The Wharton School

For more than 135 years, Wharton has been the place where visionaries, inventors, and trailblazers get their start.

In 1881, American entrepreneur and industrialist Joseph Wharton established the world’s first collegiate school of business at the University of Pennsylvania — a radical idea that revolutionized both business practice and higher education.

Since then, the Wharton School has continued innovating to meet mounting global demand for new ideas, deeper insights, and  transformative leadership. We blaze trails, from the nation’s first collegiate center for entrepreneurship in 1973 to our latest research centers in alternative investments and neuroscience.

Created to serve as the world’s first, finest and most influential business school, Wharton is an academic institution full of potential and without equal. Joseph Wharton’s founding vision of using analytical expertise to produce well-rounded leaders to drive societal progress remains our ethos. As we continue our quest for positive global impact, the Wharton Way serves as our philosophical North Star – rooted in our history of distinctive contributions while also highlighting our immense potential towards an endless pursuit of excellence.