But getting into a good undergraduate business program can be difficult. For instance, based on what we’ve seen while helping hundreds of students apply to UT Austin over the past 11 years, the acceptance rate for prospective business majors there is between 18 and 22%. To get into the right business program and take their first steps on the path to a career in the field, high school students need to go beyond taking the right courses and getting good grades and high test scores. To really stand out, they need to show an aptitude for business, well-roundedness, and a facility communicating and working with others. 

What Does A Business Degree Look Like?

When we talk about a business degree, it really encompasses a variety of majors, from marketing and sales to accounting and finance. Majors like entrepreneurship and international business are also gaining traction as the job market changes. So if your student is considering a business major, be sure they've explored the various subfields and have thought about what matches best with their interests and aptitudes.

Because a business major is tied very closely to job opportunities, your student should also consider which business majors will lead to the jobs that are best suited to them. They can start by looking at Indeed.com's list of the highest paying business majors, some of which may not even have been on your student's radar.

What It Takes To Get Your Application To Stand Out

Because business is one of the top three prospective majors among students we work with at College MatchPoint, we understand what admissions offices are looking for in applicants as well as the skills applicants will need to succeed in school and in their career. For a recent article of tips for business grads entering the job market, for example, LinkedIn identified customer service and problem-solving as among the six of the most in-demand skills.

In our experience, students who want to strengthen their applications should show they’ve been doing the following:

• Participating in extracurricular activities that highlight their aptitudes for business, like starting a business, interning, or taking online classes in emerging business specializations like digital marketing, UX design, or data analytics.
• Showing well-roundedness by demonstrating interest in activities and subjects outside of business (e.g., playing sports or music, participating in social activism or student government, working on the student newspaper or school yearbook, learning a language, volunteering in the community, etc.)
• Developing skills that employers value highly in business grads, including soft skills like communication, collaboration, and relationship-building as well as business-enabler skills like project management.

To really stand out, students can also do things like developing a compelling LinkedIn profile, creating an online portfolio, and getting experience with business projects in the real world.

But first, before applying, your student should take some time to make sure business is the right field for them. To start, they should get a better understanding of their skills and motivations and decide whether they are a good fit for the field.

The Next Step: Getting The Inside Scoop



For many students considering business, a good starting point is conducting informational interviews with marketers, accountants, HR managers, financial analysts, or anyone else in the field. In these interviews, students will have the opportunity to ask questions about how they got interested in the field, what skills they use the most in their roles, what technology or languages they need to know for their job, how they work with people in other roles, and what steps they would take if they were in the student's shoes. Your student will learn more about the field and what it will take to succeed in it, but they'll also gain confidence in networking and interviewing, an advantage that can pay off big-time when it’s time to enter the workforce.

If your student wants to improve their chances of getting into the right business program, they should start by getting the information and developing the skills they'll need. From there, everything will start to fall into place.