Hometown: Washington, D.C.
Education: Columbia University
Before Wharton: Private Equity
After Wharton: Finance
My Day at a Glance
David Bartlett
My Story About Me
Something magical happens here where you learn you can do more things than you ever thought.
Flexibility with rigor
The curriculum is much more flexible than people think. Yes, there’s a core, but people don’t realize you can waive out of classes. Or you can choose to take classes even if you are familiar with the subject. It’s not a la carte — they want to make sure you don’t have any gaps in your business knowledge — but you can pick and choose where you want to challenge yourself and where you want to review your knowledge.
Risk-free environment
You can try new experiences and can be less afraid of failing. At work, you want to succeed at everything you do because you are being evaluated constantly. Here, if you do a great job and add to the community, that’s great. If not, that’s OK, because it shows that you’re stretching yourself. One of the first things I did was join the crew team, something I wished I had done in college but didn’t. I’m in the Follies cast, and I’m not someone who has previous stage experience. Follies was crazy — especially on Thursday night. You’re on stage the whole time, and everyone is screaming and cheering you on — it’s such a rush. I really felt like if I ever wanted to know what being a celebrity was like, that was it!
A Wharton moment
During Pre-Term, we had a cohort kickball tournament, and I thought my cohort was really good. When we got to the field, I realized every cohort had put as much effort into it and had as much spirit. Everyone had custom T-shirts; everyone had special cheers. But it wasn’t about the kickball. It was about the experience of being part of a team. You get much more out of an experience if you and everyone else puts their all into it. At that moment, I realized that people were here to learn — not just academically, but also from extracurricular activities and from each other. It’s that high level of engagement that’s unique to Wharton.
Diversity in action
In class, we were discussing a case about ice cream in Russia, and we had someone in our cohort who had worked in the Russian consumer-product space. To have that knowledge and have them bring the information to the table was really cool. It’s not just that people have diverse backgrounds; it’s that they’re also willing to share it with you. We’re not just a diverse group, we’re making connections with each other. Just being in a room with different people isn’t enough; you need to learn from it.
More than you ever thought
Something magical happens here where you learn you can do more things than you ever thought. When I was in Follies, for example, sometimes we would be rehearsing 40 to 50 hours a week and I still managed to keep up with my schoolwork. At the time, we were also transitioning Out for Business — I was becoming president — so there was a lot going on. I’ve never been a person who was involved with a lot of things, but I’ve learned that I am much more capable than I ever imagined and that I was underutilizing myself before. It’s actually the biggest challenge at Wharton: There are so many things you want to do, classes you want to take, and people you want to meet, you have to narrow down those opportunities because you don’t have time to do it all.
