Episodes

If you’re curious about the challenges of applying to and attending college in the US as an international student, don’t miss this week’s episode. Karen Karidoyanes, director of international admissions at Bentley University will join us to discuss the application process, while Christine Lookner, director of the Center for International Students and Scholars will offer advice for international students arriving on campus in the fall. Finally, Christine Ng will talk us through how students can s...

In this week’s Office Hours segment, we’ll be offering tips for making the most of your college visits this summer. While you’re visiting schools, you might consider a stop at the Career Services office. Michael Sherman of Graduate to Employment will offer tips to best evaluate how much support a college will offer in terms of finding a job. Finally, we’ll be answering your college finance questions.

Whether you’re getting ready to attend your first college fair or already have walked through a few, we have tips for making the most of that time. We’ll also be reviewing some of the trends we saw this past admissions cycle and thinking about how that might impact the 2017-2018 admissions cycle. Finally, we’ll look into where people with bad credit can go to find college loans.

Calling all rising seniors: join us this summer for Office Hours segments covering the college process. We’ll be helping you get a jump start on application work, from essay writing to presenting your extracurricular activities to visiting colleges. In this week’s segment, we’ll be helping you get started on your college list. In other segments, we’ll discuss college payment plans and take you inside the admissions office and practices at the University of San Francisco.

In this week’s episode, we welcome Point Foundation program manager Jonathan Rosales and student scholar Bryce Celotto to the show to discuss applying to college as a LGBTQ student. In Office Hours, we’ll be answering listener questions regarding college finance.

Faced with the first tuition bill and wondering how you’re going to pay it? Don’t miss our segment on scholarships with deadlines in July, August, and September—it may not be too late to get some more money. Office Hours will take a look at summer reading and its long-term value in the admissions process. Finally, our latest installment looking at the admissions practices at the institutions where College Coach educators previously worked takes us inside the admissions office at Georgetown Unive...

A lot of our listeners have graduate school on their minds, concerned about how their undergraduate choices will affect their chances of acceptance to MBA programs and medical school. This week we welcome experts in both fields to discuss how important where you go your undergraduate work is to medical school acceptance, including how that decision is factored into the med school admissions process. We’ll also cover the steps students should be taking during their undergraduate years if the ulti...

Can your social media presence affect your offers of acceptance? On the heels of Harvard’s decision to rescind 10 offers of admission over the students’ unsavory social media activities, we’re talking about how what you do online can negatively impact your college plans. In another of our series looking at admissions practices at a variety of institutions, we’ll be walking through the admissions process at Tufts University with two former Tufts admissions officers who now work at College Coach. ...

Ever wonder how a college like Reed goes about making admission decisions? This week we have two former Reed admissions officers taking us through Reed’s process as part of our ongoing series Inside the Admissions Office. We’re also answer listener questions on college finance and admissions.

Every college in the US is happy to answer your questions, and we frequently encourage students to approach colleges to get more information and address their concerns. But have you ever wondered if there are questions that you shouldn’t ask? We’ll give you our thoughts. Last week we tackled the question of whether or not you should save for college. This week we’ll discuss how much you should save. Finally, we’ll explore general services on college campuses for students with learning difference...

You may have heard people talking about college savings interfering with financial aid eligibility. Maybe you’re wondering if it even makes sense to save for college, or if it would be better to simply rely on financial aid and loans. We’re going to try to clear up any confusion around the question of saving for college in this week’s show. In another in our series taking listeners inside the admissions process at colleges across the country, this week offers a peek at University of Southern Cal...

Ever wonder what happens after you submit your application to college? The answer (as it often is in college admissions!) is: it depends. That’s why we’re taking you the process at some of the colleges where we worked in admissions. This week, we’re looking at Holy Cross and Babson. Those of you who have been saving for college may be surprised to learn that there are some important things to think about as you prepare to finally spend that money. Tune in for our tips. And finally, Office Hours ...

Lots of high school students aspire to careers in medicine, and they hope to get on the fast track to being a doctor by applying to BS/MD programs. But many aren’t aware there is another option that is slightly less selective, and therefore often a bit easier to attain: BS/DO. We’ll tell you all about it on this week’s show. We’re also answering your college finance and admissions questions in Office Hours.

There has been a lot of conversation in the traditional media and social media around the type of education students pursue in college. Should students pursue more pre-professional degrees such as business or physical therapy? Are STEM majors truly the best path to success after graduation? Can you even get a job with a liberal arts education? And what the heck is a liberal arts education anyway? As usual, we have answers to these questions! In other segments, we’ll be looking at what needs to b...

In our ongoing series taking you inside the admissions processes at a variety of schools, College Coach educator and former MIT and Caltech admissions officer Zaragoza Guerra will take us through the differences in those two schools’ application evaluations. We’ll also tackle some key tips and considerations for students on the Autism spectrum who are applying to college. We’ll also look at utilizing summer jobs to help pay for college.

Every year we read a handful of stories about students who are accepted to all eight Ivies and a few other highly selective schools AND hear about students who apply to all of the Ivies and get into none. Regardless of the fact that the latter is much more prevalent than the former, families seem to come away with the idea that applying to more of these selective schools will somehow increase the odds of acceptance. We’re going to look at the statistics behind that assumption. In Office Hours, w...

Curious about what holistic admissions means and how it’s practiced at different colleges and universities? In the second in our series on this topic, two former Penn admissions officers will offer some insight into how it worked at their institution. We’re also answering your college finance and admissions questions in Office Hours.

Many students come to us looking for a “rah rah” environment in their college—or convinced that a sports culture will negatively impact their college experience. We’ll be discussing the impact of sports on campus culture, including how to determine if a school has it. In other segments, it’s time for this year’s group of seniors to make some final decisions about the college they will attend next year. For many (most?), one major factor in this process will be cost. In this week’s Office Hours, ...

Waitlisted? Curious about what this means and why this happened? Tune in to the show as we use our Office Hours segment to discuss this and offer a little advice around whether or not you can appeal a denial. We’re also talking to campus safety advocate Jordan Draper about how to review statistics and ask questions to determine the safety of a given campus. Finally, if you’ve waited until now or just realized that you need more money, we have some tops for finding scholarships in the spring of s...

Acceptances are in, and perhaps you are one of many students (or the parent of one) who has a few options to consider. If so, don’t miss our segment on how to make your final college choice by May 1. We’ll do another in our state spotlight series, this time taking a closer look at the different schools that make up Texas’ state system. Finally, we’ll be talking about education tax breaks that families can take advantage of this year.

In the second segment of our State System Spotlight, we’re exploring the different campuses of the SUNY system, including the differing levels of selectivity, specific strengths and focuses, and the culture and feel of the schools. We’ll also be answering your college finance and admissions questions.

One of the most important things you need to understand about your financial aid and/or scholarship packages is whether or not they are renewable for all four years. Tune in to this week’s episode for more information about how to determine the terms of your offer from this perspective. In other segments, we’ll be walking you through the Common App essay prompts for the 2017/2018 application season, which were recently released. And in our Office Hours segment, we’ll offer some thoughts on start...

Ever wonder what life is like as an admissions officer? Understanding what they’re doing on a daily basis can be especially valuable in understanding who will be reading your application. This segment will specifically focus on reading season, which is what we call that time of year when pretty much all you do as an AO is read files. In our other segment, we’ll talk about the importance of crafting a plan for paying for all four years of college and offer suggestions about how to best do that.

Maybe you got some merit-based money from one college, but not from the one you most want to attend. Or perhaps you got a scholarship to one of your top choices but were hoping for more. In this week’s episode of Getting In, we’re going to walk you through how to best approach the negotiation process with the schools to which you have been accepted. We’ll also explore the University of California system, explaining the different campuses in terms of strengths, “vibe”, and selectivity.