Wharton Winter Welcome Weekend

The emotional thrill ride that was Wharton Winter Welcome Weekend (WWWW) came to an end this morning. For two days, about 150 Round 1 admits to the Wharton MBA program, including me, were congratulated and shepherded through various welcoming events.

On Thursday morning, we were officially welcomed to Wharton by senior folks in Wharton administration and were treated to lunch. I was fortunate enough to sit at a table with the Director of Admissions, J.J. Cutler. Most of our talk revolved around sports – baseball and football. After lunch, the admits broke into mini-cohorts – I was assigned to Cohort B. We broke into smaller teams and competed with other teams to use Tinker Toys to build as tall a structure as possible – apparently we’ll be doing stuff like this on the learning team retreat. I reluctantly stepped away from the activities for my CTT Commercialization class at 4pm, had a few slices of pizza at the monthly CTT meeting, and headed into Center City to La Viola for a Healthcare Management (HCM) dinner. After dinner, we went to Ladder 15 for some drinking (15th and Sansome).

On Friday, I attended an information session on Financial Aid in the morning. I then attended industry sessions on healthcare and entrepreneurship before attending a talk on global programs – Global Immersion Program (GIP), Global Consulting Practicum (GCP), and International Exchange Programs, including the Insead program. The best part of the weekend came next: Wharton Live. Admits were treated to 2 stand-up comedy acts, 2 comedy skits (one about Partners Club and the other about the Financial meltdown), a performance by Bateria (a Brazilian drumming group), and 2 songs by the Whartones. One of them was just awesome – it was, surprise, surprise, about the economic recession. I’m trying to figure out what the original song is called…The night’s festivities ended with yet another social at Fado (15th and Locust), where we once again took over the bar.

On Saturday morning, I attended a brunch hosted by the India club at New Delhi restaurant (40th and Chestnut).

It was a fantastic weekend, so much so that I just paid my deposit and enrolled online for the Wharton MBA Class of 2012! I am planning to attend the Spring Welcome Weekend, if only to hear Wharton Live once again.