YCBK 287: The College Essay Is Dead

In this episode you will hear:   (14:30) Mark and Dave discuss Stephen Marche’s December 6th 2022 article in the Atlantic entitled, “The College Essay is Dead”. Dave and Mark debate the merits of this argument       (32:30) Mark and Lisa answer our first two speakpipe questions that were sent in. Eric from Iowa has a lot of questions about hiring a college coach for his junior son and another anonymous listener also has questions about hiring a college coach. Lisa and Mark do a 55-minute-deep dive over the next two weeks to answer their two questions. Part 2 of 2   (56:10) Mark continues his interview with Wendy Beckemeyer, the VP of enrollment at Cornell College. Wendy will help us to understand what makes Cornell College special. Part 3 of 3   Part 3 Wendy explains why she selected Cornell as a place to work Wendy goes on the hot seat for her lightning round and she leaves all of us with some real sage advice that we can apply to our lives         (01:00:30) The recommended resource is the book “Poison Ivy: How Elite Colleges Divide Us  An eye-opening look at how America’s elite colleges and suburbs help keep the rich rich—making it harder than ever to fight the inequality dividing us today     We now have set up audio recordings in your own voice for any question you send in for our “question from a listener” segment. In order to send us an audio message, just go to speakpipe.com/YCBK. You can also use this for many other purposes: 1) Send us constructive criticism about how we can improve our podcast 2) Share an encouraging word about something you like about an episode or the podcast in general 3) Share a topic or an article you would like us to address 4) Share a speaker you want us to interview 5) Leave positive feedback for one of our interviewees. We will send your verbal feedback directly to them and I can almost assure you, your positive feedback will make their day. Speakpipe.com/YCBK is our preferred method for you to ask a question but if you are not comfortable with this, we will also receive your questions either on Twitter at @YCBKpodcast using the Messages tab or via email at If you have a question for one of our upcoming interviews with admissions professionals, here is a list of admissions professionals who we will interview in 2023 or 2024 Confirmed interviews not yet completed Bard-Mackie Siebens Rice University-Tamara Siler American University-Andrea Felder Pitzer College-Yvonne Berumen Chapman University-Marcela Meija-Martinez Connecticut College-Andy Strickler* Trinity College-Anthony Berry* College of the Atlantic-Heather Albert* Spelman College-Chelsea Holley* Scripps College-Victoria Romero* Saint Louis University-Daniel Wood-(Interview is about transfer admissions, Daniel is a transfer counselor) Colby College-Randi Arsenault* University of Georgia-David Graves* Purdue University-Mitch Warren University of Minnesota-Keri Risic Cornell University-Jonathon Burdick Oberlin College-Manuel Carballo Carleton College-Art Rodriguez Swarthmore-Jim Bok Joy St. Johns-Harvard Duke-Christoph Guttentag Florida State-John Barnhill Southern Methodist University-Elena Hicks Johns Hopkins-Calvin Wise Cornell University-Shawn Felton Haverford College-Jess Lord UAspire-Brendan Williams Yale University-Moira Poe Akil Bello of Akilbello.com Bard College Baylor University Butler University California Institute of Technology-Ashley Pallie Colorado School of Mines Creighton University   To sign up to receive Your College-Bound Kid PLUS, our new monthly admissions newsletter, delivered directly to your email once a month, just go to yourcollegeboundkid.com, and you will see the sign-up popup.   Check out our new blog. We write timely and insightful articles on college admissions: https://yourcollegeboundkid.com/category/blog/ Follow Mark Stucker on Twitter to get breaking college admission news, and updates about the podcast before they go live. You can ask questions on Twitter that he will answer on the podcast. Mark will also share additional hot topics in the news and breaking news on this Twitter feed. Twitter message is also the preferred way to ask questions for our podcast:   https://twitter.com/YCBKpodcast   To access our transcripts, click: https://yourcollegeboundkid.com/category/transcripts/ Find the specific episode transcripts for the one you want to search and click the link Find the magnifying glass icon in blue (search feature) and click it Enter whatever word you want to search. I.e. 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You will also get instant notifications as soon as each episode goes live.   Check out the college admissions books Mark recommends:   Check out the college websites Mark recommends:   If you want to have some input about what you like and what you recommend we change about our podcast, please complete our Podcast survey; here is the link:     If you want a college consultation with Mark or Lisa, just text Mark at 404-664-4340 or email Lisa at lisa@schoolmatch4u.com. All they ask is that you review their services and pricing on their website before the complimentary session. Their counseling website is: https://schoolmatch4u.com/