YCBK 227: Is telling our kids to follow their passions bad advice?

In this episode you will hear:   Susan Tree, Mark’s former colleague and friend for over 20 years makes her debut as an official co-host.   (15:45) Susan and Mark discuss a GrownandFlown.com article entitled, “We need to rethink encouraging our teens to follow your passions”. The article was written  by  on April 13, 2021   Susan shares the history over the last 40 years of how several books have attempted to address the issue of whether a student should follow their passions. Mark and Susan give their take on the article.   (55:56) Questions from a listener-I have a college sophomore and a high school senior so I have gone through the process twice - it is exhausting!     I have two questions: 1) In searching for colleges, we looked at rankings depending on what the student's area of study was  (business, film, animation, international relations, etc.) The rankings we found were Poets & Quants Undergrad, Hollywood Reporter,  Animation Review, and Foreign Policy.   I had heard about US News, but not the other rankings - how can we determine if they are truly industry valid rankings? I know rankings don't dictate success, but the search has to start somewhere, and it is just one more data point.   2) It was very difficult and at times impossible to find acceptance rates for a specific school within a university.  For example - NYU Tisch, LMU Film & TV, Villanova undergrad business, and Georgetown SFS. Is there a way to find out? The acceptance rate for each school/program can vary greatly from the whole of the university.  Thank you so much!!      Maria from Pennsylvania   (01:17:17) Interview-Rod Skinner, the Dean of College Counseling at Milton Academy-Topic "Why is it so much harder to get into a selective college these days"- (Part 3 of 3)   Preview-Part 3/3   One means of getting people off a fixation with one school What parent can do to help their kids have positive mental health while going through the college process The importance of parents having this one skill when working with their kids More great advice for parents is shared Rod recommends a book and shares an amazing quote The importance of relationships with parents The lightning round, Rod goes on the hotseat Sage wisdom for college counselors, students and parents     (01:27:37) Our recommended resource for episode 227 is the website ctas.substack.com. The website tracks trends in applications and the cost of college. They have cutting edge data here that is rarely found anywhere else.   To sign up to receive Your College-Bound Kid PLUS, our free quarterly admissions deep-dive, delivered directly to your email four times a year, just go to yourcollegeboundkid.com, and you will see the sign up on the right side of the page under “the Listen to our podcast icons”   Follow Mark Stucker on Twitter to get breaking college admission news,  and updates about the podcast before they go live. You can ask questions on Twitter that he will answer them on the podcast. Mark will also share additional hot topics in the news and breaking news on this Twitter feed:     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 are 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   We would be honored if you will pass this podcast episode on to others who you feel will benefit from the content in YCBK.   Please subscribe to our podcast. It really helps us move up in Apple’s search feature so others can find our podcast.   Don't forget to send your questions related to any and every facet of the college process to: [email protected].   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!   If you want to help more people find Your College-Bound Kid, please make sure you subscribe to our podcast. You will also get instant notifications as soon as each episode goes live.   Check out the college admissions books Mark recommends:     Check out the college websites Mark recommends:   If you want to have some input about what you like and what you recommend we change about our podcast, please complete our Podcast survey; here is the link:     If you want a college consultation with Mark or Lisa, just text Mark at 404-664-4340 or email Lisa at [email protected]. All they ask is that you review their services on their website before the complimentary session. Their counseling website is: https://schoolmatch4u.com/