Wharton group praises business education

One Wharton graduate entered medical school just as he was about to reach the top position in his company. Another became an orchestra conductor. And one graduate charted an even more unorthodox path – he went on to become a priest. The message to students: a Wharton degree is more flexible than most students might think. "You don't know what you'll be doing in 10 years," said Wharton Vice Dean Janice Bellace. Bellace's remarks on atypical job opportunities for Wharton graduates came during the year's first Wharton Dean's Advisory Committee meeting Monday in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall. Wharton Dean Thomas Gerrity also attended the meeting. "Less than one percent of Wharton graduates go on to get Ph.D.'s," she said. "We hope we are not turning you off to academia." Bellace urged undergraduates not to "cut off prospective fields based on recommendations of professors, friends and parents." Wharton sophomore Michelle Che, a member of the Dean's Advisory Board, said the goal of the sessions is the "establishment of a connection between the undergraduate student body and the dean." Gerrity opened the meeting with a briefing on Wharton's current state and a forecast for a bright future. "Our undergraduate program ranks number one, hands down," he said. He said this year's 67 percent yield – the percentage of accepted students who actually matriculate – is the highest in history for the school and "way ahead of everyone we compete with." Gerrity said the school's publicity efforts on behalf of undergraduates will continue despite the top reputation it has earned for itself. "We are still number two in visibility [to Harvard]," Gerrity said. Gerrity promised that Wharton Public Affairs will continue to "sway the press that there is an undergraduate education at Wharton." He cited a recent article in El Pais, a Madrid newspaper, which referred to Wharton's undergraduate education. This, according to Gerrity, is only one of the many manifestations of the Wharton School's effort to ensure that the press does not "ignore the undergraduate education." Gerrity also promised that educational innovation would continue to share center stage at Wharton, saying "the degree to which we can be a leader in innovation [and] change is the degree to which we can be a leader in education." He said one of the most prominent innovations is a new dual degree program with the College in international studies and business, "an area in which there is already much interest."