Beyond the Lemonade Stand

With the college admissions process getting ever more competitive, high school students have been flocking to university summer programs in hopes of earning an extra edge on their applications. So does it work?

University of Pennsylvania Dean of Admissions Lee Stetson says that while pre-college programs like the ones offered by Penn's Wharton School are always "nice to see" on an application, he stops short of saying that attending gives an applicant a competitive edge any more than working a summer job, volunteering, or even a backpacking trip across Europe. Rather, he says, "it enriches their profile."

Anne Greenhalgh, who as director of leadership programs at Wharton oversees all the school's summer programs, says: "We are quite direct in telling students that they should not think of the program as giving any particular advantage, but simply as an opportunity to understand what the Wharton educational experience is like."

But that kind of understanding can be valuable, too, students say.

Heartburn Medicine

Three years ago, Kristan Sock had no idea what she wanted to study in college, didn't know "anything" about business, and had never even heard of Wharton. That was before she participated in the LEAD Summer Business Institute at the campus.

It was while working on her team's final project, a marketing strategy for heartburn medicine Pepcid AC, that she realized she'd found her calling -- and her first-choice college.

Writing the essay about why she wanted to go to Penn was a snap, she says, after her summer there. She applied to Penn early-decision and is now a marketing major in Wharton's Class of 2009. "LEAD changed my life," she says.

Besides Wharton, several universities with undergraduate and graduate B-schools -- including Georgetown, Notre Dame, and Cornell, offer broad-based summer programs designed to introduce potential business majors to the field (and to the school). A number of colleges also offer more specialized programs devoted to certain industries, such as video games or music, or topics such as entrepreneurship and finance.

For the pre-PSAT set, there are plenty of summer business programs for younger kids as well.

Scholarship Options

Many top universities also allow limited numbers of high-achieving high schoolers to enroll in summer courses alongside regular undergraduates. At Stanford, the roster of available classes includes Introduction to Decision Making in Organizations, as well as courses in Elementary Economics, Public Speaking, and even Golf.

At Harvard, high schoolers can dive into topics like Managerial Finance or International Corporate Governance. And at Brown, for-credit offerings include courses in Financial Accounting and Principles of Economics, as well as a variety of one- to five-week mini-courses designed especially for pre-college students that cover topics like Financial Markets & Investments, Global Development, and Introduction to Game Theory.

While pre-college programs can be pricey, many of them have at least some need-based scholarship aid available. Others have subsidized tuition thanks to corporate sponsorships or funding from early outreach initiatives targeting women and underrepresented minorities.

The granddaddy of the diversity-oriented programs is LEAD, a national summer business program for minority students offered at 12 graduate B-schools, but it's not the only one.

Indiana University's Kelley School has its own all-expenses-paid program for minority students, Cornell's Johnson School sponsors Camp Start-Up for young women, and Drexel's LeBow College of Business offers several one- or two-week programs for high school students in the Philadelphia area that are free of charge.