Thursday, July 22, 2004

Recap of Wharton Summer Reception

In one word "Great", I just loved it. I was a little skeptical about the whole event after reading about Brit-Chick's experience with the London event, but luckily those fears went unfounded. Attended the session with Swoop, apparently he works pretty close to where I do, so it made sense to car pool. There was a little bit of miscommunication on the co-ordination of the meet. But luckily, we made it in the nick of time, found our seats and were launched into the world of Wharton.

The night started out by with a basic presentation about Wharton and the "Wharton Experience", by the various alumnus in the Bay area. Followed by a brief introduction of all the alumni and current students present. They summarized their career till date, including the time before and after Wharton. They also spoke about why each of them choose Wharton, and then invited people to step up and talk to them individually with any questions the audience might have. There wasn't any formal Q & A session as such, but the personal interaction was terrific.

Some highlights:
1. By some quirk of luck at least 4 of the alumni present had served as admission committee members, and were very willing to share that experience and provide insight on the factors that influenced their decisions to admit students. Just loved that, special thanks to Thomas Caleel, and Ravi Sinha (Hope I got their names right). Ravi Gallu (I know I have his last name right), provided interesting anecdotes to his application process. (All of them WG '03).
2. Spoke with Dan about career choices after Wharton and about the Wharton community in the big cities. It was very insightful and really interesting.
3. surprisingly there weren't many finance majors around. Probably due to the fact that the bay area doesn't attract the math-heads, I am sure that would not be the case in a Wharton reception held in NY.

Impressions:
1. My first take on all the alumnus was "Wow, these guys are smart".
2. The alumni dint strike you at first impression as being outstanding leaders or as people who shake a room as they walk into it, but you could sense the potential. Each and everyone of them seemed very capable, and very confident in themselves, while at the same time being nice to the prospective applicants and each other.
3. There weren't any of the airs, that I noticed in some of my friends who are going to attend Harvard. While they all seemed competitive, they dint seem like sharks who smell blood. Another plus point in my book.
4. This was a Wharton reception, and while everyone spoke about how good the school was, I dint walk away thinking they were trying to sell me on Wharton, it was more of a sharing of information.

All in all a great experience. I would definitely recommend you go to one of these receptions in your area. It just reinforced the reasons why I want to go to school at Wharton, and why Wharton is the right place for me. If this is a fair representation of a class, it will an absolutely dynamic and interesting time to participate in. WOW!

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