The Admissions Case studies are our attempt to simulate what an admission committee at a college goes through when they read admissions files and discuss and debate who to accept, deny, defer, or waitlist. Some aspects of this simulation do not resemble the file-reading process at a college. Still, many of the things you will hear are similar to the way admissions committees discuss applications in the committee discussions. To get the most out of this learning experience, we strongly recommend that you read the admissions files of the three students: Alana Anderson, Allen Landon, and Layla Tufte. You can access these files by going to yourcollegeboundkid.com; go to the resources tab and click the link entitled, “YCBK Case Studies Files”.

This link will take you to a Google Drive. We encourage you to read Alana Anderson’s file and then listen to the discussion about Alana. Next, you can read Allen Landon’s admission application before you hear the committee discussion about Allen Landon. Finally, you can read Layla Tufte’s file before you hear the admissions committee discuss Layla’s candidacy.

The admissions committee is comprised of three current admission officers. Hilary Dickman from Colorado College, Kate Stricklan from The University of Colorado/Boulder, and Grace Robertson Lloyd, an admission officer at Grinnell College. These are actual admissions officers. Hilary and Kate are co-hosts on our podcast, and Grace will be interviewed on YCBK in 2026.