(ZZ) Wharton: It was like Chinatown meets Little India there

唉。我觉得MBA就是个商业模式，某种程度都像传销了，自己交学费，学校带你满世界的转，请名人来给你讲，到处宣传那些成功的alumni，弄得人人都觉得自己也能超成功有一天，实际上大多数alumni还是过着普通人的小日子。

heythere> assuming you just visited, this is nearing the finals for the school. It is also near the time when all the job and internship applications are due. I suspect that if you visit any school nearing the final exams AND nearing the final recruiting deadline, that 'everyone will seem to be in a hurry to go somewhere'. So hopefully you don't hold it against them.

Also bear in mind that you met, at most, 5-10 other applicants while sitting in that room. Since most applicants who sit in that room are able to go to Philly, they tend to be from New York- again, which tends to have a lot of bankers and consultants (not surprising). There are hundreds of other applicants who don't make it to Philly. There are also many of us from non-traditional industries but maybe you got unlucky with your small sample size. The fact remains, however, that these industries are major feeders into business school- go to any business school and again, you'll likely find that >50% of your classmates have once, in their life, worked in finance or consulting. If you don't like that, then maybe you're looking at the wrong masters degree... BTW, this is why fit is important. Not just fit with a school, but fit with business school in general.

That aside, I have found that many "Chinese" or "Indian" students are in fact not from China or India. Many Asians look alike- I personally can't tell a Japanese, Korean, or Chinese apart with 100% certainty without talking to them. Nor can I distinguish Indians, Pakistanis, and sometimes Middle Eastern people. In fact, I was watching a movie last night and (embarassingly) thought one of the Mexican stars was Chinese. Even if they ARE Chinese or Indian, many of them have parents and grandparents who are citizens of the US, and have grown up there. The US, unlike many countries, is seen as a "salad bowl" of cultures- racial diversity is prized, but everyone is also "American". If you take the time to get to know a Chinese American, for instance, you may find them far more 'American' than 'Chinese', race not withstanding.

Finally, bear in mind that Wharton is one of the only business schools in the USA which has an undergraduate business programmes. Maybe many of the "people rushing to go somewhere", or even the "Chinese" or "Indian" students, were just not MBA students. It is my personal experience that the undergraduates at Wharton are extremely intense- far more so than my classmates at UChicago during my undergraduate days.

You are entitled to your own opinion, of course, and I am glad you exercised this right. After all, and I can't stress this enough, "fit" is CRITICAL- not just for whether you can get in, but whether you'll get a lot our of the experience. So kudos to you, for discovering that Wharton is not a good fit for you. I just wanted to clarify the situation- things are not always as simple as they seem on the surface. (In fact, they almost never are).

PS, this is an issue that strikes very close to my heart. At Wharton, I was head of the Volunteer Admissions Committee. We were a group of volunteers who helped bring applicants around, show them to classes, introduce them to fellow classmates, and so on. We were volunteers- unpaid, with our own commitments, but nonetheless expected to show up everyday, rain or shine, to help people whom, in all honesty, we'll see once and never again. But we did it without complaints, although I admit try as we might, sometimes we were stretched just because there were so many applicants coming into Wharton every day. I even cut class a few times to bring applicants around. So do cut them some slack!