
Your College Bound Kid | Admission Tips, Admission Trends & Admission Interviews
YCBK 527: What You Need To Know About Majoring in Engineering
Apr 17, 2025
01:50:22
In this episode you will hear: (02:12) In The News Vince Garcia and Mark Stucker discuss observations from admission decisions from this year’s class. (23:34) Question from a listener: Mark and Susan answer a question from an anonymous listener who has a number of questions about selecting an engineering program (56:18) Interview: Mark Stucker and David Blobaum, The Co-Founder of Summit Test Prep Debate whether selective colleges should make the SAT or the ACT mandatory-Part 2 of 3 Preview of Part 2 of 3 ² I share multiple other reasons why I am not in favor of a mandatory ACT or SAT policy ² David shares what he thinks about some of the other reasons I do not favor mandatory test scores ² I share my skepticism that the return to test scores is being motivated by a desire to admit under-represented students ² Dave shares why he believes it was courageous for colleges to return to test scores ² I share why the overwhelming majority of admission officers who read files, love test optional and they are discouraged if their institution returns to an ACT or SAT mandatory policy (01:22:58) College Spotlight-Jim Bok Interview, Understanding Swarthmore College Preview of Part 2 ² Jim Bock talks about the importance of playing ball with others ² Jim talks about how they target students who meet their needs and not students who they think will come when making admission decisions ² Jim talks about whether they build out predictive models to see how kids at certain high schools do at Swarthmore academically ² Jim talks about how Swarthmore differs from schools like Pomona, Carlton, Amherst and Williams? ² Jim talks about Swarthmore’s Honors program tutorials that have been around for over 100 years ² Jim talks about why Swarthmore is pass/fail for the first semester ² I ask Jim to comment on some perceptions I have about Swarthmore and I ask Jim if they are correct. The first one is academically intense ² I ask Jim if Swarthmore students are quirky ² I ask Jim if Swarthmore students are progressive politically ² I ask Jim if Swarthmore students are ² I ask Jim if Swarthmore students are diverse ² I ask Jim if Swarthmore students have an insatiable love of learning ² I ask Jim if Swarthmore students want to change the world ² Jim talks about the Lang center for civic and social responsibility that Swarthmore grad, Eugene Lang provided the funding for ² Jim and I talk about how wait lists may change in light of the unforeseen future Speakpipe.com/YCBK is our method if you want to ask a question and we will be prioritizing all questions sent in via Speakpipe. Unfortunately, we will NOT answer questions on the podcast anymore that are emailed in. If you want us to answer a question on the podcast, please use speakpipe.com/YCBK. We feel hearing from our listeners in their own voices adds to the community feel of our podcast. 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