Patricia Tang WG26’s admission to Wharton’s Moelis Advance Access Program changed her career trajectory. Tang, who began her MBA this fall, had planned to follow a traditional path to business school after graduating from Northwestern University: She would spend a few years as a consultant before pursuing her graduate education. But the program, which enables students to defer admission to Wharton’s full-time MBA program while they work for two to four years after college, “motivated me to think about different paths and what I truly wanted to do,” she says.
The Moelis program, which selected its first class in 2018, was established with philanthropic support from Ken Moelis W80 WG81 and Julie Taffet Moelis W81 to offer students a sense of professional license early in their careers. “It gives someone who thought they had to check a box for their business-school application a different opportunity,” Ken Moelis explains. In a sign of quick growth for the program, Tang and other Moelis Fellows — as students in the program are known — make up about one-tenth of the School’s newest full-time MBA class. “Part of the appeal is the assurance that you can do the things you care about. For some, it’s an opportunity to gamble, because they know they have their Wharton acceptance,” says program director Jake Kohler.
Tang’s self-reflection following her admission to the program ultimately led her to transition from a role in consulting to a post at online clothing reseller ThredUp, whose social mission fit with her own ambitions. “I was starting to think about how I could pursue a more impact-focused career in parallel with the fact that I had the MBA in my back pocket,” Tang explains. “The MBA was the push I needed to pursue my passion for sustainability.” Her product-management job at ThredUp also provided foundational on-the-ground experience at an up-and-coming organization, which affirmed for her that she wanted to fund rising businesses herself someday. Now while at Wharton, Tang is also an investor at Virta Ventures, a venture capital firm founded by Russell Sprole WG11 that backs companies working on climate-technology solutions.
Read the full story at Wharton Magazine.
— Braden Kelner
Posted: October 28, 2024