YCBK 279: The Future of Fair Admissions: Is Early Decision Fair?

In this episode you will hear:   (15:48) Mark and Susan discuss the first of three reports by Educational Reform Now entitled, “The Future of Fair Admissions Report 1: Early Decision”. The Report was written by the Senior Policy Analyst, James Murphy. The Report looks at a number of questions including: Who benefits from Early Decision; which colleges utilize Early Decision the most; does ED give students an inherent advantage; What can be done to change affirmative action to make it more just and equitable. Mark and Susan discuss the full range of issues related to affirmative action. This discussion will air in two parts over the next two Thursdays. Each discussion is approximately 32 minutes.     (35:18) Mark and Lisa answer a question from Nina of Massachusetts:  I keep hearing a lot about the "reach for all" schools and the importance of a well balanced college list. I guess I'm struggling with knowing what schools are actually target vs reach vs reach for all. By way of background my son has a strong GPA and ACT scores and seems to check a lot of boxes but I have a hard to believing any school is in his reach just given the amount of applications schools are receiving. Are "reach for all" schools just the ivies or is it schools usually in the Top 20 (on those awful rankings)? Is a 20% acceptance rate still a reach for all? I guess it just seems like everything is a reach for all when it comes to schools (especially those in the northeast!).   (57:32) Mark continues his interview with Milyon Truelove, the  Vice President and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Reed College. We turn our attention to the topic of, “Understanding Reed College” Part 1 of 2   Preview of Part 1   Milyon gives a great overview of the type of student that excels at Reed Milyon describes where Reed is located, what the campus is like and how well students have done in getting advanced degrees Milyon talks about the mission of Reed and how it impacts the student experience Milyon shares something unique about Reed’s faculty Milyon talks about Reed’s unique position on sports Milyon talks about how being in Portland impacts the student experience Milyon and Stuck discuss what are the distinctive traits of the Reed student Milyon talks about why Reed has it’s grading policy that it has Milyon talks about some of the distinctive programs that Reed offers   (01:09:32) Our Recommended Resource is a Forbes article that does a great job at explaining the difference between REPAY (Revised Pay as You Earn) and PAYE (Pay as you Earn) Melissa Ford of the Damsel of Success YouTube channel also has a great video on REPAY that I recommend you check out, but this article has a great explanation of the differences between the two leading Income Driven Repayment Plans. Income Driven repayment plans are usually appropriate for students who have more student loan debt then their salary. Every college counselor needs to be familiar with these differences but every parent should also know their options when it comes to having their student pay student debt. The article is written by of Forbes and it is entitled, PAYE vs REPAYE, which student loan repayment plan is right for you? It is an excellent article we encourage you to read.   https://www.forbes.com/advisor/student-loans/paye-vs-repaye/   We now have set up audio recordings in your own voice for any question you send in for our “question from a listener” segment. In order to send us an audio message, just go to speakpipe.com/YCBK. You can also use this for many other purposes: 1) Send us constructive criticism about how we can improve our podcast 2) Share an encouraging word about something you like about an episode or the podcast in general 3) Share a topic or an article you would like us to address 4) Share a speaker you want us to interview 5) Leave positive feedback for one of our interviewees. We will send your verbal feedback directly to them and I can almost assure you, your positive feedback will make their day. Speakpipe.com/YCBK is our preferred method for you to ask a question but if you are not comfortable with this, we will also receive your questions either on Twitter at @YCBKpodcast using the Messages tab or via email at If you have a question for one of our upcoming interviews with admissions professionals, here is a list of admissions professionals who we will interview in 2023 or 2024 Confirmed interviews not yet completed Bard-Mackie Siebens Rice University-Tamara Siler American University-Andrea Felder Pitzer College-Yvonne Berumen Chapman University-Marcela Meija-Martinez Connecticut College-Andy Strickler* Trinity College-Anthony Berry* College of the Atlantic-Heather Albert* Spelman College-Chelsea Holley* Scripps College-Victoria Romero* Saint Louis University-Daniel Wood-(Interview is about transfer admissions, Daniel is a transfer counselor) Colby College-Randi Arsenault* University of Georgia-David Graves* Washington University St Louis-Ronne Turner University of Wisconsin-Andre Phillips University of Illinois-Brian Hodges Purdue University-Mitch Warren University of Minnesota-Keri Risic Cornell University-Jonathon Burdick Oberlin College-Manuel Carballo UW-Madison-Andre Phillips Carleton College-Art Rodriguez Swarthmore-Jim Bok Joy St. Johns-Harvard Duke-Christoph Guttentag Florida State-John Barnhill Southern Methodist University-Elena Hicks Johns Hopkins-Calvin Wise Cornell University-Shawn Felton Haverford College-Jess Lord UAspire-Brendan Williams Yale University-Moira Poe Akil Bello of Akilbello.com Bard College Baylor University Butler University California Institute of Technology Colorado School of Mines Creighton University   To sign up to receive Your College-Bound Kid PLUS, our new monthly admissions newsletter, delivered directly to your email once a month, just go to yourcollegeboundkid.com, and you will see the sign up popup.   Check out our new blog. We write timely and insightful articles on college admissions: https://yourcollegeboundkid.com/category/blog/ 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. Twitter message is also the preferred way to ask questions for our podcast:   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. 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