Summer college business programs see big returns
College summer intensive business programs are booming, according to a new report in Inside Higher Ed. The programs started to crop up at colleges and universities two decades ago and over that time they have grown exponentially, especially in recent years with enrollment reaching record numbers at many universities since the Great Recession. The programs range in price from $5,000 to $10,000 and range in length of time from a few weeks to as long as 10 weeks.
Students who take part in these programs are not always business majors and sometimes attend small, liberal arts colleges. These students take advantage of the programs as a means to gain exposure and experience they many not always have access to at the school or region from which they hail.
“There’s a lot of students who really want to be studying art history, they really want to be studying philosophy, but they still want to be employable. I think this type of program allows them to do both,” Andy Chan, vice president for personal and career development at Wake Forest University, told Inside Higher Ed. “Many young people, especially in college liberal arts, have not been exposed to the world of work … Going through a program like this is a great way to get exposed to business, to understand how organizations operate.”
The summer intensive business programs each have their own particular focus, like marketing, accounting, statistics and economics, but they all tend to provide students with basic business courses along with career counseling. Students interested in embarking upon such an academic venture should be ready for an intense program that requires a great deal of work and time investment. Although the programs do not typically offer college credit, students who have enrolled in the programs report to doing as much, if not more, work than what was required during a regular semester of college coursework.
