I have two secrets. Secrets so horrible that less than five people know the awful truths.
No, I don't sleep with a night light or sing in the shower. My secrets are much, much worse than either of those - at least within the hallowed halls of Huntsman.
The first one? First semester, freshman year - I got a C in Econ. That's right; I barely passed the most fundamental class a Whartonite will ever take.
So now you're wondering, "What's her second secret?" This one, if you can believe it, is even less accepted in my world of movers, shakers and money-makers - I have absolutely no interest in finance.
None.
I didn't always feel like the minority when it came to my academic interests. Until I arrived at Penn, I was surrounded with "fuzzies," as we called them -students interested in literature, languages, history and anything else without definite answers.
However, my first day at Penn changed all of that.
Within five minutes of meeting my new classmates, the age-old question came up: "So, what do you want to concentrate in?" Excuse me, but I wasn't aware I had to have the answer at 18. Apparently, I did. What's more, I learned there was really only one answer: Finance.
"I mean, come on," some overachieving, anal-retentive Wharton freshman told me. "How can you beat making six figures in your twenties?"
And all this before classes even started. As it turned out, the question was not "What are you going to concentrate in?" but "Which Wall Street internship are you going get this summer?"
I found myself caught up in the Finance hype, spiraling into a world that I never wanted a part of to begin with. It took a very brilliant, very jaded professor to reveal to me Wharton's best kept secret - you don't have to concentrate in Finance.
I didn't discover this gem of information until mid-October of my freshman year. Having miserably failed my Business Economics midterm (the stepping stone to a Finance concentration), I sat down with the teacher - emeritus professor William Whitney - to discuss a course of action for the rest of the semester.
I arrived at the meeting fully expecting to be chastised; instead, Whitney offered me the wisest words I have ever heard from a professor: "You know what?" he said, in the matter-of-fact, I've-been-around-the-block way that he has: "Not everyone is good at economics."
What? Did I hear you correctly? And, what's more, he went on, I didn't have to concentrate in finance.
Now, hold on just a minute. Can you repeat that?
I went back to my dorm reeling from the information I had just received. Here was the demigod of microeconomics telling me that I didn't have to like his class. And not only that, I got the distinct impression that he would like me more if I were honest enough to admit that econ was not my thing.
For the first few days, I walked around in a stupor, feeling almost offended that he would write me off in such a way. But then, about four days later, it suddenly hit me: Whitney had liberated me from my finance haze. From that moment on, I became a huge proponent of the Whitney Way, as I began to call it: Finance is not for everyone. Sure, there are many students for which it is a perfect fit - but there are just as many, if not more, who would prosper in another area of academics.
In hopes of furthering my new school of thought and helping new students realize the options that Penn offers, I applied to be a peer adviser for incoming freshmen in the Huntsman program. Over the summer, I had a phone conversation with one of my advisees, Wharton and College freshman Steven Friedman. When he asked about concentrations, he said, "I've only ever heard about concentrating in finance."
Needless to say, I launched into the same spiel that you've just read. As it turned out, he was one of those students who's just made for Finance - he began gushing about econ.
"I like the whole concept of opportunity cost. I like the idea that we so often look at the monetary price and don't take into account everything else that factors into a decision," he said.
"That's awesome," I told him sincerely. And then, with a smile on my face and joy in my heart, I added, "But I have no idea what you just said."
Ali Jackson is a Wharton and College sophomore from Cardiff, Calif. All Talk and One Jackson appears on Mondays.
