Your College Bound Kid | Admission Tips, Admission Trends & Admission Interviews

In this episode you will hear: Mark shares several announcements about major developments in Higher Education Interview David Vise, Executive Director of Modernstates.org Part 1 Preview David gives his backstory Dave tells us what a CLEP exam is He tells us who CLEP courses are for Dave explains how CLEP is different from AP Dave shares how high schools and colleges and HBCUs are using Modern Stat...

In this episode you will hear: (18:05) Vince Garcia makes his debut as one of our co-hosts in our monthly rotation for our "In the News" segment. Mark and Vince discuss an Inside Higher Ed article by Scott Jaschik entitled, "How Stevens Tech attracts applicants and students". The 4/25/2022 article looks at some of the strategic decisions one NJ school did to upgrade the academic caliber of their s...

In this episode you will hear: Preview Scott works at the National Humanities Alliance, a member-supported coalition dedicated to advocating for the value of the humanities in communities and on campuses. He leads "Study the Humanities", a Mellon Foundation-funded initiative that provides humanities faculty, administrators, and advocates with evidence-based resources and strategies to make the cas...

In this episode you will hear: Susan Tree, Mark's former colleague and friend for over 20 years makes her debut as an official co-host. (15:45) Susan and Mark discuss a GrownandFlown.com article entitled, "We need to rethink encouraging our teens to follow your passions". The article was written by Annie Reneau on April 13, 2021 Susan shares the history over the last 40 years of how several books...

In this episode you will hear: Before beginning the podcast Mark announces a blockbuster change that will change the nature of the YCBK podcast in a major way and the announcement is effective on June 1st. Dave answers a question from a listener, why is okay for you (Dave) to go to elite schools like Harvard and Princeton and for your daughter to go to Yale, but you tell me that it doesn't matter...

In this episode you will hear: (30:20) In this segment of "In the News" Mark and Dave discuss an April 4th, 2022 article by Jim Jump that appeared in "Inside Higher Ed" entitled, "Is it ethical to withhold the data (admit rates)". Dave does a great summary of the article and Mark points out his five take-aways from the article and then Mark and Dave have a spirited discussion about the article. ht...

In this episode you will hear: (16:05) In this segment of "In the News" Mark and Dave discuss a March 23rd, 2022 article by Yazmin Padilla that appeared in "Inside Higher Ed" entitled, "How Amherst College Became a Champion for Community College Transfer Students". Dave does a great summary of the article and Mark points out his seven take-aways from the article and then Mark and Dave have a spiri...

In this episode you will hear: (15:14) In this segment of "In the News" Mark and Dave discuss a March 23rd, 2022 article by Jeffrey Selingo that appeared in "The Atlantic" entitled, "The College Admissions Process is Completely Broken". Mark points out what he believes are the most insightful points Selingo makes and he also points out some areas where he thinks Selingo didn't mention some other i...

In this episode you will hear: (15:20) Mark and Dave discuss a Washington Post March 23rd, 2022 article by Wisconsin math professor Jordan Ellenberg, entitled, "Did Columbia game US News college rankings". The article describes the research math professor at Columbia, Michael Thaddeus has done to expose how the data Columbia presented to US News was erroneous to such a level that it cannot be seen...

In this episode you will hear: (07:45) In this week's "In the news" segment, Mark and Dave discuss a February 14th, 2022 article, by Scott Jaschik that appeared in the Inside Higher Ed. The article is entitled, "Does calculus count too much in admissions." The article presents a pretty compelling case that there is a lot of resistance to the weight placed on calculus in admissions decisions. Mark...

In this episode you will hear: (15:58) In this week's "In the news" segment, Mark and Dave discuss a January 12th, 2022 article, by Ron Lieber that appeared in the New Times. The article is entitled, "College Merit Aid (or the Lack Thereof) makes Early Decision even murkier. Lieber has many legitimate concerns with the lack of transparency colleges have about when it comes to letting families know...

In this episode you will hear: (12:20) In this week's "In the news" segment, Mark and Dave discuss a April 4th, 2017 article, by Becky Sabky that appeared as an oped in the New York Times. At the time Sabky wrote this, she was a senior member of the admission staff at Dartmouth College. The article is entitled, "check this box if you are a good person". Sabky recounts the letter of recommendation...

In this episode you will hear: (15:58) In this week's "In the news" segment, Mark and Dave discuss a March 14th, 2022 article, by Scott Jaschik of Inside Higher Ed, "New York Bill would ban legacy admissions and Early Decision"? This legislation would ban legacy and Early Decision from both public schools like the SUNY and CUNY schools and the private schools like Fordham, Syracuse, University of...

In this episode you will hear: (13:40) In this week's "In the news" segment, Mark and Dave discuss a Feb 22nd, 2022 article, by Scott Jaschik of Inside Higher Ed, "Are recommendation letters a Form of Discrimmination"? https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2022/02/22/colleges-consider-whether-recommendations-are-fair (37:00) Mark continues with a bonus content section. Mark shares with...

(12:05) In this week's "In the news" segment, Dave returns and Mark and Dave discuss a Feb 14th, 2022 article, by Brennan Barnard of Forbes, "Things that make yuo go Hmmm. Brennan Barnard interviews many admission leaders and college counselors in attempt to explain some rather bizarre things that are happening in the world of college admissions. These admission and counseling leaders provide some...

In this episode you will hear: (12:32) In this week's "In the news" segment, Dave has the week off to celebrate his birthday, but Vince Garcia and Mark discuss a Feb 14th, 2022 article, by Frances Dinkelspiel of Berkleyside, "UC Berkeley must slash new enrollment by one third unless high court intervenes. Vince and Mark discuss why the court ruled against Berkeley. They look at whether the problem...

In this episode you will hear: (16:40) In this week's "In the news" segment, we discuss a Jan 13th, 2022 article, "How college applicants embellish essays with sob stories and fake patents. The article is by Isabel Vincent and it appeared in the New York Post. Mark and Dave discuss why this is happening and what if anything can be done about it. They also discuss other areas in the application whe...

In this episode you will hear: (11:15) In this week's "In the news" segment, we discuss Ben Paris Jan 31st, 2022 article, "A Test prep persons anaylsis of the new SAT" Mark and Dave have a detailed discussion of all of the changes in this new SAT, and then they share their opinions about whether these changes are good or bad for students. https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/views/2022/01/31/...

In this episode you will hear: (07:20) In this week's "In the news" segment, we do the big "switcheroo" and Lisa tackles an "in the news" question that was sent in and directed to her. It looks at the Windowless 4500 person dorm that Charlie Munger built at UC-Santa Barbara. We discuss a December 13, 2021 article entitled, "The Munger Dorm is bad, but why" by Aaron Betsky. The article appeared in...

(13:06) In this week's "In the news" segment, we discuss two articles on the same topic, that both came out on January 10th, 2022. The first is by Melissa Korn in the Wall Street Journal entitled, "Yale, Georgetown, other Top Schools illegally collude to limit Student Financial Aid Lawsuit Alleges. The second article is by Ivana Saric of Axios and it is entitled, "Lawsuit alleges top colleges ille...

In this episode you will hear: (18:28) In this week's "In the news" segment, a January, 2022 article in The Hechinger Report, by Jon Marcus "Faced with an existential crisis, some colleges do something that is increasingly rare: ADAPT. Mark and Dave look at the specific changes the colleges in the article made, and they discuss what other colleges can learn from these colleges. They also discuss w...

In this episode you will hear: (19:34) In this week's "In the news" segment, a August 19th, 2021 article in Forbes, by Brennan Barnard "the admission double standard" Mark and Dave discuss how it is not uncommon for the admission officers to expect something of students that they do not apply to themselves. Dave and Mark discuss why this happens and what you can do about it. https://www.forbes.com...

In this episode you will hear: (08:20) In this week's "In the news" segment, a November 1st, 2021 article in the Hechinger Report, by Jon Marcus "From Google ads to NFL sponsorships: Colleges spends billions at marketing themselves to attract students" Mark and Dave discuss how much they are spending, where they are spending their money and why they are spending so much money. They also discuss wh...

In this episode you will hear: (16:05) In this week's "In the news" segment, a November 22nd, 2021 article in the Hechinger Report, by jill Barshay "The number of college graduates in the humanities drops for the eighth consecutive year" Mark and Dave discuss why this is happening and what are the implications of this. https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-the-number-of-college-graduates-in-the...

In this episode you will hear: (12:28) In this week's "In the news" segment, a blog article from the Josiah Barlett center of Public Policy entitled, by Andrew Cline "Is College Worth Is: Usually but not always" Dave and Mark discuss the statistics the blog article shares as they debate if college is worth it. https://jbartlett.org/2021/10/is-college-worth-it-usually-but-not-always-new-study-finds...