Georgette Chapman Phillips | No gates on the tower

I am a fan of the show Myth Busters on the Discovery Channel. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, each episode takes a myth, dissects it, tests it and proves it either factually true or not. Let's see what Adam and Jamie might discover when this approach is applied to Colin Kavanaugh's recent column where he called for Wharton to "Open the gates to the ivory tower."

Myth No. 1: Magazine rankings accurately gauge quality. Rankings sell magazines. Changing rankings sell even more magazines. Nothing changed from one year to the next at any of the "top 3" schools (UVA/McIntire, Notre Dame/Mendoza, Penn/Wharton) yet somehow Wharton fell to No. 3? Maybe our students did not respond to the magazine's plea for participation. If you read the scoring methodology, that accounts for 30 percent of the final score. I'll take our No. 1 Academic Quality rating (along with stratospheric SATs) coupled with top-flight faculty in 11 departments and 21 academic concentrations any day. We continue to challenge our program to produce the best undergraduate business experience in the world. Myth busted.

Myth No. 2: UVA/McIntire students get more liberal arts than Wharton students. This is a matter of timing, not a matter of quantity. During the junior year the UVA student takes the entire business core. Senior year is business electives. Let's compare this to a Wharton undergraduate. We take an integrated approach to learning. Skills learned in business classes and in the liberal arts can be applied throughout a student's academic career creating a great synergistic approach to learning. Students have the luxury of "trying out" different concentrations at more leisurely pace. Furthermore, our students enjoy more opportunities to go abroad junior year. The timing of the UVA core severely limits the students' ability to study abroad and they are limited to 13 study sites. Wharton students can choose from 21 Wharton sites (and about 100 more are available through Penn Abroad programs). Myth busted.

Myth No. 3: Wharton does not integrate knowledge. This argument was somewhat hard to follow. Kavanaugh admits that Wharton students savor the opportunity to have liberal-arts and business classes mixed in their schedules throughout their four years. Management 100, University minors and Wharton Leadership Ventures are just a few examples of how Wharton students integrate classroom and experience. Furthermore, we bring the outside world into our lectures. From personal business experience, to guest lecturers, to our new innovative integrated class devoted to the financial crisis, Wharton undergraduates receive an unparalleled classroom experience. Yet somehow Kavanahugh's friend's impression of Wharton teaching quality creates a gap in knowledge integration? Without trying to analyze that leap in logic I can certainly attest to the high quality of teaching in the Wharton School. Sure, there is variation but we pride ourselves on delivering in the classroom. Myth busted.

Myth No. 4: A student is "stuck" with a school choice made in high school. We accept approximately 100 transfer applicants per class from other schools at Penn (internal transfers). Adding our internal transfers, external transfers and existing students, over four years a Wharton class grows from about 530 freshmen to 665 seniors (this includes dual-degree students). Likewise, there are indeed students who transfer out of Wharton to other schools at Penn. It is not a static choice made at the time of college application. Kavanaugh compares us with UVA so let's look at their internal transfer rate. In 2008, 499 people applied to McIntire, and 297 were accepted. Remember this is the ENTIRE business-school class, not additional students. There are more than 15,000 UVA undergraduates. This means only 4 percent of the UVA undergrads get a business education. In contrast Penn has roughly 10,000 undergrads of which 24 percent are Wharton students. This does not even include those non-Wharton students doing a University minor which would push the percentage of students getting business education even higher. Myth busted.

So you see there are no gates on this tower. Wharton students are not only encouraged but REQUIRED to take almost half of their required classes outside of Wharton. College students, Engineering students, Nursing students are most welcome to take Wharton classes (subject to availability, prerequisites and limitations imposed by a student's home school). This openness is not limited to the first two years; it spans a student's entire Penn career. This is precisely what makes Penn great.

Georgette Chapman Phillips is a professor of Real Estate and the vice dean and director of The Wharton School's undergraduate division.

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