Nicolaj Siggelkow (“Strategy and Competitive Advantage”) is just as well known at Wharton for pushing students to clarify their answers in his class—using buzzwords such as “added value” and “frameworks” can earn a cold-called student 30 minutes or so of additional questioning. One second-year student called Siggelkow simply “the best professor at Wharton for leading a case,” and another remarked, “He will whip your ass into shape, so you must prepare for class—or don’t bother coming!”

Siggelkow expects his students to come prepared to class, and students in the Wagat guide (Wharton’s ode to the Zagat guide, but for courses rather than restaurants) say the workload for each session of his course is far heavier than the norm, to say the least. (According to course evaluations from a prior academic year, the workload required for his classes is rated 3.78, whereas the average is 3.13.) Still, students appear to respect him for this toughness, and he has earned five teaching awards (seven, if we include undergrad business awards) in his 13 years at Wharton.

Chair of the management department, Siggelkow received the Class of 1984 Award for being the faculty member with the highest teaching rating in 2006, was the student-selected Faculty Marshal in 2010, and even made a guest appearance in the Wharton Follies in 2006.

For more information on other defining characteristics of the MBA program at Wharton or one of 14 other top business schools, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.

mbaMission connected with Dave Gilboa, co-founder of online glasses retailer Warby Parker, who reflects on Wharton’s role in the firm’s success in changing the prescription eyewear industry. In the final part of this four-part series, Dave talks about how he and Warby Parker co-founders Neil, Jeff and Andy made launching and running a business together as friends work, taking some advice from Wharton classmates and entrepreneurs.

My Warby Parker co-founders—Neil, Jeff and Andy—were not just classmates of mine at The Wharton School, we were all really good friends before we started talking about launching a business together. Many people had warned us not to start a company with friends and also not to start a company with four founders, but we all really believed in each other’s abilities, integrity and drive. We were confident that if we put the right systems in place, we could make the venture work. Luckily, several of our classmates at Wharton were either current or former entrepreneurs and gave us great advice as we were starting out. Davis Smith, who founded PoolTables.com and later launched Baby.com.br, started both of his companies with his cousin and his best friend. He walked us through how he had made these scenarios work, and we implemented many of the same ideas when we were developing Warby Parker. We set up a vesting schedule so that if people left the company before we graduated they would get credit for “time served,” we set up monthly 360-degree reviews for both business issues and personal issues, and we established communication norms and expectations for our team before we launched the company. We agreed that above all, the four of us would remain friends throughout this process. Thinking about and having a plan for potential issues before they arose was critical for our success as a company. Now, three years later, Warby Parker has grown faster than we could have ever imagined, and Neil, Jeff, Andy and I are still great friends.

Be sure to check out Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of this series to learn what else Dave learned at Wharton.

mbaMission connected with Dave Gilboa, co-founder of online glasses retailer Warby Parker, who reflects on Wharton’s role in the firm’s success in changing the prescription eyewear industry. In Part 3 of this four-part series, Dave discusses how Josh Kopelman, a Wharton alumnus and distinguished guest speaker on campus, influenced the very foundation of and philosophy behind Warby Parker.

Although I had entered Wharton with an interest in entrepreneurship, I had never tried to start a company before. When Neil, Jeff, Andy and I first began discussing the idea of launching Warby Parker, we tried to amass as much advice as possible. Wharton hosts a constant stream of distinguished guest speakers on campus, and we took advantage of the opportunity to see a number of them who were current or former entrepreneurs. One in particular who had a profound impact on the way we envisioned founding Warby Parker was Josh Kopelman [managing director of First Round Capital]. Josh is a Wharton alumnus who created Infonautics Corporation during his sophomore year of college and took it public four years later. He then founded Half.com, which he later sold to eBay for $350 million. He then became an early-stage investor and went on to found the venture fund First Round Capital. He is without a doubt one of the smartest entrepreneurs and investors out there.

When Josh spoke on campus, he focused on a theme that really resonated with us. Most people think the best companies expand markets, but Josh’s favorite companies are those that shrink markets—companies that cut out stodgy, incumbent middlemen and can thereby take costs out of the system for consumers, much like Half.com did. Neil, Jeff, Andy and I realized that there is no good reason for eyeglasses to be as expensive as they are today and that through disintermediation—eliminating the massive conglomerates that control the industry and artificially keep prices high—we could create our own vertically integrated brand. We could then sell our own brand of boutique-quality glasses direct to consumers via our Web site (www.warbyparker.com) for less than $100 a pair, a fraction of the price of comparable-quality glasses bought elsewhere. This model is directly in line with Josh’s—and now our—philosophy, and after we founded Warby Parker, Josh and his team at First Round Capital invested in our seed equity round. We continue to get great advice from him and consider him one of our most valuable mentors.

Be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 in this series, and check back next week for the final post.

mbaMission connected with Dave Gilboa, co-founder of online glasses retailer Warby Parker, who reflects on Wharton’s role in the firm’s success in changing the prescription eyewear industry. In Part 2 of this four-part series, Dave talks about how helpful Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs were in getting Warby Parker off the ground.

When my classmates and I were launching Warby Parker, none of us had ever started a company before. We got a ton of help and support from Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs (WEP) and took full advantage of the great resources they offer for budding entrepreneurs. We initially participated (and ultimately became semi-finalists) in the Wharton Business Plan Competition , which allowed us to fully flesh out our idea and get great feedback from other entrepreneurs and investors on our plans to disrupt the eyewear industry. We then applied and were accepted to Wharton’s Venture Initiation Program, which gave us not only free office space but also access to a broad network of other entrepreneurs. In addition, we received both the Sol C. Snider Seed Award and the Wharton Venture Award through WEP; the first provided seed capital to help fund our venture, and the latter provided a stipend that allowed Jeff, one of our founders, to work full-time on the business during his MBA summer rather than having to take on an internship elsewhere. WEP was incredibly helpful in a number of other ways as well—from providing free press to introducing us to alumni—and we simply would not have been able to launch as quickly as we did without their help.

mbaMission connected with Dave Gilboa, co-founder of online glasses retailer Warby Parker, who reflects on Wharton’s role in the firm’s success in changing the prescription eyewear industry. In Part 1 of this four-part series, Dave discusses how he and three of his Wharton classmates came up with the idea behind Warby Parker, and how one marketing professor and 200 classmates helped shape the foundation of the company.

Neil, Jeff, Andy and I were good buddies at The Wharton School when we first came up with the idea behind Warby Parker (www.warbyparker.com). We all loved our eyeglasses but hated paying $500 or more a pair for them, and each of us had had frustrating experiences with how expensive glasses were. As for me, I had done some traveling before starting business school and had lost my $700 glasses somewhere along the way. I couldn’t justify paying that much to replace them, so I went my entire first semester without any glasses. The four of us decided to do something about the situation—we would start our own prescription eyewear provider with all the traits we wanted to see in such a business. We put together a business plan, bootstrapped the company and launched the new venture out of our apartments while we were still full-time Wharton MBA students.

Our hope was to do nothing short of transforming the optical industry. Our initial goals were to launch the first real fashion brand online, offer a $500 product for just $95 and provide customers with a better shopping experience than the bricks and mortar stores could. Yet we also wanted our organization to be intensely considerate of all our stakeholders—our customers, our employees, the environment and the roughly one billion people around the world who don’t have access to proper eye care. Our approach was fourfold: (1)  offer our customers beautifully designed, high-quality glasses at a revolutionary price point; (2) create an open organization that allows talented and ambitious employees to thrive and grow; (3) be 100% carbon neutral and (4) distribute a free pair of glasses to someone in need for every pair sold. We realized that our goals were ambitious but truly felt that we needed to achieve all of them to execute on our vision.

One of the biggest issues we faced before launch, however, was how we should communicate what we were doing to our customers. Would our customers be confused if we appeared to have too many messages? If so, should our primary message be about the design and style of the glasses? About their quality? Price? The convenience of ordering online?  The company’s greater social mission? We weren’t sure what would resonate the most with our future customers. Fortunately, being at Wharton, we were surrounded not only by some of the world’s leading marketing thinkers, but also by about 850 classmates who were in our target demographic. We had just been introduced to conjoint analysis (a statistically based market research technique that reveals how people value different features within an individual product or service) in Professor David Bell’s “Marketing Management: Program Design” class and surveyed more than 200 of our classmates.

The results were very clear: although all the messages inherent in our budding venture were positive, the one that seemed to elicit the best response was the combination of style and value in the products we would offer. Having hard data in front of us was incredibly helpful and allowed us to make a much more informed decision than just using our intuition alone. Since graduating, we have maintained a relationship with our Wharton marketing professor, and he continues to help us with customer analysis to this day.

• During the upcoming admissions cycle, Wharton plans to pilot a group interview exercise, which could become a mandatory application component in the future.
• Students often see class profiles as a set of preferences, but they only reveal the industries that students came from immediately prior to business school; industry experience is much deeper than it may appear.
• Wharton is seeking quality experience, not a target age or number of years of work experience.

mbaMission: So my first question is, Wharton kind of caused a stir when it switched to behavioral interviews last year, and I was curious why the change was made and what Wharton was trying to learn that it maybe couldn’t learn from its previous process.

Ankur Kumar: At Wharton, we’ve always been behavioral in our application process—both in the written application and also in the interview component. We’ve always wanted to get to know who our applicants are, and how they think. And so, understanding what defines each of our applicants as individuals is truly key for us.

What we did is tweak our interview questions, with the goal of getting at the core of what we wanted to learn about you—the applicant—in person. We always want to see how our candidates respond in real-time conversations, not unlike the conversations they have every day in their professional and personal lives.  We want to continue to understand how they behave in and navigate throughout those discussions, and conversations really give us a good sense of how they’re going to be as future MBAs and alumni.

mbaMission: So have you been satisfied with the results, and are you planning any additional changes to the process going forward?

AK: Every year, we’re amazed and blown away by the talented and accomplished applicant population from which we are very lucky to be selecting.  I always say that the hardest part of the job is actually selecting the people to join the class.  As any good admissions office will, we’re always looking to evolve our admissions process. Our essay questions are always evolving, our interview questions are always evolving, and that simply reflects the evolution and the innovation in our program. So evolving our process is just par for the course in our world.

One change we’re excited to announce is that, for the coming admissions cycle, we will be piloting a new team-based exercise. This exercise is designed to allow candidates to demonstrate, firsthand, their intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, teamwork and leadership skills, among others.

For this year’s admissions cycle, the pilot will essentially be a ‘beta-testing’ of this exercise. Any candidates asked to participate in the pilot this year will do so voluntarily, and without bearing on their applications.  More details will be forthcoming, but we are very excited about this new opportunity.

mbaMission: Sure, I see. As you probably know, applicants tend to adhere to stereotypes. So for many, Wharton is a finance school, even though it has, for instance, an enormous marketing faculty or the unique Lauder Institute and Lauder Program. What do you think Wharton should be known for that it’s not known for? What is a quiet strength of the school?

AK: I don’t know, do we do anything quietly here? [Laughs] Actually, there are probably two things I want to make sure to highlight.

First, our approach at Wharton to teaching business: it’s analytical, it’s data-driven, it’s fact-based, and it’s quantitative.  And that’s the case across all business disciplines that we are teaching. So often, that approach and those words that I’ve just used—“quantitative, analytical, data-driven, fact-based”—are mistakenly viewed as synonyms for “finance.”

While we hold the preeminent position in finance, we are also the only business program to be ranked within the top five in every discipline that we teach, and that’s the case whether you’re talking about management, marketing, business and public policy, operations or entrepreneurship.

From a candidate perspective, no matter what your interest is, at Wharton you don’t have to pick and choose… You literally can have it all.  We have 220 faculty; they span 11 academic departments and 25 research centers.  Wharton offers the most breadth and depth across business disciplines, compared to other top programs.

The second thing I would mention is how diverse Wharton is, in all senses of the word.  Our approach to learning is that students learn best from those who are different from themselves.  Bringing together people with a diversity of experiences and thoughts is at the heart of innovative thinking – it’s what drives innovation. So we seek to craft as diverse a class as possible, across different dimensions. Wharton has the most women—45% of the class—of any top business program; we have the most global top business program; and we seek mature students who bring a rich set of experiences to Wharton—professional, personal and academic diversity.

mbaMission: All right. Conversely, then, can you think of an area in which Wharton is perhaps not as strong? Or maybe an area the school would like to build on?

AK:  One challenge that every business school has is that business and industries are always emerging and evolving, and so naturally, we’re emerging and evolving as well.  

For example, clean tech is an example of where there wasn’t as much of an industry ten years ago—or even when I was in school—as there is today.   And so Wharton has evolved with it. You now see students coming into the program with backgrounds in these fields.  Programming has been developed around the industry; a student club now supports it; clean tech employers recruit our students, and there are broader initiatives happening across Penn. We are often on the cusp of trends, or evolving with them.

mbaMission: Right. So, aside from professional disciplines, would you say there is a personality type for which Wharton might not be the best fit? Is there a particular type of individual that you would expect to struggle in the Wharton program?

AK: As I mentioned earlier, the class is incredibly diverse. And I say diverse meaning in all senses of the word.  That diversity can  include industry background; it can include academic background; it can include geographic perspective—if you lived or worked somewhere in the world; it can include different experiences in life, professionally and personally.  And I know from me and from my own time in the program that a lot of the benefit that I derived, was from being able to learn from my classmates who had different academic, professional and geographic experiences.

And, as I said earlier, we have more women in our program than any other business program, and we remain the most global of all of our peers as well.  We have 73 different countries represented within the incoming class; 37% of the incoming class is coming from outside the United States.  Nearly 60% of our class has worked outside their home country, and they’ve worked in over 45 different countries, which is pretty amazing.  There are over 75 different languages that our students speak; three-quarters of the incoming class fluently speak a language other than their native tongue.   Over two-thirds of our students studied subjects other than business in undergrad.  So when you hear those facts, it’s hard to say there is a type of person who won’t succeed at Wharton.

mbaMission: Right. That’s great. So I’d like to ask about the faculty. Specifically, can you tell me about any professors who maybe aren’t known necessarily for their publishing or research work but rather for their speaking style, teaching style, unorthodox techniques—anything like that? Does anyone in particular come to mind? These are the types of things that are hard for candidates to get a sense of through a Web site.

AK:  There are many examples of our faculty who are quite innovative and are pushing the envelope in the classroom.  One example is [CIBC Professor of Entrepreneurship and eCommerce] Karl Ulrich, also our vice dean for innovation.  Karl teaches a course called “Innovation, Problem Solving, and Design”; the entire class is focused on developing a process around the formation of new ideas and the development of new products. He literally runs the class as an innovation tournament—students are constantly experimenting with different ideas and making prototypes, and at the end of the course, they have a product prototype upon which they can build a venture, as the output.  

Another professor who is also really popular is Kartik Hosanagar [tenured associate professor of internet commerce], who teaches a course called “Enabling Technologies.”  The class is an applied approach to new technology and new media; assignments include making viral videos and then figuring out what makes some more profitable than others.  You can see how real-time and applicable this is to social media and to the technology we’re seeing in the real world right now.

mbaMission: Right. Can you talk a little now about what a typical day in the life of a Wharton first-year student is like?

AK: How students spend their time outside of class very much depends on the individual and what they’re hoping to accomplish and what they’re interested in doing.  Any given student could spend their time outside of the classroom involved in any number of student-run professional or social clubs, as we have a hundred-plus clubs.  Or you may be doing research with a professor outside of your in-classroom time because you have a particular interest and want to study something more in depth with them. Students also have used their time outside the classroom to start businesses, so working with Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs or the Small Business Development Center.

Students also use their time outside the classroom to explore and have experiences in industries that they’re looking to get into. There’s a student who—we don’t have class on Friday—spent every Friday interning at a retailer here in Philadelphia because they were looking to get into the industry and wanted hands-on experience.  So, you’ll find students doing any and all of those things sort of in their typical day and week.

mbaMission: Right, okay. You know, you seem like a pretty nice person to me, but candidates have a tendency to really fear the admissions committees, feeling like their future is in the admissions committees’ hands.  I mean, do you see any reason for someone to be fearful of you at all?

AK: [Laughing] I think I’m a pretty nice person, so I hope not.  I’m an alumna, so I’ve been through this process myself. I certainly know what it’s like to go through the application process.

We are advocates for the applicant, so we truly are on the applicant’s side.  I certainly don’t take this responsibility lightly now that I’m sitting on the other side of the table. It’s a true privilege, to be part of setting the direction for Wharton.  So, no reason to fear; again, I’m an advocate for the applicant, and we want to bring in the best people that we can to the program.

mbaMission: Right. Now, when you actually pick up an application, where do you start, and how do you read it? Can you kind of walk us through the process a bit?

AK: Sure! I read every application, literally from the start to the end, cover to cover, so it’s as simple as that.

mbaMission: Are you trying to just get an impression of someone, or do you actually sit down with a checklist and weightings and that sort of thing?

AK: We know how much effort and thought our applicants put into their applications. And so our philosophy is one that is rooted in being holistic and being iterative.

We look at the application in its entirety.  We ask for information on all parts of an applicant’s background: academics, their professional trajectory and accomplishments, of course, the essays and recommendations—because we think it’s really important to get this well-rounded perspective on them.  We then have multiple admissions team members provide their input on an application before any major decision is made.

mbaMission: I see, okay. Wharton’s average GMAT has risen in the past few years to about 720. Is this linked in any way to a kind of confidence that with a 720—up from 710, or 700—someone can manage the course load better? In other words, is this number rising for a particular reason—other than, I guess, applicants trying hard?

AK:  When we think about the GMAT or the GRE—we also take the GRE also at Wharton—the score is never viewed in a silo; it’s all part of the holistic review of someone’s academic capabilities and academic achievements.  We consider their GMAT in conjunction with their undergraduate record, as well as what else was going on for them when they were an undergrad: were they really involved with extracurricular activities, were they supporting a family, were they working, that sort of thing.

There isn’t a magic bullet with the GMAT; there is no score that will get you in or keep you out.  You’ll see on our profile that there’s quite a wide range around that average. That says something about the way that we look at the GMAT, in the context of the other academic pieces and in the broader application.

mbaMission: Got it.  Wharton has been very clear that its waitlist is closed.  Can applicants really do nothing to advance their candidacy while they’re on the waitlist? For example, if an applicant were to submit a letter on his or her behalf from a current Wharton student, would you turn that letter away?

AK:  We want to maintain a process that is equitable and has parity in it for all of our applicants.  When someone is on the waitlist, it’s really because we’re waiting for all the moving pieces and parts of the cycle to sort of settle.  It’s not necessarily about needing more information on the candidates; it’s about seeing, quite literally sometimes, whether there’s actually a seat or seats in the class available.

mbaMission: Right. But to that point, Wharton has so many alumni; I’m sure that many feel that they have the right to your ear. So, does alumni contact really matter in the consideration of an individual candidate? Have you ever ignored the recommendation of a very well-placed, high-profile alumnus or alumna who’s connected to the school quite strongly and has kind of campaigned on behalf of a particular applicant?

AK: Our alumni have always been a very important part of our process. They are the stars of the show at our information sessions.  People don’t come to hear me speak; they come to hear from our alumni and the panel and hear about their experiences.  

Similarly, when our candidates are admitted, our alumni host them and have welcome events. And so, we welcome alumni recommendations, too.  We actually have a portal on our Web site for alumni that allow them to send their recommendations directly to me.  

That said, having a recommendation from a Wharton alumnus or alumna is certainly not a prerequisite for admission. Most of our class doesn’t.  Again, this is due to our holistic evaluation process.

mbaMission: Assuming that you have a very strong applicant—the same, the exact same applicant—who can apply in Round 1, Round 2 or Round 3, can you reflect on whether his or her chances vary depending on the round? And if Round 3 tends to be more challenging, why exactly is that? Why give away so many places in the earlier rounds, knowing that more applicants are coming?

AK: We are pretty clear in our messaging that if you’re serious about coming to business school in a given year, apply in Round 1 or Round 2. Between those two rounds, it’s really your call, whether that’s early October or early January. But in Round 3, quite frankly, anything can happen.  There are years where we’ve admitted a three-digit number of folks [in Round 3], and there are years where we admitted no candidates in the third round.  If you’re serious about coming to business school in a given year, don’t wait until Round 3.

mbaMission: Right. You mentioned the GRE before, and I think candidates have this perception—it’s a myth, I would say—that the GRE isn’t viewed in the same way as the GMAT, as being of the same level of quality. And I was wondering if the admissions office at Wharton has ever really looked at and compared the GMAT data with the GRE data in any way. Have you done any studies like that?

AK: This past year, we accepted the GRE for the first time.  There are people in the first-year class who took only the GRE and were successful in our process. So from our perspective, we don’t prefer one or the other.

We offer both for a couple of reasons. One is, quite frankly, that some of our candidates are interested in pursuing dual or joint degrees, which already require the GRE.  Second, for Wharton, the GRE has been the standardized test that our own PhD program has taken for many years, and we know the quality and caliber of those students.  Candidates should simply take whichever test makes sense for them.

mbaMission: I forgot to ask something before, when we were talking about Round 3. So let’s say I’m a strong candidate, and for whatever reason, I could only get my application together in time for Round 3, and I ultimately didn’t get in. Would you say you have different expectations for me if I were to reapply in the next Round 1, which might be only a few months away?

AK:  There are a variety of reasons why someone may not be successful in our process. And I mentioned before, sometimes it really comes down to the logistics—unfortunately, sometimes there just isn’t a space available. So if an applicant is unsuccessful in Round 3 and they’d like to reapply, we welcome it.  We have many people who are very successful reapplicants every year; there isn’t a different threshold to cross when you’re a reapplicant.  

What we’re looking for is, in the time that you’ve had to reflect and to sort of think about your candidacy and identify some opportunities to strengthen, what have you done?  Of course, if you’re a Round 3 candidate, you’ve literally only had a couple of months. So tell us what you’ve been doing, tell us what you’ve learned, tell us what you’ve been thinking about—that’s all we’re looking for.

mbaMission: Right. We’ve seen a lot of news lately about changing class compositions at some of the top business schools, such as how Harvard is apparently moving away from finance, though the largest percentage of its class still comes from the finance industry. Wharton seems to have gone in the opposite direction. Do you have any kind of mandate for your class composition? Did your class last year include more finance candidates for a particular reason?

AK:  We see fluctuations every year in the make-up of our class, which is more a reflection of changes in our applicant population than anything else. There are emerging industries, emerging economies—in which an MBA hasn’t been a part of the conversation necessarily until now. We have people coming to us from such diverse backgrounds that really, the class profile only tells one small dimension of the story. 

The class profile simply shows the industries that our students came from immediately prior to business school, which is not an entirely full picture. However, if you look at the entirety of our incoming students’ industry experience throughout their careers, their industry experience is pretty tremendous and quite deep across industries and sectors. Using this broader perspective, the class has much more richness from industry experience than maybe that one data point necessarily indicates.

mbaMission: I think you’re right. I think people can sometimes really oversimplify or look at one thing as a trend in this arena. To finish up, do you have anything else you’d like to share about the Wharton program or admissions at Wharton? Something you want people to know for sure that they might not know already?

AK:  At Wharton, we value experience.  There is not a certain number of years of work experience or a particular age that we seek; rather, we value candidates coming into our program who’ve had a rich set of experiences in whatever industry they’ve chosen to work, for however long they’ve chosen to do that.   Having maturity and perspective and thoughtfulness—really being able to bring their reflections and their lessons and their questions to the program, to their classmates, to their professors—that is the heart of who we are, and our culture as well.

mbaMission: Excellent. Thank you so much for your time!

For instance, consider these facts about Wharton’s highly regarded marketing program:

• Wharton has “the largest, most cited, and most published marketing department in the world,” according to the marketing department’s Web site.
• The school’s marketing department was ranked #2 in the 2010 U.S. News & World Report MBA rankings by specialty.
• A Wharton marketing professor developed conjoint analysis, a tool that has helped shape 20th century marketing practices.
• The Marketing Club’s annual conference brings together approximately 500 students, faculty members, alumni and leading marketing experts each year to explore various themes central to the industry. In 2009, the conference keynote speakers included the CEO of the Sun Products Corporation and the senior vice president of card services for JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Indeed, to dismiss Wharton as simply a finance school would be a mistake.

Go beyond the stereotypes. For more information on Wharton or 14 other leading MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.

Although donning formal wear is certainly not a prerequisite for attending Wharton, the Winter Formal, which takes place before the end of the fall semester, gives first- and second-year students the opportunity to break out a tuxedo or a ball gown. In the past, this event has regularly been held at the beautiful 30th Street Train Station. A last hurrah of sorts, the Spring Formal is a black-tie-optional party that can induce nostalgia for some second-year students, but at its core, is still a party. Both first- and second-year students can attend this event, at which the deans present student awards.

For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at Wharton and 14 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.