Podcast Episodes

In this week's episode you will hear In the News (6:05): Lisa and Mark share and discuss a powerful letter from a mom and a daughter about how they almost fell into the “College Admission Trap” (Part 2 of 2) (Length 29 minutes) This week’s question (35:33): Mark and Susan Discuss whether a student led [...]

Introduction : Mark Stucker gives his opinion on 15 changes he is expecting in admissions due to the financial pressure colleges are facing. Mark interviews Kathleen deLaski, Founder of the Education Design Lab. Preview of Part 5: Kathleen explains what she means when she says, “we need to fix and disrupt” college education Kathleen gives [...]

In this week's episode you will hear In the News (7:22): Lisa and Mark share and discuss a powerful letter from a mom about how she almost fell into the “College Admission Trap” (Length 21 minutes) This week’s question (28:22): Mark and Hillary discuss the importance of a college being able to predict who will [...]

Introduction : Mark discusses new changes to the Common App, and then he gives he describes Forbes College Financial Grades, a tool you cn use to know which colleges are stable financially and which colleges are struggling financially? Mark interviews Kathleen deLaski, Founder of the Education Design Lab. Preview of Part 4 : Kathleen and [...]

In this week's episode you will hear In the News (1:56): A mom asks a very important question, Should you ever skip optional questions. Hillary and Mark start out discussing this question but they bounce around and cover a lot of topics including, about 15 minutes discussing “why it is so important for a college [...]

Introduction : Mark answers a Speakpipe QFL from a listener who wants to know when my student should start the college process? Mark answers a second question, Any advice to give us hope with the new administration with all of the changes they are making? Mark interviews Kathleen deLaski, Founder of the Education Design Lab [...]

In this week's episode you will hear In the News : N/A This week’s question (1:56): A mom asks a very important question, How can I know if a college is genuinely caring about all kids but especially about an unorganized student? Lisa Rouff and Lynda Doepker answer this question. (Length 41 minutes) This week’s [...]

Introduction : Mark answers a Speakpipe QFL from a listener who wants to know what other valuable information is in the Common Data Set that most people don’t know about Mark interviews Kathleen deLaski, Founder of the Education Design Lab: Preview of Part 2 Kathleen talks about an experience she had that made her realize [...]

In this week's episode you will hear In the News (3:21): Hilliary shares some observations from things that stood out while reading applications this year (Length 17 minutes) This week’s question (20:02): A mom asks a very important question, How can I know if a college is genuinely caring about all kids but especially about [...]

Introduction : Susan and Mark discuss the Speakpipe question, “Why is NYU telling students to avoid prompt 7: Select a topic of your choice prompt? Mark interviews Kathleen deLaski, Founder of the Education Design Lab - Preview of Part 1 : Kathleen DeLaski-shares her interesting background Kathleen tells us what the Educational Design Lab is [...]

In this week's episode you will hear In the News (7:14): Susan shares some observations from things that stood out while reading applications this year (Length 51 minutes) This week’s question (58:18): Julia and Mark answer a question from Alex, a student in DC, and he wants to know, does it even matter what my [...]

Introduction : Mark brings back Anika and Dave to give updates and to celebrate the start of year 8 Mark interviews Dean Christoph Guttentag, Understanding How Duke Makes Admissions Decisions - Part 3 of 3: Christoph make such an important point about the angular student and the well-rounded student that we start by letting you [...]