Enroll early for Summer 2027 to secure your preferred campus and program.
Value a public company and present your findings in this two-week Dartmouth academy for high school students.
Rated 4.4 out of 5 for classroom experience by students who took this course in 2026.
Instructor:
Course Description
A company’s value depends on more than a price on a screen. Look at its customers, its numbers, and the choices behind its growth, then make a case for what it is worth.
In this course you will connect finance, accounting, economics, marketing, strategy, and communication through one collaborative public-company valuation. Cases, spreadsheets, financial analysis, and discussion reveal how a business earns revenue, finances growth, competes, manages risk, and evaluates new opportunities. You’ll apply the reasoning to business decisions and familiar personal-finance questions.
The same company stays at the center as new ideas enter the picture. A change in an assumption can alter your analysis and your conclusion. Your team will build a valuation model, consider market forces and innovation, and present findings supported by data. Explaining what you assumed and why gives the numbers meaning, while introducing the quantitative reasoning used in further business study.
This course is part of the Meriden Valley program from Dartmouth Summer Scholars, open to students 14 and up. No prior experience in the subject is required.
Instructor Bio
Patroklos “PK” Karantinos is the Experiential Learning & Career Education Director for Undergraduate Education at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, where he teaches in the Tuck Business Bridge program. He earned his MBA from Tuck and holds an MSc in finance. In Business Foundations, he introduces students to the core concepts and skills behind how businesses operate, drawing on his experience helping students connect classroom learning to real-world careers.
What You Will Do
• Analyze how a public company serves its customers
• Build and interpret a spreadsheet-based valuation model
• Weigh investment opportunities, competition, growth, and risk
• Apply financial reasoning to personal-finance decisions
• Test how assumptions change a company’s valuation
• Present your team’s findings with supporting financial evidence
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Explain how business functions contribute to company decisions and value
• Use financial analysis and market evidence to evaluate a public company
• Support business conclusions with clear quantitative reasoning
You’ll leave with your team’s company valuation, presentation and a certificate of completion.
Why Business Analysis Skills Matter
A spreadsheet can show performance, but understanding a business means asking what drives the numbers. Connecting revenue with customers, competition, and strategy helps you judge whether a valuation’s assumptions make sense.
Working through a company analysis gives you practice turning information into a recommendation you can defend. That reasoning carries into finance, economics, and business coursework, as well as everyday decisions about spending and investing.
Who Should Attend?
For students who have completed grades 8-12.
Curious about why one business grows while another struggles? This academy connects that interest with the numbers and decisions behind a company. You’ll work with spreadsheets and quantitative information, discuss cases, and develop an analysis with a team before presenting it. Asking questions and explaining your assumptions matter more than arriving with specialized knowledge.
Recommended by 9 out of 10 Students
Based on students surveyed in the Dartmouth Precollege Summer Scholars program (2026)
Your Summer at Dartmouth in Meriden Valley
This course is part of the Meriden Valley program from Dartmouth Summer Scholars, open to students 14 and up regardless of prior coursework. Classes and housing are on KUA's 1,300-acre campus in Meriden, New Hampshire, a short drive from Dartmouth, where students receive the same high-quality academic experience as students on Dartmouth’s campus. Students live in modern, air-conditioned residence halls with a 1:8 staff ratio, and each session includes time on Dartmouth’s campus and a workshop led by the Tuck School of Business. Completing this course may make students eligible for advanced courses in future summers of Dartmouth Summer Scholars.
Summer Discovery Certificate of Completion
After successfully finishing this course, you will be awarded a certification completion for your accomplishment.
*This is a preview, not what you will receive