What’s Wrong with Wharton?

In the following article published by the Wall Street Journal, the author implicitly conveys that the University of the Pennsylvania business school, Wharton, is losing its prestigious status as a top business school.  The author correlates the school status to the number of applications in certain year.  Initially, the article states that the applications to the University of Pennsylvania business school have dropped 12% in the past 4 years.  The university’s college of business received a total of 6,034 applications for2013.  Notably from the chart below, academic year 2010 had » 7000 applicants, academic years 2011 and 2012 had » 6,500 applicants, and academic year 2013 had 6036 applicants.  This data is taken over the span of 4 years.  When I calculate the mean and the standard deviation for this data sample, they are roughly 6,500 applicants and 395 applicants, respectively.  Admittedly, the data over the past 4 years shows a downward trend in the number of applications received by Wharton; the 2013 application number is still within one standard deviation of the mean.  

The article also talks about Wharton’s reputation as a top school acting as a farm system for the major leaguers in Wall Street, but the financial crisis significantly impacted that relationship.  The chart below shows the job-seeking Wharton MBA students entering the financial services.  The sample is taken over 8 years and when I calculate the mean and the standard deviation, I find the mean to be 21% and the standard deviation to be 5%.  Again, the data shows a downward trend, but last year’s percentage is still within one standard deviation.

                                      

When I analyze the two charts above, I find it difficult to correlate or conclude that Wharton is losing its academic status as a top business school in the US.  In order for the article to strengthen that argument, larger samples needed to be evaluated.  In addition, data of other schools where a drop in applications led to the school demise as an MBA powerhouse would have been more convincing.  Moreover, it needs to include more data about parameters such as tuition hikes and its impact on pursuing private schools and application numbers. 

In this case, the article mentions that Wharton and other top schools had workarounds by targeting technology giants like Amazon and Google.  Hence, led to increase in applications this year.  For example, Harvard and Stanford schools of business reported 3.9% and 5.8% increase, respectively. Yet, gains can be a result from recovery efforts.  Colombia business school showed 6.6% increase, recovering from a 19% decline last year.  Furthermore, another graph showing application numbers vs. quality of schools would have had a great utility in understanding the idea and how it impacts academic status.  In another article written by Forbes Magazine, (http://www.forbes.com/sites/mattsymonds/2011/08/03/getting-the-mba-admissions-edge) Wharton and Stanford business schools had a 10 to 15% decline in applications between 2009 and 2011.  However, they still could have filled their programs many times over, but this would conflict with their ideology of quality over quantity. 

In conclusion, the article did not articulate the data to show that a drop in application numbers would result in diminishing academic status.  The data shown is within one standard deviation; hence, additional data is needed in order to correlate such parameters.  Furthermore, the data provided is based on a very small sample of evidence and it is just a snapshot in time, therefore deeming it not credible. 



Links: 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mattsymonds/2011/08/03/getting-the-mba-admissions-edge

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304795804579099522033254380#printMode