Exploring Summer Opportunities for Business

Webinar Transcription

2023-05-03 – Exploring Summer Opportunities for Business

Hi everybody and welcome to tonight’s webinar. My name is Anesha Grant. I’m a senior advisor at CollegeAdvisor, and I’m your moderator Today. Today’s webinar is “Exploring Summer Opportunities for Business.” Before we get started, I just wanna orient everyone with the webinar timing. Our presenter will share some tips, resources, and guidance, and then we will open up the portal to respond to your questions in a live Q&A.

You can download the slides whenever you get a chance under the handouts tab, and you can start submitting questions whenever you’re ready. In the Q&A tab, please only submit your questions in the Q&A tab. Please do not direct message us or chat us and gets a little confusing. But again, you can start submitting those questions whenever you’re ready in the Q&A tab.

Now let’s meet our presenter, Alana. Hey Alana, how are you doing? Doing well. I’m so excited to be here. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background. Awesome. Hello everyone again. My name is Alana. I’m also here a senior advisor on CollegeAdvisor team. I went to UC, Irvine, studied in business management and urban studies.

I was a double major and part of my career, I’m actually a business owner, fa fam own I own and operate a family construction company. And I’ve been working in education as well. So I have a lot of experience supporting students through the college application process as well as helping them while they’re in, in college as and then, so having that experience as well as on this team.

I’m also an expert member in business. So anytime if you are, have a package or work with advisor, you can always reach out and have direct meetings with me if you wanna learn more in depth or have a plan on how you can pursue business and what type of college or interest or feel like works best or suits you.

And that’s a little bit about myself. Awesome. Before I hand it over to you for the full presentation, I’m gonna do a quick little poll. So for those out there in the audience, tell us what grade you are in. Is there one open right now? Yes. All right, so let us know if you are in the eighth grade, ninth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade, or if you are in or if you are a parent.

And as we’re waiting for some of the responses to come in Alana, I’m wondering, as a small business owner, what, what topics in school do you think prepared you for the challenges you face as a business owner? Oh, great question. So really the core is really understanding, like reading your English class, a lot of people don’t, don’t, wouldn’t think that they would naturally think maybe the math or some type of science field, depending on what type of business that you’re going into.

But a lot of being an entrepreneur is really understanding contracts, looking at like, what are you agreeing to? So being able to write network yourself, so public, you know, public speaking communications. So like, even like interest to psychology, English, were just as critical as, you know, knowing like math and your numbers and, and, and going up to calculus.

That’s a great answer. The humanities teachers are thanking you right now. We’re gonna go ahead and close our poll and I’ll just let you know that the majority of folks with us are under the 11th grade right now, about 55%, followed by a group of 10th graders, 31%. And then we have an eighth grader, and then I think, I’m gonna assume a handful of parents, so majority 10th and 11th graders.

Just to give you some context to who we are connecting with today, and then hand it over to.

Great. So this is, this is a great topic to actually talk to with 11th graders and 10th graders. So excited to see that you all are the biggest group in, in the crowd. And shout out to that eighth grader who wants to get an early start and learn head. You’re only preparing yourself and that families. You can also learn to support your children as they transition during this time, regardless what grade level they’re in.

So why summer opportunities are so important in the college application process is one, it’s giving you that career exploration, right? Like when you go to college, you, you are, you’re finding out a path to study, whether if you’re, you’re starting off as undeclared or you have something in mind, being able to utilize the summer to learn what type of major that you wanna be interested.

Second is also gonna give you an opportunity to opportunity to explore different colleges. A lot of summer opportunities are connected through colleges called pre, pre-college summer programs. So this is geared to actually even as young as middle school through high school age students to kind of be on campus, take some college classes, live in the dorm, just really get a feel for what college life is like.

So if you’re interested in pursuing business, you’re also learning about the different colleges that that business school might have to offer. It’s really a great opportunity to expand upon your extracurricular activities or have extracurricular activities if you don’t, if you don’t already have, start exploring that.

Right? So extracurricular activities for the college process is defined. Anything that’s not your, your schoolwork, right? So it could be home life, it could be volunteer, it could be clubs, it could be sports. So being able to utilize your summertime when you’re, you know, you’re not technically in school.

You have, you’re utilizing like more time to get involved in any summer opportunity as well as it’s really showing that you’re having a productive summer. Right? A majority of the time, like summer students sometimes think it’s to ease into something like not get involved, kind of reset, maybe go on family vacations and.

Yes, that is true in a possibility, but the college application process is becoming even more and more competitive. So how you can make yourself stand out compared to your peers, the people that’s in your school, sorry to say even your friends, right, is to show how productive you’re being in the summertime.

So what are like type of summer opportunities for business majors? So I kind of shared about the first type, which is your pre-college summer programs. So these are opportunities where colleges are inviting high school age or even middle school age to part to participate in a program at their university.

Sometimes these could be general programs and then sometimes you’re actually they will connect with different colleges. So it could be the, the School of Business Stern at nyu. They might have several pre-college summer programs to expose high school age students to that university and that topic.

So that’s what you wanna kinda start when you’re thinking like what colleges are you interested now as you’re developing your list? This past year for our 11th graders, that’s something the 10th graders will start to do. You wanna kinda evaluate what schools are you already thinking about, and then what type of business program or school do they have.

Next is really utilizing, taking local community college courses or multiple community college courses. Sometimes these courses are very cheap for high school age or free. So that’s really great because you can actually take Intro to business. You could take taxation class, a finance class.

Kinda class that explores your interest, right? You could take even a calculus class, a statistics class. So the ranges of opportunity to prepare yourself academically to what business majors might be, that’s your access to do that. So that’s really exciting. Volunteering in job shadowing. The one thing about being a business or having a business or working in business, it really stems to networking.

So thinking about your own network. You know who your, who does your parents know? Who do your teachers know or mentors? Like, can there be opportunity where you’re job shadowing, seeing what their day, day life is like As an accounting or a finance manager or a financial advisor, this will allow you to see.

In business, like what type of field you’re interested in. The great thing about business is it’s one of those fields that’s so abroad, it shows up in so many sectors to healthcare, to tech, to, you know, nonprofit education, so human resources. So the great thing is you have a lot of options in that. So finding clarity and what benefits you will allow you to do that through volunteering or job shadowing.

Internships is great opportunities to be fully transparent. Sometimes they cater to college age students, so it might be a little bit of a challenge as a high school student. But there are opportunities and we do have our pre-summer like extracurricular activities network here in CollegeAdvisor where you can explore that if you are in our program or wanna learn more information on how to do internships.

And I think I kind of shared this, is maximizing your, your own network, right? So who do you know that might be, have a business that you can learn from, study from, ask questions, even if it’s an interview. Just being able to talk to them will give you some insight to what type of field of business you would like to, to contribute.

Once you start thinking about like summer opportunities. One thing about summer opportunities is you have to get a early start. This is truly, truly important because applications especially to those pre-summer college programs come in advance sometimes three to six months in advance. So it’s really important to already plan even with your family.

What is scheduling like? We have some family vacations. Maybe, you know, grandmother’s birthday, like what do you have on the calendar early so you can work around? When is your availability? In the summertime, it’s a definitely a limited process, especially if you’re 11th grader transitioning to the 12th grade.

You might have AP homework, you might have, you know, you might be writing college essays during this time. So you definitely wanna maximize your schedule. So the earlier you can think about what your summer is like I said, December to January is ideal to start, but right now it’s like, if you’re thinking about this upcoming summer, like definitely get, get on it sooner than later because time is ticking.

We’re all, we’re already in May. So making sure you just give yourself enough time to schedule and prepare for any conflicts that you might have. If you’re in sports, you have clinics you wanna get as that information as soon as you can.

So like where can you find like summer opportunities for business? So I kind of mentioned this a little bit earlier. Our CollegeAdvisor portal is a great opportunity just to learn about all different extracurricular opportunities. So this will be internship, volunteer opportunities. Pre-college summer programs.

The great thing, cause business is such a a, a popular interest in with our, our students here. You can even browse through, through that. You can use a filter and put LO locations. So if you’re in a certain area or wanna go to a certain area, you can see what business opportunities that we already have.

You know, website searching. So already just looking through what type of lists that might be out there. Leveraging your own college list. If you know you’re interested in USC and you wanna study business at USC, let’s see where, if there’s any pre-college summer programs at USC. So that’s a really good thing.

You wanna kinda make a match with schools or programs you’re already interested in to see if there’s opportunities for you to continue that interest and show that interest in that college or university. Next college board is a really great free resource that actually has something similar to what we have as well to look up different extracurricular activities or look at what programs offer the different schools that you’re looking at, and also making recommendation on the type of coursework you might need to do.

So this, for it to be a business major. So this is very important to take your math, continue in your math. The highest level math you can get to definitely pre-calculus and or calculus if you, if you can. Like I said, taking like your, your psychology classes, communication, if you have a marketing depending on your school and what’s available to you, you wanna take as many of those classes that that’s on the college board list.

And again, your CollegeAdvisor here can also assist you with making recommendations based on your grade level. So preparing for to take the appropriate classes.

The materials you need to prepare to apply for summer opportunities is most of the time they’re gonna ask for some type of essay or short responses. So this is wanting to learn a little bit more about you, your story, your interest or also some type of interest letter. Like, why do you wanna do our program?

Why are you interested in business? Tell me about a time you overcome a challenge. So it could be very general or it could be very direct questions they would like you to answer. A lot of those pre-college summer programs are limited spots, right? So it’s, it could be very competitive. So your academic rigor is super important, so they wanna look at proof of your grades.

Proof of the classes you take in. So you, you might most likely have to upload or send a transcript through your high school counselor. You know, recommendation letters can happen, be requested, so they wanna see what your teachers they might ask for you to, to go to a math teacher in particular. Or they might have one or two or some type of character witness.

So it could be a coach, an advisor to write about, you know, you and who you are. And then you wanna ask someone who knows you extremely well and can speak highly of you in the involvement that you are doing in that club, in that organization, and or at your school or in their classroom. Next that might come up is some income verification or tax return from your parents.

And these are very popular if programs are subsidized, if, if they’re free. Some programs have like income limits, so if you are applying to one type of a subsidized program that’s gonna be partially paid for or fully paid for, don’t be alarmed if that is a request or if you know you need to re ask your parents to support in some type of form, asking them about their income or tax returns.

All right, we’re gonna do another quick survey just to see where everyone is in the application process. So let us know where you are in the process. Have you started, are you still researching, researching schools, working on essays or are you almost done? I’m gonna assume most people are not almost done, but let us know.

Well, did you take advantage of any summer opportunities when you were in high school? Alana? If so, which one kind of stands out for you? Yeah, so I actually did, I, I did two, two programs that stood out to me. So in my transition year from, yeah, I was going to the senior year, so my 11th grade summer I did two programs.

One at ucla. It was this dips program, so it was a pre-college, just summer program where I got to live on the dorms for three weeks at ucla. I took two classes, actually got a letter grade, had a transcript from ucla which was really nice that I got to actually put on my college applications that I took two classes at ucla and really get to build my network.

It was like a team of, it was like a group of us from all different high schools. In the Los Angeles area. That’s where I’m from. So UCLA is like a really close school to me. And then the next school was our, the opposite school USC. So USC actually I get a speech and debate program. So the focus was really to help us prepare you know, how to present a presentation, a debate.

And we basically stayed on campus for a week. Got to explore talking to different department leads at USC. And really enjoyed that, both experiences because it allowed me to network with a group of students, college students, college age students, as well as FI five mentors, and then students my age.

So to this day, I, I’m still connected with people that I met during those programs through social media and even a few of us actually ended up going to Irvine at the same time. So I got to have classmates. See them later, you know, years later as classmates. So that’s the cool thing about going to summer programs.

You get to meet a lot of new people. I appreciate you commenting on the long term relationships that you’ve been able to build as a result of those. There’s not too many people I stay in touch with my high school, but there were some summer programs and things like that where relationships were a little bit stronger or.

A little bit more seated in our common interests, and so they’re a little bit long lasting. So thanks for reemphasizing that. We’ll go ahead and close our most recent poll, and I will just let you know that the majority of folks are researching schools, which it makes sense that they’re in this space trying to figure out what they should be looking forward to or what they should be looking for.

And they’re evaluating whether or not schools have good business programs or how to prepare themselves for those business programs. So about 60% are researching, 27% have not started, and that’s totally fine. 1% are almost done, so I hope you are getting a second pair of eyes or a third pair of eyes on everything before you hit submit or before you’re ready to hit submit.

And then the rest are working on essays or getting application materials together. All right, so that is our poll and I’ll hand it back over to you until we start our Q&A. Awesome. So something that comes up is like, which could I, should I consider some opportunities better than others? And. Honestly, no.

It’s really beneficial for you to really apply to as many opportunities as you can. Like I mentioned earlier, right? Like the co the spots can be limited, so you kind of wanna cash your net wide. It’s almost like college applications, right? You wouldn’t just only put your eggs in one basket and apply to one college, right?

You wanna have a, a list, a variety of that. So that kinda applies to summer opportunities and as well as they don’t judge based on, like, if you go to a different campus, so say like I mentioned earlier, like NYU, they have their business schools, has a pre-college summer program. Columbia’s not gonna look at you different or judge you because you did a summer program at NYU.

To them that’s getting that exposure, right? So you’re being able to. To showcase why you’re interested in business. These are the things that you’ve done that make you a great candidate in their university. Because, and that major that you might be applying to as well as just something to keep in mind.

Again, like summer is a limited timeframe, right? We’re talking about three months or maybe two and a half depending on when you in school. So just prepare in advance like your schedules, your different like vacations sports committed com commitment. So if you know that okay, I have something that I can’t get outta, okay, I can’t apply to that program, I can find another program or was, has become very popular and that has still stayed the same.

Is there a lot of virtual opportunities too? There’s a lot of virtual opportunities to do internship. Summer program, so you might can luck out and do two virtual summer programs at the same time. It just depends on your schedule. So just being able to coordinate that as soon as possible and then knowing, and then you might have to decline because you might got into one program over another, and that’s okay, but it’s o it’s better to apply to more than less.

And really how can you showcase like your summer activity work and your college application? A lot of college applications have some type of activity list. This is very big on common, common app, which will, you can apply to more than one. More than. It’s like over 700 colleges in one common application.

It’s almost like a resume, right? Where you get to explore and share the things that you’ve done to achieve in that, in what you achieve or what you’ve done in that program or that summer activity. Your personal statement, your personal essays are a great opportunity because they’re asking for specific questions, right?

So they might ask. Why are you interested in our school and why are you interested in studying the major that you pick and right. So you will have that personal story because you know why you wanna be a business major because of a pre-college summer program that you’ve done. Or the internship or the internship or the extracurricular activity you’ve done.

So it’s really allowing you to have something to write about, right? Have, be able to share your story. And that’s a big piece of the college essay process. They’re really trying to understand who you are, not only academically, but how you can show up on their campus and be a leader and make impact, right, for the longevity.

Third is really like your current coursework or academic session. Sometimes this is not a requirement, sometimes it is, but you can also, you know, share the classes you take. And then, like I mentioned, like the local community college courses, there’s sections where you can talk about the coursework that you’ve done at different colleges.

So there’s many ways to kind of segment or share this information is really with working with your advisor and team and just what makes sense, depending on if it’s more of a supplement essay in your actual general personal statement. Definitely in your activity list minimum. And then if there’s any grade associated or you, you’ve done well academically to showcase that you’ve done that, then the coursework will also make sense.

And really going back to how you could set yourself up for success, for finding a summer opportunity, you, like I said, mention it, shared again, get an early, early start. It literally makes sense to prepare at least, at least minimum six months in advance. I, you know, the minimum three months continue to explore like what part of business you’re interested in.

Like I said, business is so broad and it shows up differently in different sectors. So what is the pleasing to you? Do you like the marketing side? Do you like the communication? Do you like the finance, the accounting? Do you like the human resources and working with people? So it’s a lot of things that you can, can, can do in business.

So you wanna kind of see what appeals to you or the also. The business tech. So even if there’s some type of computer science or coding you wanna do as well as business, that opportunity itself. And continue to like, reach out and learn from others who, like work in business, work in finance, or like own a business.

Again, that’s kind of just continuing to explore your network. Who do you know that’s doing the work, right? And learning from them to see if it’s a, it’s a fit and learning of their experiences. Different fields, different sectors look differently. So it’s only gonna help you prepare to you to know if this is something that you wanna pursue or con or, or don’t too depending on as you continue to give yourself exposure.

And that’s okay too to change your mind if that comes up. But really honestly, it’s just the getting ahead and doing well also in your, your, your core classes and during the school. Because again, like your academic transcript can’t come up, so they will ask, you know, what’s your GPA? Share your transcript.

So you wanna just make sure you’re getting abreast the best grades as well.

All right. Thanks so much, Alana for that presentation. That is the end of the presentation part of our webinar. I hope you found Alana’s information helpful. I’m really appreciative of what you shared about exploring business so that you can understand the specific aspect of it that you’re interested in.

I have a lot of students who just say they want us go into business and don’t understand the components. If it’s marketing, if it’s communications, if it’s. Selling buying mergers, like so I think also always encouraging folks to really look at if there’s a school of interest, really looking at the classes that they have available.

So you can also dig into really understand what aspect of business is the thing that most intrigues you. But we’re gonna move on to our Q&A. Just a reminder that you can download the slides in the handouts tab. The way that it will work work is that I will read your questions aloud as you’ve submitted them in the Q&A tab.

Say them aloud so that Alana can respond to them and then paste them the public chat so that others. Can see them. If you are having trouble submitting questions, just double check that you have logged in through the webinar through the cu logged into the webinar, through the custom link in your email and not from the landing page.

You may have to log out and log back in in order to submit some questions. All right, so our first question of the evening is and you spoke to this a little bit, but about like balancing out or comparing activities, but this specific student is a little concerned about their SAT scores given the school that they are interested in.

And so she asked, should I spend the summer improving my score or focus on my extracurricular? Great question. I think it’s just timing and, and it depends on what your grade level is. If you are a sophomore, I would say I would lean more on the extracurricular activities too, because there’s also might be material you haven’t learned as an 11th grader at that, at that moment yet, that will help you improve your scores a little bit later if you’re, if you are a junior year.

It just also depends, like if you haven’t had none, then that might be the priority. You also still have fall into your senior year to take the SAT, so it’s hard to really say it’s one way or the other. I think it really just depends on where you’re at what you have done, what you haven’t done, and then making whatever the most, the necessity.

But that’s great that you already identified like the program and you already taken it, so you now also can look and see your score report. Usually people jump the second time, right, because it becomes more familiar. So naturally your, your scores are going to increase because now you become more familiar with the exam.

Another question on comparing or just like balancing out activities. One student asked if I did one summer program already, would it be better to do another or to take college classes? Yeah. So co schools won’t look at it one way or one way is better than the other. So it’s really about what fits best for you.

If you’re more interested in you know, getting your associates degree, then that might be what you’re doing the summertime, right? Taking those courses because you have a limited time to get your associates degree before you graduated high school. But one way is not better than the other. So it’s just really more of like what you wanna do and how it fits into your long term plan.

So if you still need experience and seeing and visiting schools, it might make sense to prioritize maybe make sense to prioritize the summer to do, to do that. And do a program over taking your local community colleges, cuz you still have the entire year to do that in the fall, if that makes sense. It just kind of depends where you’re at.

And I guess too that you mentioned it, so I’ll, I’ll ask the question of like, is it beneficial for me to pursue an associate’s degree? Will it make my application a bit stronger down the line? Yeah, it is. Definitely is. It’s a great opportunity. Like I said, depending on your state, depending on your area, this could be free to you or very low cost.

It’s going to also allow you to have that prep. Cause the junior local community colleges or are college courses. So a lot of the entry level classes there are, you’re taking in a four year school. So sometimes they’ll be transferred over if you’re doing some type of state university and or if not, like even if it doesn’t transfer over, it’s giving you that experience.

So when you walk into. Statistics, intro statistics at whatever university you, you go to, you have that background knowledge that prepared you in in your associates program, so definitely, definitely, definitely considerate. I know here in California a lot of the classes are transferable, so it’s gonna allow you to save a lot of money and costs and time within your four year and or explore double majoring.

If that’s something that in intrigues you, if you’re in between multiple majors or a couple of interests. So this question is specifically, will the colleges see only the summer programs after the 11th grade summer? I know the answer to that is no, but I guess how far back should students be talking about their summer opportunity, their summer programs, and where exactly should they be placing them?

Yeah, yeah, great question. So, definitely know you wanna start in something when you’re transitioning. The, the earliest would be, A summer program transitioning maybe from ninth grade, like still in high school. Right. And that’s usually how grades work. Grades work as well. So usually if you have done a program while you’re in ninth grade, like that’s when you can start putting that on your colleges.

So really utilizing that ninth through 12th grade years. And then if you do a gap year, the those times which you’re doing after you graduate, essentially. So it’s never too early, before high school basically is the answer. There are some questions about classes to pursue and things like that. So one person was asking about taking algebra, probability statistics or calculus or pre-calculus and what would be considered most rigorous.

Do you have any, I guess, thoughts about the best classes to pursue in order to just. It’s shore up one’s business profile. Yes. All u usually there’s, there’s level, like there’s an order, right? So all of those work, but depending on what level your, your child or the student is, is starting on, that will determine which makes sense.

So if they’re already in algebra two, then like pre-calculus would be make sense? Next, then go to calculus, then go to statistics. So it just depends on where they’re at, but they’re all, they all look great. So it’s just trying to get the highest level you can, depending on where you’re starting. So definitely not as always required, but you students should still always take four years of math.

Even though it’s not a high school graduation requirement and or college requirement for the schools they’re interested in. So you always wanna do whatever is recommended, recommended by that school. Or all entire, or the entire time. Right? So like math, english, science, or like, those are great courses to do, you know, additional years, a third year or fourth year while you’re in high school.

I just wanna add one, I guess nuance to that, that yes, you should go based on wherever your child is, but we would strongly recommend for folks who are going into business majors that you’re at least finishing pre-calculus. You may not need to get into calculus, you may, you may not have access to statistics or probably things like that, but you should at least be graduating with the minimum of pre-calculus if that’s available to you.

And you might have to stretch out some resources in order to make sure pre-calculus is up there. Yes, thank you for that. Yes. Yeah, no worries. Pre for sure. Minimum. Oh, there was a question I guess in addition to that of like, is there anything you would add specifically for someone who’s interested in international communications or international business?

Are there any classes that they should be thinking about? Yeah, so same, but also you can look into some type of humanities course, international studies. Women’s studies, ethnic studies, anything about around people. Sociology, anthropology, urology courses can be a great look into that cuz that’s also like, that’s a big part of like inter like international business relations or international studies.

It’s also like serving, serving others. So that’s a great different course sets to look into your social sciences as well. Before I ask my next question folks, I can see your questions. You do not have to repeat them multiple times if I’m not asking it. It’s because there is another more pressing question and also just wanna keep folks focused on today’s topic being around exploring opportunities for business.

So if you have a general college question that’s not necessarily related to that topic, I am gonna skip it until we get to the end. Another quick question for you is, is there a specific website besides CollegeAdvisor that you would recommend for looking into extracurricular opportunities? Are there any other resources out there?

Yeah, you have, you have like college, college board, you have college search you might have Naviance. Sometimes students have access to that as well. Volunteer.com is another great one as well. So there’s a lot of different resources out there to kind of support you with finding different internships or volunteer opportunities and a little bit building off of that or pivoting a bit from that.

So one student asked does CollegeAdvisor help students get connected to available internships and opportunities? So, I dunno if you could talk about the way you, you supported your students. And I can talk about some ways that I’ve tried to connect students with opportunities, but how does CollegeAdvisor in particular support with.

Would this work? Yeah. So yes, we definitely do. We have like, not only just our, our, our own knowledge and our own network, we also leverage each other. We also have systems in place like access to your portal. Like I said, the kind of screenshot that I shared that is for all clients to be able to see through, to get support in.

And then we also just have a network, right? We have alumni that went through this. So year to year we have access to information and results that like our, our clients have been able and our students have been able to successfully complete. So we have a breadth of knowledge on what our go-to programs are essentially, right?

And being able to find the best fit. I think that’s the biggest thing. We’re key only here at CollegeAdvisor is fit, right? Like finding the right fit program for you because there’s so many access to different programs. Wanna make sure you’re getting out what you need and what you’re interested in.

So it’s really just to understand working with your advisor to what, to identify what your fit is, and then we support you with finding those programs. And then the necessary materials that needs to be completed, like those essays, short answer review, we support, and being able you to have the best application put for us.

Yeah, I really love the application support component of it cuz it’s a different type of essays than the college essays. So it’s an opportunity to kind of mix up the types of writing that students are doing and then also getting in the habit of looking over some cover letters and things like that.

Before I get into the questions just related to CollegeAdvisor, there are a lot of questions. Again, not all of them super specific to our topic for today, but there is a team of folks at CollegeAdvisor who can help you address those questions. And if we have time, I’ll definitely work to get to them.

But just wanted to let you all know that we do have a team of over 300 former admissions officers and admissions experts like Alana and myself, who are ready to help you and your family navigate the process through one-on-one advising sessions. So you can use the QR code if you’re not already working with us, to sign up for a free 45 to 60 minute strategy session with an admission specialist on our team.

During that meeting we’ll talk about extracurriculars, we’ll talk about an application strategy. We’ll go over your current college list and provide you with some tools you’ll need to stand out in the competitive emissions. World. So just gonna leave up that QR code if case folks are not currently working with us and would like to work with us and get some opportunities to answer some of those more specific questions.

So the next question is, would my application be stronger if I started my own business? And if so, what are ideas about small businesses that I could start in high school? Yes. I mean, yes, I def definitely thinking through. Yeah. What are your, what are your passions? What do you like to do? What is something that you have you know, a hobby or skill set in that you know you haven’t seen others your age do that would be the best opportunity?

Or some, like I said, something that you feel like you can duplicate Well so it’s really just. Starting there. And then being able to, you know, execute that. If you wanna monetize that, if it’s just a free service, if it’s, you know, it’s up really up to you. But definitely creating something, creating your own club, creating your own business, you know, it’s, I wouldn’t say it’s better, but it still is value.

And I think it could show your colleges the incentive that you have and the leadership skills that you have. So it’s nothing wrong with if you see something that you wanna pursue that’s not there, it’s not in your community, not at your school. The answer is like, go ahead and, and join and, you know, get others.

That’s also interested in as well. I love that finding collaborators so that you don’t have to do everything on your own. It’s great if you could start a business on your own, but I think having co-partners and things like that can help with the creativity and help with the longevity of the small business as well.

Do you have any quick tips for writing an effective resume for these types of opportunities? Yeah. Quick tips is definitely have someone review it because it is a different style of writing that you’re not used to, like, write, like resumes are really short ineffective and usually some type I wanna, I wanna say like data component or results component, right?

So it’s not like, oh, I like to like cook, or I, I help, I help like example it like, oh, I help give food to the, the food drive. Like it needs to be kind of quantitative and sometimes it’s great to have an advisor. Again, if you’re on the CollegeAdvisor team, you’ll have someone to kind of guide you and help support with the template to get that done to kind of show, okay, great.

This is how I’m an expert in. Folding clothes or this is how I problem solve here at my job, or this is what I’m looking for. These are the skill sets that I have. I know how to do presentations. Maybe you know how to do Photoshop. Like those are things you wanna highlight. So it’s not like your typical essay paper that you might then used to doing in, in your high school coursework.

Yeah. And you said this, but I just wanna emphasize like the action words. The action verbs. Yes. At the start of your resume. So making sure everything is kind of oriented and honestly, you can do a real quick Google search for action, words for resume and come up with a lot of different examples so that again, you can be making sure you’re telling people what you’ve accomplished, what you’ve done in addition to and I appreciate that you said the quantifying, so quantifying the outcome, quantifying the amount of hours, time, or money raise, or things like that.

Mm-hmm. What are some tips for making the most out of shadowing opportunities? Ask questions like when you’re shadowing I think it’s important if things that you see someone’s doing that you’re not really familiar with or asking why. I think sometimes you’re like, it could feel maybe a little intimidating being like the youngest in the space, like, or what’s happening.

Even if it’s you’re, you’re in a meeting, think that multiple people are talking, write down your questions and being able to follow up. I think follow up is very, very important. I think that’s how you build a strong network, right? So even just, you know, thanking the person for their time, thanking them, you know, letting them know that you appreciate it or is there opportunity for you to do it again or see a different component.

Say you work with the marketing team now you’re interested in seeing the, the accounting team. Like vocalize that and like share, you know, ask for those things, but also like, you know, share that you appreciated that, that the person’s time. So just don’t be afraid to ask questions during those spaces or after.

That, that what you shared just made me think. It made me think about networking and staying in touch and so it made me think about LinkedIn, but I don’t think, I don’t think you can start a LinkedIn page until maybe like 17. Yeah. But once you are able to start a LinkedIn page, I feel like that would be a good time to keep track of folks, follow up with people you might have done opportunities with when you were younger, just to stay on their radar.

I have found LinkedIn to be a really good lend useful tool in my career path to like keep those conversations going across from people from the past and better relationships into the future. So with those shattering opportunities, just following up through networking through LinkedIn as a specific social media tool what should I expect from a summer program and what are the potential for a summer, summer program or internship?

And what are the potential benefits of taking advantage of it? Great. So you can, right ex one thing is, the biggest thing is exposure. So you can expect to. You take coursework maybe live in the dorm, maybe work on a project as an internship, have a task, even do like a summary or a writeup or even like a recap sometimes that is requested or required in your program.

Thinking through that, thinking like, rather if it allows you to know, like if you, even if you do an internship or summer program and it’s wasn’t. The greatest or you didn’t get that passion for it, do know it was still valuable, right? Because now it shows you or prepared you in a, in a way that like maybe this is not aligned.

So sometimes knowing what you don’t like or didn’t experience is just as powerful if having that experience. So I like to say like, if you’re coming with a positive attitude and being the best, even if it’s not a good fit, it’s still open up for to you and you explore that. So that’s what makes it still beneficial to you, rather if it’s the, the best experience or not the best.

And then you said in terms of what the benefits for you, it’s definitely gonna make you stand out in your college application process again. A lot of your top schools, your, your top 20, top 50, I mean, students have high academic like preparation and as well as high test scores and experiences and involvement.

So this is another way to kind of show how you’re getting involved and how you’re preparing yourself for those top rigor universities and colleges. Are there any skills, or what kind of skills or experience do you think I need to have to be able to be competitive for these summer programs or internships?

Great question. Skill sets I would say be organized, right? Like a lot of this is a lot of the, just in the application to show your interest. It might be very detailed, multiple questions. So you wanna be able to show like you’re organized, you wanna be able to show your critical thinking skills. So being able to show your academic rigor by your transcript or any things in that, your communication, like I said, especially business programs, they will, even in the description, they’re telling you what you’re doing, right?

They’re telling you what you’re gonna experience. So how are you showing them that you’ve had that experience or wanna gain that experience even if you haven’t had it yet. So I think just making sure everything is aligned, right, making sure the program’s aligned to what you have or wanna accomplish, and then how you’re able to communicate that.

So the skill sets also might change the program. Program of finance. Program is very different. There might be some technical skills they want you to have versus a computer science program, right? Like it can vary and it can look different, but I think it’s ultimately important to make sure, back to that word fit, the fit is right.

Like they have what you’re looking to receive and then you have what, you have the experience or the leadership criteria that they’re looking for students to have basically. And when you talk about fit, I think that maybe also think about the university thing. Cause I think sometimes students get a school in mind of like, this is the best that the school that I can or should go to.

But that school may not be a fit for you. So yes. How do you think that students can use their experience in business to decide on a college, a college major, or a career path? Right. Yeah, I think you, you named it right? Like. College, your whole college experience is not just about the academic classrooms or the career, that’s just two elements, right?

You have the, the social, the environment like the connection, like do you wanna get up and go to class every day because you feel supported, you feel happy, right? Like you’re okay being away from your family or you’re not okay. Like, do you feel comfortable? Right? Do you like that it’s a competitive environment and people are competing with each other?

Are you like a more collaborative, open, you know, environment, less rigor environment? All those little details matter. So I think what’s it’s important to understand when you’re looking at like the business programs, is understanding what that program has to offer. And then also knowing just because the school is a big name doesn’t mean it’s also a good fit.

Sometimes I always give the example like UCLA. Break. Big school, right? Big school in la but they’re bi. They don’t actually have like a business school. They, for undergrads, they have a business school. But it’s for once you become a master’s and already have an undergraduate degree. So the undergrad experience is really more of an economic econ business.

Econ, which is very different, right? It’s thinking about the people and it’s more of a like ology major than an actual business major. So it’s knowing the difference and knowing what’s offered. So don’t just get hyped on the name and also look at what that program has, because you need to know what’s a good fit for you that’s gonna think align with your long-term term goals.

And then think about those other things as well. Like is it a commuter campus versus a like in the suburbs, or is it a in a big city? So all those little things actually all add up and it shall be reflective in your list. So when you’re thinking through your college list, Maybe all 10 things that you’re looking for might not be hit, but you can be able to identify, this is seven of the 10, this is eight of the 10.

This is four of the 10. But these four are more important, right? So even though it’s not a 50/50, this, I know why I’m applying to this school. And sometimes you just need that range as well. So you need to comply to some less competitive schools versus, you know, more financially fit schools. Ev everyone’s criteria will look a little different depending on what their, their circumstances are for themselves and their family too.

Right? College picking. College is not just a one-sided thing. It’s a big environment. It’s a big, it’s a big thing with the, with your whole entire family too. Last question related to this and then I’ll open up to some general college questions. Are there any scholarships or financial aid available to help me with participating in these summer programs?

Yeah. So definitely there’s, there’s a range and so working with CollegeAdvisor, just in your, in your list, like I said, there’s programs that are free. Those are programs that are subsidized, so those are just a little bit more competitive. Right. Or it might be a larger pool of people applying. But that’s okay.

I think getting early, starting kind of knowing. And then, like I said, we have access to filter that in our own, in our own portal. So you can put at a cost range or say zero, and then you’ll be able to see which ones you know, are less, or they have a scholarship or limited aid for, depending if you meet some type of criteria.

Or you might have to fill out additional scholarship, additional financial aid, scholarship application. All right. Moving into some general college questions, what are colleges looking for in a college application? Oh, that’s a great question. One to be thorough and complete. I think that, that, that just shows to like, show how genuine you are about applying to that school, authentically hearing your voice and your why.

So like even I always tell students those optional questions are not optional, right? Like, even if it’s not required, you need to do it to show your interest, show your why. Everything needs to, everything has a connection. So if you’re telling the school you’re interested in studying business, these are the reasons why you’re able to communicate that and show what you’ve done, not only academically, but in your, your, your family life, your home life your community.

Your sports, whatever that might be, to show like how you’re a leader and how, essentially how you’re gonna show up in their campus, right? They want you to kind of have those same contributions. So in your essay, I think the biggest, I mean, in your college application, the biggest thing is just making sure it, it accurately shows all the things that you’ve done.

So getting an early start is very important, right? Getting your feedback. This is definitely a different type of essays that most students haven’t gotten used to writing, right? You’ve written about different articles or books, but you haven’t really examined or written about yourself and share your story, right?

So connecting with an advisor is really, really important because people don’t know you, right? They’re, they’re not gonna know. Or understand the gaps in your application, right? So you have to be able to make sure your application shows a full picture of who you’re, so there’s a lot of things I can go and that is a webinar in itself about the actual ins and out.

But I think the biggest thing you can do, Right now is get an early start, take it serious, and get a lot of feedback on it. Those are key, key things. I know it’s rung that question, aren’t you? So I’ll just, I’ll just add some, like the top six things that I know college admissions look out for. Cuz I know I surprised you with that question a lot, but it’s normally gonna be that you’re taking rigorous course load.

So are you taking classes that are challenging for you? They’re going to analyze and look at your gpa. If they are test required or test optional or you choose to submit your s a t scores, we’re definitely going to weigh that in as an option to look at your academic competitiveness and then to the point that we’d be talking about here, meaningful prolonged extracurricular activities, a commitment to things that are aligned with your passion.

And then looking at your personal statement again to see your personality, to to understand your brand, understand who you are. And then also one point of consideration, which might go plus or minus is letters of recommendation from your teacher. So understanding how you show up in the classroom.

So I just wanted to buts that cuz I know I just sprung that one on you and that’s a more strategic question. So one student, and again, I can, I can try to help you out on this one cuz this may not be one that comes to you off the top of your head. Do you have any suggestions on how I can contact a professor to facilitate pursuing research on a college campus?

Yeah, that’s a good, good question. A lot of, a lot of schools actually have like their website directory list. In different departments. So really an email goes a long way in an intro email or any type of open events. Sometimes a lot of this like a, there, there are like admission event or there might be opportunities at your school.

Colleges are going, that’s where you wanna make sure you’re just building a relationship with the schools that you’re interested in. So really taking advantage of any, any of any public events, any visits or tours that you can go to or any access that you have to any, like local fairs in your community or at your, even at your high school school.

There’s one question. It’s worded a little strangely for me. So I’m not entirely sure, but it was talking about, I guess, Submitting SAT scores versus the timing of submitting the application. So I guess, I don’t know if you feel comfortable talking about the flow of submitting applications and then how test scores come into play with that.

Yeah. So usually you can, I, you know, you identify the scores that you have available to you in your application. So say you took the, the test your SATs in May of your junior year, right? And you’re working on your application and maybe your school’s deadlines not until January of your senior year.

So you are already, I had the results of that. So you can, you know, add that in your application. And then the actual official submission submission, each school might have a variety of different deadlines to actually submit that. Because depending on when you’re applying, not all of ’em might be available.

So say if you took. The third test in that December in your A December 5th, right? In December, SAT, your December scores might not be available until middle of January and the application was due January 1st. That’s still okay. They will still accept that. Usually they’ll step up until that December score of your senior year, that test, and then you submit they have some deadline, usually a month, six weeks out that where your official score needs to actually come through college, college board.

And that service is sent through a code through where you identifying which schools are your tests. So they’re not never getting official score from you. It’s kind of like self-reported. So you would need to just tell them what the scores you got. And I tell students always put all the scores they know because one, a lot of schools sub score, which means that they will take your highest setting at each setting, they’ll take your highest.

Score in each setting. So say you got a five, like you got a 700 in math one time and then seven 20, you’re gonna take that seven 20 with that six 50 from the first setting and add ’em together. So you might get, get a higher score even though you didn’t get it in one setting. So that’s why it’s good to submit everything.

And then also you’re showing growth, right? So that’s another element as well. Like, oh, you took you one and got, took it the first time, got a score, and now the second or even third time you even, you keep increasing. So that’s good to do that. Hopefully that was answering the question. It was a little bit, yeah, it was a little bit question, but I think you got added.

I think the one thing that I would say this person specifically asked about submitting in August, I would not say to submit your comment application, there’s no rush to get your application in. Unless you’re, even if you’re doing rolling decisions or. Even if you’re doing early, like the first one is not really due until October 1st or October 15th.

So I would definitely take your time. And then to reinforce the point that Alana made, your scores can be submitted separately. So you don’t have to submit your SAT, you don’t have to put your s a t scores on your common app if you don’t want to. You could ultimately just send them through the common app and some schools have a different way of allowing you to upload your score.

So to this specific person, again, I’m not clearly, I’m not entirely sure if we’re getting at your answer, but just know that you can submit those two components separately and there’s no rush to submit them earlier or later than when the application deadlines are. I was gonna add too, and I think there’s a point about like a target score.

Oh yeah. Kind of varies school by school. So as you’re doing your research and you find what’s the average score like, that could essentially be your kind of target score for that school. So again, and that’s an average, right? Knowing that averages their students as getting above that. Guess I’m getting below that, right?

So I think the closest you can get to that average is a good indicator if you’re, you’re near a target range. So, and again, to do the research to be sure if that school is requiring testing, cuz if you’re not getting the target score and it’s test optional, those submit your test scores. And just make sure your GPA and all the other components of the application are where you want and need them.

To me. All right, well we did a whole deep dive into STEM opportunities or extracurricular opportunities for business. Sorry, I’m doing STEM tomorrow. But today we are doing business opportunities, so hopefully y’all got some good information from Alana. Thank you so much, Alana, for your time. That will be the end of our webinar, however, I do hope you’ll join us in the future.

So tomorrow we will be talking about building exploring opportunities for STEM majors. We’ll also have an opportunity to talk about building passion projects on the ninth, building your personal brand on May 10th. And we’ll also talk about standardized test scores and trends on May 16th. So come back and join us.

But until next time, take care and have a great evening and thanks again Alana. Appreciate you.