Wharton West Celebrates Fifth Anniversary West Coast Campus Attracts Students From Around the World
The Wharton West campus in San Francisco will celebrate its fifth anniversary this coming school year. The first permanent location outside Philadelphia in Wharton's 120-year history, Wharton West was designed to give Wharton a significant presence in the hub of technological and economic activity on the West Coast, as well as to bring Wharton closer to business communities in Asia.
The Wharton West campus offers not only the MBA Program for Executives — the first degree program offered beyond Wharton’s main campus in Philadelphia — but also Executive Education programs and a wide variety of events, including this past year: an international leadership conference; a Dean's Lecture Series; workshops for 125 high-tech executives as part of the Supernova Conference; a free one-day Wharton seminar for business journalists; and a reception with alumnus Jon M. Huntsman.
Wharton West Focuses on MBA for Executives
Wharton West's main program is the MBA Program for Executives, which offers the same program, faculty, and degree as Wharton's top-ranked MBA program. Designed for working executives in the Western region, the programs at Wharton West have the same admissions requirements, offer the same curriculum, and are taught by the same Wharton faculty as programs based on the main campus in Philadelphia.
Most students in the MBA Program for Executives come from the Bay Area, but many commute from greater distances. Current students travel from such places as Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Portland, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Reno, Denver, and even Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Two students, whose companies transferred them overseas, are commuting from Mumbai, India and Seoul, South Korea.
Occupying the top floor of the historic Folger Building, the Wharton West Center was renovated in 2001 to be functionally similar to Jon M. Huntsman Hall in Philadelphia. The advanced facilities include two 60-seat, tiered classrooms; group study rooms; dining space; and faculty and administrative offices.
Wharton’s classrooms in both Philadelphia and San Francisco were designed with faculty input to maximize learning. They are connected to one another and the world through Internet2, making video conferencing available from every study room. Wharton’s technological innovations include teaching tools such as the Wharton lectern, which allows professors to access customized simulation software, files, presentations, and personal settings from any Wharton classroom, and other research tools and computer learning simulations that are now licensed by more than 35 other universities.
Wharton West Looks to the Future
Wharton West just graduated its third class in the MBA for Executives program, bringing the total number of West Coast Wharton MBA graduates to 215. The students came from a range of industries, including 18% from outside California. They have an average of 11 years of work experience, an average age of 34, average GMAT scores of 699, and more than 49% have advanced degrees, including MDs, JDs, and PhDs.
Wharton West also provides a wide range of Executive Education programs on the West Coast. Varying in length from three days to several weeks, these sessions apply practical knowledge and research insight to critical business issues, including such areas as strategy, marketing, leadership and management, and finance and accounting. Wharton also can organize programs at another site, customized to the needs of specific companies.
“Wharton’s vital presence on the West Coast continues to grow and deepen,” reports Leonard Lodish, vice dean for Wharton West. “Nearly 9,000 Wharton alumni live and work in the region, and the addition of a West Coast campus has given them a place to continue their business education, network with fellow alumni and up-and-coming talent, and benefit from ongoing conferences and events.”
Wharton currently has more than 8,000 alumni in the Western U.S., more than 3,600 in Asia, and nearly 200 in Australia. “We established a campus on the West Coast due to the strong belief that West Coast business executives would be well served by the option to pursue a robust, full-curriculum Wharton MBA without the need to cross coasts,” says Patrick Harker, dean of the Wharton School.
“Five years later, we now know that our decision was the right one because of the successful students we’ve graduated, and the impressive executives who enter our programs.”
