<p>I'm hoping to study business in college, and I just was wondering what you guys think the best way to incorporate this aspect of my record when I do start applying to schools (which isn't for a while, I'm a sophomore).</p>
<p>I started my own online business last year, and if the past 5 months are any indicator, I anticipate filing taxes in 2009 making about $60K-$65K of profit. I think this would be worth mentioning when I start to apply to schools, because I do work hard at it and it is relevant to the major I want to pursue. Obviously, it's no substitute for good grades, which I do have, but I would still like to bring it up.</p>
<p>What do you think the best way to include this info is? Do I save it until the interview? Do I include it in my personal statement? I have no clue, so any advice you guys have would be great. </p>
<p>Actually, that is a substitute for good grades. Congrats.</p>
<p>Include it as an extracurricular. If you have a good personal statement related, that would also work. And talk about it in an interview.</p>
<p>Creating a business that makes ANY money is an accomplishment for a high schooler, and will be of note to colleges. 60+k, you should be talking to the profs, as you will be coming in with a very different point of view than most students, and may be best served at different schools than most.</p>
<p>You could list it under "Work Experience" (or maybe extracurriculars?) and also incorporate it into one of your essays (depends on which topics/prompts they give you)</p>
<p>But $60-65K profit while still in high school? Sure you need to be going to college there? ;)</p>
<p>I was in a similar situation as you are in when I applied and sent my apps in about 2 months ago. I started a business not online though and I did write my essay about the experience i gained. I think i mentioned maybe not even half a line where it said how well I did/how much I earned. Colleges imo don't really need to know the actual earnings unless you plan on it being your lifes work, i.e. you start a company that you want to maintain for the rest of your life, in that case they'll wonder why you're applying to college. If you choose to write the essay on your business or not is up to you, you still have about 2 years to think about all this stuff. But yeah, i wouldn't recommend writing anything more than business made profits of 60k, if you really start going in depth of what you earn, colleges will find it a turn off. Congrats on the success though sounds like a great venture.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies guys. Would some colleges be more interested in this than others? Are there some colleges that basically only want to see your GPA, class rank, and SAT scores, and don't want to meet much more of you, and some colleges that obviously care about those things, but also care about getting to know you as a person more so than other institutions? </p>
<p>i think it would depend on your personal income bracket. </p>
<p>Obviously if your family is very wealthy its not hard to start a profitable business with all of the capital and connections already there for you, it will carry a lot more weight if you are from a lower income bracket.</p>
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Would some colleges be more interested in this than others?
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Generally the more selective or competitive a college is, the more they will focus on looking at the big picture. Large state universities for instance may place little emphasis on your essays/recs, and more on the numbers. More competitive schools which receive thousands of applicants with high grades/scores will place greater emphasis on the subjective parts of the application (the essays, recs, etc)</p>
<p>tyler: "i think it would depend on your personal income bracket. </p>
<p>Obviously if your family is very wealthy its not hard to start a profitable business with all of the capital and connections already there for you, it will carry a lot more weight if you are from a lower income bracket."</p>
<p>I don't agree with this, especially if this is a business in which he provides a service (e.g., tech help.) If he is a distributor of construction equipment, then that's a different story. You need money to start this. However, it's much more common for a high schooler to do a service type of business than another kind.</p>
<p>I buy $50 parcels of land in the Western United States, and sell them to Europeans for $1500-$1900. My initial investment was $250, which I saved from a $9 an hour weekend job at a local nursing home. The $250 bought me a couple lots in Idaho and paid for an eBay listing. I reinvested all profits, and here I am today.</p>
<p>So, from the responses on the last page, you guys think more selective schools would care more because 4.0 GPAs are a dime a dozen to them. So maybe, it might be a good idea to apply to at least one school a little out of my league academically just to get that information out.</p>
<p>You should look into Babson College. It's in the New England area and it specializes in business.</p>
<p>It depends on what your stats are. If you are top 10%-15% and ~2100 SAT, you would have a very strong chance to be admitted anywhere, even HYP. In that case, I would apply to many reach schools. Actually, I would say you would be close to a shoe-in with those stats.</p>
<p>That'll be very amazing EC.. Possibly up to the level of USAMO or some major olympiad that the other applicants have... Definately include it under the interviews, essays, or your work experience.</p>