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

heythere · 发表于 2011-11-29 12:12:59

一个NB哄哄的申请者on campus interview有感
Everyone seemed to be in a hurry to go off somewhere and it was clear that the simple questions we had - with smiles on our faces and an easy manner - were a bother. I hated that. Particularly because I am familiar with Yale, Princeton and Stanford (where I and my family went to school) where 99.999999% of people are super helpful and kind, particularly at Yale, which is one of those let's-all-hold-hands-and-sing-kumbaya sort of place. I didn't get that vibe AT ALL at Penn.

。。。。。

What else? Oh, the reason I registered to be a poster in the first place. That article about how difficult it is for Chinese and Indian International students to get in.

The Indians and Chinese students. OMG.

At the risk of writing something potentially politically incorrect, the only word to describe the sheer number of Indian/Chinese students I saw is frightening. It was rather stunning. I don't know how many of the Wharton students are actually Chinese or Indian, but I am guessing no fewer than 60% of the International students are Chinese or Indian. It was like Chinatown meets Little India there.

What else? 100% of the other kids I spoke with as I awaited the interview were either consultants or bankers. Really, really odd stuff...

What I found out, of course, is that an interview is as much a chance for the school to get to know you better as it is for you to get to know the school. For me, I immediately struck Wharton off my list of schools (I have the luxury of already being accepted at a number of other schools - I dettferred enrollment from last year). This just ain't gonna work.

Terrible, terrible experience.

P.S: Apologies in advance to anyone I offended if my post is perceived as being politically incorrect or offensive or unkind or (insert bad word here). I value honesty.

perain · 发表于 2011-11-29 12:52:18

中文里有个词叫“装逼犯”，我想我找不到更好的noun来形容此人了

叶之舞 · 发表于 2011-11-29 13:10:40

他自己写这样的东西就显得不helpful or kind拉，那依他的观点他最适合wharton拉~他还看不起wharton~真搞笑

cannedpineapple · 发表于 2011-11-29 13:23:56

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!

morningglory23 · 发表于 2011-11-29 21:52:32

hehe,在GMATCLUB上看到原文了，转个完整版的：

I visited Wharton today for my interview.

First, I hate Philly (I've visited many times and I thought a few years away from the city would endear it to me. Not so. Terrible drivers, horrible pedestrians, etc). But this is not the reason the trip was an unmitigated disaster.

Eventhough I got lost on my way there (I stuck out like a sore thumb because the buildings were not easy to navigate and I kept glancing at the map on my iPhone for directions), people were not necessarily glad to help when I asked them for directions. There were two of us who were lost (we were together) and we asked a number of people for help (first with getting to the right building, then with finding the admissions office - which is in some middle-of-nowhere basement dungeon that looks like something straight out of Mordor, and then with hailing a taxi to get back to the airport/train station - we didn't know where the taxi stand was). Everyone seemed to be in a hurry to go off somewhere and it was clear that the simple questions we had - with smiles on our faces and an easy manner - were a bother. I hated that. Particularly because I am familiar with Yale, Princeton and Stanford (where I and my family went to school) where 99.999999% of people are super helpful and kind, particularly at Yale, which is one of those let's-all-hold-hands-and-sing-kumbaya sort of place. I didn't get that vibe AT ALL at Penn.

The interview itself went well - once I discounted the lack of enthusiasm by the interviewer, who looked like she was badly constipated.

The campus - oh the campus. It's (simply put) an urban jungle. Of course I have my own biases about what a college campus should look like, but I found the endless "brown-colored" buildings stifling (perhaps I imagined the brown buildings, but at some point the whole thing just looked like blocs of molded poop). I don't even remember if there were any trees. There was a faux-urban-gothic-amalgam thing going, too (what the heck is that about?!). It's not my pro-suburb bias: I visited MIT earlier this year and the environment was unashamedly modern! No apologies.

What else? Oh, the reason I registered to be a poster in the first place. That article about how difficult it is for Chinese and Indian International students to get in.

The Indians and Chinese students. OMG.

At the risk of writing something potentially politically incorrect, the only word to describe the sheer number of Indian/Chinese students I saw is frightening. It was rather stunning. I don't know how many of the Wharton students are actually Chinese or Indian, but I am guessing no fewer than 60% of the International students are Chinese or Indian. It was like Chinatown meets Little India there.

What else? 100% of the other kids I spoke with as I awaited the interview were either consultants or bankers. Really, really odd stuff...

What I found out, of course, is that an interview is as much a chance for the school to get to know you better as it is for you to get to know the school. For me, I immediately struck Wharton off my list of schools (I have the luxury of already being accepted at a number of other schools - I dettferred enrollment from last year). This just ain't gonna work.

Terrible, terrible experience.

P.S: Apologies in advance to anyone I offended if my post is perceived as being politically incorrect or offensive or unkind or (insert bad word here). I value honesty.

sirenfish · 发表于 2011-11-30 00:34:26

这人大实话。

yimailme · 发表于 2011-11-30 16:38:48

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。

suu · 发表于 2011-12-1 01:17:17

这人不知道哪天面的，说不定我见着他了。。。
我是on campus interview的，所以我可以来说说我的感受。确实是见到了很多亚洲面孔的申请人。很多的概念是>50%。不过只是在我等着面试的那差不多半个小时的时间里看到的。其它时间段有没有这么多亚洲面孔的就不太清楚了。
我坐那一圈子总共是7个人，4女三男。5个亚洲面孔，两个白男。5个亚裔的除了我，其它都是美国人，人家根本不是中国人，韩国人或者是日本人（表问我怎么知道的，这是感觉，而且我觉得他们都是ABC啊，坐我旁边的女生我看到她last name了，像是台湾或者香港那边的拼法）。除了那两个白男以外其它的都说了自己的背景，确实都是finance或者consultant的。我是非传统背景，所以当时被深深的打击了。。。亚裔女生们都非常健谈，而且可以感觉都比较aggresive，有可能是工作中形成的习惯。亚裔男生刚开始还好，后来前面一组面试的人纷纷从小房间里出来的时候可以感觉他开始紧张了。那两个白男一直都挺闷的，不怎么说话，然后很明显的非常紧张，跟我们聊天的时候有点心不在焉的感觉。
我大概面了40分钟，出来的时候看到另外一拨人在等着面试，没有仔细看都是什么人，但是好像没有看到很多亚洲人。印度人我就只见到了一个。
我同意前面jason的说法，philly距离新泽西，纽约很近，所以很多选择campus interview的都是这些地方的申请人。这两地方的亚裔居民是很多的，在campus interview的时候见到很多ABC啊什么的确实不奇怪。

heythere · 发表于 2011-12-1 11:04:08

这人不知道哪天面的，说不定我见着他了。。。
我是on campus interview的，所以我可以来说说我的感受。确实是见到了很多亚洲面孔的申请人。很多的概念是>50%。不过只是在我等着面试的那差不多半个小时的时间里看到的。其它时间段有没有这么多亚洲面孔的就不太清楚了。
我坐那一圈子总共是7个人，4女三男。5个亚洲面孔，两个白男。5个亚裔的除了我，其它都是美国人，人家根本不是中国人，韩国人或者是日本人（表问我怎么知道的，这是感觉，而且我觉得他们都是ABC啊，坐我旁边的女生我看到她last name了，像是台湾或者香港那边的拼法）。除了那两个白男以外其它的都说了自己的背景，确实都是finance或者consultant的。我是非传统背景，所以当时被深深的打击了。。。亚裔女生们都非常健谈，而且可以感觉都比较aggresive，有可能是工作中形成的习惯。亚裔男生刚开始还好，后来前面一组面试的人纷纷从小房间里出来的时候可以感觉他开始紧张了。那两个白男一直都挺闷的，不怎么说话，然后很明显的非常紧张，跟我们聊天的时候有点心不在焉的感觉。
我大概面了40分钟，出来的时候看到另外一拨人在等着面试，没有仔细看都是什么人，但是好像没有看到很多亚洲人。印度人我就只见到了一个。
我同意前面jason的说法，philly距离新泽西，纽约很近，所以很多选择campus interview的都是这些地方的申请人。这两地方的亚裔居民是很多的，在campus interview的时候见到很多ABC啊什么的确实不奇怪。

-- by 会员 suu (2011/12/1 1:17:17)

哈哈，大家都很紧张啊。。。为什么很多女生面试反而不紧张呢？我很好奇！

csch · 发表于 2011-12-1 17:43:15

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。

-- by 会员 yimailme (2011/11/30 16:38:48)

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

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