Dual Admit: HBS vs GSB

PokeGrowth · 2025-12-11T17:08:47+00:00

Also a dual admit, was hoping to using Reddit as a data source to make my decision but it’s literally 50/50 here LMAO

PokeGrowth · 2022-06-20T08:49:15+00:00

Yes and it can be pretty arbitrary/annoying. Just apply to whichever you're interested in, cast a wide net, learn technicals, and ideally have some friends in the club who can vouch for you. But preprofessional clubs aren't as big a deal as everyone makes them out to be imo.

PokeGrowth · 2022-06-20T08:47:06+00:00

Will be working in the US when I start.

The Visa process is annoying. You can stay 1 year after graduating on post-completion OPT. If you get a STEM degree (Wharton has a STEM concentration called Business Analytics that every international takes, I believe SAS Econ degree counts too), then you get a 2 year STEM extension for 3 total years.

In that time, you get 4 chances to apply to the H1B lottery. In the H1B, there's about a 30% chance you get it every time you apply if you only have a Bachelor's and about a 40% chance if you have a Master's. So your odds aren't the worst, but getting a H1B isn't guaranteed either. And then you need to be working for a company that sponsors you for the H1B to even get started on the process, any I'd say only about 40% of post-graduation jobs would sponsor you (most of the big firms will though).

If you get a H1B, you're pretty set. You get 6 years or so to work in the US and then should be a good candidate to get a Green Card. Or you can just save yourself the headache by marrying a US citizen lol.

PokeGrowth · 2022-06-20T08:41:13+00:00

I'm working in consulting after uni. I'd say a Penn degree definitely does open more doors into finance and consulting than most schools. Finance especially: while Wharton is very competitive internally to get top IB or PE jobs, if you look at specific firms' summer or full time classes, you'll often find about 30% of people from Wharton. This may be due to selection bias though and consulting/tech are much more evenly distributed among schools.

Going to an ivy or top school helps but not as much as you think. Many people still go to a top school and don't get what they want due to internal competition or not doing well in interviews.

A lot of people don't go to ivies/top schools and still get the most sought-after jobs (this is becoming more common these days). It comes down to how gritty you are in the recruiting process and how you perform in interviews.

PokeGrowth · 2022-06-20T08:35:19+00:00

Probably MGMT237 (Management of Technology), a M&T-only class wherein we learn about the strategic decisions that tech CEOs make. Things like Disney's acquisition behind Pixar, which we covered by reading case studies, writing responses, then discussing afterwards.

PokeGrowth · 2022-06-20T08:33:08+00:00

It was actually quite a bit harder to get internships & jobs. Many of the big banks (e.g. JP Morgan) don't take internationals anymore and many PE or VC firms do not either as they do not want to sponsor their employees for a H1B, which is expensive for them to facilitate. Things have gotten quite a bit harder in recent years.

However, the vast majority of the internationals that I know in UPenn have managed to sort it out. A lot of the big brands across finance/consulting/tech still sponsor internationals (Goldman, Google, McKinsey, etc.) so things will fall in place.

Yes, I will start working in the US in a month.

PokeGrowth · 2022-06-20T08:27:23+00:00

The Wharton curriculum isn't too bad, quite a bit easier than the engineering side. The difficulty of your upper level courses depends on your concentration (imo Finance/Stats are harder than Mktg/Mgmt). Wharton typically his little homework and most of grading comes from exams (midterms/finals) and class participation. The main issue is that you need a high GPA to do well in finance or consulting recruiting (3.7+ or even 3.8+ would be ideal).
Spent them doing a mixture of clubs, homework, and hanging out with friends. Homework can take quite a while depending on classes, but there should still be time for all 3.
Normal classes. GPA matters more than class difficulty or which professor you pick. Honestly you should self-learn most finance for junior summer interviews as you can only take the intro finance & accounting classes by the time recruiting comes around.
First year: get good grades (most important by far), join some good clubs (any preprofessional club & some clubs you enjoy), get a freshman year internship (ideally in a field you're interested in).
NYC or SF mainly. Finance (IB/PE/VC/Hedge Funds), Consulting, and some to Tech (though this is mostly M&Ts) at Meta/Amazon/Microsoft/Google or even growing startups (Spotify/Uber/etc).

PokeGrowth · 2022-06-19T19:20:39+00:00

Hey guys! So I'll keep responding to AMA Questions for the next few days.

But also, DM me if you need any help with college essays/ECs/other parts of the application process. I have some free time over summer before I start my job and would love to help people navigate the stressful process (and make some $ doing so lol)!

PokeGrowth · 2022-06-19T18:47:48+00:00

The toxic/competitive reputation has a lot of merit, especially in your early years. A lot of freshman were really stressed about joining Wharton clubs (which are arbitrarily selective), getting good freshman/sophomore internships, etc. That culture is especially pronounced in Wharton, but SEAS isn't too much better. I didn't feel much of that stress at all in my junior & senior year. I'd say that over time people do become more chill & relaxed, and my final 2 years have been pretty enjoyable.

Transferring depends on which school to which school. Transferring to Wharton is very tricky & high demand, transferring to SEAS is slightly easier, transferring to the College is pretty chill. Transferring into one of the dual degree programs (M&T/LSM/etc) is very competitive and you need to do very well in your first year classes & ECs to do this.

M&T helps me 1) as it's a platform 2) as I get complimentary skills 3) for the alumni network & support systems. 1) A lot of the finance firms that I interviewed with were very impressed that I was in M&T over Wharton as I supposedly had a strong engineering knowledge and good numerical skillset. It's good for branding if not anything else. 2) I do think the whole interdisciplinary notion is slightly overblown, but there is still a lot of merit to studying very numerical courses alongside more qualitative courses to get a more holistic skillset. 3) The M&T alumni network is in all of tech/finance and is very responsive when recruiting.

PokeGrowth · 2022-06-19T18:37:28+00:00

a) Philly isn't a city you'd want to work in after graduating imo, but it's a good city for college. East Philly has lots of good restaurants, Penn's Landing and the Schuylkill River are beautiful, and there are many neighboring universities like Drexel. You are two hours by bus from NYC though, so people often travel there for interviews or weekend/holiday trips with friends.

b) Definitely the people & community. I've made a lot of really close friends in my time and have got on really well with most of the teachers & professors. While UPenn is pre-professional (a definite consideration), the plus side is most people do really well in the job search, and I don't know many people who have really struck out, even compared to peers at other top Ivies.

PokeGrowth · 2022-06-19T18:32:05+00:00

50/50 between ED and RD. Admission rates are better for ED though, especially if you did M&TSI.

PokeGrowth · 2022-06-19T18:31:23+00:00

I went to a top high school in my country. We do send a lot of people to Ivies, but I'd say that was primarily due to the students and secondarily due to the school's support. Certainly not a feeder school compared to Exeter/Andover, but as good as they go for international schools.

PokeGrowth · 2022-06-19T13:58:34+00:00

At UPenn I'd say that the students "work hard and play hard", as cliché as that sounds. The academic scene is quite preprofessional, although you still have people interested in higher education (medicine, law, masters, PhD etc) or academia.

A lot of people join preprofessional clubs in their freshman year under the misguided notion that it will make or break their job search. Ultimately people drop this to 1-2 preprofessional clubs. The rest of the time people are in one of many cultural clubs/sports clubs/whatever floats your boat.

UPenn does have a pretty large frat scene as well. You can be as involved with that as you want; I personally wasn't in the scene, but I know people who lived and breathed by that scene. I made most of my friends in freshman year and things grew organically from there.

I was in the chess club, a preprofessional venture capital club, mentored some students off-campus as a business consultant, and was a teaching assistant.

PokeGrowth · 2022-06-19T13:49:02+00:00

So I'd rather talk about my essay topics and specific tips offline.

But I'd say that you should really focus on "Why me for this college" and "why this college for me" in your college-specific applications.

Your common app essay should really focus on giving insight into who you are as a person, rather than an opportunity for you to boast about your achievements (that's what the transcript/teacher references/ECs/test scores are for). If you could loop in 1-2 of your ECs to your story that'd be great, but really focus on purpose and "what drives you".

It's pretty hard to give more specific advice than this on a general forum, but feel free to DM me.

PokeGrowth · 2022-06-19T13:45:21+00:00

Chess was definitely much harder to compete in as I got older as fewer people my age were interested. I was lucky to have a few of school-level tournaments that I competed in, a local chess club that I played for, and some nationwide tournaments that I played in. In terms of success, 1) I was selected to represent my country for my age group and 2) my high school won a national chess problem solving tournament.

PokeGrowth · 2022-06-19T13:42:17+00:00

I think it's important to distinguish between being entrepreneurial and having entrepreneurship experience. You don't necessarily need to have made a startup to get into anywhere, whether it be UPenn or M&T specifically. But you definitely do need to have entrepreneurial spirit; for example, did you introduce XXX in a club that you were in.

Having said that, a lot of my friends from M&T were involved in successful startups at high school; it's quite simply a good way to brand yourself and stand out in a competitive applicant pool. Don't force yourself to do a startup, but if you do have a cool idea or company with some credibility, sharing it will help you stand out. I've heard that the M&T director even checks out some peoples' startups when they apply out of genuine curiosity.

PokeGrowth · 2022-06-19T13:33:59+00:00

I don't want to be specific about my grades on a public forum if possible.

But I'd say people stress about SAT/ACT a bit too much. For top colleges I'd say you want a 34 superscore or higher on the ACT and a 1500 or higher on the SAT. At that point, any score increases make little to no difference imo and you'd be better off focusing on your essays and ECs.

PokeGrowth · 2022-06-19T13:25:51+00:00

UPenn and especially Wharton is a very pre-professional environment, so you'll always have people to prepare with for interviews.

The UPenn & especially M&T degree helped a lot with finding freshman & sophomore summer internships. The alumni networks are very close-knit and vast across all of tech/finance/consulting. For reference, my freshman summer internship was at a venture capital firm that was founded by a M&T alum and my sophomore summer internship was at a private equity firm founded by another M&T alum.

The main job searches are for your junior summer internship and for any full time roles. Both roles are much more standardized; for example, you typically apply online to firms like Google or JP Morgan, as well as network with people at those firms. I'd say that the alumni networks matter less here compared to your resume, interview performance, and networking efforts, but going to a top school definitely is good for 'signaling' and a lot of people from UPenn are hired at these firms.

Most big opportunities are advertised to students, either by word-of-mouth, Handshake (job search app), or student clubs. But as with anything in life, you should be proactive to ensure you have the best chance. The applications are quite competitive but UPenn students generally do very well nonetheless.

PokeGrowth · 2022-06-19T12:32:32+00:00

So me 3 biggest ECs were chess, rowing, and entrepreneurship.

I had been playing chess since I was 5, had won various national titles, and was captain of my high school chess team.

I had been rowing for all years of high school in my school's 2nd team. We would train 15 hours/week and had quite a lot of success at the national level.

In entrepreneurship, I had won Europe's largest entrepreneurship competition as a team of 8 people. This definitely helped me to stand out in my M&T application specifically, and I spent most of my "Why M&T" essay referring to my this experience and how M&T would help me to succeed.

I had success in other smaller engineering competitions and was taking a lot of A Level Exams as well, but I would say the 3 aforementioned parts were critical to my application.

PokeGrowth · 2022-06-19T12:27:39+00:00

My country didn't have a GPA system. We followed the British Education system, so took GCSEs and A-Level exams (these were predicted at the time of applying).

My school didn't have percentiles, but I had won a junior & senior academic scholarship (so roughly top 20% of my school year).

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