Fact check: How selective was Wharton School admission in the 1960s?

1. Summary of the results

Wharton School's admission in the 1960s was highly selective and deliberately restrictive. The school was actively working to decrease its enrollment, with undergraduate enrollment dropping to 30% by 1960 ^[1]. The student body was notably homogeneous, with an overwhelming male majority - fewer than half a dozen women were admitted in the early 1960s ^[2].

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

• The selectivity was part of a larger strategic transformation by the University of Pennsylvania to shift Wharton's image from a professional school to an Ivy League research institution ^[1].
• For comparison, modern admission rates are:

24% for MBA programs ^[3]

9% for undergraduate programs ^[4]

• Today's admission process considers multiple factors beyond academic performance, including essays, course difficulty, and demonstrated leadership ^[4], which represents a significant evolution from the 1960s approach.

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The question about selectivity alone misses crucial contextual factors:

• The gender-based discrimination that was prevalent in the 1960s significantly impacted the true "selectivity" of the school ^[2]
• The decreased enrollment numbers ^[1] might give a false impression of pure merit-based selectivity, when in fact they were part of a deliberate institutional strategy
• Those who benefit from portraying 1960s Wharton as purely merit-based might include:

Alumni from that era who want to maintain the prestige of their degrees

The institution itself, which might prefer to downplay historical gender discrimination

• Current administrators who want to emphasize the school's long-standing prestigious reputation