San Francisco Campus

Wharton San Francisco Campus

Discover Wharton San Francisco, the dynamic campus where academia, entrepreneurship, and alumni life converge. With a legacy spanning 25 years in the Bay Area, this vibrant campus in the SoMa district is a hub for the renowned Wharton School’s Executive MBA Program, MBA Semester in San Francisco, Executive Education, and thriving entrepreneurial ventures.

The image depicts a foggy view of the Golden Gate Bridge spanning across a body of water with hills in the background.

Campus History

Established in 2001, Wharton San Francisco is part of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Founded in 1740, Penn is America’s first university and a member of the Ivy League. The main campus in Philadelphia was established on the western edge of the city in the 1870s and covers over 300 acres of city landscaping.

In 1881, American entrepreneur and industrialist Joseph Wharton established the world’s first collegiate school of business at Penn. Wharton’s pioneering vision was to produce graduates who would become “pillars of the state, whether in private or in public life.” The Wharton School maintains a long tradition of educating visionary business leaders in academia, business, government, and not-for-profit organizations.

In 2001, the Wharton School expanded its reach to the West Coast, establishing a presence for the Wharton School in the Bay Area. Initially located in the historic Folgers Building, the Wharton San Francisco campus welcomed its first cohort of students in the MBA for Executives program that fall.

Originally nicknamed Wharton West, the campus soon became known as Wharton San Francisco. Over the next decade academic programming expanded considerably, and the campus became a hub for entrepreneurial activity and alumni life. In 2011, Wharton San Francisco relocated to a larger space in the Hills Brothers Plaza in the SoMa district to accommodate its growing needs.

Visiting Wharton San Francisco