What can the process of searching for and applying to college teach you about yourself? Given so many colleges and universities admit students directly to specific schools and major, how can the process help you uncover your strengths, interests, and focus? Lisa shares her experience with these questions in career planning and college counseling.

Why and how can you make things – digitally and physically – as a way of thinking? How is making and prototype a way of being? We discuss these questions and follow Scott’s path from engineering to product design to education at Stanford’s d.school and UT Austin. He shares insights from the book he co-authored Make Space and his latest book, This is a Prototype.

What do students want to get out of college – discovering identity, belonging to a community, building skills, learning about an interest or passion? What does why you want to go to college tell you about where to go to college and how to go to college? We discuss this with college counselor Michelle McAnaney, “The College Spy”.

What are the outdated policies and processes that students and families will confront in higher education? How can colleges and universities change these to work for today’s students? How can students and families cope with them in the meantime? How can they advocate for change? We discuss this with higher education change consultant Drumm McNaughton.

What is design thinking and how can students use it to design their lives? What will that tell them about possible career paths, courses to take, projects to work on, and mentors to find? We discuss these great questions with Julia Lang, Professor of Practice and Associate Director of Career Education and Life Design at Phyllis M. Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking at Tulane University.

How can you get oriented, get involved, and belong as a transfer student? How do you balance spending time with other transfers versus connecting with other students who’ve had a different experience? We discuss this with higher education’s first Chief Experience Officer (CXO) and two-time transfer student, Tom Ellett from Quinnipiac University.

How do you work up the courage to take risks, put yourself out there, and try new things? How can you rest, recover, and reflect while you’re making the most of your time in College? How does all this help you grow, personally and professionally? We discuss all this and more with former brightspot intern and current Harvard first year Grace Bida.

What is the price you’ll pay for college? How does that compare to other students and other schools? How did the price of college get so complicated and mysterious? What can you do solve this mystery? We discuss these important questions with Mark Salisbury, Founder and CEO TuitionFit.org, the college price transparency platform.

What should you do when you visit a college? How can you go beyond the standard admissions info session and tour? What should you do before, during, and after your visit to make all this happen? We dive into this with Mark Stucker, Founder of School Match 4 U, co-host of Your College Bound Kid podcast, and author of 171 Answers to the Most-Asked College Admissions Questions.

How can students find friends, advisors, and other folks to support them as they transition from dependence at home to independence in college? What people, information, and resources are available and what’s the best way to learn about and use them? We discuss the topic of building a support network with Andrea Malkin Brenner, Creator of Talking College Cards.