Admissions Beat

In the season seven finale, Dartmouth's Kathryn Bezella discusses lessons gleaned from her first year as an admissions dean with Lee Coffin, who just completed his 30th year in such a role. In a candid conversation about what they each bring to the conference table where decisions are made, the Dartmouth duo muse about the "roller coaster dynamic" of leading a very selective admissions process, mastering its invisible gears, overcoming nerves, and juggling various priorities while preserving and respecting each student's voice in an increasingly high volume of applications.  

For many high school seniors, the college search is an all-consuming process with three clear goals: apply to college, get into college, pick a college. Then, in May, it comes to a hard stop. Now what? Mary Pat McMahon, vice president and vice provost for student affairs at Duke University and AB host Lee Coffin from Dartmouth map out in both practical and philosophical terms the transition from searching for a college to enrolling in one. Drawing on many years of experience in a variety of academic settings, they share tips on navigating the aftermath of the college admissions...

Meet Luis Aguero, a first-generation college-bound student from San Bernardino, Paraguay. Self-taught in English as well as the unfamiliar ways of the college admissions process in the United States, Luis navigated his admissions process entirely on his own: "I didn't have any information at all, I had to go out of my way to learn about the colleges, to learn about admissions and how it works..." He followed his dream toward an American undergraduate experience with the help of the U.S. State Department's EducationUSA program in Paraguay, a book he found about college admissions, and a certain podcast...

Mindy Kaling joins AB for its 100th episode as the multi-talented Hollywood star and Dartmouth alumna remembers her own college admissions process in which "I wasn't thinking about the correct things." A high-achieving "comedy nerd" who had been weaned on "mountains of flashcards,” Mindy ponders her journey from home to college as she battled procrastination and a lack of confidence and  faced her immigrant family’s high expectations for admissions “success.” Mindy candidly muses about "striving to feel special" as she "chased the feeling of acceptance" as a Latin-loving, theater-focused high school student. She shares the salient lessons of disappoin...

AB's third annual open-ended conversation with applicants and parents at Dartmouth's admitted student open house offers insights and tips from those who have just navigated a successful college search. AB host and Dartmouth Dean Lee Coffin and recurring cohost Jacques Steinberg field wide-ranging comments and questions about admissions-induced procrastination, the value of authenticity in storytelling, and stress management in the face of looming deadlines and decisions. As one student observes, "Trust yourself, because you know yourself best." 

Extracurricular activities, which are essential ingredients of any college application, yield lessons and skillsets that animate a student's story. Reflecting on his own experience in the drama club at Shelton High School in Connecticut, AB host and Dartmouth Dean Lee Coffin welcomes Gary and Fran Scarpa, the longtime directors of Shelton's drama program, for an unusually personal conversation about what Coffin learned from being actively involved in their productions. "You made me an extrovert," he tells them. The trio reflects on how lessons from the stage—or from a playing field, lab, or church youth group—inform the discovery phas...

Veteran college counselor Doug Burdett, from Brunswick School in Connecticut, joins his longtime colleague and AB host Lee Coffin as they ponder the lessons from their 30-year careers on both sides of the admissions counseling desk. Drawing from those innumerable interactions with students and parents, they muse about the unintended pitfalls that can misdirect a college search just as it gets started. Burdett advises prospective applicants and parents to "focus on community, not the name" as the impulse to "dream big" is balanced against a more pragmatic need to proceed with a sense of what's responsible and realistic. "A t...

Marcia Hunt, past president of the National Association for College Admission Counseling and the longtime dean of college advising at Florida's Pine Crest School, joins AB host Lee Coffin as he recreates his "Advice to Parents" presentation from Pine Crest's junior kickoff in January. As he shares his tips for successful admissions parenting, Hunt offers context for what he advises as she channels her work with literally thousands of families over the course of her long tenure. She also shares thoughts on how to be a cooperative parent and how to maintain a happy home as a college search...

College admission decisions for the high school class of 2025 have landed, and now it's time for seniors and their parents to assess those outcomes and move towards an enrollment decision by the National Candidate's Reply Date on May 1. Chris Gruber from Davidson College in North Carolina and college counselor Kate Ramsdell from Noble & Greenough School in Massachusetts join AB host Lee Coffin to guide students through April with confidence and a sense of purpose.

Twenty-five years after New York Times education reporter Jacques Steinberg, author of The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College, spent a year observing at close range the selection process at Wesleyan University, Steinberg joined admission officers at Dartmouth for a day inside its selection committee. After his "fly on the wall" day in Hanover, he quizzes Admissions Beat host and Dartmouth dean Lee Coffin about what he saw and heard as applicants from California entered the admissions spotlight. "I would smile when a student would take the time to tell you something that really made them a...

For any college admissions officer, reading and evaluating an application is the work of the work. It is the heart of the admissions process itself, its most essential task. Reading season is the moment when recruitment yields to selection, when assessing merit and potential becomes a blend of reflection and decision as each application is evaluated and a class is shaped. The Dartmouth-based cast of last year's "Learning to Read," AB's most downloaded episode, reunites for a second, heartfelt conversation about their work as admission readers in a most selective admissions environment. The trio offer insights into "what counts"...

Many people ask, "What counts?" as they ponder the elements of "merit" in a college application. This week, two Ivy deans tackle this perennial query as Brown's Logan Powell joins AB host Lee Coffin from Dartmouth for a wide-ranging conversation about assessing merit and where it is discovered. They consider the numbers and the narrative--the quantitative as well as the qualitative information--that emerges from a college application. Both deans channel a wise adage from Albert Einstein: "Not everything that can be counted, counts; not everything that counts can be counted."

Discovery is act one of every successful college search, and it should reveal as much about the searcher as about the places being explored.  AB host and Dartmouth Dean Lee Coffin leads a “junior kickoff” deans panel that includes Elena Hicks from SMU and Karen Kristoff from Colorado College as well as college counselor Darryl Tiggle of Friends School of Baltimore. The quartet of admissions veterans offer advice and tips for juniors and parents about assessing personal interests and “non-negotiable” priorities that will frame the search; developing a list of college options that sync with those personal considerations; planning in-person...

Season 7 of Admissions Beat gets underway at just the right time to give this year's high school juniors a preview of what's to come, as they look closely at themselves, survey the college landscape, and weigh options in higher education.  Host Lee Coffin, Dartmouth’s dean of admissions and financial aid, and recurring co-host Jacques Steinberg, author of The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process at a Selective College, and co-author of The College Conversation: A Practical Companion for Parents to Guide Their Children Along the Path to Higher Education, offer calming, concrete advice about how to get started on a se...

In the Season Six finale, Trinity College's Matthew Hyde returns to AB to reflect on his own son’s college search this year. As a veteran admissions dean and a first-time admissions parent, Matt shares advice for his fellow parents on the lessons he has absorbed as his parenting collided with his day job in a very real—and sometimes emotional—way. Following host Lee Coffin’s conversation with Matt, Dartmouth’s admission officers offer a “digital carol” as they reimagine ’Twas the Night Before Christmas with an application deadline theme.

Suburban public high schools in America are home to a significant pool of applicants to most selective colleges. The admissions chatter in those classrooms, counseling offices, hallways, and social media channels can hum at a high frequency as guidance counselors do their best to advise students and parents alike. This week, a quartet of these school counselors from suburban Connecticut join AB host Lee Coffin for a roundtable discussion on admissions life in a suburban town.

Holidays bring people together, and Thanksgiving in the U.S. comes at a particularly challenging moment for high school seniors as they apply to college. Well-meaning friends and relatives might inquire about the status of a college search, or opine about those options, or render a forecast about someone’s chances of admissions. Any and all of it can lead to some Thanksgiving indigestion, so this encore episode from 2023 offers tips and advice about navigating those conversations with poise and purpose.

The language of financial aid brings new—and sometimes confusing—vocabulary for many families. Gail Holt, Amherst’s dean of financial aid, and Dino Koff, director of financial aid at Dartmouth, join AB host Lee Coffin for a lesson in how to interpret and translate this new language. “Let’s demystify the financial process,” Koff offers.

Ever wondered how the elements of a college application came to be the elements of the college application? Today, essays, testing, recommendations, and interviews are fundamental ingredients of most selective admissions processes, but they were not always part of a college application as it evolved over the last 125 years. Dartmouth’s admissions dean Lee Coffin and Maria Morales-Kent, a former admission officer at the University of Pennsylvania and the longtime director of college counseling at Thacher School in California, draw lessons and insights from the courses they have both taught on the twists and turns of college admissions history.

“I’ve never of it is…” is a frequent reaction from students and parents as college options are introduced, but there is real opportunity when a student is open to options that aren't fully “known.” AB host Lee Coffin welcomes Clark University’s Emily Roper-Doten, Ben Baum from Saint John’s College in Annapolis and Sante Fe, and college counselor Kate Boyle Ramsdell from Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, Mass., for a conversation about fit versus familiarity, honoring potential, and the intentional introductions that arrive in your inbox or mailbox. Coffin advises, “Instead of saying ‘I’ve never heard of it,’ ask ‘why...

For students around the world, going to college in America has been a goal of many for decades. AB host LeeCoffin and his guest Robin Appleby—who led schools in London, The Hague and Dubai—ponder the opportunities of American higher education for an international audience of prospective applicants.Appleby encourages students to explore the “why?” of applying to schools abroad and to ask questions like “what kind of learner am I?” Theydiscuss the advantages of studying a wide range of subjects versus the norm of a more structured concentration in a local university as well as the cultural and personal...

AB host Lee Coffin probes the lessons learned by students and a parent from last year’s admissions process. He is joined by four first-year college students who reflect on their own admissions processes—and the lessons learned. Ashley Kim of Chandler, Arizona, Isabel Carleton of Columbus, Ohio, Romello McRae of Los Angeles, California, and Witold Ambroziak of Warsaw, Poland ponder misconceptions about acceptance rates as barriers, the perils of overthinking and over-applying, and they advise current seniors to view writing college essays as an evolving conversation with themselves. Then, “admissions mom” Ronnie Burnett from Season 5 returns to the pod to share her experienc...

In Part 2 of AB’s “advising all-stars” roundtable discussion from the annual meeting of the National Association for College Admission Counseling in Los Angeles,  host Lee Coffin and recurring co-host Jacques Steinberg ponder the role (if any) of a student’s social media presence in the college admissions process. They also lead a lively discussion about “being in the essay space” as applications take shape. One guest advises “What’s your deal?” as the organizing concept of every application. Finally, the group considers the notion of honoring the ambitions of high achievers with a dose of admissions pragmatism.

What happens when 20 admissions folks gather in a meeting room at their annual conference in Los Angeles? They have lots to say! AB host Lee Coffin and his recurring co-host Jacques Steinberg convene an all-star cast of previous AB guests (and a few new voices) for a wide-ranging, two-part conversation about all things admissions. This week, they ponder the steadiness of admissions fundamentals amidst the seemingly “chaotic” landscape, and they zero in on financial aid and affordability as critical elements of a college search.

As high school seniors take a deep breath, open a blank document, and begin to craft their college essays, Admission Beat host Lee Coffin empowers them to ask this question: “Who do I want the admission officer to meet?” Coffin and his guests offer words of advice on contemplating audience, the art of brevity, and framing “lived experiences” as addressed in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision on race and identity as factors in admissions. Parents and peers can be helpful editors, but at the heart of every memorable essay is the writer’s authentic voice telling the story only they...

With October on the near horizon, Admissions Beat host Lee Coffin encourages seniors to get in gear and begin thinking about the nuts and bolts of their applications. His guests, Jennifer Simons, Director of Bright Horizons College Coach, and Darryl Tiggle, Director of College Counseling at the Friends School of Baltimore, offer guidance on tackling “the deliverables” of the admissions process—essay drafts, teacher recommendations, testing—with a strategy. Coffin and his guests also discuss the many “on ramps and off ramps” of the search as it progresses, from refining the list of schools to deciphering college rankings to prioritizing...

Kicking off Season Six of the Admissions Beat, host Lee Coffin of Dartmouth welcomes listeners back to school as another admissions cycle commences. Raising the curtain on the admissions process for high school juniors and seniors, as well as their parents and counselors, Coffin and his guests offer a sampler of “news you can use,” with tips on everything from managing the stress of the search and application process to sizing up an institution’s “fit” and “vibe,” to understanding the impact of last year’s Supreme Court decision on race as a factor in admissions. This week’s guests are Charlot...

As the school year ends, Admissions Beat host Lee Coffin holds his final “office hours” with listeners for this podcast season. For graduating seniors, he advises them to “finish strong” and check their inboxes as pre-matriculation communications arrive from their chosen college. For parents preparing to say goodbye as seniors head to college in the fall, he offers practical and philosophical advice on letting go—and in taking comfort in the logistics of the transition to college. And for rising seniors, summertime is the season to sketch out the stories they want to tell in their applications and to keep exploring...

What if math was a fundamental skill you could develop, rather than something you were simply good or bad at? Engineering programs are designed to blend theory with practice—analysis with practical problem solving. But engineering also spans organically across disciplines into the humanities and social sciences. This week on AB, host Lee Coffin dives into the undergraduate realm of engineering programs with Stu Schmill, Dean of Admissions and Student Financial Services at MIT. They discuss how to begin preparing for those experiences in high school and where a student’s untapped engineering potential might take them.

What advice do this year’s high school seniors and their parents have for those who will follow in future college application cycles? AB host Lee Coffin and Jacques Steinberg, co-author of “The College Conversation,” recently put that question to an audience gathered on the Dartmouth campus for admitted students’ programming. We also asked them what they learned, what they wished they had done differently, what boundaries they established for their respective roles as applicant and advisor, and how they managed the stress of it all. Tune in this week to hear what they told us, in their own words.

The conversations, debates and diverse voices that animate a college campus are essential elements of an undergraduate experience. As seniors visit campuses for accepted student open houses and as juniors follow tour guides for introductory visits, AB host Lee Coffin shares an essay he wrote on the importance of assessing campus dialogue as part of those visits.

“’How will this look for colleges…?’ is the most common question I get from juniors as they select senior year courses,” reports longtime college counselor Eric Monheim. For sure, the quality of an applicant’s senior year program—and the grades achieved in that course of study—is a foundational element of the academic assessment of every application to a selective college. This week, AB host Lee Coffin answers the question: “Does 12th grade count?” as high school juniors select their senior year curriculum.  Guests Elena Hicks, SMU’s assistant vice provost and dean of admissions, and Monheim, the director of college couns...

For centuries, the liberal arts have been foundational to the mission of higher education. But trying to explain the concept of this course of study — and the multifaceted roadmap a liberal arts degree provides for one’s life and work in the 2020s and beyond—can be challenging. And so AB host Lee Coffin called in a specialist: Cecilia Gaposchkin, a Dartmouth history professor whose courses range from the fall of Rome to the Crusades to the medieval kings of France. She was also the College’s longtime dean for pre-major advising.  But the subject matter of the liberal arts—chem...

Admissions Beat host Lee Coffin considers April the “13th month” of the college admissions calendar. For many high school seniors, April brings a sense of closure, as they move from receiving their admissions decisions to weighing (and deciding) where to enroll. For many high school juniors, April represents a beginning – the official start of their college search. This week, Dean Coffin presents a grab bag of tips and other advice for both audiences, as well as parents and counselors. He’s joined by AB producer Charlotte Albright and Jacques Steinberg, co-author of “The College Conversation,” an admissions guidebook for parents.

What constitutes a strong SAT or ACT score? What do admissions officers mean when they say they consider scores in context? If a college is test-optional, should you submit your scores, or if it requires testing, are your scores strong enough to apply? The answers may surprise you. To talk through these and other questions, AB host and Dartmouth Dean of Admissions Lee Coffin is joined by Dartmouth professors Bruce Sacerdote and Michelle Tine, whose research helped inform Dartmouth’s recent decision to reinstate admissions testing requirements, and Jacques Steinberg, co-author of “The College Conversation,” an admissions guide for parent...

What’s it like to read applications at a highly selective college or university for the first time? Not so long after their own college graduations, Dartmouth admissions officers Clarissa Hyde, Will Kieger, Laura Rivera-Martinez, and Jackie Pageau have spent the last few months reading and evaluating hundreds of applications. This week on AB, they join their boss, Dean of Admissions Lee Coffin, to discuss all that they’ve learned during their rookie “reading season.”

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, spent a day behind the closed doors of Dartmouth's undergraduate admissions selection committee. In this encore episode from 2023, 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...

Public opinion polls reveal a surprising shift in American views on higher education: roughly half of the parents surveyed imagine a four-year college degree as the educational goal for their child, down from near-universal support for that same goal when that question was posed a decade ago. While “college” has been a central component of the storied “American Dream” for decades, that ideal seems to be fading. This week, AB host Lee Coffin ponders the value of “college” with Jamie Merisotis, President and CEO of the Lumina Foundation, and Anthony Carnevale, research professor and director of Georgetown’s Center on Education a...

What would it be like to be a former admissions officer guiding your own child through a college search? While they know a lot more than most parents, the emotions they experience as parents—paired with the lessons they learned from inside an admissions committee—are likely relatable (and instructive) for any parent. Listen in as Lee Coffin of Dartmouth interviews three former colleagues who are now “admissions moms”: Ronnie Bernier Burnett, former assistant director of admissions at Connecticut College; Kathy Cho Seldow, former assistant director of admissions at Tufts; and Courtney Minden, former vice president of enrollment management at Babso

This week, Admissions Beat wades into the topic of college affordability. For high school seniors, we provide up-to-the-minute insight and tips on navigating the rollout of the new FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which is causing delays in award calculations. For high school juniors, we introduce the topic of affordability as a “non-negotiable” factor as you and your families work toward assembling a college list. Joining host Lee Coffin, Dartmouth’s dean of admissions and financial aid, are G. Dino Koff, director of financial aid at Dartmouth, and journalist Charlotte Albright.