YCBK 229: What one college did to triple their applicants in 10 years

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 list of questions that are all designed to get some guidance about the transition to college. Mark and Lisa acknowledge that the transition to college is an area that we haven’t adequately covered. Mark and Lisa answer half of Diana’s questions in this episode and the other half next Thursday in episode 231. how much spending money should we give our student each month should we tie spending money to grades or offer any incentive related to grades. Conversely, if grades are poor, should we take away spending money. mid-term grades - and any type of progress grades - how should we as parents be involved in progress grades so we can try to be helpful if any advocacy or tutoring needs to happen before it's too late at the end of the semester? end of semester grades - will these be shared with us as parents? If they are not good, will there be any consequences, or what would happen?   (01:01:30) Our interview is with Karen Kristof, a 30+ year admission veteran who has worked at five colleges. Karen is the Dean of admissions at Colorado College. Karen will address three different topics over for three consecutive Thursdays. In this week’s episode Karen answers the question, how do colleges evaluate a transcript. Preview-How admission officers evaluate a transcript   Karen gives her backstory Karen tells us what selective schools look for when they evaluate a transcript Karen shares some of the mistakes students make with their course selection   (01:13:22) The Recommended Resource is one of the best books I have ever read about college admissions. I have listened to it three times in the last three months. I strongly recommend the audiobook which is informative and entertaining: The name of the book is, "Valedictorians at the Gate: Standing Out, Getting In, and Staying Sane While Applying to College" by Rebecca Munsterer Sabky, Eliza Foss. Sabky did admissions at Dartmouth for 13 years. Her honesty about the business side of admissions is refreshing and enlightening.   (01:34:44) Our College Spotlight is The University of Michigan, Part 1 of 2     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 interviews we are doing in the summer and fall. Our interviews are with the following people at the following schools: Confirmed interviews Bard-Mackie Siebens Mercer-Kelly Holloway Oregon State-Jon Boeckenstadt (Interview about a range of admission topics)-July 19th Reed-Milyon Truelove- Rice University-Tamara Siler St Johns College-Benjamin Baum-This interview is on June 8th University Pittsburgh-Tom Becker- American University-Andrea Felder Texas Christian University (TCU)-Heath Einstein-This interview is on July 6th Michigan State University-John Ambrose-This interview is on June 10th Pitzer College-Yvonne Berumen Chapman University-Marcela Meija-Martinez Connecticut College-Andy Strickler* Trinity College-Anthony Berry* Trinity University-Justin Doty-(interview about athletic recruitment process for DIII schools)-July 15th 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) University of Connecticut-Vern Granger* Colby College-Randi Arsenault* Hamilton College-Peaches Valdes* University of Georgia-David Graves* Washington University St Louis-Ronne Turner University of Rochester-Robert Alexander* University of Delaware-Darrell Edmonds     To sign up to receive Your College-Bound Kid PLUS, our free quarterly admissions deep-dive, delivered directly to your email four times a year, just go to yourcollegeboundkid.com, and you will see the sign up on the right side of the page under “the Listen to our podcast icons”   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 them 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. Loans Every word in that episode when the words loans are used, will be highlighted in yellow with a timestamps Click the word highlighted in yellow and the player will play the episode from that starting point You can also download the entire podcast as a transcript   We would be honored if you will pass this podcast episode on to others who you feel will benefit from the content in YCBK.   Please subscribe to our podcast. It really helps us move up in Apple’s search feature so others can find our podcast.   Don't forget to send your questions related to any and every facet of the college process to: questions@yourcollegeboundkid.com.   If you enjoy our podcast, would you please do us a favor and share our podcast both verbally and on social media? We would be most grateful!   If you want to help more people find Your College-Bound Kid, please make sure you follow our podcast. 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 on their website before the complimentary session. Their counseling website is: https://schoolmatch4u.com/