Admissions Beat

Ever wonder how admissions officers decide which applicants to invite to join the incoming class? Jacques Steinberg, who wrote a New York Times best-seller, “The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College,” based on a year of reporting at Wesleyan two decades ago, recently spent a day behind the closed doors of Dartmouth’s undergraduate admissions selection committee. In this week’s episode, he and host Lee Coffin, Dartmouth’s dean of admissions and financial aid, discuss what Steinberg saw and heard, as Coffin and colleagues considered, debated and voted on the applications of dozens of candidates for the Class of 2027. Among the factors the admissions officers weighed: the narratives, personal as well as academic, that emerged from the various components of the students’ applications.

The thought of pursuing a college or university education in the United States can be particularly daunting to students living in other countries. This week on Admissions Beat, host Lee Coffin interviews three current undergraduates who traveled from Brazil, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom to attend Dartmouth. They provide tips on how international students can search for, apply to, and, ultimately, thrive on an American campus. They also describe challenges they’ve overcome, as well as opportunities they’ve seized. Whether prospective applicants are from the U.S. or abroad, Dean Coffin encourages them to point a virtual camera at themselves and snap an “existential selfie.” It’s an exercise, introduced in the second episode of the current season of Admissions Beat, that can reveal values and priorities, as well as guiding questions.

As high school juniors and seniors navigate the college admissions process, they might consider that journey to be proceeding on parallel paths. The first encompasses elements like an institution's programming and sense of place. The second: how to pay for that experience. This week on Admissions Beat, in an encore episode drawn from its predecessor podcast series, The Search, host Lee Coffin of Dartmouth and his guests provide an overview of various financial aid forms and policies, as well as options to defray the cost of college. They do so with the goal of instilling perspective, knowledge, and, ultimately, reassurance. Dean Coffin is joined by Dino Koff, director of financial aid at Dartmouth, and Erica Rosales, executive director of College Match, a nonprofit organization in Los Angeles that works with low-income students.

Whether you’re a student in the midst of the college search, or a supportive parent or guardian, feelings of stress and anxiety can be ever-present. At each stage in the application process, and even after arriving on campus, students are faced with tough decisions and lofty expectations. This week on Admissions Beat, host Lee Coffin, dean of admissions and financial aid at Dartmouth, discusses with his guests steps that applicants and their families can take to acknowledge sources of stress and manage it. They also give advice on how to discover opportunities for exploration—even joy—while being “present” in high school, and simultaneously discovering and pursuing a college where they might build on those experiences. Dean Coffin is joined by Maria Morales-Kent, director of college counseling at the Thacher School in Ojai, California, and Mary Pat McMahon, vice provost and vice president of student affairs at Duke University.

If you’ve not done so already, many Admissions Beat listeners will soon embark on a campus visit, whether by road, rail, or air, or perhaps via a keyboard and screen. To ensure you’re prepared to get the most from that journey, host Lee Coffin, dean of admissions and financial aid at Dartmouth, has recruited two expert tour guides. They are Elena Hicks, assistant vice president and dean of admissions at Southern Methodist University, and the former dean of admissions at Loyola University, and Matthew Hyde, the dean of admissions at Trinity College, and the former dean of admissions at Lafayette College. They’ve got lots of advice for students and parents alike — including how, during a tour or information session, a parent might quietly deploy a strategically placed “elbow,” which can signal “that might be something you should look into,” while being careful not to express an opinion too strongly at this early stage of the search.

As we continue our focus on supporting high school juniors in the early activities of a college search, Admissions Beat encourages listeners to grab a pen and pad (or open a Google Doc or spreadsheet) to begin drafting a list of colleges to explore. Host Lee Coffin, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Dartmouth,  describes that list as a document that will evolve over the coming months and continue to take shape, “place by place, for you to explore, for you to investigate.” His guests this week are Darryl Tiggle, Director of College Counseling at the Baltimore Friends School, and a former admissions officer at Tufts University and Union College, and Jennifer Simons, senior manager at Bright Horizons College Coach, a company that offers college guidance to corporate employees as a benefit, and a former admissions officer at Barnard, Connecticut College, Northeastern and Tufts. They share plenty of advice on how to get a list started, including likening the early days of the college search to shopping for a pair of jeans. (Spoiler alert: in both instances, the fit is likely more important than the brand name.)

Mainstream media organizations have long covered the admissions process closely. And when those efforts are combined with observations and commentary across the digital spectrum, the results can feel dizzying and overwhelming to prospective applicants as well as parents. In this episode of Admissions Beat, host Lee Coffin and his guest dean provide context and perspective on the big headlines and related issues in the current admissions news cycle — including rankings, test-optional admissions policies, artificial intelligence (as it relates to application essays) and legal challenges to race as a factor in admissions. They also share tips on how to navigate the rush of information and quiet the noise. Coffin, the dean of admissions and financial aid at Dartmouth, is joined by Ronné Turner, vice provost of admissions and financial aid at Washington University in St. Louis, along with two journalists: Charlotte Albright, a longtime public radio reporter, and Jacques Steinberg, a former national education correspondent for The New York Times.

How might a high school junior embark on the journey of self-discovery that serves as the bedrock of the college search process? Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Lee Coffin, host of the Admissions Beat, recommends that prospective applicants begin by pointing a virtual camera at themselves and snapping an “existential selfie.” It’s an exercise that can reveal values and priorities, as well as guiding questions. On this week’s podcast, he is joined by four guests, all of them first-year undergraduates at Dartmouth, to seek their counsel on the early steps in the college search, including advice they would give to their 16- or 17-year-old selves if they could turn back the clock. They are: Andrea Agola of Burke, VA; Garrett Crouch, of Edmond, OK; Olivia Koo of Los Alamos, NM; and Batuhan Saridede of Izmit, Turkey.

In the opening episode of the third season of “Admissions Beat,” host Lee Coffin of Dartmouth College turns his attention to high school juniors and those who support them in a college search. And just as the opening bars of an overture herald the beginning of a Broadway musical, Dean Coffin encourages students to start the college search on a note of self discovery. To look within, at what they value and prioritize, before looking outward and assembling a list of colleges that might fit the bill. It's a process he likens to taking an “existential selfie,” adding: “You need to focus on you, before you focus on us.” Dean Coffin is joined by Meredith Reynolds, a former admissions officer at Tufts University and currently the Associate Director of College Guidance at the Roxbury Latin School in Massachusetts, and Jacques Steinberg, co-author of The College Conversation: A Practical Companion for Parents to Guide Their Children Along the Path to Higher Education.

In the second part of our two-part season finale, Admissions Beat lays out the decisions that applicants will soon receive in response to early applications they submitted this fall — admit, decline, or defer — as well as various strategies they might consider employing in response. Whether you are a high school senior who applied under a binding program (such as early decision) or non-binding (early action) — or the parent of someone who did so — host Lee Coffin of Dartmouth runs through a series of scenarios, including those where financial aid could be a determining factor. Dean Coffin also shares plenty of “news you can use” for applicants considering applying in the upcoming, early decision II rounds at some colleges. And he and his guests provide words of reassurance for those who chose not to submit early applications. Joining Dean Coffin are two veteran counselors with high school and college experience: Sherri Geller, the co-director of college counseling at Gann Academy in Waltham, Mass., and a former admissions officer at Brandeis and Northeastern, and Ronnie McKnight, associate director of college counseling at Paideia School in Atlanta, and a former admissions officer at Emory and Presbyterian College in South Carolina.