The Crush

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Dr. Christina Warinner works at the University of Oklahoma’s Laboratories of Molecular Anthropology and Microbiome Research (LMAMR) and studies some incredibly cool and incredibly small things: the bacteria in the teeth of our ancient ancestors. She does this to learn about our ancient diet in an attempt to gain insight into the nature of periodontal disease. I interviewed her because I wanted to learn more about this stuff, and also to have her provide insight into the value of doing research as a component of your college education, and what it’s like to be a woman making an academic career in science. Oh also: The “Paleo Diet” is silly and she can prove it.Subscribe on iTunes, rate the show, follow me on Twitter @crushpod, more to see at www.crushpodcast.com

Learn more about Dr. Warinner’s work at www.christinawarinner.com

Watch Dr. Warinner’s extremely popular YouTube video “Debunking the Paleo Diet:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMOjVYgYaG8

The post Episode 15: Dr. Christina Warinner on 10,000 Year Old Teeth, Science Research, and Women in Academia appeared first on The Crush.

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Maria Maisto is the Executive Director of the New Faculty Majority, an organization fighting to improve working conditions for adjunct and contingent faculty at American institutions of higher ed. The name grew out of the reality that only in recent history has higher ed leaned on adjuncts to the degree that they comprise 75% of the teaching workforce.

They’re members of the “faculty,” at 75% of the teaching labor force in higher education they are the “majority,” and it’s “new” because a combination of factors have only recently made them the unstable majority of the teaching workforce. 

The post Episode 14: Maria Maisto on the Struggle of Adjunct Faculty appeared first on The Crush.

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Julie Lythcott-Haims, former Dean of Freshmen at Stanford and mother of two herself, has been on a world tour promoting her book How to Raise an Adult in an effort to help today’s parents to, well, back off. Because “we” aren’t going to college, are “we”? 

You can follow Julie on Twitter @deanjulie and get updates on the book at www.raiseanadult.com and chances are pretty good she’s coming to your town to talk if she hasn’t already. Learn more about the podcast she hosted on college admissions “Getting In” here: http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/getting_in.html

Follow me on Twitter @crushpod and rate the show on iTunes! Send me an email at [email protected] and check out more info at www.crushpodcast.com

Here’s the NPR story that I referenced at the end of this episode about whether or not college should be for everyone:

The post Episode 13: Julie Lythcott-Haims on Parenting the College-Bound appeared first on The Crush.

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Rick Weissbourd and Lloyd Thacker are new partners trying to solve an entrenched problem: How can college admissions change to better encourage healthier student outcomes and to promote ethical engagement in their communities? Their “Turning the Tide” report is their best and latest stab at it.

Lots of people refer to the college admissions system as “broken.” Admissions offices at selective schools have turned more into “denial” offices with historic rates of selectivity…kids are applying to a million colleges and packing their high school schedules with a million AP courses…the extracurricular activities list is a reflection of things kids did to get into college more than it is a reflection of the lives they’re naturally inclined to live in spite of the process…the essays are boring or narcissistic…SAT scores create too much stress and don’t actually tell us anything meaningful about the student.

But what’s to be done?

Over a hundred colleges have signed on to endorse the recommendations laid out in the report titled, in full, “Turning the Tide: Inspiring Concern for Others and and the Common Good Through College Admissions.” Lloyd and Rick talk to me about the climate that gave rise to this report, why these recommendations are the right ones to create change, and the challenges inherent in these recommendations actually generating the social change they’re seeking.

The post Episode 12: Lloyd Thacker and Rick Weissbourd on “Turning the Tide” appeared first on The Crush.

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Dr. Denise Pope is a professor of education at Stanford and a founder of “Challenge Success,” an organization that “partners with schools and families to provide kids with the academic, social, and emotional skills needed to succeed now and in the future.” She’s out to reduce stress among teenagers through a variety of methods including a reduction in homework and more sleep. These were two of my favorite concepts when I was in high school, but for some strange reason even the students are pushing back.

Follow me on Twitter @crushpod – visit www.crushpodcast.com for more info – Subscribe and rate The Crush on iTunes!

Visit www.challengesuccess.org for more information on her organization and their efforts, and visit http://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/collegeadmissions to read the “Turning the Tide” report on reforming college admissions.

The post Episode 11: Denise Pope on The Pressure to Succeed in High School appeared first on The Crush.

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Jon Burdick is the VP of Enrollment and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at the University of Rochester. He was also my admissions counselor when I went to USC, and now he’s my boss. He’s also one of the more articulate (and relatively fearless) thinkers and speakers on all things college, so I put the money questions to him. It took up almost two hours, so I’ve split it into two parts.

This is part 1! Follow Jon on Twitter @deanburdick

Follow me on Twitter @crushpod — Like the show on Facebook www.facebook.com/crushpodcast — Subscribe and rate the show on on iTunes!

The post Episode 10.1: Jon Burdick on Money and College appeared first on The Crush.

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Jon Burdick is the VP of Enrollment and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at the University of Rochester. He was also my admissions counselor when I went to USC, and now he’s my boss. He’s also one of the more articulate (and relatively fearless) thinkers and speakers on all things college, so I put the money questions to him. It took up almost two hours, so I’ve split it into two parts.

This is part 2!

Follow Jon on Twitter @deanburdick — Follow me on Twitter @crushpod — Like the show on Facebook www.facebook.com/crushpodcast — Subscribe and rate the show on on iTunes!

The post Episode 10.2: Jon Burdick on Money and College appeared first on The Crush.

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She also has one of the top 10 laughs of all my 9 interview subjects thus far. In fact, I might place her at a tie for the top spot with Siva Kumari.

Follow me on Twitter @crushpod — Like the show on Facebook www.facebook.com/crushpodcast — Subscribe and rate the show on on iTunes!

The post Episode 09: Genevieve Bell, Intel’s Anthropologist appeared first on The Crush.

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The weirdness created by a lack of obvious, consistent formula determining who gets into selective colleges makes it feel super secretive. Stephanie Shyu and her colleagues at AdmitSee think they’ve come up with a tool that can help cut through some of the static, and it’s rankling some folks in the college counseling world.

AdmitSee is many things, one of those things is supplying a platform for the buying and selling of successful college applications. In this interview we talk about the beginning of this new company, how it works, plagiarism, how international students might be especially interested in learning how to “apply like an American,” the value of authenticity in college admissions, and how much AdmitSee’s top earner has garnered from selling the contents of the applications he used to get in to college. Bonus: I also find some way to use “Total Recall” in an analogy about college admissions!

Follow me on Twitter @crushpod — Like the show on Facebook www.facebook.com/crushpodcast — Subscribe and rate the show on on iTunes!

The post Episode 08: Stephanie Shyu, Co-Founder of AdmitSee appeared first on The Crush.

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On March 30th, Ben Casselman blew up a Facebook group I’m a part of with about 10,000 members in it, all of them college admissions professionals in one way or another, high schcool, college, independent consultants, all of ’em. He blew it up with an article titled: “Shut Up About Harvard.” The premise of the article is that the “frenzy” and “panic” around getting into college is driven by the idea that only the most selective colleges matter, and that those are impossible to get into and you might as well die trying. It’s a topic close to the hearts of everyone trying to help high school kids figure out where to place their energy (emotional included), and needless to say, I’ve got a lot of questions for him.

To show you how popular his article was in this particular Facebook group, here’s a message from the group’s admin to spell that out:

The post Episode 07: Ben Casselman, Chief Economics Writer at fivethirtyeight.com appeared first on The Crush.