Clusters, Cohorts & Learning Teams
Leadership learning starts with your first-year learning team, where you work with classmates from around the globe to achieve common goals.
At Wharton, we divide your class into four clusters – groups of about 210 students. Each cluster shares faculty, administrative staff, and social and professional activities, creating a smaller community within each Wharton class – a diverse home base of common experience from which you expand to the many professional networks you’ll build at Wharton.
Each cluster is further divided into three cohorts of about 70 students.
- Cluster 1: Cohorts A, B, C
- Cluster 2: Cohorts D, E, F
- Cluster 3: Cohorts G, H, I
- Cluster 4: Cohorts J, K, L
Each cohort moves through much of the core curriculum as a unit, and each cluster shares the same faculty throughout the first year of their academic experience.
Additionally, the cohorts and clusters unite for other, non-academic purposes, including intramural sports competitions, community service activities, and activities that foster a sense of fun and community on campus. Wharton's cohorts and clusters provide a built-in support network: students bring their individual expertise to the group, helping those with different experience and business backgrounds to meet common goals.
Cluster and cohort assignments are made primarily at random while ensuring equal representation of genders, nationality, and work experience. They remain fixed throughout the MBA program.
Learning Team Experience
The learning team model, first developed by Wharton and now emulated by other schools, is central to Wharton's MBA experience. You get the chance to explore different leadership styles in a risk-free training ground that promotes both leadership and collaboration.
The learning team experience starts at the Learning Team Retreat and continues with coaching and mentoring by a Leadership Fellow, participation in the Foundations of Leadership course, and projects in core courses throughout the first year.
- Learning Team Retreat — The two-day, off-campus, team-building retreat caps the Pre-Term experience. Here, first-year learning team members meet for the first time and begin to explore the team dynamics that will shape their first year.
- Coaching and Mentoring — Each learning team is assigned a Leadership Fellow, a second-year student who mentors, facilitates quarterly feedback sessions amongst team members, and helps solve team conflicts. Leadership Fellows also coach first-years in their leadership development.
- Foundations of Leadership and Teamwork — A continuation of the learning team experience, this core course focuses on horizontal and vertical leadership, team building and performance, and team leadership. This required course examines concepts and builds skills through team projects, class discussions, problem solving, case studies, and role playing.
