YCBK 211: Interview with UCLA admission dean

(13:06) In this week's "In the news" segment, we discuss two articles on the same topic, that both came out on January 10th, 2022. The first is by Melissa Korn in the Wall Street Journal entitled, "Yale, Georgetown, other Top Schools illegally collude to limit Student Financial Aid Lawsuit Alleges. The second article is by Ivana Saric of Axios and it is entitled, "Lawsuit alleges top colleges illegally collude to limit student financial aid" Dave and Mark discuss what the lawsuit alleges and Mark explains why he thinks one part of the lawsuit Is bogus but another could pose a serious threat to these college's assertion that they are need-blind. https://www.wsj.com/articles/yale-georgetown-other-top-schools-illegally-collude-to-limit-student-financial-aid-lawsuit-alleges-11641829659 https://www.axios.com/top-colleges-lawsuit-financial-aid-illegally-collude-a30ab056-8fd4-47c2-aa25-ca9644c0dc62.html (31:44) Two Questions from our listeners Living in the Northern VA area, many parents feel when their child is applying to VA highly selective schools (W&M, UVA), there is a bias against NOVA high schools. I've heard from several parents there is a "quota" system and they only let a tiny number in from each high school, even if they are well above the middle 50% of applicants. Have you found this to be true? Jennifer from Virginia How do I select a college? Student from New Jersey (50:17) Mark interviews Gary Clark, the Dean of undergraduate admissions at UCLA and Gary helps us to understand UCLA. Preview (Part 1/2) Gary gives what I call the elevator speech, a high level overview of who UCLA is The approach we take is similar to the approach I just took with Courtney Hatch-Blauvelt and Michael Ireland, 90% of the questions are ones that you sent in, and I ask Gary your questions Gary explains how the comprehensive review process works for applications to UCLA Gary shares a few unique things that UCLA does that some of the otther UC's don't do when they are evaluating an applicant Gary tells us what ELC is and he explains how it works in the UCLA admissions process. Gary discusses whether grade inflation at a particular high school is something they look at, or is an A and A no matter what high school the student is coming from. (01:01:18) Our recommended resource for episode 211 is the website https://www.collegehunch.com/. This website has a wealth of information about the colleges you are visiting and it is very user friendly for accessing by phone. It is great to use in the car when you are visiting colleges. (01:13:52) Mark and Lisa have our 3rd and final debate about whether Connecticut College acted inappropriately by telling a student that they will admit the student if the student will withdraw their test score and apply as a test-optional applicant. 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