Podcast Episodes

Introduction : Mark shares insights from two conversations he had with two admission officers at the SACAC conference Mark then shares how a student can get access to the custom prompts that many colleges require in June or early July, instead of in August when the colleges release their Common Apps Lisa interviews Jenny Anderson [...]

In this week's episode you will hear In the News (2:32): Andy Strickler shares some of the changes admissions offices are making due to financial pressures. Part 3 of 3 (Length 14 minutes) This week’s question (42:05): Interview: Mark Stucker and David Blobaum, The Co-Founder of Summit Test Prep Debate whether selective colleges should make [...]

Introduction : Mark shares how the SAT offering the new September SAT offers up some opportunities in their test prep calendar. This does not mean to imply everyone should take the SAT, but most of our listeners will take the SAT, so here is some advice. Mark shares the importance of having a balanced list, [...]

In this week's episode you will hear In the News (2:05): Andy Strickler shares some of the changes admissions offices are making due to financial pressures. (Length 14 minutes) This week’s question (16:34): Mark and Hillary talk about the things you should not do when attending a college fair. (Length 25 minutes) This week’s interview [...]

Introduction : Mark Stucker shares when a student and parent should complete the portions of the college application process that are the most time consuming. Mark interviews Rob Franek, Editor and Chief of the Princeton Review on the Latest “College Hopes and Worries” Survey - Preview of Part 2: Rob talks about the responses from [...]

In this week's episode you will hear In the News (5:44): Andy Strickler breaks a lot of news in this 3-part discussion, part 1 looks at how college’s are handling the backlash against DEI initiatives (Length 23 minutes) This week’s question (28:30): Mark and Hillary talk about the things you should do when attending a [...]

Introduction : Mark Stucker shares what parts of the college application process are the most time-consuming. Mark interviews Rob Franek, Editor and Chief of the Princeton Review on the Latest “College Hopes and Worries” Survey - Preview of Part 1 : Rob shares how the survey was done Rob tells us what students and parents [...]

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 [...]