YCBK 285: Elite Colleges’ Quiet Fight to Favor Alumni Children

In this episode you will hear:   (18:46) Mark and Julia discuss an article from Stephanie Saul that appeared in the New York Times updated on October 31st entitled, “Elite Colleges’ Quiet Fight to Favor Alumni Children”   (41:30) Mark and Lisa answer our first two speakpipe questions that were sent in. Eric from Iowa has a lot of questions about hiring a college coach for his junior son and another annonymous listener also has questions about hiring a college coach. Lisa and Mark do a 55 minute deep dive over the next two weeks to answer their two questions.   (01:17:00) Mark continues his interview with Wendy Beckemeyer, the VP of enrollment at Cornell College. Wendy will help us to understand what makes Cornell College special. Part 2 of 3   Part 2-Preview   Wendy talks about the Abet accreditation and what this means Wendy talks about the strategic plan Wendy shares some new offerings Cornell is launching Wendy shares two new financial plans Cornell is launching to make paying for college friction-less Wendy shares the type of student that thrives at Cornell College Wendy elaborates on how friendships are forged at Cornell Wendy talks about the core curriculum at Cornell Wendy talks about creativity is expressed at Cornell Wendy talks about what Cornell needs to work on to become an even better school Wendy talks about what she feels Cornell does exceptionally well Wendy talks about how Cornell is extending very generous financial aid to residents from Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, Missouri, Texas, California and Colorado   (01:26:42) The recommended resource is the book “Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs by Lauren Rivera. The book is available in hardcover, paperback, kindle and as an audio book. It argues that where you go to college greatly influences your job offers when it comes to Wall Street, Consulting and white shoe corporate law firms.     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* Purdue University-Mitch Warren University of Minnesota-Keri Risic Cornell University-Jonathon Burdick Oberlin College-Manuel Carballo 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-Ashley Pallie 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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