Early Career Applicants: The Wharton Welcome Mat is Out

Wharton’s Admission Director Thomas Caleel announced in today’s Accepted.com chat that Wharton is changing its approach to "early-career applicants." Here is the exchange:

Linda Abraham (Sep 8, 2005 10:16:18 AM)
Thomas, so you’re planning to build on what’s great about Wharton admissions, but could you mention a couple of the changes?

ThomasCaleelWharton (Sep 8, 2005 10:16:27 AM)
One area we will be looking at closely this year is early career- that is, applicants with 0-2 years of work experience.

Linda Abraham (Sep 8, 2005 10:17:04 AM)
Does that mean you will be giving early-career applicants a more serious look?

ThomasCaleelWharton (Sep 8, 2005 10:18:01 AM)
It means that we are encouraging them to apply, and giving them support in our office. We will be training our AdComms to look for specific traits and exceptional qualities that these candidates possess.

 Another example, also from today’s chat:

priya (Sep 8, 2005 10:22:09 AM)
My question to Thomas – can you please elaborate on the applicants with less work-ex…do you mean to say that you want some percentage of the class with early career stage applicants?

ThomasCaleelWharton (Sep 8, 2005 10:24:22 AM)
Priya, I mean that I want to encourage them to apply. We have no set percentage for any group. It’s just that there is a perception in the marketplace that business schools are not open to candidates direct from undergrad, or with only 2 years of work experience. Wharton is making a commitment to reach out to this demographic and say that we want to hear from them.

 And then again:

sandman (Sep 8, 2005 10:24:09 AM)
Thomas: many people say that Wharton is a school for more experienced applicants, is this true? do you look unfavorably at candidates with less than 5 years of experience?

ThomasCaleelWharton (Sep 8, 2005 10:25:10 AM)
Sandman, experience is relative. Many undergrads have tremendous leadership and internship experiences. The key issue is this: why is now the right time? That is a critical question for any applicant to answer…

Those of you in the "early career applicant" group who are interested in pursuing an MBA now have another address to which you can send your application. Wharton wants to hear form you. 

We should post the full transcript late next week. You’ll hear about it here when you can review it in its entirety.