Episodes

Wondering why you might want to consider a liberal arts college? Tune in this week for our thoughts on the benefits and the potential return on investment you can see from a liberal arts degree. Office Hours this week features early round results and advice for turning to regular decision.

The application for Penn State’s Schreyer Honors College features 10 additional essays. We will walk you through each one. We’re also exploring two calculators essential to understanding how much you will pay for college, the EFC and NPC. No idea what those acronyms stand for? Tune in! Finally, we’re picking apart the supplemental essay requirements at Yale in Office Hours.

A few years ago, an essay with Costco at its center made the media circuit as an example of a powerful and successful college essay. We don’t like it, and we’re going to share why. The Merit Scholarship program gets a lot of attention for what is essentially a $2k award. But there are some other financial opportunities that can come with the Merit program, and we have information for you on that. Finally, the early deadlines—priority, early decision, and early action—are here, and we’ll help you...

Ever wonder how important essays are in the process at large state universities? It probably won’t surprise you to learn that it depends! In this week’s first segment, we share our thoughts on when these essays really matter and when they are less important. In Office Hours, we’re answering your college admissions and finance questions.

For most colleges, applying for financial aid is as simple as filling out the FAFSA. But a smaller group of schools also requires the CSS Profile. We’ll share what to expect if you need to complete that form as well. In the era of test optional colleges, students and parents frequently struggle to decide whether they should submit their test scores as part of their applications. We’ll walk you through how to think about that. Finally, we’re reviewing the additional essay prompts for University o...

Should you file the FAFSA even if you don’t qualify for financial aid or have no plans to apply for financial aid? These are questions we frequently field, especially during the fall, and we’re going to answer them on today’s show. We also have advice on applying to visual and fine arts programs. Finally, in the first of our fall series on supplemental essays, we’re looking at the supplemental essay prompts for Wake Forest.

AP Capstone Program; College Bills; Balanced College Lists For seniors finalizing their college lists, one of the most important things to consider is whether it’s a balanced one. All reaches? Not good. All safeties? Might be overlooking some other options. We’ll talk through how to finalize a balanced list that isn’t too long or too short. In other segments, we’re discussing the AP Capstone program and offering tips for covering the remaining balance on your college bills.

What does it mean when colleges send you mail? We discuss examples from a few different schools where we worked, and share thoughts on what to do with the mail you receive. We’re also answering your college finance and admissions questions in Office Hours.

Starting the University of California application and wondering how to tackle those essays? We’ll discuss how to approach them in this week’s podcast. In another in our series on our team’s own college stories, Lisa Albro shares the challenges she faced as a first generation college student and then as a graduate entering the work world during a recession. Finally, we’ll update you on mandatory administrative forbearance and when you’re likely to have to restarting federal loan repayments.

School is officially back for most seniors, and it’s time to focus on the application process in earnest. We have timelines for both the admissions and the college finance process, including what needs to get done and when. For those students with access to Naviance, we have suggestions for how to use that through the application process.

A few years ago, we wrote a blog titled, “Colleges Don’t Care About Community Service.” In this week’s show, we’ll share whether or not our opinions on this topic have changed. In other segments, we’ll look at the link between mental health and financial aid, and dig into the PSAT and whether or not students should plan to prep for it.

A great college list starts with academics, namely majors. If a college doesn’t have any in your areas of interest, it’s off the list! We have tips for how to go about researching majors. We also have finance advice for recent college graduates, and we’ll discuss the pros and cons of submitting applications in the early decision, early action, and priority rounds.

In another in our series on our team’s own college stories, Kyra Tyler joins the show to talk about pursuing a bachelor of arts in flute performance at Northwestern despite having no interest in a musical career. Tune in to learn how she draws on that education in her career. In office hours, we’re answering your college finance and admissions questions.

What does it mean when a college states that they cover 100 percent of demonstrated financial need? Is that too good to be true? We have thoughts—and facts—and we’ll share them! For those students interested in engineering, we’re digging into 3+2 programs to share more details about how those work. Office Hours is all about supplemental essays: what they are, who requires them, and where to find them.

We frequently—and strongly—suggest that families discuss what they can afford when it comes to college. But talking money can be challenging. We have advice to make “the talk” a bit easier. Athletic recruitment has many moving parts, and it’s often the parents who are charged with keeping track of everything. We’ll share suggestions for ways parents can help their recruited athletes. Finally, we will address the most common myths we hear regarding the University of California schools.

Congrats to all graduating seniors who successfully applied to college and are preparing to start this fall. Laura Amigone, a college success coach from Rudder Coaching, joins the podcast this week to offer advice to these students to help them make a smooth transition from high school to college. We’ll also discuss why saving is important for everyone in another of our Personal Finance 101 series.

College interviews aren’t part of the process at many colleges in the US. But interviews are an opportunity for candidates to add a more personal component to their applications at those institutions that offer them. Find out what types of interviews are available, which students should plan to take part, what to expect, and how to prepare. We’re also answering your college admissions ad finance questions in our regular Listener Q&A series.

Interested in earning teaching young children as your career? Learn more about the Horizons Teacher Degree Program, a no-cost degree program for all full-time employees in Bright Horizon’s early education centers and preschools. In our Personal Finance 101 series, we’ll talk about how to help your student prepare for financial responsibility in college. Finally, we’re discussing each of the Common App’s seven essay prompts and offering tips on how to approach each of them in Office Hours.

Are you heading off to college pretty sure you want to transfer after year one? We have some thoughts about this approach that we’ll share with our listeners this week. If you’re wondering how students fund graduate and professional degrees, we’ll offer some insight. And finally, we have information for students interested in a career in physical therapy, from the education required to the skills necessary for the job.

This year our own Elizabeth Heaton is in our listeners’ shoes as she helps her son navigate the college process. She’s sharing her thoughts with co-host Ian Fisher. We’ll also lay out a suggested schedule of summer work for rising seniors who want to make the most of this time (hint—it includes writing and finalizing the essay!). Finally, we lay out the details of tuition payment plans, which can help some families avoid borrowing altogether.

Many students think the final hurdle to becoming a doctor is graduating from medical school. But in fact there is another one looming: residency matching. If you don’t get a residency, you can not become a doctor. We have some information on what to look for related to residencies as you evaluate medical schools. In our Listener Q&A, we’re answering your college admissions and finance questions.

Have you heard that you can pay in-state prices for an out-of-state school? One way to make this happen is through tuition reciprocity programs. We’ll discuss how those work in today’s podcast. We also have information about ROTC and will go over the who, what, when, and why of recommendation letters.

This week’s show is all about health, from remaining healthy while you’re in college to maintaining healthy finances as a way of supporting mental health. Jill and Dave Henry, authors of the newly published College Health Guide will join the show to share what they’ve learned as coaches for young people over the years. And in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, we will also look at the correlation of healthy finances and mental health.

As frequent listeners to our program know, the best sources of scholarship money are the colleges themselves. But there is more money out there for students willing to put the time in to look. We’ll offer tips on doing those outside scholarship searches. We’ll also explore what’s involved in film studies majors and what colleges who offer them look for in good candidates. Finally, in Office Hours we’ve got advice for students getting started on the Common App activity list.