Wharton students can now hold Huntsman in their hands.
The new Wharton app, announced on the Wharton website on Nov. 29, allows students to access all of the school’s online resources via a centralized app.
Available for iPhone and Android, the app contains links to the Wharton website and Wharton’s SPIKE, which houses the business school’s web-based applications and services.
“It’s basically another way to access the information we have on the website formatted especially for smartphones,” said senior Information Technologies Project Leader Scott McNulty.
The application also provides access to all of Wharton’s social media profiles, including Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and the Wharton blog.
Some say the app redirects users to the website so often that using it is not much different from simply viewing the Wharton website.
“It’s kind of pointless,” said Wharton sophomore Jayla Hood. “It has all these sections, but nine out of ten times when you click something, it closes the app and opens Safari.”
Wharton sophomore Ashi Okonneh added, “One of the reasons I’d use an app is because I can’t access the Internet … it’d be more beneficial if more things were accessible on the app itself.”
One useful feature of the app, said Okonneh, is the Google Maps feature which displays Wharton buildings on both the Penn campus and its San Francisco campus.
Because Penn’s buildings are often concentrated based on what school they belong to, students of one school may be unfamiliar with the buildings of another.
“If you need to go to Fagin or [David Rittenhouse Labratory] and you don’t know where it is, you pull it up on your phone, and you’re good to go,” Okonneh said.
Despite the app’s shortcomings, he said it’s evident that Wharton is attempting to be more creative with its communication with students.
“They’re constantly trying to innovate. It’s one way Wharton is trying to advance its name,” he added.
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