Agustin Torres | Wharton's admission policy favors the easy road

Anyone who has ever considered applying for either an internal transfer to or a dual degree with the Wharton School is probably familiar with these simple facts: There are a limited number of places, and the applicants with the highest GPAs are admitted in descending order, until there are no more places.

This policy deserves discussion. We can begin by considering some examples.

"Alice" is a "backdoor" applicant. Her sole purpose in life is getting into Wharton. She comes up with a mischievous plan. Perhaps if she applies to another school (Engineering, the College or Nursing), her chances of being admitted to Penn are higher.

Her plan works.

She gets into one of Penn's three other undergraduate schools. But wait. Before we continue, there is an important concern so far: Wouldn't an applicant like Alice be spotted by the admissions officers, and thus she wouldn't even make it into Penn in the first place? Maybe. It depends on a lot of factors, including Alice's application and her ability to portray herself as genuinely interested in the school to which she applied. The fact is that we don't know for certain whether she will get in, so let's suppose that she does, just for the sake of argument.

Once she gets to Penn, all that Alice needs to do is keep a high GPA so that she can make the cutoff for the coming application cycle. Alice is smart: She takes a light course load of four credit units, including some easy classes. She repeats this strategy for the next semester, and voila. Alice's GPA is high enough, and she gets into Wharton. Her plan was successful.

On the other hand, "Bob" is unsure about his future. He loves science and engineering, but he is also interested in business. At the time of applying to Penn, he thinks like this: "Engineering is my main priority. Although I'm also very interested in business, I'm not so sure I want to commit myself to it yet. Therefore, I will apply to Engineering and further explore my options. I will consider pursuing a dual degree."

Bob also likes challenges. He is very thirsty for knowledge. He decides to take the maximum load of 5.5 classes in his first semester, including some demanding math and science courses. He even uses his AP credit to opt out of some introductory courses which could have benefited his GPA.

At the end of first semester, Bob's GPA is good, but not above what has historically been the cutoff for Wharton. He takes this into account, but his desire to learn is more important than his GPA, and so he repeats his strategy second semester - 5.5 challenging classes.

The moment of truth approaches. Even though he is aware of his not-so-high GPA, Bob decides to apply for a dual degree with Wharton. The cutoff this time was 3.60. His GPA was 3.50. Sadly, Bob didn't make it.

Is it fair?

The current policy disregards course load, course difficulty, the reasons for applying to Wharton and the undergraduate school of the applicant. It doesn't matter whether you want to transfer internally like Alice or to do a dual degree like Bob. The current policy even encourages backdoor applicants.

How about separating internal transfers from dual degrees? How about separating applicants according to school? How about assigning places proportionally, according to the number of applicants in each of these categories? How about questioning an internal-transfer application with a particularly light course load and easy courses? There are a lot of available options that could make the current policy more reasonable.

Penn prides itself on its unique interdisciplinary programs and opportunities. But right now, if you are a Penn student interested in combining your degree with business, and your GPA is less than 3.6, you are out of luck. Your GPA may be high enough to graduate cum laude, but not high enough to take advantage of these unique interdisciplinary programs.

So if you're an incoming freshman, and you really want to do a dual degree with Wharton, here's my advice for you: Take light course loads and easy classes. Don't use AP credit and instead take classes for which you know the material. Don't try to challenge yourself.

Wharton only cares about GPA.

Agustin Torres is an Engineering sophomore from Monterrey, Mexico. The Monday Burrito appears on Mondays.

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