Prospective Wharton MBA students now have the option of earning their degrees in both Philadelphia and San Francisco.
Starting last week, Wharton executive MBA students and executive education students are able to take classes at the permanent Wharton West campus, housed on the top floor of the Folger Building located near San Francisco's business and financial districts. The building was the former headquarters for the Folger's Coffee Company.
Wharton West is a satellite campus for Wharton's executive education program at Penn and offers weekend MBA classes and short-term non-degree courses for executives.
The Wharton West program was first announced in December 2000. The goal of the program is to allow the Wharton School to become a more international institution and also to cultivate new relationships with alumni and companies on the West Coast.
"The broad issue is that we felt that Wharton was a global brand and that education was a global business," Wharton Vice Dean of Executive Education Robert Mittelstaedt said. "We needed to be somewhere else with a global location."
Mittelstaedt added that the growing number of technology companies in the area and the fact that 20 percent of recent Wharton MBA classes have been hired to work in California made San Francisco an optimal choice for a second U.S. location.
Classes have been in session at Wharton West's temporary location at the Park Hyatt Hotel since August, but students have only been able to participate in the Wharton Executive MBA program thus far. Both MBA and non-degree classes will be offered at the Folger Building.
Thanks to the new location, companies in different parts of the country and world will now be able to utilize Wharton's executive education programs.
"We chose the Folger Building for a variety of reasons," said Mittelstaedt, who began the search for a site during the real estate boom in the summer of 2000. "It was not just the price. We wanted a high-class place that would be comparable to what we have now [in Philadelphia] and what we will have in Huntsman Hall."
He added that because of the set-up of the Folger Building and its high ceilings, it was possible to build state-of-the-art, amphitheater-style classrooms. He also said that because of the character and attractive architecture of the building, it resembles the style of the Philadelphia campus.
Wharton West will house offices for visiting faculty, help establish connections with West Coast companies and help foster internship opportunities for full-time Wharton MBA students studying in Philadelphia.
"I think it obviously has implications for the kind of programs we run in the Wharton School and also gives Penn as a whole certain visibility in California," Mittelstaedt said. "Now, there's a physical presence out there that will enhance the reputation of both Penn and Wharton."
