My son’s a sophomore in high school. He’s been working his way through a set of business classes that lead to a HS Business Career Pathway designation. It’s composed of Intro to Business, 2 years of Marketing, 1 year of Accounting, Business Law, work experience, and job shadowing. Supposedly, doing this can differentiate him from other applicants for undergraduate business school and perhaps increase the odds of getting scholarships.
I’m a little skeptical that this can be a major factor and may be at best a minor differentiator on a college application. I’m curious if anyone has any knowledge or experience as to whether this kind of program can make a difference in being accepted or not.
I don’t do college admissions, but I don’t think it will be a big deal for admission/scholarships. However, it can’t hurt as long as he still takes a full complement of academic classes as well. You should talk to the guidance counselors about their experiences with past students.
Most high schools don’t have a business major option so students are not expected to have taken business courses in HS. In fact our local HS (which is highly ranked) does not offer one business class. At the very least this program will confirm in his own mind that he is interested in studying business. Years (and years) ago I took a full year of “accounting” in HS and my first college class was beyond the scope of my HS course in less than half a semester!
What colleges is your son aiming for?
Will taking these extra business classes take his time away to fulfill top colleges’ admission requirements?
As it has been said, most high schools do not offer these types of classes and my son attended Wharton and he never took one business class in HS.
Yes I agree that it enables him to get a sense of whether he’d like to pursue a business major in college. In this regard it can make sense. Perhaps a university might look at a HS Business Pathway designation and conclude that once in college he’ll likely never switch from a Business major because he’ll already know that he likes it. This won’t detour him from meeting admission requirements.
He’s just a sophomore and hasn’t got specific colleges that he’s aiming for at the moment.