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New Innovations
to Undergraduate
Curriculum
In fall 2004, Wharton undergrads will
have new opportunities to experience business
in practice. Three curricular
innovations are being added:
a business simulation addition to the core marketing course, a research pilot
program, and a firm-specific
consulting project. The new
programs are outcomes of
Wharton's recently completed
curriculum review.
Widely recognized as the
best undergraduate business program, Wharton's
curriculum blends liberal
arts with core business concepts, a combination that
gives students a wider understanding of the social
and cultural issues today's
businesses face. The recent
curriculum review looked
at ways to improve this
undergraduate experience,
bringing together two committees, an external one
that consisted of deans from
Harvard, Princeton, and the
University of Michigan, and
an internal task force that
brought together nine faculty members from a variety
of Wharton departments, to
make recommendations.
Barbara E. Kahn, vice
dean and director of the
Undergraduate Division
and the Dorothy Silberberg
Professor of Marketing, says
these curricular additions
strengthen and enliven the
School's already ambitious
offerings. The business
simulation component to
the core undergraduate marketing course, for instance,
will bring undergraduates
into teams that will manage
a firm, making key marketing strategy decisions.
"One of things we think
differentiates the Wharton
undergraduate learning experience from other kinds of
learning would be this experiential learning opportunity,
that is, something outside of
the traditional lecture/media mode," Kahn says.
The new research pilot
program pairs a student
one-on-one with a faculty
member in a semester-long
research program. The "field
challenge" program, to be
piloted this fall, will take
teams of undergraduates
out into the business world.
Working with a faculty advisor, the teams will come
up with solutions for individual businesses.
"Wharton undergrads
are an incredibly bright
and talented group. They
are very eager and work
very hard," says Kahn, who
became the division's vice
dean in 2003 and teaches
Introduction to Marketing
to between 400 and 500
students each semester it
is offered. "They are here
for a longer period of time
than the MBAs, so you
can have more of a personal relationship with them.
It's a really nice opportunity to work with them.
You feel like you can really
make a difference."
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