Wharton vs. Harvard Business School

Where MBAs Go:

Almost alone among the elite business schools, Wharton pulled off a near miracle in helping its Class of 2009 graduates find jobs in financial services. While most schools reported substantial declines in the number of MBAs going into finance, Wharton more than held its own. Some 42.5% of its Class of 2009 landed jobs in financial services. It was down from 47.7% a year earlier, but the fact that it was that high tells you something about the quality of Wharton’s recruiting machine. In comparison, Harvard sent 31% of its ‘ 09 grads into financial services, down from a peak of 45% a year earlier. That’s a 14 percentage point slide at Harvard, versus a 5.2 percentage point decline at Wharton. It still doesn’t take away the sting of having more than a third of your graduating class without jobs, but it’s also some of the best evidence we’ve ever seen of Wharton’s amazing strength in finance.

Generally, there are remarkable similarities in these recruiter profiles, with most industries separated by just a few percentage points. The exceptions: more Harvard MBAs go into manufacturing, 10% vs. Wharton’s 2%, and more Harvard MBAs go the non-profit route, 7% vs. Wharton’s 3%. There’s something else worth saying as well: Wharton is among the best examples of a school that provides exceptional transparency in career services. Current and historical numbers on hiring and employment are easily accessible on its website, giving applicants great comfort that a very good MBA job with a top-flight firm awaits them at graduation from Wharton.

Wharton, for example, reports that during the 2009-2009 recruiting season, 227 companies participated in events facilitated by its recruiting office, 1,623 jobs were posted by employers on Wharton’s jobs board, and 243 companies interviewed its students on campus. This is a world-class career services group.

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The list below of Wharton’s major employers in 2009 and 2008 provide just a mere glimpse of the turmoil in the MBA market as the recession took hold of the economy. Goldman Sachs went from hiring 29 Wharton MBAs in 2008 to just 9 in 2009. Lehman Brothers, which hired 15 in 2008, didn’t show up due to its bankruptcy. Even Google pulled back, recruiting only one or two Wharton MBAs in 2009, from 11 the year before. We can’t compare these numbers against Harvard because HBS does not make public these statistics. It’s just another reminder of the transparency at Wharton and the lack of openness at Harvard.

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