I am a high school junior in SoCal and I’ll be applying to colleges in the fall. I am currently looking at UCLA, CP SLO, and UCSB.
I have decent grades (4.19 weighted, 3.8 unweighted, just took SAT so not sure of my score), but I don’t have really any EC activities except for playing baseball for all 4 years of HS.
However, the reason I haven’t done any kind of EC activities is because I run an online advertising business. I have been working with this company for 3 years, and before that I had been selling/designing websites (in middle school).
So far, I have driven 7 figures of revenue to this company in my 3 years, and we have over 3000 people in our network.
Will this work/leadership experience help me at all in college admissions? Please feel free to ask my questions if you think it would give you a better understanding of my situation.
Gotcha, thanks, how would I prove it to them? If I include that in my essay/application would they then write me back or something asking for proof? Thanks!!
I doubt they’d ask. They might just believe you with no evidence (I’m amazed at the exaggerations some admissions people have fallen for). As for how to prove it, links to news articles or your Dunn and Bradstreet (D&B) listing would do the trick.
Why are you going to college?
I pose this as a serious question. What would an undergrad education actually give you that you think you do not have now?
The company will more than take care of the EC front. However, if you want to add HYPSM to your list, make sure to be top 10% of your class GPA-wise and score at least 2100 on your SATs.
This is one of those situations where a letter of recommendation is critical as validation of what you’ve achieved. Your boss (or the company president?) should be able to write a letter detailing your contribution to the company’s success, ideally using the kinds of superlatives that let an admissions officer know that your performance has been exceptional. (D had to do this when she applied because there was no other way for the schools to verify the scope of her responsibility and what she’d accomplished.)
Your involvement in this business makes up for any other ECs, but you need some outside confirmation of your accomplishment–letter of recommendation from someone in the company who sings your praises would be good. My D had one EC in which she achieved national recognition. One of the universities where she applied (and ended up attending) called the organization to confirm her standing. (Person from the organization told D that the admissions folks had called.)
@thebossofbosses I actually agree with him. If you were making a couple thousand a year and wanted an education to help improve upon your business, then that’s fine. But if you’re making 7 figures, I don’t think you will have time to manage college classes AND run such a big business. You should probably be devoting 100% of your time to the business to make it grown even bigger.
However, if you really want to go to a business school, apply ED to Wharton, probably the best business school in the nation and you’re probably a shoe-in if you made significant contributions to the business.
To answer those that think I shouldn’t go to college, I used to think the same way. Although I do make a very good living and could probably support myself without going to college, I want the college experience and the degree as a backup in case I want to pursue something else in the future. Plus, I might meet someone during my schooling that I could start future businesses with etc, overall I just think it would be worth it.
Next, as far as getting a letter of rec, I can definitely have my partner write one (even though he didn’t even go to college, his writing probably isn’t the best lol). Does it matter if our company isn’t really well known? There are only 3 of us, or founder, me (I handle basically everything), and an accountant.
Finally, @rdeng2614 what does ED mean (in regard to Wharton)? I would love to go to Wharton, but even with my biz accomplishments, I’m not sure my GPA would be high enough, as it is only 4.2 unweighted and 3.8 weighted (although I got my only B’s freshman year, if that makes a difference)