Wharton announces submatriculation program for doctoral degree hopefuls

Faculty members in the Wharton School last week encouraged undergraduates to follow in their footsteps by approving a submatriculation program into Wharton's doctoral program. The new program will allow undergraduates to begin taking graduate courses toward a doctorate during their senior year. Wharton Undergraduate Dean Richard Herring said the program completed Wharton's "portfolio" of submatriculation programs, which also include programs in conjunction with the Law School and Wharton's MBA program. Only Wharton students will be allowed to submatriculate into the doctoral program, and submatriculation applications must be submitted while the student is a second-semester junior. Applicants must be within four credits of completing their bachelor's degree by the end of that academic year. All submatriculation candidates will be considered in the same pool as other doctoral applicants and will be required to take the GMAT or GRE examinations before applying. Every year, about 35 students are accepted into the doctoral program. Beginning next semester, two or three of those students will be from the submatriculation program. Although Wharton will not limit the number of submatriculation candidates who are accepted, Herring noted that the application process "will be very competitive." Ordinarily, it takes four years to complete a doctorate: 2 1/2 years of required courses and 1 1/2 years to complete a thesis. The submatriculation program will allow students to complete the first year of courses during their senior year as an undergraduate. They may still need four years after completing their bachelor's degree to earn their doctorate, however, if they do not complete their doctoral thesis. Vice Dean and Director of Wharton Doctoral Programs Mark Pauly explained that the submatriculation program was first proposed in an effort to attract more undergraduates to the prospect of earning their doctorate. "The number of students [in doctoral programs] in the United States has been declining in the last few years," he said. "So, we've been trying to think of new ways to get more people." Herring added that the proposal for a submatriculation program was also "driven by the observation that students were coming in so well prepared." He referred to the many undergraduates who begin at Wharton with advanced academic standing due to Advanced Placement credit acquired in high school. Although he praised the new submatriculation program for providing undergraduates an opportunity to save "both in direct costs and opportunity costs" for graduate school, Herring admitted he had some "philosophical qualms about whether it's a good thing to do." He explained that many professors discourage students from completing their graduate and undergraduate degrees at the same institution because each school offers different perspectives. Pauly agreed with Herring but said that, "I wouldn't turn [the submatriculation program] down for that reason."