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

In this episode you will hear: (36:18) Mark shares some different policies that colleges have for deferred applicants. (03:26) Susan joins Mark to answer a question from a listener about how being a low-income impacts decisions at need-blind schools. (01:10:18) Interview-Susan Brisson-Olin College of Engineering Preview of Part 1 v Susan gives her backstory v Susan gives us the basics about Olin v...

In this episode you will hear: Mark has a discussion about the role of selectivity when selecting a college Mark interviews Kate Stricklan on How Some Colleges Shape Their Class o Kate tells us what shaping is and how it applies to admission file reading o Kate talks about how students go in and out of the admitted class o Kate shares why colleges do not reveal they can share all of their admit da...

In this episode you will hear: (01:45) Mark and Julia discuss, what do you do if you find out that you were deferred or wait-listed from a college. When is the best time to send in a letter of continued interest? (28:04) QFL and Interview: Matt Beatty, VP of enrollment at Luther College in Decorah in Iowa Preview • Matt gives his bio, and he tells us about the location of Luther College in Decorah...

In this episode you will hear: Mark has a discussion about the role of prestige when selecting a college Mark interviews Kate Stricklan on the Role of the Seasonal Admission Officer o What is going on in the admission office now o What is the role of the operations team that is mission-critical o We discuss the difference between seasonals and regionals, and Kate gives us a lot of details about se...

In this episode you will hear: (03:12) Mark and Julia discuss, what do you do if you found out that you were deferred or waitlisted from a college (39:38) Interview: Mark interviews Kev Sanders, Associate Director of Admissions, University of Utah Preview of Part 3 o Kev addresses one other concern that a pacific northwest family has about the University of Utah o Kev addresses one concern that on...

In this episode you will hear: Twenty of our listeners share tips that have helped them with the college process that they want to share with others. Recommended Resources Colleges that allow self reporting of test scores Colleges that Allow Self-Reporting of SAT and ACT Scores Great source for questions about finances and college Edvisors: Financial Aid, Student Loans, Scholarships and Money Mana...

In this episode you will hear: (08:49) Matt Carpenter interview, Part 3 of 3 ² Matt and I continue with our conversation about a need-based appeal ² I share a story about how some colleges are not transparent when it comes to home equity and that can be a game changer ² Matt gives a shout out to a college that does a great job if your income changes from the base year ² Matt and I talk about the e...

In this episode you will hear: We welcome a new member to our podcast, Carter Delloro, Co-Director of College Counseling at the Marymount School of New York. Carter will discuss a New Yor Times article, "The Early Decision Option Is a Racket. Shut It Down"-Part 3 of 3 Mark and Lisa answer a QFL from a listener who wants advice because a lot of the student in her area are discouraged because they d...

In this episode you will hear: (01:58) In The News, Part 2 of 3 We welcome a new member to our podcast, Carter Delloro, Co-Director of College Counseling at the Marymount School of New York. Carter will discuss a New Yor Times article, "The Early Decision Option Is a Racket. Shut It Down" and then a listener, Sean Elliott sends in a message in support of Early Decision and Carter shares his perspe...

In this episode you will hear: We welcome a new member to our podcast, Carter Delloro, Co-Director of College Counseling at the Marymount School of New York. Carter will discuss a New Yor Times article, "The Early Decision Option Is a Racket. Shut It Down" and then a listener, Sean Elliott sends in a message in support of Early Decision and Carter shares his perspective on Sean's perspective. New...

In this episode you will hear: (12:16) Matt Carpenter interview, Part 1 of 3 ² Matt gives an overview of College Aid Pro ² Matt warns our listeners of some schools that have inaccurate net price calculators ² Matt explains how College Aid Pro, AKA CAP knows whether a net price calculator is accurate or not (42:48) QFL #1 Kate and Susan join Mark to answer a question about parent involvement when i...

In this episode you will hear: Mark and Hilary answer a question about submitting the science portion of the SAT New Interview-Evan Mandery-How America's Elite Colleges Breed High-Status Careers—and Misery Preview of Part 2 of 3 m Evan distinguishes his scathing criticisms of elite schools, and how he differentiates between the colleges that are steering kids to 3 professions vs the students who e...

In this episode you will hear: (02:47) QFL #1 Hilary and Mark answer a question from an anonymous listener who wants to know if an admission officer can tell when a student gets help with their college essays (18:24) QFL #2 Kate and Susan join Mark to answer several questions that Emily from Columbus has about dual enrollment courses. (41:46) Interview: Mark interviews Tom Ellett, the chief experi...

In this episode you will hear: Mark and Vince talk about a range of topics-Part 2 of 2 New Interview-Evan Mandery-How America's Elite Colleges Breed High-Status Careers—and Misery Preview of Part 1 of 3 m Evan gives his background m Evan talks his book Poison Ivy and he tells us how it lead to a non-profit organization, called, "classactionorg" that fights legacy preferences, for great educational...

In this episode you will hear: (03:10) In the News Vince and Mark just chit-chat and discuss a range of topics about colleges and college admissions-Part 1 of 2 (33:07) Interview: Mark interviews Jin Chow, the Founder of Polygence, but now they have a new exciting service called, "Work Lab'. Jin explains to us how Work Lab helps students Preview of Part 2 v Jin, shares what are the things that you...

In this episode you will hear: Mark expands on what he said about colleges waiving application fees and Mark reads multiple responses he received from people who heard the discussion about Tulane penalizing four high schools by not allowing their students to apply Early Decision to Tulane for a year. New Interview-Dr. Jay Hamilton, Stanford professor and author of the book, "You Got In! Now What?...

In this episode you will hear: (05:56) In the News Vince and Mark discuss an article that appeared in the New York Times onn October 26, 2025, entitled, "An Early-Decision Student Backed Out of Tulane. Tulane Punished High School. (38:05) Interview: Mark interviews Jin Chow, the Founder of Polygence, but now they have a new exciting service called, "Work Lab'. Jin explains to us how Work Lab helps...

In this episode you will hear: Heath Einstein answers two questions that listeners sent in about teacher recommendations: Mark Stucker gives us another addition of: Admissions Vernacular, The Big Number, an Admissions Tip and He Brings Back an Old School Favorite, "What is grinding hs gears" New Interview-Dr. Jay Hamilton, Stanford professor and author of the book, "You Got In! Now What? Preview o...

In this episode you will hear: Results from our 507 listeners are shared (11:06) In the News Andy Strickler shares some more information about AP Tests scores, but then Andy and Mark transition to discuss a range of other ways that admissions files are read that are usually kept in secret, and are rarely shared publicly (37:08) Interview: Mark interviews Stephen Master, an expert in Sports Managem...

In this episode you will hear: Kate and Susan answer a question from a mom whose daughter is struggling with her gender identity, and she has been bullied, and she wonders if this is a good essay topic for her to write on Heath Einstein explains to us what colleges want to see in teacher recommendations: Preview of Part 3 v Heath continues by sharing things you should not say in the teacher recomm...

In this episode you will hear: (03:45) In the News Andy Strickler and Mark Stucker discuss all 39 AP Courses. Andy gives his opinion which ones are the most rigorous (23:27) Interview: Mark interviews Stephen Master, an expert in Sports Management Careers. They discuss "Opportunities for Careers In Sports Management" v Stephen shares his impressive resume and his background, what he is doing now w...

In this episode you will hear: Mark shares some recommended resources to help families and he also answers a question from a listener. Heath Einstein explains to us what colleges want to see in teacher recommendations: Preview of Part 2 v I replay what Heath said about persistence and grit because I thought it was that important v Heath and I discuss whether you should ask a teacher for very speci...

In this episode you will hear: (02:07) In the News Andy Strickler and Mark Stucker discuss some trends in college admissions that present challenges to enrollment officers-Part 2 of 2 (22:52) Interview: Lisa interviews two students, a female student who is a freshman in college and a male student who is a rising senior in high school. Each student is very transparent about the pressure and stress...

In this episode you will hear: (08:25) Kate Stricklan from CU Boulder and Susan Tree discuss takeaways from the NACAC conference and they share insights into file reading. (23:50) Heath Einstein explains to us what colleges want to see in teacher recommendations: Preview of Part 1 v Heath gives updates on TCU v Heath shares what he learned about admissions from being a parent v Heath shares some m...

In this episode you will hear: (02:10) In the News Andy Strickler and Mark Stucker discuss some trends in college admissions that present challenges to enrollment officers (25:15) Interview: Lisa interviews two students, a female student who is a freshman in college and a male student who is a rising senior in high school. Each student is very transparent about the pressure and stress they experie...