YCBK 193: College Rankings have led colleges astray

In this episode you will hear: (11:25) In this week's "In the news segment, an August 6, 2021 Washington Post article by Susan Paterno entitled, "College rankings have fueled an arms race that has pushed higher education astray". The article looks at the history of the US News and World rankings. It looks at how the rankings have become so powerful that they now control the decisions that educators are making about how to run their colleges and universities. The article shares examples of a few universities that invested hundreds of millions of dollars into studying the rankings and making changes to climb the rankings. Some equate rankings with excellence, but this article exposes how that is often not the case. Mark and Dave discuss the article and some of the more salient points that Paterno makes in the article. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/08/06/college-rankings-have-fueled-an-arms-race-that-has-pushed-higher-education-astray/ (35:50) Dr. Lisa Rouff has a certificate in understanding ADD. Helping adults and adolescents with ADD is part of her professional clinical counseling practice. She takes the lead in answering a question from Christina: My very bright son with inattentive ADD declared in 9th grade that he was going to be a B student. Anything higher wasn't worth the extra effort to him. He has high intellectual curiosity, is very bright, and the structure of the school isn't his jam. It seems to me he puts more energy into managing to a B than he would simply be doing the work and getting an A (which would be easy for him). Where do kids like that end up? Part 1 of 2 (56:10) Mark interviews Lisa Keegan, the VP of Enrollment at Bucknell University. The topic of the interview is: Understanding Bucknell. Our interview will also serve as our College Spotlight because Lisa gives us a great overview of Bucknell University Lisa kicks off our interview by giving us a 3 to 5 minute overview of who Bucknell is and what makes Bucknell special Lisa talks about what she regards as their most distinctive programs, both those that are well-known as well as those that fall under the radar Lisa discusses a range of offerings Bucknell provides, including their primate labs and their three colleges. Lisa describes double majoring at Bucknell Mark asks Lisa to discuss Bucknell's reputation, where is it stellar and where can it be improved? Schools have personalities, and Lisa describes what Bucknell's personality is? Lisa tells us who Bucknell's cross-apps are, these are the schools they also apply to when they apply to Bucknell Lisa tells us how demonstrated interest is factored in to admissions decisions Lisa addresses the question, Are students admitted into specific colleges or into Bucknell as a whole? Lisa answers the question, how is Bucknell different than Elon, a school where Lisa spent two decades at. Lisa and Mark discuss, "need-aware" admissions: how does the ability to pay factors into admission decisions at Bucknell? Lisa talks about some of the rich traditions that Bucknell has. (01:15:23) Two Recommended resources this week: 1) The place to go to get what Mark believes is the best step by step FAFSA Walkthrough video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsI46YHy6lw 2) The College Admission Insider podcast. This is one of Mark's favorite College Admission podcasts. It is produced by the admission officers at Bucknell University: https://www.bucknell.edu/admissions-aid/admissions-blog?t=5369 Follow Mark Stucker on Twitter to get breaking college admission news, and updates about the podcast before they go live: https://twitter.com/YCBKpodcast To access our transcripts, click: https://yourcollegeboundkid.com/category/transcripts/ Find the specific episode transcripts for the one you want to search and click the link Find the magnifying glass icon in blue (search feature) and click it Enter whatever word you want to search. I.e. Loans Every word in that episode when the words loans is used, will be highlighted in yellow with a timestamps Click the word highlighted in yellow and the player will play the episode from that starting point You can also download the entire podcast as a transcript Feel free to pass this podcast on to others who you feel will benefit, even if they are not a YCBK listener. Don't forget to send your questions related to any and every facet of the college process to: questions@yourcollegeboundkid.com. If you enjoy our podcast, would you please do us a favor and share our podcast both verbally and on social media? We would be most grateful! Check out the college admissions books Mark recommends: https://yourcollegeboundkid.com/recommended-books/ Check out the college websites Mark recommends: https://yourcollegeboundkid.com/recommended-websites/ If you want a college consultation with Mark or Lisa, just text Mark at 404-664-4340. All he asks is that you review the services on his website first. His website is: https://schoolmatch4u.com/