Interview 270: Peter Pitts on “The Case for Small Colleges”

- Peter Pitts gives his backstory
- Peter shares why he didn’t like being a Director of Admissions
- Peter talks about what he loved about being a Regional admissions officer, and we just have a good conversation about being a regional admissions officer
- Peter explains where his passion for admissions work comes from
- Peter walks us through all of the books he has written
- Peter begins to make the case for why students should consider small colleges
- Mark talks about something that is very controversial with Peter, and we have a little bit of a debate about it-hint, it has to do with whether getting large merit awards is a good thing or a bad thing
- Peter shares the number one thing he feels allows colleges to have a distinctive experience unmatched elsewhere
- Peter talks about how his book, “Small College Magic,” is different from some other books on colleges
- Peter has a beef with something that Jeff Selingo said, so we talk about it in this segment
- Peter talks about how he decided to include some colleges and omit others in his books
- Peter highlights overlooked benefits of small colleges.
- Mark asks Peter what a student should do if they visit a college and they find it is too small.
- Peter and Mark discuss how size can’t only be judged by the number of students
- Peter shares one thing he wants listeners to know that we haven’t discussed very much
- Peter goes on the hot seat
- Peter answers the question: What do I say to the parent who says to me, I don’t want my student to go through the rest of their lives explaining to people where they went to college because no one has heard of it-you have to hear how Peter answers this question

