High school students who gravitate toward marketing and advertising careers open themselves up to exciting opportunities in the business world. Taking classes in these subjects and related fields gives students a strong foundation for future college coursework. These students also gain entry level job skills that allow them to begin working part-time in high school and gain valuable insights into the professional world.
Math - Statistics & Finance
Many marketing jobs involve looking at and understanding data and its implications in order to make advertising decisions. For these types of jobs, it's a basic understanding of many different types of math and their applications.
Statistics is the branch of math that is most often utilized in marketing, so if your high school offers a statistics class, especially and AP or IB level course, that would be a good option for students interested in pursuing marketing and advertising in their future.
If your school offers finance classes, those could also be helpful to take, as they will give you a more in-depth look at how a company's finances affect all aspects of the business, including marketing and advertising.
Creative Writing
Consider taking creative writing or a similar class as part of your English coursework. Marketing and advertising are all about communication and persuasion, both of which require a strong command of language and talent for writing. After establishing a command of basic writing and grammar, taking more creative writing classes will allow you to think about how to use language in a way that persuades people to think in some way, which will be very useful in any advertising or marketing position.
Business & Economics
Marketing counts as a catch-all term that has to do with promoting a business. Having a solid understanding of how businesses function and the motivation behind different decisions businesses have to make – from financial to marketing – will give you a great foundation for future business courses you will likely take in college.
On a broader scale, understanding how individuals and companies interact in the bigger picture is important as well, which is why taking any economics courses your school offers is a great idea.
Tip
As a high school student, the most important thing is making sure you have a well-rounded education – a solid base of knowledge that will allow you to explore your interests more in college. So make sure you're taking as many diverse classes as you can – theater, foreign language, history, science – they're all important and will likely serve you down the road in your career.