Podcast Episodes

In this week's episode you will hear This week’s question (22:22): Kate and Mark answer a question from a listener from the Northeast (Length 35 minutes) Mark interviews Daniel Chambliss, author of the book, “How College Works” on the topic of, what is the value of a Liberal Arts education (57:58): Preview-Part 1 § Dan [...]

In this week's episode you will hear Introduction : Why the University of Florida adding Early Decision is so significant Mark talks about some new and creative ways AO’s are using AI -Part 2 : Mark interviews Andy Strickler about the challenges college admission leaders faced in 2026. We focus on predictive modeling in this [...]

In this week's episode you will hear Question #1 (Small Colleges) (4:15) : Hilary and Mark answer a question from a listener from Minneapolis who wants to know why there is so little conversation about colleges with under 500 students (Length 21 minutes) Question #2 (HBCU's) (25:32): Mark takes a question from a listener from [...]

In this week's episode you will hear Introduction : Mark talks about some new and creative ways AO’s are using AI This week’s interview : Mark interviews Andy Strickler about the challenges college admission leaders faced in 2026. Part 2-Preview o We continue our conversation about the reasons why Connecticut College is adding Early Action [...]

In this week's episode you will hear This week’s question (5:01): Hilary and Mark answer a question from a listener from Cincinnati who wants to know why the high school will not share the School Profile with him (Length 19 minutes) This week’s interview (24:44): Lisa interviews Suzanne Hanna and they discuss tips to help [...]

In this week's episode you will hear Introduction : Mark shares two special events coming up no 6/1 and 10/6 for YCBK listeners and then Hilary takes a question from a listener about the activity section of the application This week’s question : Jed Applerouth-Trends on the ACT and SAT and answers to listener questions [...]

In this week's episode you will hear This week’s question (3:05): Carter and Mark answer a question from a listener who wants to know why colleges are sending recruitment mail to her current college students. (Length 23 minutes) This week’s interview (26:04): Lisa interviews Suzanne Hanna and they discuss tips to help girls successfully transition [...]

In this week's episode you will hear Introduction : Jed continues with what he started in part 1 giving us a broad overview of self-prep, group prep and one on one and various hybrid models Jed discusses ways to support kids struggling with negative self-talk, and explores how tutors can assist students dealing with test [...]

In this week's episode you will hear Introduction (5:20): Carter and Mark discuss some of the things their seniors and juniors are doing right now Lisa interviews Suzanne Hanna and they discuss tips to help girls successfully transition to college-1 of 3 (23:19): Preview of Part 1 o Suzanne is a life coach for college [...]

In this week's episode you will hear Introduction : o Mark plays an important message a listener sent in via Speakpipe Jed Applerouth-Is Self-Prep, Group-Prep or One-On-One Test Prep best for your student-1 of 3 o Jed gives his background, how he went from consulting with Mckinsie to starting a national test prep company that [...]

In this week's episode you will hear This week’s question (4:51): Kate joins Mark to answer a question from a listener who wonders what her student can do in her application when all her time has been spent on gymnastics in HS, and she won’t be doing gymnastics in college (Length 21 minutes) Question from [...]

In this week's episode you will hear Introduction : Mark shares two important announcements Episode Summary : o Heath tells us whether he thinks Texas schools emphasize resumes more than other colleges o Heath makes a statement about a trend he is seeing when it comes to class rank and student applications o Heath tells [...]