YCBK 291: The dirty secrets of elite college admissions

In this episode you will hear:   (15:42) Evan Mandery writes for Mother Jones in an article that went live on 10-31-2022. The article looks at what it refers to as, “The dirty secrets of elite college admissions”. The article is officially titled, “The Supreme Court is about to kill affirmative action: Just not for rich white people. We had close to 10 people send in this article to us and ask us to consider discussing it. Mark and Vince discuss the article.   (48:02) Lisa and Susan answer a question about whether a student should disclose their chronic medical condition in their admission application Part 2 of 2   (01:14:30) We start a new interview with Brian Hodges, the Senior Associate Director of Admissions at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign. Lisa joins Mark for this interview. The topic is, “Understanding UIUC” and this is part 2 of 3     Preview of Part 2   Brian talks about a couple of other programs that fly under the radar Lisa asks Brian about research opportunities at UIUC Brian explains the benefits of enrolling in the Honors college We transition to talking about admission questions Brian explains, how they guard against students claiming they are interested in certain colleges that have higher admit rates but in reality they don’t have interest in this program, but the student intends to just get in and transfer Brian explains whether UIUC admits by major or by college? Brian explains why they sometimes share their admit rate per major and they sometimes don’t share this information. Brian explains the process for doing an internal transfer from one major to another and he answers the question whether it is hard to transfer into some of their less competitive programs Brian explains how UIUC made a major change this year in how they respond to applicants who are not admissible to their first or second choice program   (01:26:30) The recommended resource is one of the most impactful books Mark has ever read; it is called, “Unequal Childhoods” and it is by sociologist Annette Laureau. It looks at how social class impacts parenting and how that impacts opportunities for kids.   (01:39:50) Mark and Lynda Doepker discuss Occidental College for the College Spotlight     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* 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 MEFA 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. 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