Entrepreneurship is a fairly rare major for the percentage of the popular conversation that the career path dominates. It’s only in recent years, really, that to be an ‘entrepreneur’ is recognized not simply as a title earned over many business experiences, but as a career path. Once upon a time, one became an entrepreneur only after succeeding (or, more often, not succeeding) in something else. Today, it’s more common than ever for us to meet high school students for whom entrepreneurship is the goal, though, and they want to start on that path early.
Schools with highly-respected entrepreneurship programs include Wharton, MIT, Babson, University of Michigan, UC Berkeley, and Indiana University. Due to the rarity of entrepreneurship programs at top schools, they are highly competitive to get into. However, the way that the schools with these programs measure applicants interested in entrepreneurship isn’t necessarily what you would expect.
Admissions officers aren’t unimpressed if you’ve built a six-figure freeze-dried candy business, but they don’t necessarily expect to see that when they look at your activities supplement. There are a few things they do, however, truly expect to see to take your candidacy as an entrepreneurship major seriously. These go beyond strong grades and scores, but are foundational to an impactful application. In this post, we’ll break down the must-do’s if you are a high school student focused on studying entrepreneurship in college.
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As a sophomore, it is totally normal if you have never seen a college application before. However, it’s important to know what is coming soon.
The activities section of college applications is quite concise, especially on the most common college application system, the Common App. You have only a few words, less than a sentence on the Common App, to convey the enormity of the time and effort you have put into things you care about. If that sounds like a hard thing to accomplish, you’re right — it is. As a result, the activities section is important, but it isn’t the most impactful place your most important activities will show up. You’re not doing all this work for a single sentence in the activities section, after all. You are doing it for yourself and your personal growth and development, and for your supplements and essays.
Below, we’ve broken down the key activity areas for sophomores interested in entrepreneurship and what they (that means you) need to be doing to amplify these experiences to launch yourself on the sort of trajectory that makes for impactful applications.
CLUB LEADERSHIP
If you are looking to pursue a major in entrepreneurship, it is extremely important that you join a business-oriented club, or a club that handles money from fundraising or a school-provided budget, by sophomore year. Joining such a club by sophomore year lines you up for the possibility of a leadership role, either of the whole club or of a committee within the club, by junior or senior year. This gives you time to begin building relationships and rising in the ranks.
If you are able to join a business club that participates in business simulations and pitch competitions, that is awesome. If one doesn’t exist at your school, sophomore year is the perfect time to start one. Starting a club can take months, or even a full year, depending on the protocol at your school. You’ll need to find (and convince) a faculty advisor and recruit members, so start now.
Once your club is formed, or as part of an existing club, we advise our sophomores to organize learning opportunities for other members. This could include mentorship of high school freshman and new members, or having alumni from your school who are entrepreneurs come to speak about their journey towards success.
SERVICE
It is very important as a sophomore interested in entrepreneurship that you show deep care for something greater than yourself. To this end, we encourage students to become a leader for a service or philanthropic initiative to benefit your local community. This project should be done with others, not as an independent initiative all on your own, and should also be affiliated with a non-profit or initiative in a deeply-engaged and long-term way.
The long-term bit here is important, and it’s why it’s so important for sophomores to start now and not put off service for junior or senior year. One-time efforts are not that impressive, even if you raised a big bucket of money. Colleges want to see long-term engagement, which communicates commitment, follow-through, and true care.
But why service? Well, beyond giving back being a good practice, it is a great way to apply your entrepreneurial mindset without it being all about yourself. Instead, you are showing care for the community and for something bigger than yourself, and that matters.
SUMMER PROGRAMS
There are many amazing summer programs available to high school sophomores that include business simulations and intensives, along with accredited courses. Traditionally, most of these courses and programs have been in-person. In recent years, there are also a multitude of online, or virtual, programs. We highly recommend that our sophomores do in-person programs if they choose to do one, as a key takeaway from these programs are the lessons learned from collaboration and teamwork. If you choose to do an online course, it should be accredited and, if possible, be pre-approved by your school administration for inclusion on your transcript.
INTERNSHIPS AND EMPLOYMENT
When you are applying for college with an entrepreneurship major in mind, previous exposure to the world of business and entrepreneurship is important. How you get that exposure can require some strategy and planning.
Many companies will not consider students for an internship until junior year, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not worth laying the groundwork now. If you are a sophomore, that groundwork can look like a summer job.
We encourage our sophomores to look for a customer-facing job with a local small business. This could be scooping ice cream, assisting customers at a hardware store, or even working in landscaping. What matters is that you are seeing what it takes to build and grow a business up close, and gaining the business skills that it takes to even come up with a great business idea.
If you look at most high profile entrepreneurs, people who have built many businesses that are successful, something they have in common is an interest in the day-to-day operations. They can’t live at 10,000 feet above the business moving pieces around like a puppeteer. They need to be in it, and working in a business is a great way to gain those skills. Maybe, these experiences will even lead to you having an idea to start your own business.
We don’t discourage our sophomore students who want to major in entrepreneurship from starting businesses while in high school with one big caveat. Simply starting a business will not get you into your dream school. If you push everything else aside, quitting clubs and teams in the name of building a business that will shine on your application, it doesn’t matter how successful it is. Your application will fall flat.
Colleges want to see teamwork, collaboration, mentorship, and growth. They want to see the kind of character development that comes from working alongside others, and navigating a system that you aren’t always at the top of. That means doing more than your own thing to show that you have the character and the grit to thrive in an entrepreneurship program. The great news is that, as a sophomore, you have time to make big moves with outstanding outcomes. So, get going.
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