As midterm fever spreads across campus, Steven Leistner is preparing for a different kind of test.
Like his finance midterm, it will involve numbers. But instead of submitting his exam to the mercy of a professor, come this December, the Wharton junior will stand face to face with corporate executives.
Along with 17 other Wharton students, Leistner is enrolled in the Wharton Field Challenge, a management class that pairs students with business professionals to work on real company projects.
There are no scheduled class times. Students break into teams and plan their own meetings from the get-go.
Traditionally part of the MBA core requirement, the course was opened to Wharton undergraduates for the first time last fall.
Through the program, Leistner and three team members have been researching combinations of stocks for WisdomTree Investments. The financial-services firm is working with Leistner's team to develop the funds it will offer when it enters the market later this year.
For Leistner, working with the firm has brought challenges that do not come up in the classroom.
"In school everything is structured and laid out for you, but here you sort of have to identify what the problem is and then go about solving it," he said.
Because the firm has yet to release its funds into the market, Leistner and team do not have the aid of a tried-and-true business plan.
This can be tough, he said, because while "you make every decision to the best of your ability ... you don't really have any precedent, you don't really have a trail."
Leistner's team meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays and sometimes on the weekends. Team members are advised by Jeremy Siegel, a finance professor who also serves on the WisdomTree board.
Siegel said that students working with WisdomTree face the same deadlines and projects that they would in the business world and are turning out research that is important to the company's success.
Students in the program are "very bright, they're very motivated," he said. "To be able to think with [students] through the problem[s] ... I find that very gratifying."
Another student team this semester is working with Procter & Gamble to revitalize its line of Iams pet-food products, sold in Wal-Mart.
Wes Wheless, a Wharton senior on the Procter & Gamble team, said that while the workload is significant, the excitement of working to develop Procter & Gamble's marketing strategy makes up for it.
He said that the knowledge he gained from his Wharton classes came in handy when working for the company.
"You find that you really do have this business sense that's learned from Wharton [that can be] applied [to] working for a company," he said.
In previous semesters, students in the Wharton Field Challenge have worked with organizations like General Motors, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Boeing, as well as with nonprofit organizations in developing countries.
Wharton graduate Jonathan Steinberg, chief executive of WisdomTree, sees the Wharton Field Challenge as a way for companies to work closely with students, something he feels was lacking during his years at the school.
"It's a way for us to tap into a tremendously talented, energetic group," he said, adding that he plans to offer internships to students working with WisdomTree this semester.
Although Leistner and other Wharton Field Challenge students do not have a midterm, they will have to impress if they hope to land an internship.
On the job, for real - Students enrolled: 18 - Started in: Fall '04 - Students have worked for Boeing, GM, Proctor & Gamble
