College Matters. Alma Matters.

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Dean Nicola Foote discovered Honors education, when she came to the US after getting her PhD in History from University College London. She found that Honors education allowed students to explore different disciplines in addition to being part of a community. Three years ago, Dean Foote became the Dean of Frederick Honors College University of Pittsb...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Growing up, Deniz was interested in Science. He enjoyed AP classes in High School. He was on the robotics team for 8 years, and went to summer STEM camps. When COVID happened Deniz cold emailed a Prof in Dept of Neuroscience in Virginia Tech to do research. Shortly thereafter, Deniz was doing cognitive tests on mice, with touchscreen devices! Deniz j...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter This admissions season, FAFSA delays have cast a huge shadow. Jodi Foxx of Charlotte Christian and Tom Stepkoski of Westhill High School have different perspectives based on the experiences at their school. In this episode, the two Counselors share the FAFSA Impact on their students, How Colleges have been Responding, the New FAFSA features, and Lear...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Rayyan was working 30 hour weeks while in High School. Outside of that, Rayyan was more likely to be playing basketball or video games. Then in his senior year he took some “sciency” classes, as he calls it, and did well and liked them! He felt Science might be his thing. Rayyan joins our podcast to share his UC Riverside undergraduate experience, UG...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Swimming took up a lot of Grant’s time in high school. So he had little time to think about his career and beyond. He did get interested in Biology later in high school, and was involved in Biology competitions. Grant joins our podcast to share his UC Irvine undergraduate experience, UG Research in Antibiotics, Winning the Goldwater Scholarship, Purs...

Sign Up to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter While he was in grad school, Chris Boehm applied for a College Admissions job at Albright College after seeing an ad in the Newspaper. Chris didn’t get that job, but the job description intrigued him. So, he cold emailed the President of the Pennsylvania Association for College Admission Counseling. The President invited him for a chat and connected hi...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter College Campus Visits are a crucial part of the College Process. It is a great way to get a feel for College in general, and certainly can help you, if that college is of particular interest to you. Paula Dennis joins our podcast to share her insights into College Campus Visits, The Benefits, How to Plan for them, Senior Shilpi Bardhan on her Fly-in...

Sign Up to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter When Dr. Chakravarthy was deciding what to study in college, she chose Physics because her father wanted her to. Left to herself, she would have pursued Nutrition and Dietetics. Today, decades later, she heads 10X International School, where Experiential Programs allow the High Schoolers to explore and experience different disciplines & ideas,  do...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Phillip liked to build things. Like growing popsicle sticks in elementary school. Technology fascinated him. At the same time he loved Humanities. He loved History. When he started applying to Colleges, he hadn’t figured out whether he wanted to take the Liberal Arts route or pursue Engineering. Phillip joins our podcast to share his undergraduate co...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter This is a special episode of the Podcast “College Matters. Alma Matters.”, featuring UG students from CUR’s Program called Scholars Transforming Through Research (STR) 2024. In this episode, Student Researchers from Five Institutions, Mercer University, McLennan Community College, University of Rochester, Piedmont University, and Towson University, t...

Sign Up to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter When Deborah was doing her PhD in the UK, she would help International students transition to studying and living in another country. She liked working with students individually and broadly. After graduating she came back to Mumbai, and found that the kind of academic roles she desired were in short supply. So when the Adviser opportunity at Education...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Jillian was an ambitious and competitive High Schooler. She was very interested in Science and in music. She spent her sophomore and junior summers at Harvard and Brown studying Astro and Quantum Mechanics. But Jillian knew from a very young age that she wanted to do something with Astronomy in College. Jillian joins our podcast to share journey thro...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Making sense of the College News of the week, curated by Alma Matters . Shveta Bagade, College Counselor gives us her take on the news. Topics discussed in this episode: The Dartmouth Decision  [] What Should Students Do? [] How Colleges Use Test Scores[] Closing Thoughts [] Our Guest: Shveta Bagade , College Counselor based in Silicon Valley Califor...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Adriana came to the US when she was 10 years old from Romania. While she had a lot of catching up to do, her determination and competitive spirit helped her. She was a science nerd in high school. She loved Earth Science, Geology & Biology. She was into Languages, Music, Photography. She was also on the Varsity Tennis team. Adriana cut her teeth...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter The University Honors Program at CSULB has been around for at least 3 decades and has grown organically. 3 years ago, Dr. Perez became the first Director of the Honors Program and started to give it “cohesion” as she puts it. Prior to that, Dr. Perez was the Director of the University Honors Program at CSU Fullerton. In this podcast, Director Perez i...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Undergraduate students in US Colleges have the opportunity to do Research.  I have been fortunate enough to talk to a number of these students over the last couple of years on my Podcast. In this episode, I have used select snippets from the numerous stories in this Podcast, to give you a flavor of undergraduate research at US Universities and Colleg...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Kaitlyn had a lot of different interests in High School. She was a lot into sports - rowing, taekwondo. She loved math, sciences, and languages. She didn’t really know what she wanted to study in College. So, she was looking for a college with the opportunity to study across a number of disciplines and be able to interact with students from fields ot...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Making sense of the College News of the week, curated by Alma Matters . This week Dr. Jay Jacobs, Vice Provost of Enrollment Management at the University of Vermont talks about the Impact of the FAFSA Delays. Topics discussed in this episode: Impact to UVM [] What Should ED Students do? [] Federal Roadblocks [] Advice for ED Students [] Is May 1 Dead...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Gabrielle loved school. She loved science. Her school years were tough because she used to be homeless off and on.  Despite that, she graduated High School with Honors. After graduating from high school, she knew she wanted to get a Bachelor’s degree. She couldn’t afford it then. She worked 16-hour days, and 4 years later decided to study Nursing at...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Founded in 1791, the University of Vermont (UVM for short) has the distinction of being the 5th oldest university in the US. Allison graduated from Mississippi State with a degree in Sports Administration. Upon graduation, she found it challenging to find a job. A friend from the Sports department suggested she look at admissions recruiting at the Co...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Daniel took all the AP Classes his High School offered. He loved AP US History. He was also very active in the Science Olympiad and really enjoyed it because it involved building things. He was also fortunate to have been in a high school where there was a class dedicated to doing research. It was here that Daniel cut his teeth in research, and got h...

Episode Title: The Meaning of The FAFSA Delays, in College News Fit to Digest. January 5, 2024. Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Making sense of the College News of the week, curated by Alma Matters . Shveta Bagade, College Counselor gives us her take on the news. Topics discussed in this episode: The Background [] Soft Launch [] Glitches and Changes [] End of January Delivery [] Li...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Megan was working full time while she was in High School. She found it challenging to balance school and full time work. Megan didn’t go directly to College after High School.  She had a lot of fear and also lacked the confidence then, about going to college. After working in Health care for almost a decade, Megan joined the Gaston Community College...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Gavin went to a high school in the rural south where the focus was greater on athletics & sports. Gavin was more academically inclined. He was fascinated by Extreme Weather - tornadoes, damaging winds, snow storms etc. He was known as the weather guy in school! Gavin joins our podcast to share his undergraduate college journey at Dartmouth, Being...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter AP Physics was the first course Isabella took in High School that challenged her. It really pushed her to think outside the box. Then a senior project opened her eyes to diseases that affected not only the elderly but young people as well. That got her thinking about college and Pre Med. Isabella joins us on our podcast to share her undergraduate exp...