Bill Gates. Sara Blakely. Richard Branson. You, maybe. “Business” is one of, if not the most, popular majors for college undergrads. And if you’re here, you think you might be interested in studying business in college.
“But… but… but… I’m a freshman! Surely it must be too early to think about college!” Wrong! And in fact, for hyper competitive majors like business, the sooner you start, the more of a leg up you’ll have when it comes to college apps. And, and we will repeat this later on, please remember that freshman year is just as important as the rest of high school.
When we work with 9th graders, we primarily focus on planning their summer. However, we have quite a few pieces of advice for freshman who are looking to build out their interest in business, and give themselves a running start when they start working with us in their sophomore year.
Explore What You’re Interested In
We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: business is one of the most popular majors. Not even just among our clients, but at top-tier colleges, too. This means that business (and all that entails) is also one of the most competitive majors across the board. If you want to give yourself the best shot at getting into a top business program, you have to start early.
When we work with students, we help them discover what exactly it is that they’re interested in. “Business” is very, very broad, and you can’t really apply to college with just “business” on your application and call it a day. By asking questions, learning about all your interests and hobbies, and hearing which classes you liked best this year, we can help you start to identify your niche.
So what is a niche? A niche would be something like “international cryptocurrency investing/policy” but you don’t really get there overnight. It takes time to go from something huge to something specific like “organizational psychology in large corporations.” And the earlier you start, the deeper into your niche you can go.
When we work with kids sophomore and junior years, we help establish a curriculum that takes them down the niche-funnel. But as a self-starting freshman (we’re assuming, since you’re on this blog post rn), we hope you take the initiative to explore what you like about business through books and online classes. If you come to us sophomore year knowing that you’re more interested in management than you are in entrepreneurship, that already puts us a few steps ahead.
Do Well in School
A common myth among those who join us late in the game is that freshman year doesn’t really matter. Or that it doesn’t matter if you nearly failed freshman year, as long as you showed growth after that. If you’re aiming for a top-tier college, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Colleges want to see you being excellent from day 1 of high school, and they want to see you getting the best grades possible in the hardest classes offered to you.
Now, that being said, we know that freshman year can be a really hard adjustment. If you find yourself struggling in school, we want you to get on top of it! Access all the resources you can at school; whether that’s tutoring, meeting with teachers, or extra credit. Doesn’t hurt to develop good study habits now, either!
Extracurriculars
As a freshman, you don’t have a ton of autonomy over what classes you can take in school, but you do have the freedom to choose your own extracurriculars. Which means, you can explore a lot of topics that interest you! And you should!
As a potential business major, there are lots of things you can do, in and out of school, to help explore your chosen field. You can join (or start!) business, econ, finance, or investing clubs. You could write for the school paper on the local business beat, or start managing your own portfolio. Child labor laws might make getting a job a little harder, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start your own business.
Summer Plans
Our main work with freshmen is, in our opinion, the most important part of this process. But we might be biased.
Summer is your largest uninterrupted block of time as a high school student. We know you’d rather spend it on the couch or at a lake, but it’s crucial you take advantage of some of your summer to expand your niche and take advantage of this time.
The biggest thing we help with are summer programs — and there are a ton of programs out there for business hopefuls. However, some are better than others. Schools like Harvard, UPenn, Columbia, Wake Forest, Michigan, and UCLA all offer a variety of business, finance, and entrepreneurship pre-college programs designed to help you get lots of hand on exposure to your topic of choice.
We work with students one-on-one to not only figure out what the right program topic would be for them, but we get to know their personalities, too. With all this information, we synthesize that to give you a tailored list of programs and activities to apply to and we help you fill out the applications and write the essays.
Freshman year might feel too early to start thinking about the college process, but we promise it’s not! Especially if you’re interested in pursuing a really competitive major like business. As you go through 9th grade, make sure you’re keeping those grades up, asking for help if you need it, and be as curious as you can!
Freshmen, if you want to start strategizing for college, or just need help planning your summer, reach out to us today.