Welcome to Wharton 54, one of our school's premier parties. Almost as popular as the infamous pantless Walnut Walk event in October, Wharton 54 attracts students eager to drink bad mixed drinks and wear something stupid. This year's theme? Jungle Boogie.
Yup, Jungle Boogie. Each cohort had to elect a shot boy and shot girl. The lucky winners had to dress up in skanktastic leopard print getups and look sexy (or at least try to). The rest of the population wears what it wants, but it usually involves stuff that covers less than 25% of the body.
The event is sponsored by Out for Business (or "Out4Biz"), Wharton's gay, lesbian, and bisexual professional and social club. Here's what the club has to say for itself:
We strive to continue to build an open and accepting environment for all Wharton students, and count several straight allies among our members. Out4Biz provides an opportunity to network with other gay, lesbian, and bisexual professionals and share our professional interests and goals while connecting with companies across the globe. We interact with other business schools, Wharton alumni, and the communities of Penn and Philadelphia to impact our community beyond Wharton. And we host fabulous parties!
That they do.
At first, I wasn't so pleased. We ended up waiting about 30 minutes to get in the door, all the while griping about how the event's organizers didn't pay enough attention in our OPIM (Operations and Information) classes. We spent a few classes on line control. Well I didn't do very well in that class either. When we got into the club, the heavy crowds and smoke reminded me of the massive dance clubs in NYC that I tried so hard to avoid. Since drinks were free, the lines were competitive and enormous. Not only, but you competed for drinks with a group that is ambitious and willing to use its elbows. Nasty stuff.
However, when drinks were procured my roommate and I had a fun time seeing and being seen. My usual outfit involves t-shirts and sneakers, so it's always fun for me to get all dolled up and skeezy.
This is what Craig Elbert, staff writer for the Wharton Journal, had to say about the experience:
One of the primary incentives for attending a school like Wharton is the
opportunity to build a valuable network of contacts in the business world. Entering school, it is easy to imagine that this new network will be composed of sophisticated peers who respect you for your business acumen, academic prowess, and work ethic.
...Instead, for many the lesson is that costumes and excessive amounts of alcohol are the currency of social capital. As can be seen in Figure 1.0, alcohol consumption drives significant increases in valuable social capital interactions, albeit with diminishing marginal returns after a certain level. In addition, as observed at many themed parties, racy costumes serve to drive even greater social capital transactions, thereby shifting the curve upward at all consumption levels. (Here's the whole article: Acquiring social capital through a transvestite Paul Bunyan costume - Perspectives)
But as you can see, students definitely did a lot of investing in social capital by dressing up in outrageous getups and then drinking drinking drinking.
This was not the only afro that night. For some reason, every other Wharton student, male or female, keeps an afro wig in storage for events like this.
The closest I had was my Amy Winehouse bouffant, and that's more of an alcoholic rats nest look than a '70s rats nest.
But the best costume by far was the guy dressed up as a banana. His girlfriend must have a very very good sense of humor.
The gorilla with beer costume wasn't so shabby either.
Welcome to Wharton 54, one of our school's premier parties. Almost as popular as the infamous pantless Walnut Walk event in October, Wharton 54 attracts students eager to drink bad mixed drinks and wear something stupid. This year's theme? Jungle Boogie.
At first, I wasn't so pleased. We ended up waiting about 30 minutes to get in the door, all the while griping about how the event's organizers didn't pay enough attention in our OPIM (Operations and Information) classes. We spent a few classes on line control. Well I didn't do very well in that class either. When we got into the club, the heavy crowds and smoke reminded me of the massive dance clubs in NYC that I tried so hard to avoid. Since drinks were free, the lines were competitive and enormous. Not only, but you competed for drinks with a group that is ambitious and willing to use its elbows. Nasty stuff.
However, when drinks were procured my roommate and I had a fun time seeing and being seen. My usual outfit involves t-shirts and sneakers, so it's always fun for me to get all dolled up and skeezy.
But as you can see, students definitely did a lot of investing in social capital by dressing up in outrageous getups and then drinking drinking drinking.
But the best costume by far was the guy dressed up as a banana. His girlfriend must have a very very good sense of humor.
On March 29th, Wharton's Fashion & Luxury Industries Club presented the Second Annual Charity Fashion Show. You know, because business school and fashion have so much in common. Well fashion is technically a business, but you wouldn't say that it's very businessy. It's an industry that's not so comfortable with hiring MBAs.
Firstly, the outfits featured in the show were all from designers who participate in socially responsible practices: environmental or otherwise. Designers include:
