In this week’s episode you will hear

In the News (28:58): Mark and Susan introduce an article entitled, A New Push to Assess “Character in College Admissions”. Susan and Mark spend the first 30 minutes talking about a range of admission topics and then they dive in and discuss this July 27th Eric Hoover article. Their whole discussion is over 70 minutes and it will air in two part; this is part 1 and part two will be on Episode 381, next Thursday. A New Push to Assess ‘Character’ in Admissions (chronicle.com) (Length 20 minutes)

This week’s question (48:10): Susan and Mark discuss a Speakpipe question Mike sent in. Mike wants to know how a student should present a highly competitive program like “Tech kids” in their application? Do they need to explain what the program is and what the selection process is? Mike asks, isn’t is risky to assume every admission officer knows what this selective program is?

(Length 28 minutes)

This week’s interview (1:14:05): Mark and Julia interview Lee Coffin about, “Understanding Dartmouth College” 2 of 3. Part 2 – The Dartmouth interview is the College Spotlight for the week.

• Lee answers a Speakpipe question from a listener, and just like in our first interview when Lee broke some new news by talking about how they went from test-optional to test considered, Lee breaks some even bigger news in his detailed answer to the question from
• Lee drops a big number on us when he talks about how they use 64 types of data just in their initial process
• Lee talks about a brand new process they created to evaluate applicants in a way that no other school that we know of is doing quite the way Lee is doing
• Lee answers multiple questions that listeners sent in both Speakpipe and written questions
• Lee explains why the peer rec may be his favorite part of the application
• Lee answers the question, why are Dartmouth and Davidson colleges are the only two colleges that ask for a peer rec (Length 9 minutes)

Mark’s recommended resource of the week (1:23:50): The Midwest Student Exchange program, a program that allows students in the Midwest to attend some out of state Midwest schools at a reduced tuition rate. Midwest Student Exchange Program | Offering a discounted tuition rate with an average annual tuition savings of $7,000. (mhec.org)

College Spotlight : N/A

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