Welcome to another edition of Trivia Tuesday, our weekly examination of the programs and policies that help to distinguish the leading business schools. This week we turn our attention to the first experience that matriculating students have on Wharton’s campus: the Wharton pre-term program.
Wharton offers a required month-long pre-term program before the start of first-year classes. Students choose from among several levels of coursework in financial accounting, microeconomics and statistics, designed to bring all students up to the required level of understanding in these areas before fall classes begin. Placement in the pre-term courses is by self-registration; Wharton provides a CD-Rom with self-assessment tests in early summer so students may gauge the appropriate course levels for which to register. Wharton is very clear that it is the student’s responsibility to ensure an adequate level of mathematical understanding before starting classes; students who have less than a college level calculus background in mathematics are responsible for acquiring this background before arriving at Wharton. While the pre-term courses, including several optional math review courses, provide a review of quantitative subject areas, they, too, assume familiarity with college calculus.
For students who already have strong backgrounds in these fields, Wharton offers short refresher courses for the waiver exams the school offers in all but three core subjects. In addition to these refresher courses, Wharton offers special courses and seminars during pre-term on the history of business, career management, languages, communication skills and other topics. Few other business schools offer pre-term activities in such a wide range of fields. Wharton uses their online auction system, also used for elective course and job interview sign-ups, to manage enrollment in optional pre-term activities. Students use the pre-term auction as a kind of trial run of the bidding system and report that they appreciate learning bidding strategies before course and interview auctions begin.
For more information on Wharton’s pre-term or the pre-term structure at other MBA programs, be sure to check out the Academics section of the Clear Admit School Guides!
