Your College Bound Kid | Admission Tips, Admission Trends & Admission Interviews

In this episode you will hear: Announcements and introduction of our newest team member, Lynda Doepker. Lynda and Mark will discuss her new role on the podcast Interview: Marichal Gentry Marichal shares his distinguished background from banking to social work to working at Duke and on to various roles he played at Sewanee, Middlebury and Yale. Marichal talks about how important it is for students to learn how to handle freedom in a responsible way; he talks about teaching adulting, now,...

In this episode you will hear: (23:02) Mark and Susan discuss an article by Akil Bello, written on June 27th, 2022 that appeared in Forbes entitled, “The testing predators have beaten the ACT and the College Board” They article looks at how the test providers of the ACT and the College Board once skewered the test prep companies but now they are in bed with them. How and why did this happen? Susan draws off her decades of experience to shed invaluable of insights on this topic....

In this episode you will hear: Announcements Interview Dr. Christina Boyd-Smith Christina Boyd-Smith gives her backstory Christina discussed when she realized her son had ADD Christina and Lisa, two high achievers with doctorates share examples of how hard it was to accept their kids modest grades and their outlook on school Lisa and Christina’s self awareness and transparency about their areas for growth as a parent make this a compelling interview Christina talks about the challenges and...

In this episode you will hear: (10:20) Mark and Dave discuss an article by Stephanie Saul, written on July 13th, 2022 that appeared in the New York Times entitled, “Elite Colleges Quiet fight to favor legacy admissions” The article looks at why legacy admissions is defended so fervently by so many colleges. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/13/us/legacy-admissions-colleges-universities.html#:~:text=Colleges%20like%20Yale%20and%20Harvard,may%20become%20harder%20to%20defend. (34:12) For our...

In this episode you will hear: Announcements Interview Benjamin Baum, VP of Enrollment, St. John’s College How are the two campuses and college cultures different? Do faculty move between campuses? Is the admission process different between campuses? Is your curriculum full of teachings from dead white men or do you incorporate diverse and modern voices into your curriculum? Are St. John’s students intellectually arrogant? Susan describes kids who have been interested in St. John’s College...

In this episode you will hear: (25:34) Mark and Julia discuss an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal April 28th, 2002 by Alex Janin. The article is entitled, “seeking college admissions edge-more students take a gap year” They take a look at the growing trend for students to take a gap year in order to pursue a more selective college. Julia and Mark share thoughts on whether this is smart strategy. (45:32) For our question from a listener, it is bonus content time and Mark...

In this episode you will hear: Announcements Interview Benjamin Baum, VP of Enrollment, St. John’s College Ben gives his backstory What is unique about St. John’s College? The unique history of St. John’s College How do you answer the question, “What is the ROI of a St. John’s education? How does the career center place kids in jobs in the real world? What is the classroom experience and the curriculum like? What do you look for that is different as an admission officer at St. John’s versus...

In this episode you will hear: (07:04) Mark and Vince discuss an article in The Washington Post, entitled, ”Inside Elite Admissions from Community College to UVA”. The article was actually written on May 5th, 2022. Vince and Mark discuss how many doors Community Colleges open up for students. They discuss how well people do transferring from Community College to universities, even elite universities....

In this episode you will hear: Mark shares five announcements in Higher Ed Interview Dr. Angela McIver, Trapezium Math Preview Angela gives her background as former math teacher and she starts with how the genesis of Trapezium started with a very successful Math Science Upward Bound program that began at Temple. The program won a lot of awards Angela shares where her program was lacking and had to make changes. She became a participant observer to see why people drop out of college math...

In this episode you will hear: (19:16) Mark and Susan discuss an article in Grown and Flown, entitled, ”Do Universities Actually Rescind Their Admissions Offers”. The article was actually written on February 3rd, 2021. Susan and Mark discuss three reasons why college’s rescind admission decisions and they draw from their experience to discuss each of the three reasons . (01:10:36) It’s bonus content school and Lisa leads us in a discussion on the following topic: What is going on with...

In this episode you will hear: Lisa talks about how the recent Supreme Court ruling on abortion may impact colleges Student Interview Brynn Burton Preview Brynn’s background The role of Scholar Match How Brynn met Lisa Challenges Brynn faced Brynn describes her college search Wisdom, advice, Brynn has for parents Brynn goes on the hot seat Please send in your questions either on Twitter at @YCBKpodcast using the Messages tab (this is our preference) or via email at for the 25 admissions...

In this episode you will hear: (14:40) Mark and Dave discuss an article about Hillsdale College, entitled, How this tiny Christian college is driving the rights nationwide war against Public schools” by, Kathryn Joyce of Salon magazine. Mark and Dave has a spirited and at times fractious debate about the article. (48:05) It’s bonus content school and Lisa leads us in a discussion on the following topic: What is going on with college mental health centers-(Part 1 of 2) (01:05:52) Our first...

In this episode you will hear: Mark shares one big announcement this week from the state of Maryland. Interview David Vise, Executive Director of Modernstates.org Part 3 Preview Dave explains where the funding for Modern States is coming from Dave gives step by step detailed description of how you sign up all the way to how you get actual college credit for the courses Dave goes on the hot seat Please send in your questions either on Twitter at @YCBKpodcast using the Messages tab (this is...

In this episode you will hear: (12:24) Mark and Dave discuss an article where Michel Martin interviews Josh Mitchell about his book, “The Debt Trap: How student loans became a catastrophe”. The book discusses how we got in this fiasco where we have 1.7 trillion dollars of student debt and Mark and Dave discuss these reasons. https://www.npr.org/2021/08/21/1030023061/the-debt-trap-author-on-the-generational-setbacks-from-student-loans (42:54) Diana from Wisconsin sent us an outstanding list...

In this episode you will hear: Mark shares several announcements about major developments in Higher Education Mark takes 10 minutes to survey the college landscape and look at which colleges will require test scores, which colleges are test-optional and which courses are test-blind for 2023 Interview David Vise, Executive Director of Modernstates.org Part 2 Preview Dave gives tips for students to do well on CLEP courses Dave explains why so few people have heard of CLEP Dave explains all of...

In this episode you will hear: (05:30) Julia Esquivel makes her debut as one of our co-hosts in our monthly rotation for our “In the News” segment. Mark and Julia discuss a Washington Post article by Valerie Strauss entitled, “Advice from College Admissions Deans”. We discussed this article on #194 but we said we would return to it. Julia picked out three quotes from the article from admissions deans that resonated with her and Mark and Julia discuss them. (37:56) Diana from Wisconsin sent...

In this episode you will hear: Mark shares several announcements about major developments in Higher Education Interview David Vise, Executive Director of Modernstates.org Part 1 Preview David gives his backstory Dave tells us what a CLEP exam is He tells us who CLEP courses are for Dave explains how CLEP is different from AP Dave shares how high schools and colleges and HBCUs are using Modern States Dave explains what the difference is between Modern States and CLEP Please send in your...

In this episode you will hear: (18:05) Vince Garcia makes his debut as one of our co-hosts in our monthly rotation for our “In the News” segment. Mark and Vince discuss an Inside Higher Ed article by Scott Jaschik entitled, “How Stevens Tech attracts applicants and students”. The 4/25/2022 article looks at some of the strategic decisions one NJ school did to upgrade the academic caliber of their student body while expanded their diversity. (32:58) Diana from Wisconsin sent us an outstanding...

In this episode you will hear: Preview Scott works at the National Humanities Alliance, a member-supported coalition dedicated to advocating for the value of the humanities in communities and on campuses. He leads "Study the Humanities", a Mellon Foundation-funded initiative that provides humanities faculty, administrators, and advocates with evidence-based resources and strategies to make the case for studying the humanities as an undergraduate Interview Preview What does the National...

In this episode you will hear: Susan Tree, Mark’s former colleague and friend for over 20 years makes her debut as an official co-host. (15:45) Susan and Mark discuss a GrownandFlown.com article entitled, “We need to rethink encouraging our teens to follow your passions”. The article was written by on April 13, 2021 Susan shares the history over the last 40 years of how several books have attempted to address the issue of whether a student should follow their passions. Mark and Susan give...