Admissions Beat

In the Season 4 finale, Admissions Beat host Lee Coffin reaches into his holiday grab bag for a handful of end-of-year topics. First up, a visit to the Admissions Beat newsroom with journalist Charlotte Albright and Darryl Tiggle, director of college counseling at the Friends School of Baltimore, for answers to the questions students pose in various online forums as the application deadlines draw...

Admissions Beat host Lee Coffin encourages applicants to periodically snap an “existential selfie,” an exercise to zoom in on their values and priorities. This week, he and his guests train that metaphorical lens on high school students from rural backgrounds. For many, that upbringing can be a powerful theme in the stories they tell in their college applications. Joining Coffin are Kim Jackson, D...

Sometimes it's required, sometimes it's recommended, sometimes it's optional. Sometimes it's conducted on campus by an admissions officer or college senior, while at others it’s at a library or Starbucks with an alumnus. It’s an admissions interview. It’s also an opportunity to build life skills. This week on Admissions Beat, host Lee Coffin of Dartmouth conducts a mock interview with a high schoo...

If anyone could lay claim to the title of “chief admissions counselor” for the nation’s millions of college-bound students, it would probably be Angel B. Pérez. A first-generation college student from the South Bronx and longtime admissions dean, Perez currently serves as CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, or NACAC, a membership organization of more than 25,000 admis...

If you’re a high school senior in the United States, you may be seated around a Thanksgiving table where the turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce is accompanied by a heavy dollop of questions served up by relatives curious about your college admissions process. Fear not: this week on Admissions Beat, host Lee Coffin of Dartmouth and his guests lay out a holiday buffet with an array of talking poin...

To commemorate the 50th episode of Admissions Beat, a milestone we reached earlier this season, host Lee Coffin and producer Charlotte Albright revisit some of the podcast’s most practical and enduring advice for students, families, and counselors. Their tour guide for this auditory look back is Luke Grayson, a Dartmouth junior from Seaham, England, who highlights conversations that resonated with...

Wellesley economist Phil Levine and Dino Koff, Dartmouth’s director of financial aid, join host Lee Coffin for insights on college affordability and the net price calculators that often guide families through that complicated but essential question. Levine advises families to ignore the sticker price: “What will this college cost me ?” is a more useful framing of this essential question. The aid e...

In the conclusion of their two-part conversation, Yale’s Jeremiah Quinlan and Emily Roper-Doten from Clark continue their conversation with host Lee Coffin about the academic data that populates an application. This week, the group of deans focus on the role of standardized testing as part of the academic assessment. Optional or required, they ponder how does testing fits into an admission officer...

In the first of a two-part conversation about the academic data that populates an application, Yale’s Jeremiah Quinlan and Emily Roper-Doten from Clark join host Lee Coffin to discuss the high school transcript as “the foundational element” of an application. The trio reflects on an admission officer’s assessment of curriculum, grades, and “patterns” as key metrics of academic merit, and they offe...

Author and mental health activist Emi Nietfeld visits Admissions Beat for a thought-provoking and candid conversation with host Lee Coffin about her 2022 memoir, “Acceptance.” Named one of the Best Books of the Year by National Public Radio, “Acceptance” recounts Emi’s journey from foster care and a residential treatment center to the Ivy League, which she envisioned as her escape to safety. As hi...

In the 50th episode of Admissions Beat, host Lee Coffin from Dartmouth College welcomes college counselors Sherri Geller from Gann Academy in Waltham, Mass., and Ronnie McKnight from Atlanta’s Paideia School for a timely conversation about the college admissions essay as an essential component of any application. The trio of veteran admission experts channels the Quaker saying “Let your life speak...

Admission Beat host Lee Coffin, Dartmouth’s dean of admissions and financial aid, meets “Matt,” a senior at a public high school in suburban New England, for a first-hand, student perspective about life inside this year’s college admissions process.

Picking up where last week’s episode left off, Admissions Beat host Lee Coffin and his guests continue their conversation about the ways high school seniors (and parents, too) can address feelings of uneasiness as their college application process gets underway. Coffin, Dartmouth’s Dean of Admissions, explores the role of high school transcripts (and the patterns admissions officers discern within...

In the first of a two-part episode, Admissions Beat host Lee Coffin turns his attention to the high school graduating class of 2024, who may be feeling uneasy about the college admissions process as their senior year gets underway. Coffin, Dartmouth’s Dean of Admissions, imagines them in this “back to school moment” as “looking forward and saying, ‘Uh-oh, I have to apply to college.’ ” Guest Kate...

In the Season 4 premiere of Admissions Beat, host Lee Coffin, dean of admissions at Dartmouth, assesses the extraordinary and ongoing college admissions news cycle in recent months. He also provides practical advice for applicants, parents, and counselors on how to understand the news and steer through it as the new admission cycle gets underway. Among the topics that he and his guests discuss: th...

Admissions Beat will return for its fourth season on Sept. 12. Whether you’re new to the podcast or a past listener, our goal endures: to support applicants, as well as their parents and counselors, through the search, application, and financial aid process. Host Lee Coffin, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Dartmouth, provides a preview of what you can expect from this fall’s episodes.

On June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down race-conscious admissions policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. In this special edition of the Admissions Beat, host Lee Coffin, the Dean of Admissions at Dartmouth, explains the practical implications of the decision for students — especially those who will be applying to college this coming fall — paying particul...

As the 2022-23 college admissions cycle draws to a close, Admissions Beat host Lee Coffin is joined by an audience of parents for the recording of the Season 3 finale. Gathered together on the campus of Dartmouth College for an admitted student open house, the parents of current high school seniors share perspectives on this year’s process. They also draw on their first-hand experience to provide...

In this week’s episode of Admissions Beat, Dartmouth Dean of Admissions Lee Coffin speaks directly to those high school seniors who still have a college decision to make. “A big decision,” as he puts it. As the May 1 deadline draws near, Dean Coffin offers students (and parents, too) more than a dozen, gut-check questions that, when taken as a whole, comprise a checklist for the final countdown to...

With May 1 looming as the deadline for applicants to make a final decision on where to enroll, three Dartmouth first-year students reflect on their academic transition from high school to college. They provide firsthand perspectives on course selection, time management, and the importance of letting go any lingering belief that the college experience can be perfect. (Spoiler alert: it never is.) J...

Whether you’re a high school senior, a high school junior, or a parent seeking to guide them, the question “So what’s your major?” can seem premature. After all, most colleges and universities don’t require a student to declare a major until the sophomore year. But reflecting on that question while still in high school can serve as a helpful exercise for students to contemplate what subjects they...

For many high school juniors, the college search and application process is deeply intertwined with an interest in playing a particular sport. For some applicants, that focus may be on an NCAA Division 1 program, where there could be opportunities to recruited and to receive a scholarship. Others may have their sights set on being a scholar-athlete playing at an institution designated as Division...

Throughout their senior year of high school, but particularly in recent weeks, applicants for the college Class of 2027 have been receiving admissions decisions. Over the next four weeks, the tables will turn, as those students — in consultation with parents, counselors, and others — weigh a series of decisions of their own, based on the choices now in front of them. “In that time, you’re going to...

Ever wonder how admissions officers decide which applicants to invite to join the incoming class? Jacques Steinberg, who wrote a New York Times best-seller, “ The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College ,” based on a year of reporting at Wesleyan two decades ago, recently spent a day behind the closed doors of Dartmouth’s undergraduate admissions selection committee. In thi...

The thought of pursuing a college or university education in the United States can be particularly daunting to students living in other countries. This week on Admissions Beat, host Lee Coffin interviews three current undergraduates who traveled from Brazil, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom to attend Dartmouth. They provide tips on how international students can search for, apply to, and, ultimat...