Getting In: Your College Admissions Companion

Host Julie Lythcott-Haims and Josh Steckel hear graduation updates from three of our Getting In seniors: Alessandra LePera, Jordana Meyer, and Ellis Wells.  The seniors share their favorite parts of the ceremonies and describe what it's been like to participate in the podcast. Plus, Julie and Josh answer a final round of listener questions. Listeners ask about: the value of high school leadership positions, when to consider transferring colleges, the misconceptions surrounding degrees and careers in the arts, and strategies for building a good relationship with your high school college counselor. Getting In expert Josh Steckel is a college counselor at the Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies and the author of Hold Fast To Dreams: College Guidance Counselor, His Students, and the Vision of a Life Beyond Poverty.   Getting In is supported by Squarespace, helping students create online portfolios and personal websites that show colleges who they are and what they can do. Learn more at Squarespace.com/gettingin Getting In is sponsored by Audible.com. Get a free audiobook of your choice at www.audible.com/college and use the promo code COLLEGE.

Host Julie Lythcott-Haims and Parke Muth, formerly a dean and an admission officer at the University of Virginia, answer listener questions.  How important are SAT II scores to admissions officers? Which is more valuable a good grade in an AP class or the score on the exam? What's your advice to students applying from abroad? Does

volunteering matter?

Send us an email or voice memo--to [email protected] Call our hotline and leave a message at (929) 999-4353. Find us on Twitter: @GettingInPod Getting In is sponsored by Audible.com. Get a free audiobook of your choice at www.audible.com/college and use the promo code

COLLEGE.

Host Julie Lythcott-Haims and Parke Muth, formerly a dean and an admission officer at the University of Virginia, answer listener questions.  When you're a student athlete, what are the pros and cons of attending Division 1 and Division 3 schools? Is summer really the best time to start working on common application essays? Test prep is elitist, expensive, and a massive investment of time-- is there any reason our family should opt-in?  Send us an email or voice memo--to [email protected] Call our hotline and leave a message at (929) 999-4353. Find us on Twitter: @GettingInPod Getting In is sponsored by Audible.com. Get a free audiobook of your choice at www.audible.com/college and use the promo code COLLEGE.

Host Julie Lythcott-Haims and Getting In expert Amy Young answer a listener question from an eleventh grader about what juniors should be doing the summer before their senior year. We also hear from Getting In seniors Jonathan Diaz, August Graves, Alessandra LePera, and Jordana Meyer about their own plans for summer before starting college in the fall.

Amy Young is the director of college counseling at Avenues, an independent school in New York City.

Send questions, comments, and follow us on Twitter @GettingInPod

Send us an email or voice memo to [email protected]

Or, call our hotline and leave a message at (929) 999-4353

Getting In is sponsored by Audible.com. Get a free audiobook of your choice at www.audible.com/college and use the promo code COLLEGE.

Host Julie Lythcott-Haims and expert Amy Young talk about how the high stakes intensity of college admissions has trickled down to middle and high school admissions. Amy is the director of college counseling at Avenues, an independent school in New York City.

Julie mentions a new effort aimed to reduce the academic pressure and stress found in her own community of Palo Alto, CA. The city is distraught by its teen suicide rate-- four to five times the national average. The website, pathsfrompaloalto.com, was created by recent college grads who grew up there. "They're showing through blog essays, that people have happy successful lives going in all directions out of Palo Alto," says Julie.

Listener questions this week include a letter from a junior in southern California who suffered a head injury at a sporting event and it affected his GPA. He wonders how to present his case on college applications. And an eleventh grader, who moved to Arizona her junior year, asks if it's ok to get teacher recommendations solely from her previous school.

Send questions, comments, and follow us on Twitter @GettingInPod

Send us an email or voice memo to [email protected]

Or, call our hotline and leave a message at (929) 999-4353

Getting In is sponsored by Audible.com.

Get a free audiobook of your choice at www.audible.com/college and use the promo code COLLEGE.

As the school year winds down, host Julie Lythcott-Haims checks in with four of the Getting In seniors: Jonathan Diaz, August Graves, Alessandra LePera, and Jordana Meyer.

The students share more details about the colleges they'll be attending in the fall, what they're excited about, and something completely new they each want to try when they get to campus. We'll also hear their advice for high school juniors getting into the thick of the admissions process right now.

Find us on Twitter: @GettingInPod

Send us an email or voice memo--to  [email protected]

Or, call our hotline and leave a message at (929) 999-4353.

Getting In is supported by Squarespace, helping students create online portfolios and personal websites that show colleges who they are and what they can do. Learn more at Squarespace.com/gettingin

Getting In is sponsored by Audible.com. Get a free audiobook of your choice at www.audible.com/college and use the promo code COLLEGE.

Host Julie Lythcott-Haims and expert Amy Young talk about decision season and what happens when a student sends a deposit to one school, but decides in the eleventh-hour to attend a different school. They also get an update from Getting In senior Ellis Wells, one of Amy's students at Avenues, and who'd been accepted to Vanderbilt University in February. Ellis is enjoying his spring as the captain of the golf team and attributes getting organized early with reducing a lot of college application stress.  Amy is the director of college counseling at Avenues, an independent school in New York City. Listener questions this week include a letter from a mom who wonders whether her son should ask for more merit aid at the University of Puget Sound. And a grandmother in New Jersey wonders whether her granddaughter should take the SAT or ACT after scoring in the 96th percentile on the PSAT.  Send questions, comments, and follow us on Twitter @GettingInPod Send us an email or voice memo to [email protected] Or, call our hotline and leave a message at (929) 999-4353. Getting In is sponsored by Audible.com. Get a free audiobook of your choice at www.audible.com/college and use the promo code COLLEGE.

Host Julie Lythcott-Haims and Getting In expert Steve LeMenager answer listener questions. 

Steve is the president of Edvice, a college counseling firm. He was previously a director of admissions at Princeton University.

Listener questions in this episode include one from a Michigan mom who wonders if the limits her daughter's high school places on the number of AP classes a student can take could affect her daughter's college admission chances. A student in the Netherlands and a mother in the US wrote in for advice on how to select an independent college counselor. And a mother in Virginia asks for advice on the kinds of schools her high achieving son should explore, because he "intensely dislikes an elbow-sharpening and competitive environment."

Find us on Twitter: @GettingInPodSend us an email or voice memo--to  [email protected], call our hotline and leave a message at (929) 999-4353.

Getting In is sponsored by Audible.com.Get a free audiobook of your choice at www.audible.com/college and use the promo code COLLEGE.

Host Julie Lythcott Haims welcomes back Penn professor Marybeth Gasman to answer listener questions. 

A dad in Pennsylvania says his high achieving daughter, a junior, "has no idea what direction she wants to go" or what she wants to study and he'd like some advice on what sort of schools to look at. And a mom in Indiana wonders if moving to a "better" school district will improve her children's college admissions chances.

Marybeth Gasman is a professor of higher education at the University of Pennsylvania where she directs the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions.A former student and admissions officer at Indiana University, Gasman continues to serve on admissions committees at Penn.

Find us on Twitter: @GettingInPodSend us an email or voice memo--to  [email protected], call our hotline and leave a message at (929) 999-4353.

Getting In is sponsored by Audible.com.Get a free audiobook of your choice at www.audible.com/college and use the promo code COLLEGE.

As high school juniors begin to build their lists of schools, they'd be wise to consider historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs)  and minority serving institutions (MSIs). Host Julie Lythcott-Haims and her special guests, Professor Marybeth Gasman and Breanna Williams, talk about the benefits of attending HBCUs and MSIs.

Marybeth Gasman is a professor of higher education at the University of Pennsylvania where she directs the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions.

Breanna Williams is a stylist and retail manager in New York City. She graduated from Howard University with a BFA in Theater.

Gasman has spent years researching the value and impact of HBCU and MSI educations. Gasman lists several schools applicants might look into including Morehouse, Spelman, Taladega, and Prairie View. She sites Xavier in New Orleans, as a great example of an HBCU that excels in preparing its students for careers in medicine-- its graduates have a 98% pass rate on the medical board exams. 

Williams relays how instrumental a role Howard plays in her life. Shaping her identity as a college student through her career today as an optical stylist.

Find us on Twitter: @GettingInPodSend us an email or voice memo--to  [email protected], call our hotline and leave a message at (929) 999-4353.

Getting In is supported by Squarespace, helping students create online portfolios and personal websites that show colleges who they are and what they can do. Learn more at Squarespace.com/gettingin

Getting In is sponsored by Audible.com.Get a free audiobook of your choice at www.audible.com/college and use the promo code COLLEGE.