General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAs a Penn Graduate, former Faculty Member, and lifelong Philadelphian,
please allow me to make a couple statements concerning the so-called Republican nominee for President of the United States:
I was at Penn for a total of eleven years, four as a doctoral candidate and seven as a clinical assistant professor. During that time occurred the rise of one Donald Trump in New York and then of course, the rest of the "civilized" planet.
Of course he was mentioned as a Penn student in his biographies... pardon me, his WHARTON "pedigree" was mentioned. It was often stated in the media that he graduated at the top of his class. The story circulating throughout the University was that that was untrue. I will tell you exactly where I heard these things: since Wharton had no Friday classes, something the Dental School had without question, there was a big party every Thursday night during the semester on the huge terrace between Graduate Towers A (Nichols House) and Graduate Towers B (no donor at the time, thus no naming). There, graduate students could meet, mingle, and often get "lucky" since people were so pent-up with academic fear and frustration, the only way they could get it out was to have indiscriminate sex with the first reasonable person they'd meet. What an era...but I digress.
I knew some Wharton people because a few had followed with me from my undergraduate institution, and they knew people who knew Trump personally. Everything you think you perceive about him is true. No one who knew him then had one good thing to say about him and believe me, it was not jealousy. No, the Whartonites respected economic and business success no matter what the avenue or the participation in the "lucky sperm club brigade". Suffice it to say that he was apparently an insufferable prig (not quite the word but you get it) and he was admitted because of his connections to various members of the staff of the school via his father. His work ethic was that of an academic minimalist and he was not a little hedonistic even by the standards back then. He would constantly do what we used to call the "Babe Ruth" pickup routine: one takes big swings and strikes out a lot but occasionally he hits a home run and that's what everyone remembers him for.
Unlike Bill Clinton who was talked about favorably at Georgetown for years after he left his undergradaute program, Trump was talked about in the exact opposite fashion.
And that's what I know from the olden days at Penn.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,564 posts)Squinch
(50,935 posts)I understand that he doesn't have the Wharton MBA, which is what he tries to convince everyone he has.
But is the undergraduate degree a regular undergraduate degree in some finance-related major and therefore awarded by Wharton? Or is there more to it than that?
Like, is it that if he went to Penn and was, say, an Econ major, his diploma says Wharton on it? Or is there more to it?
PCIntern
(25,518 posts)harder than the MBA program in terms of expectations.
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,853 posts)... his way through it.
Squinch
(50,935 posts)PCIntern
(25,518 posts)the students work very very hard and sweat a lot. The MBA students less so.
Squinch
(50,935 posts)why would anyone know the difference between two programs unless they are applying to programs?
But thanks for the reply!
PCIntern
(25,518 posts)Demit
(11,238 posts)She said that an older grad told her if you can't graduate at the top of the class, don't bother knocking yourself out studying if you're only going to end up in the middle. You'll still have the credential of an MBA from Wharton. It was the late 70s, true, but those people partied intensely (and still got their MBAs).
brush
(53,760 posts)Pachamama
(16,886 posts)From the undergraduate program at Wharton. Great program that allows you to essentially have the base classes of the MBA program and some lucky few sub matriculate and manage to get their BS and MBA in a 5 year total program.
Know because I went there.
Siwsan
(26,257 posts)As a side note, I was a 'short term' Philadelphian - I lived on Broad Street while I was stationed at the Naval Ship Yard. I absolutely fell in love with Philadelphia and regret, to this day, not staying when I left the Navy.
PCIntern
(25,518 posts)volstork
(5,399 posts)Can anyone confirm?
dhol82
(9,352 posts)Will need to do a search to make sure.
dhol82
(9,352 posts)http://www.thedp.com/article/2015/08/donald-trump-wharton-classmates
He does seem to have graduated.
volstork
(5,399 posts)n/t
spooky3
(34,427 posts)Everything I ever read was very positive.
PCIntern
(25,518 posts)Hillary was HATED at school, but Donald was BELOVED!!!
spooky3
(34,427 posts)Gidney N Cloyd
(19,831 posts)"No one who knew him then had one good thing to say about him"
Wednesdays
(17,337 posts)nt
jaxind
(1,074 posts)Trump always wants to see everything from everyone else....well, what about his UPenn transcripts, his tax returns, Melania's immigration records, and his divorce records??!!
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)stories by Thoreau and a joint. Or something.
We might have been watching movies about how you saved the country on that fall day.
One never knows...
pnwmom
(108,973 posts)From Funny or Die.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017396949
PCIntern
(25,518 posts)DFW
(54,330 posts)Though I never went farther than undergrad (recruited for current outfit a year after graduation, never looked back). I must say I somehow missed out on the indiscriminate sex, but did run into a few insufferable types from some of the grad programs.
But I graduated from the same high school (for lack of a better term) as W, so I learned way early about insufferable blowhards.
brooklynite
(94,483 posts)(I went to Penn in the 70s and used to deliver newspapers there).
PCIntern
(25,518 posts)I bet at least by sight.
brooklynite
(94,483 posts)SleeplessinSoCal
(9,107 posts)... for the insidious trashing of Obama's time in three different colleges: Occidental, Columbia, and Harvard Law School. For Mrs Obama to have raised and prepared her son for a meaningful life ought to be celebrated by all, rather than questioned and trashed via conspiracy theories. And one of those conspiracy theory promoters to have an actual hidden from view record who is a scam artist and con man extraordinaire, needs to be exposed from now til doomsday.
RobinA
(9,888 posts)I like that. I was an academic minimalist as well in high school and undergrad. Many years later in grad school I went in the complete opposite direction - royally pissed off if I got an A-.
Big_K
(237 posts)Though I did pick it up after about a year as an undergraduate. Potentially failing Chemistry 101 kicked me in the butt. Am happy I did get straight As in my major and minor - anthropology and religion. Yep, gotta love them "hard" disciplines...