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This is just my opinion. Everything that follows below is my own speculation based on my inferences from the publicly available facts and from Musk's own statements in interviews. I write as a big fan of Musk and having read a great deal about him and watched many interviews.I do not find it plausible that Musk's decision to leave Stanford in order to start Zip2 was the result of a spontaneous epiphany that occurred to him a mere 48 hours after setting foot on the Stanford campus.It would seem to me far more plausible that he was planning to ditch the Stanford PhD as he was filling out the application, a year before (as he was coming to the end of his bachelor's degrees at University of Pennsylvania).If you know Musk's background, you can see why this is more plausible, and taking a look at Musk aged 13-23 helps to put this in context:Musk has said that already as a kid in South Africa he knew he wanted to end up in the US by early adulthood, because that's where all the interesting and innovative technology seemed to be happening, and he already had a sense as a kid that that's what he wanted to be a part of. He has also said that he originally wanted to get a US passport through his mother (her father was American), but because she had been born in Canada, the link was broken.Therefore, the best Musk could do would be to get a Canadian passport, go to a good Canadian university, and use that as a strategic stepping stone into the US. In this respect, he demonstrated already at 17 the sort of pragmatic resourcefulness and opportunistic thinking (not in a bad sense, just in the literal sense of strategic 'means-to-an-end' planning) that is the hallmark of most great entrepreneurs (and every self-made billionaire): getting the paperwork for Canadian passports from the embassy, getting his mother to fill it out (thus making his mom a Canadian citizen), and then -- on that basis of maternal citizenship -- submitting his own passport application; and then submitting an application to a Canadian university as a Canadian citizen.I believe that 17-year-old Musk absolutely knew, as he was applying for a Canadian passport and at the same time to a Canadian university (Queen's), that the whole point of this was that it represented the practically quickest route, albeit indirect, of getting into the US. (Far, far easier to do this from Canada than from South Africa, which was still under apartheid and therefore boycotted/blacklisted by the US and most countries at that time).Just two years after getting his Canadian passport and studying in Canada, he had transferred over to a US university (University of Pennsylvania). After getting his BA in physics from UPenn, he then buys even more time in the US (one more year) by stacking on another bachelor's degree, this time in economics.So he is coming to the end of his time at UPenn (which he's already extended by a year), and realizes that he needs some pretext for (a) relocating to California and so having access to the people, capital, partners and resources needed to achieve his goals in technology; and for (b) hanging out in the US for at least another year or so.The benefit of a Stanford acceptance letter is that it gave him that pretext for moving to and sticking around in California for at least a year or so until his company would start taking off and he could get the connections and credibility in place to support his case towards US citizenship. Musk said in an interview that he went to his Stanford supervisor shortly after arriving and said (paraphrasing): "Actually, I'd like to start a company, but I'd like to know that I could come back to Stanford in case it doesn't work out." This suggests that Musk also had the savvy to keep the Stanford pretext an open-ended and valid one for at least a year into his California arrival.Summary answer to your question: Musk, in my opinion, left Stanford after just two days because that was the plan all along. The whole point of getting a Stanford acceptance letter-- and then deferring it on his second day-- was to buy him more time in the US and give him a pretext for starting his career in Silicon Valley.Any person who has ever made a billion dollars is a pragmatic opportunist (a "schemer," for lack of a euphemism), and makes calculated life moves like this all the time. This is not inconsistent with being a good person, having a vast imagination, or creating great value for others. It is simply a personality trait which is evident in most entrepreneurs, and plain to see in anyone who has ever managed to go from zero to a billion. Why would Musk be any exception to this? He isn't. He is more successful than most entrepreneurs because he combines that same pragmatism/resourcefulness/opportunism with extremely high intelligence and exceptional memory applied to wide reading and disciplined study; highly advanced aptitude and knowledge in some of the most profitable skill-sets today (computer programming/science/tech); a fanatical work ethic; emotional resilience in the face of setbacks and challenges; and a genuine desire to advance the human species through some truly game-changing and breakthrough initiatives.My interpretation of his story, as written above, seems to me far more plausible than the idea of his having a genuinely spontaneous epiphany on his second day at Stanford. Seen in the light of his background and statements from various interviews, it's actually the only thing that makes sense.The more interesting question, I think, is how did Elon's brother, Kimbal Musk -- who also had only just got his hands on a Canadian passport through the same method as his brother -- manage to come into the US and hang out with his brother for all those years to help him launch Zip2? Kimbal didn't have a US university acceptance letter; he didn't have that same 'residency backdoor' avaliable to him. It seems unlikely that Elon-- as a 24-year-old Canadian just starting his first (then-)dinky company, and who himself was in the US on tenuous temporary grounds -- would have the clout at that point to get his brother a H-1B visa to work at his company.

Wharton Business School: All you need to knowThe Wharton School falls under the University of Pennsylvania. It was founded in the year 1881. Its origin was marked by the charity that came in the form of the donation from Joseph Wharton; an American industrialist who was involved in manufacturing and mining. Hence, it was named after him. It is a given fact that Wharton is the US’ first collegiate school of business. In addition, it forms a part of the M7 group of elite MBA-programs. Under this very proud group, Booth, Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, MIT Sloan, and Stanford are mentioned. In addition, Wharton is hardly a studies-only school. This is because it provides students with several extracurricular activities. These activities include sports, clubs and other student-initiated events.LocationThe Wharton School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is about 160 km to the south-west of New York. Philadelphia is a heritage site and marks the history of the great American Revolution. Seven Fortune 1000 companies are located in Philadelphia. Therefore, there is no surprise in the fact that Philadelphia is now an economic and education hub combined with the growth of universities in the city. Wharton students will get to satiate on world cuisine at Philly’s eclectic restaurants. In addition, there are several recreation options such as running, cycling, and riding trails at Fairmount Park, and fields and courts at Penn Park. In terms of the weather, the summers are usually hot and humid, the fall and spring are mild, whereas the winters are cold with varied snowfall. It turns to freeze temperatures by the first weeks of November and April. In addition, it rains here almost throughout the year, about 12 days a month.CampusThe University of Pennsylvania is a private Ivy League university. It was established in 1740 as America’s first-ever university. The campus pans across 300-acre and is located in West Philadelphia. The Wharton campus falls on Locust Walk. Wharton’s Philadelphia campus contains four buildings—the Huntsman Hall (main building), Steinberg-Hall Dietrich Hall (academic departments), Vance Hall (graduate programs, administrative offices), and Lauder-Fischer Hall (international business teaching and research). Wharton’s San Francisco campus was established in 2001 for MBA students. On-campus housing facilities have a studio and two-bedroom apartments whereas the Off-campus housing is for the Center City as well as the University City. Wharton Students can commute on foot, by bike, and on public transportation network of buses, trolleys, and trains.RankingFT places Wharton MBA at the third rank and Business Insider places it on the top rank for the efficiency of its MBA programs. US News and World Report refer to Wharton’s MBA as the best MBA program in the US. In addition, QS rates it as the fifth best b-school in the world.FacultyThe Wharton faculty comprises of 225 members and lead 20 interdisciplinary research centers. Wharton’s professors have been Nobel Prize winners as well as researchers on industrial relations, marketing, insurance, pensions and retirement, finance, and administration.ProgramsWharton’s MBA programs are the full-time MBA, MBA for executives, joint degree programs (MBA/MA) in international management and arts and sciences, MBA/law program, and MBA/public administration. It also has pre-college programs, undergraduate programs in economics, and dual-degree programs in international studies and business, management and technology, and life sciences and management. Among doctoral programs are accounting, management, applied economics, ethics and legal studies, marketing, and statistics. Executive programs feature for both individual candidates and organizations. Wharton runs the Wharton-INSEAD Alliance and Advanced International Studies.CurriculumWharton’s MBA curriculum was revamped back in 2012, thereon its core curriculum comprises of six required core classes and a flexible core. The flexibility helps students to take up more electives in the first year in preparation for internship, and defer other electives to the second year. The fixed core includes leadership, marketing, microeconomics, economics, statistics, and management. Among the flexible core, topics are marketing, communications, macroeconomics, accounting, corporate finance, operations, and legal studies and business ethics.Application RequirementsThe application fee is $265 and the applications should comprise of two MBA essays. These are the candidate’s professional expectations from the course in about 500 words, and how they will contribute to the Wharton community, in about 400 words. Academic documents, GMAT or GRE and TOEFL or PTE scores, resume, and letters of recommendation from at least two people are needed.Fee, ExpensesThe first-year cost of attending the Wharton MBA rounds about to $110,000 (tuition and other fees $77,000, room and board $22,000; and miscellaneous $6,000 are included).Scholarship, AidFellowship programs are offered to the students who have exceptionally high academic achievements, qualities of leadership and other qualities, and professional development qualities. The fellowship programs offered are the Joseph Wharton Fellowships, Forte Fellowships (for women students), Social Impact Fellowships, Emerging Economy Fellowships, and Wharton Fellowships for Current Students. Loans for international students with or without a US consignor are also available.Admission statisticsYou would be glad to know that there are over 6,679 applications for the Wharton MBA Class of 2018. However, only 851 students were finally enrolled, with students from 71 countries. Out of these, forty-six percent are of the undergraduate background in the humanities, 28 percent STEM, and 26 percent in business. The work experience range is from zero to over 13 years (mean of about five years). In addition, the GMAT score range is 570-780 (mean comes to about 730).Career DevelopmentCareer Management helps students with education and guidance to assist them in securing the jobs they want and aid them in building their career. The students are connected with over 650 companies, from Fortune 500 organizations to startups by the career team. It also provides several resources such as workshops, career counseling, research tools, information banks on companies and industries, recruiting, and lifelong alumni support.Jobs after MBA/EmployersThe MBA Class of 2016 (of over 850 students) recorded mostly full-time job offers for 98.3 percent of students. The most popular function choices were, by far, consulting/strategy (31.2 percent). As a job destination, US has been the most popular so far with 86.9 percent. The employers for the Wharton graduates for the year of 2015-16 have ranged from Accenture to J. P. Morgan to Zinga.SalariesThe annual base salary range for Wharton graduates of the batch of 2016 was from $27,600 to $250,000; with a median of around $125,000. The sign-on bonus range was $4,000-$175,000 (median $25,000), and the other guaranteed compensation range was $3,600-$175,000 (median $20,400).Alumni NetworkWharton’s alumni member network is about 95,000-strong in over 150 countries. In addition, it links 80 clubs worldwide. Most interestingly, a Wharton reunion is held on the campus annually.Notable AlumniThere is a long list of notable alumni for Wharton’s which include Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Anil Ambani, Ruth Porat, Warren Buffett, Sundar Pichai, Aditya Mittal, William Wrigley Jr. II, etc.USPWharton’s MBA is even more special as compared to the others in the market because it has a flexible core. It is said that “the depth of 19 majors and the breadth of nearly 200 electives” which allow students the freedom to choose their course content as per choice. Wharton’s faculty has professors-cum-consultants to several businesses, government organizations, and nonprofits are also one of its main strengths.Wharton School of Business is considered as one of the best B-Schools in the USA. Apart from quality education, the institution promises numerous job opportunities for the students. A great GMAT score and a good overall profile are required for you to be accepted into Wharton.Courtesy - AdmitKardFor more articles like this, visit AdmitKard BlogHope it helps!Have a nice day!

Food, retail, and consumerism in an age of voting with dollarsEntrance to Bostock Library at Duke University. Duke senior KellyNoel Waldorf wants Duke students to be able to openly discuss income and class disparities. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Shelling out $300 for one chemistry textbook. Jetting off to Budapest, Paris and Rome while studying abroad in Madrid. Grabbing a last-minute Amtrak ticket to Manhattan for a job interview during senior year.For many students at America’s elite colleges, these are as much a part of university life as pulling all-nighters and complaining about dining hall food. But for low-income students, these are not only unaffordable luxuries, but part of a topic that can be more taboo than sexual orientation: the size of their wallets.Much has been written about getting high-achieving, low-income students through the Ivy-covered gates of America’s top colleges. And indeed, the focus on improving the economic diversity of college admissions is needed; a recent Brookings study found that just 8% of low-income students applied to a “reach” school and just 34% of high-achieving students in this group attended one of the country’s 238 most selective universities. (The study defined low income as being in the bottom fourth, income-wise, of families with a senior in high school. For 2008, the year studied, low-income meant a family income below $41,472.)Not surprisingly, while poor kids are underrepresented on elite campuses, the wealthiest kids are overrepresented. At Harvard, 45.6% of undergraduates come from families with incomes above $200,000 -- in other words, incomes in the top 3.8% of all American households.Yet for all the studies and attention paid to how to get more low income students onto America’s top campuses, there’s little discussion (on or off campus) about what life is like for those students after they win admission.In a guest column for Duke University’s student newspaper that recently went viral, senior KellyNoel Waldorf addresses how isolating it can feel as a low-income student at an elite university. “Why is it not OK for me to talk about such an important part of my identity on Duke’s campus? Why is the word “poor” associated with words like lazy, unmotivated and uneducated? I am none of those things,” she writes. “Why has our culture made me so afraid or ashamed or embarrassed that I felt like I couldn't tell my best friends ‘Hey, I just can’t afford to go out tonight?’”In a recent phone interview, Waldorf clarified that this isn’t just a Duke-specific problem, but an issue that exists across the country and is exacerbated by some of the wealth she and others see at Duke.“I was in a class once where a professor basically assumed that no one in the class had cleaned a house for money, and that wasn’t true,” Waldorf says. “It’s sort of like an erasure of that population,” she says.Beth Breger, executive director for Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America (LEDA), a scholarship organization that helps high-achieving, low-income students gain admission to America’s top colleges, says part of the problem stems from the fact that a majority of campuses are set up for your average upper/middle class student, one who comes to school with a certain set of “soft skills” that disadvantaged students still need to learn.“Setting up a bank account for the first time. How to make an appointment with a professor. How to ask for a recommendation letter. How to navigate support from a TA (teaching assistant),” are things lower-income students need to learn, Breger says. And these knowledge gaps are just the tip of the iceberg.As anyone who’s ever subsisted on ramen noodles for weeks on end knows, the effects of an empty wallet can pervade virtually every aspect of life. Students I spoke with talked about how, despite full academic scholarships that cover tuition, room and board, difficulties arise with everything from affording on-campus student events (such as musicals or concerts), to missing out on Greek life, to eating alone in at the dining hall on a Friday night when friends are eating out somewhere they can’t afford.Even something as simple as a trip to the laundry room can serve as a reminder of the income disparities. Christian Ramirez, a LEDA scholar who grew up in Queens and is currently a junior at Harvard, remembers a time during his freshman year when his mother came to visit and decided to help him with his laundry. They both noticed piles of clothing on top of the washing machines in his dorm’s laundry room and Ramirez realized that he had seen those exact same piles a week or two before. The realization—that someone would simply forget to pick up his clothes –took both Ramirez and his mother aback. “When I do laundry, I literally make sure I have every single sock and no piece of clothing is left behind,” he says. “I personally cannot afford to replace them,’’ he says.Clothes can be one of the most conspicuous indicators of wealth, and more than one low income student noted the designer threads peers wear serve as persistent reminders of the wealth gap. Yasmine Arrington is a Jack Kent Cooke scholar – the recipient of a prestigious scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, so named for the former Redskins owner who left his fortune to high-need, high-achieving students -- who now attends Elon University, a southern school where guys favor khakis and many girls wear the preppy Lilly Pulitzer brand. Arrington remembers her reaction when she discovered what an average Lilly Pulitzer piece might cost.“I was like, ‘oh my goodness a dress for $200?’” Arrington, an Elon junior, says. However, she says it doesn’t get to her because she focuses on developing her own style for her own prices, which most importantly, makes her happy. “I don’t feel deprived because it makes me more unique. My style is my style and no one else is going to walk in with my suede boots or jeans.”Nightlife offers its own set of dilemmas. Those whose wealthier friends don’t mind footing the bill for a night out -- in the name of friend-group unity, perhaps -- find accepting such financial help can introduce a certain level of guilt.“If we go out, and friends are like, ‘oh no, I’m getting this, I’ll pay for this,’ and then it’s like bah!” says Edith Carolina Benavides, a Jack Kent Cooke scholar who is a senior at Harvard. “I literally owe so much money to my friends, beyond owing them so much for their support and being there for me.”Maureen Mahoney, the dean of the college at Smith College, and Barbara Cervone, president of the education non-profit What Kids Can Do both noted that medical problems -- particularly lagging dental care or undiagnosed learning disabilities -- can cause significant snags for poor students who might already be reeling from the academic culture shock. Cervone remembers one high achieving student from the Dominican Republic who, in her freshman year at Wellesley, found she had several rotting teeth, which couldn’t be fixed because the university’s health policy wouldn’t cover it. After a petition to the college president, the policy changed and the student was able to get the care she needed and continue with her studies. But the situation highlights how proactive students have to be to procure the funds and care they might need.This proactiveness doesn’t always come naturally, Mahoney notes, as many high-achieving students (low income or otherwise) have trouble asking for help when they need it. Assuming, of course, a low income student knows exactly what resources they need. Renata Martin, a Jack Kent Cooke scholar at Brown says that she never saw herself as “disadvantaged” while growing up, but coming to a school like Brown brought to light all the resources and opportunities she had missed out on, and missing out on even the simplest things – like academic support resources or individualized academic attention – can make it hard to look for them in a higher-ed scenario.“I think the hardest part is not even financial – it’s trying to know about most of the things that your peers know about,” she says. “It can be isolating, going to a public high school with all these differences you don’t think about until you go to an elite school where you stand out in many different ways.”Some colleges, like Smith, and scholarship foundations, like LEDA, try to spread awareness of the academic and financial support resources available to low-income students. At Smith, this support includes a (limited) extra fund available to students in emergency situations, so if a family emergency arises and a last-minute flight across the country becomes necessary, a low-income student can make the trip. Not all campuses or scholarship organizations offer this feature, so it’s important to check with the office of student life and/or the financial aid office to get a full list of student benefits and resources.While many of the students interviewed say that life as a low income student at an elite campus got progressively easier as they got older and carved out their own niches, Duke’s Waldorf notes that her low-income status adds additional pressure to one of the more trying parts of senior year: hunting for a job or applying to graduate school.“I don’t have money to pay for transportation for interviews. What if my phone gets shut off right before an interview?” she says. “A lot of the Duke population is not thinking about, ‘is it difficult for my neighbor to job search because they don’t have nice interview clothes?’”To be sure, the solutions to these issues vary on a campus-by-campus basis. Some student career service centers -- like Barnard’s -- have a suit-borrowing program from which students without business-professional clothing can borrow a donated dress suit with their student ID, at no cost. Other campuses, such as UNC, have a stipend students can apply for that can help pay for interview clothes. Likewise, some colleges and graduate programs (William and Mary’s Mason School of Business is one) have stipends available for job-hunting transportation costs.LEDA’s Breger says that graduate school application costs – including prep courses, prep books, test fees and school application fees – are so high that is not uncommon for a low income student to decide the costs are prohibitive. Instead, they may graduate and work for a few years to save money and then apply to graduate school. The good news is that there are fee-waivers available for low-income test takers of the GRE, GMAT, LSATand MCAT; the bad news is that because different testing boards run each exam, the eligibility requirements and application process for the fee waivers vary from test to test, so it’s important to read the fine print before you count on receiving discounted exam fees.It should be noted that job-related resources aren’t just for low-income seniors; there are a number of stipends and scholarships available for low-income students who wish to pursue unpaid internships and research opportunities earlier in their undergraduate careers -- opportunities that are frequently limited to their higher-net-worth counterparts. College Greenlight is one such resource for these scholarships: a division of scholarship search engine Cappex, it dedicates its algorithms to finding resources especially targeted to low-income or first-generation college students (often one and the same). Among the scholarships currently available on College Greenlight is a $10,000 award for a student interested in broadcast journalism or digital media; a $25,000 award with a potential spot in Merck’s summer program, specifically for an African American college junior; and four consecutive paid summers at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California.Jonathan April, College Greenlight’s general manager, says that many colleges offer their own internship stipend programs, so it’s important to supplement a Cappex/College Greenlight search with visits to the financial aid office and the career services office. (The dual visit might be a pain, but it’s better to leave no stone unturned with these things.)Ultimately, it’s spreading awareness of resources like these -- and not being afraid to have discussions about economic disparities on campus -- that will help low-income students feel more at ease at elite universities, students and adult experts say.Low income students “need to be assured that they’re as entitled to all the resources of a Smith education as any other student here. It’s often not so much about direct intervention so much as exposing them to all the incredible opportunities we have here, and to make sure they know these opportunities are for them,” Smith’s Mahoney says.Breger echoes these sentiments. “You’re getting an education valued at a quarter-million dollars and you should milk every dollar you can,” she says. “Get the most bang for your buck whether it’s your buck or not. These resources are part of what make these campuses so phenomenal. It’s not a sign of weakness to ask for help; if anything it’s a sign of strength.”If hearing advice from adults doesn’t help, take it from someone who’s still navigating this often tricky terrain. Harvard’s Christian Ramirez remembers feeling alone as a low-income student at an Ivy League institution at first, but slowly realizing there were many other students like him and it was okay to ask one of them, or an administrator, for help.“[The school’s] resources are there to help you, and don’t be afraid to seek them out,” he says, ultimately concluding that success is possible if students channel one key characteristic. “It’s about being tenacious. I think tenacity in these situations can go a long way.