Become the Best Business Major for $100,000 USD Careers

When students say they want internships, what they mean is they want real work experience with industry professionals to build their skills, learn what they want to do, and enhance their resumes.

The issue is that internships are extremely scarce, and the quality of experience and training is low because the employees are focused on running the business, not developing interns.

Consulting cases with real businesses and real problems led by industry experts are the perfect way to give students the resume building experience they desire, where their development is the priority.

Grades & Test Scores: “Successful applicants to top schools still need to demonstrate academic success in their coursework as well as perform well on standardized tests, but the days of a 4.0 GPA and 1600 SAT score guaranteeing admission into a top school are gone. Harvard University rejected over 50% of its applicants with perfect Scholastic Aptitude Test scores and 80% who were valedictorians.” - Yale Professor Minh A. Luong

Extracurricular Activities:

“We realized one of the better predicators of success is the ability to dedicate oneself to a task and do it well.” - Dean of Admissions at the University of Pennsylvania

“Colleges now acknowledge, based on years of experience, that students who demonstrate success in extracurricular activities which give them real-world skills perform better in college and turn out to be successful alumni.” - Yale Professor Minh A. Luong

Preparation for the Real World: “Private and public institutions of higher learning, facing the reality of needing to train graduates for a global economy, are selecting applicants who can not only perform well academically but can also set themselves to an endeavor and succeed in extracurricular activities. After all, college students must select a major that concentrates on a particular field of study; why not select the students who have demonstrated success with that type of focus and dedication?” - Yale Professor Minh A. Luong

“Document your successes and what you have learned. Many colleges will accept portfolios of work where you can demonstrate your intellectual development and progress. Do not merely list on your college application form the awards that you have won but discuss in your personal statement or essay how you have developed your intellectual curiosity and enhanced your ability to pursue your academic interests through participation. How has dedication in activities made you a better person ready to pursue more advanced intellectual and professional challenges?” - Yale Professor Minh A. Luong

Participating in extracurriculars like consulting cases and business competitions is helpful but not enough. Truly successful applications include not just accomplishments, but well-articulated personal statements that tell authentic, compelling stories about how students leveraged these competitions and other activities like research to explore their academic and non-academic passions in depth. Admissions officers want to see students with the drive to succeed as professionals, students, and as citizens, and personal statements are the perfect opportunity to articulate these passions to admissions officers. Because of this, WestEdge specializes in helping students tell their stories in personal statements and interviews, where we leverage our lived experience in US and international business schools to help students stand out from the crowd.

How many people have actually found their passions or careers with a generic online assessment? Not many… In practice, there is no better way to learn than by doing and by engaging in thought-provoking discussions with professionals from the real world. Consulting cases and business competitions are the perfect platform to help students build connections with industry professionals and learn which careers, schools, and majors are right for them. 

Each school and major offers a distinct set of opportunities, so through our programs, WestEdge helps students uncover their life’s goals, skills, and interests, all of which help them find the best schools, majors, and careers for them. 

Success in college requires non-academic skills that academia cannot teach us. In college, students must compete beyond campus to secure internships that are even more prestigious and lucrative than a Harvard degree. As an example, Citi, the American investment bank, hires 1% - 2% of applicants from Ivy Leagues like Harvard and pays fresh college graduates $100,000+ USD.

To prepare students for college and beyond, WestEdge specializes in providing real-world lessons where students learn directly experienced investors, entrepreneurs, bankers, consultants, CFAs, business school students, and engineers from Harvard Business School, Google, Babson, Oaktree Private Equity, Deloitte, and more. 

Our students prepare for life through portfolio building. We help students decide the best schools, majors, and careers based on their authentic interests and family backgrounds, sharing lessons from lived experiences in careers and schools across the globe.

Each college offers distinct career opportunities, which fit different personality types. However, ask yourself… Where in the college admissions process do we see opportunities for students to uncover their career goals, skills, and passions, all of which should be central to the school selection process, especially since each college offers distinct career opportunities? Even if schools wanted to facilitate these opportunities, how could they? Would a history teacher be the person you trust to teach you how to become a private equity investor? How valuable is an ivy league degree if you graduate without a job?

In reality, most students most students make the mistake of applying to school then pursuing careers when it’s too late. Many also suffer from a herd mentality where they compete amongst millions to be the best math major, when they could instead compete against the few willing and able to apply as a real estate or hospitality major. In America, there are 1,000,000 international students competing for 85,000 H-1B Visas that pay $100,000 USD+ on average every year. Recruiting for jobs and internships that sponsor visas is fiercely competitive and begins as soon as they enter campus. If you hire a consultant or tutor for college admissions, now is the time to invest a bit more with WestEdge in your children’s future by pairing them with the right professionals to not just get in, but succeed in college.

“Unfortunately, nearly all high school students make the erroneous assumption that participation in more activities is better than fewer and in an increasingly complex world that demands in-depth knowledge and expertise in a chosen field of study, colleges and universities are now preferring applicants who choose to be the best at single pursuit.” - Yale Professor Minh A. Luong

Because college are looking to build a collection of the best specialists, co-curricular activities and personal statements must be focused and tie intended majors. Consulting cases and business competitions, which apply real-world skills, are the most rigorous co-curricular activities for business majors and business school applicants. They also demonstrate ambition, teamwork, and real-world skills, all of which make you not just the best applicant, but most likely to succeed on campus, which is what admissions officers truly want. 

It’s no secret, college admissions officers greatly value prestige and rigor when evaluating applicants. This means they love published research, awards in school, and victories in competitions for debate, business, and STEM. Driving business reults or winning business competitions, especially for business majors, screams rigor, passion, and discipline to admissions officers, all of which they greatly value when searching for the best business major… the most likely to succeed on campus.