Wharton Kids Club/Partners Club: A Student Perspective
Gareth Keane (WG'10)
Issue date: 9/28/09 Section: Perspectives
One of the really neat things about Wharton is the sense of community that develops between groups of individuals with common backgrounds and interests. This gets concretely expressed in the variety of different clubs and organizations that the student body gets to join. These student clubs also make room for partners and families, and two of the clubs that take most of their memberships from a demographic slightly outside your MBA classmates are the Wharton Partners Club and The Wharton Kids Club.
From admissions office statistics, over 20% of the MBA class of 2010 came to Wharton with a partner, and 5% have children. I'm sure the numbers will be similar for the class of 2011. As a result, there is a vibrant, diverse community of partners and families that come along to experience the highs and lows of the business school journey.
Members of the two clubs have provided their perspective for the Wharton Journal, but this time around I was asked if I'd like to take the opportunity to write about how these two clubs impact life as an MBA student - sort of an outsiders-insider view of how the Partners and Kids clubs have impacted my own personal Wharton experience.
For starters, the two clubs had a huge bearing on me coming to Wharton - my family and I visited Wharton and a few of its competitors on the east coast when I was considering applying to business school. Our visit to Philadelphia coincided with a Wharton Kids Club event, so my wife and daughter were invited along to participate in the event and spent a really enjoyable day with the members at the time.
Flying back from our school visits all I heard was about how great the Kids Club members and Philadelphia had been. Not so much about Boston or New York. For readers who are married, or in long-term relationships, you can probably see some danger signals already.
Once admitted, we came east again to Wharton's Welcome Weekend in the spring of 2008. We met some couples who have been firm friends ever since, and who were another big factor in convincing us to make the move to Philadelphia.
Since coming to Wharton the two clubs and their members have also been a big part of our lives. My family arrived knowing no one, but discovered that we had a ready-made circle of people in the same situation. Some of my wife's closest friends in Philadelphia are other parents who are also juggling the demands of a Wharton MBA student with the demands of toddlers. Having a network to fall back on and share the experience with has been invaluable, and my wife being able to laugh or cry with other people in the same situations has helped to keep her sane!
I'm confident that the friendships my wife and I have formed with other Wharton families will survive over the years and prove to be every bit as rewarding and enjoyable as the friendships I have built with MBA students. From my perspective, if there hadn't been a partners club or kids club I would have been first in line to get them started - they have been invaluable.
From admissions office statistics, over 20% of the MBA class of 2010 came to Wharton with a partner, and 5% have children. I'm sure the numbers will be similar for the class of 2011. As a result, there is a vibrant, diverse community of partners and families that come along to experience the highs and lows of the business school journey.
Members of the two clubs have provided their perspective for the Wharton Journal, but this time around I was asked if I'd like to take the opportunity to write about how these two clubs impact life as an MBA student - sort of an outsiders-insider view of how the Partners and Kids clubs have impacted my own personal Wharton experience.
For starters, the two clubs had a huge bearing on me coming to Wharton - my family and I visited Wharton and a few of its competitors on the east coast when I was considering applying to business school. Our visit to Philadelphia coincided with a Wharton Kids Club event, so my wife and daughter were invited along to participate in the event and spent a really enjoyable day with the members at the time.
Flying back from our school visits all I heard was about how great the Kids Club members and Philadelphia had been. Not so much about Boston or New York. For readers who are married, or in long-term relationships, you can probably see some danger signals already.
Once admitted, we came east again to Wharton's Welcome Weekend in the spring of 2008. We met some couples who have been firm friends ever since, and who were another big factor in convincing us to make the move to Philadelphia.
Since coming to Wharton the two clubs and their members have also been a big part of our lives. My family arrived knowing no one, but discovered that we had a ready-made circle of people in the same situation. Some of my wife's closest friends in Philadelphia are other parents who are also juggling the demands of a Wharton MBA student with the demands of toddlers. Having a network to fall back on and share the experience with has been invaluable, and my wife being able to laugh or cry with other people in the same situations has helped to keep her sane!
I'm confident that the friendships my wife and I have formed with other Wharton families will survive over the years and prove to be every bit as rewarding and enjoyable as the friendships I have built with MBA students. From my perspective, if there hadn't been a partners club or kids club I would have been first in line to get them started - they have been invaluable.
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