Admissions Beat

AP or Honors, Which Looks Better for Colleges?

The quality of an applicant's senior year program—and the grades achieved in that course of study—are foundational to the academic assessment of any application to a selective college. In an encore ep...

2026-04-07

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Navigating April

For one month each year, two admission cycles overlap as high school seniors and juniors share center stage. As seniors wrap up their searches over the next four weeks and juniors shift into active mo...

2026-03-31

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State You

A "state option" is often recommended as families wrestle with the affordability of college. But focusing on "affordability" of public institutions alone undersells the opportunity and value of a stat...

2026-03-24

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March Madness Part 2: "How Do You Decide?"

"How do you decide?" is one of the most probing questions associated with selective admissions. With so many qualified candidates competing for limited spots, decisions are often presumed to be random...

2026-03-17

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March Madness Part 1: Reading Season

In the first of a two-part episode, AB peeks behind the opaque curtain of a selective admissions office in March. Four Dartmouth admission officers join their dean for an introspective conversation ab...

2026-03-10

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Follow Me!

Do Instagram or Reddit rival a guidance counselor as a source of admissions information and advice? Can YouTube match or beat an on-campus tour as a measure of vibe and place? Conventional wisdom says...

2026-03-03

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Crunching Numbers

The college admissions process spits out lots of stats. Some numbers are straightforward, or they seem to be, while many data points require a nuanced interpretation from an inside source. Always, an ...

2026-02-24

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"Let's Just See What Happens..."

By definition, a guidance or college counselor offers counsel as a search takes shape and progresses. But sometimes that advice is resisted by parents and students. A "reach" or a "likely" designation...

2026-02-17

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Everything Counts!

"What counts?!" is the perennial question asked by parents and students as they wonder what makes a strong application. The answer, it turns out, is complicated. In a re-broadcast of a popular episode...

2026-02-10

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Discovery Starts With Program

An effective college search starts with discovery. “Start your discovery with the fundamental thing about college,” AB host and Dartmouth Dean Lee Coffin advises. “You are going to college to study, a...

2026-02-03

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Junior Kickoff!

It's time for the high school class of 2027 to step into the college search spotlight. As juniors kick off their college search, AB resets its narrative spotlight to the discovery phase. In the ninth ...

2026-01-27

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A Primer on Financial Aid

In a preseason bonus episode, Admissions Beat cross-shares a YouTube conversation about financial aid from the parenting website Grown & Flown featuring AB host and Dartmouth Dean of Admissions & Fina...

2026-01-20

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After Early

For the high school Class of ’26, the first college admissions milestone is at hand as early decisions—some binding, some not—land. In AB's season finale, a trio of deans and a college counselor unpac...

2025-12-09

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Channel Your Main Character Energy

From Grey's Anatomy to Bridgerton, Shonda Rhimes is television's storyteller extraordinaire. The Emmy winner visits AB for a lesson on how to channel main-character energy in an essay or interview. "W...

2025-12-02

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Strategies for the Road Ahead

"Getting in" is the clear goal for almost every applicant, but a college search also yields valuable lessons for the road beyond the admissions process itself. Angel Perez, CEO of the National Associa...

2025-11-25

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College Is Opportunity

For many students around the world, college presents a rare opportunity to change the arc of a life, to pursue the fabled “American Dream,” where anything can happen for anyone. But for those who are ...

2025-11-18

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An Admissions Newsfeeding Frenzy

The media's admissions beat is a very active feed each fall as application deadlines approach. Headlines invite clicks, shares, chatter...and often anxiety as students and parents consume newsfeeds th...

2025-11-11

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Admissions Quiz Bowl

Like most professions, college admissions has its own internal language, and that distinctive style of communicating is especially true as an application is read and summarized. In a special "quiz bow...

2025-11-04

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Can I Afford It?!

Sticker shock is real. Perceptions of college affordability represent one of the biggest concerns that most families navigate as a college search unfolds, with a 2024 survey of US voters revealing tha...

2025-10-28

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Lessons from the Search: Parent POV

Like so many things, a college search often looks—and feels—better in hindsight. Parents are important eyewitnesses to a search as it unfolds and concludes, and they have plenty of stories to tell. Tw...

2025-10-21

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Admissions Beat

Episodes (130 episodes)

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