I’ve often been asked how US colleges go about admitting international students. The questions are usually centered upon quotas—limits to how many students can be admitted from a particular region of the world. Because certain countries often send such “incredible” students to US colleges, and only a few of them are admitted year to year to a given school, there must be a predetermined number of admission slots per country goes the thinking. Right? Wrong.

For students considering various high school options, the school visit can be a crucial part of the decision making process. At private and charter schools, visit days are usually intimate experiences; often, much of the day is spent one-on-one with you, your parents, and various administrators, students, or high school admissions officers.

The most recent episode of Getting In: A College Coach Conversation addressed a variety of useful topics for our listeners, first digging deeply into how to understand and prepare for two different graduate programs:  the MBA (Master of Business Administration) and the MD (Doctor of Medicine) degrees. Guest host Ian Fisher concluded the show with a college finance expert who offered practical tips for students transferring from one college to another mid-year.

Though the spring semester has just gotten underway, believe it or not, high school students will soon be choosing their classes for the upcoming school year, and parents need to be careful when giving their child discretion over their course selection.  If college—particularly a selective college—may be in your child’s future, you should understand colleges’ expectations in terms of a high school curriculum before setting that course schedule.

Average Student’s Chances at a Top-Tier College, What to Do if You Can’t Pay the Bill, and Office Hours: Avoiding the Rumor Mill

On our latest episode of Getting In: A College Coach Conversation, host Beth Heaton rang in the New Year with our 100^th episode.

Co-authored by Ian Fisher

With the passing of many admission deadlines, a whole class of students can put the college application process behind them. But due to the cyclical nature of college admission, a whole new class of juniors is also beginning to think about their college applications. If you’re in eleventh grade, you’ll be applying to college before 2017 is out! To help you understand everything that will be thrown at you over the next few months, we’ve prepared a glossary of common terms below. Study hard!

Families of many high school juniors utilize winter or spring vacation weeks to take some long-distance college visits.  Before planning any trips, however, make sure you pop over to StudentUniverse, and read College Coach’s own Ian Fisher’s top five tips for college visits.  Ian shows families how to plan a successful college visit, making the most of their time and money. With Ian’s advice, your child will come away from their college visit trip having garnered some new insight as to what they want—and don’t want—in a college, and, with any luck, your family will have had a whole lot of fun along the way.

In the final Getting In: A College Coach Conversation episode of 2016, host Sally Ganga spent the majority of the show answering college admissions and finance related questions submitted by listeners. But first, Sally addressed what seniors can—and should!—be doing now that they have submitted their college applications.

In admissions, there are rarely any in-the-know summer programs that, in and of themselves, will get an admissions officer to shout “Admit!” in committee. A summer program’s admissions impact is often more organic in nature: it might provide the foundation or connections for more challenging experiences down the road.

Sally Ganga filled in for our regular host, Beth Heaton, during this week’s timely and informative episode of Getting In: A College Coach Conversation, covering what seniors should do after receiving an Early Action or Early Decision letter, as well as trends in college pricing affecting juniors’ planning.