Podcast Episodes

In this week's episode you will hear Results from our 507 listeners are shared In the News (11:06): Andy Strickler shares some more information about AP Tests scores, but then Andy and Mark transition to discuss a range of other ways that admissions files are read that are usually kept in secret, and are rarely [...]

Introduction : Kate and Susan answer a question from a mom whose daughter is struggling with her gender identity, and she has been bullied, and she wonders if this is a good essay topic for her to write on Heath Einstein explains to us what colleges want to see in teacher recommendations: Preview of Part [...]

Introduction : Mark shares some recommended resources to help families and he also answers a question from a listener. Heath Einstein explains to us what colleges want to see in teacher recommendations: Preview Part 2 : I replay what Heath said about persistence and grit because I thought it was that important Heath and I [...]

In this week's episode you will hear In the News (2:07): Andy Strickler and Mark Stucker discuss some trends in college admissions that present challenges to enrollment officers-Part 2 of 2 (Length 20 minutes) This week’s interview (22:52): Lisa interviews two students, a female student who is a freshman in college and a male student [...]

In this week's episode you will hear Introduction (8:25): Kate Stricklan from CU Boulder and Susan Tree discuss takeaways from the NACAC conference and they share insights into file reading. (Length 15 minutes) This week’s question (23:50): Heath Einstein explains to us what colleges want to see in teacher recommendations: Preview of Part 1 Heath [...]

In this week's episode you will hear In the News (2:10): Andy Strickler and Mark Stucker discuss some trends in college admissions that present challenges to enrollment officers (Length 23 minutes) This week’s interview (25:15): Interview: Lisa interviews two students, a female student who is a freshman in college and a male student who is [...]

NACAC Conference (13:15): Kate Stricklan from CU Boulder and Susan Tree discuss takeaways from the NACAC conference and they share insights into file reading. (Length 20 minutes) Admissions Decisions Discussion (33:54): Mark Stucker and Hillary Dickman discuss some takeaways from the Case Studies, there focus is on key insights we hoped the listeners didn’t miss [...]

In this week's episode you will hear In the News (1:50): Lynda and Mark discuss why they are seeing so much interest in Early Decision to the University of Chicago this year (Length 29 minutes) This week’s interview (30:52): Interview with Daniel Chambliss, author of the book, “How College Works” Part 4 of 4 Dan [...]

Introduction : Kate Stricklan shares her background and then Susan and Kate discussed some of the hot topics college counselors and admission officers were discussing at the recent NACAC conference in Columbus, Ohio. This is your chance to see how admissions committees make decisions. Read the admissions file for Layla on the Yourcollegeboundkid.com website under [...]

In this week's episode you will hear In the News (1:56): Hilary and Mark discuss some new ways that were revealed at the recent Slate conference that AI is being used in college admissions (Length 37 minutes) This week’s interview (38:04): Interview with Daniel Chambliss, author of the book, “How College Works” Part 3 of [...]

In this week's episode you will hear This week’s question : Mark answers a queston from a listener about whether playing a varsity sport in college hurts you from getting a job after college. This is your chance to see how admissions committees make decisions. Read the admissions file for Layla on the Yourcollegeboundkid.com website [...]