Send us a text If you could run personality tests on the colleges of their choice, what would the results say? Like people, colleges and universities have their own sets of values, distinctive strengths and lenses through which they view the world. All of these characteristics indicate something about a college's culture and the day-to-day experiences students will have on campus. In this episode, we're sharing some tips on how prospective students can get a sense of a university's campus cultur...
Apr 18, 2022•17 min•Ep. 40
Send us a text We're dropping in mid-week with a special mini-episode to share some recent changes at College Admissions Insider . Bryan Wendell, who cohosted the podcast, is now pursuing new and exciting career opportunities beyond Bucknell — and we wish him the best of luck! Joining Brooke Thames as the podcast's new cohost is Becca Haupt Aldredge, senior associate director of admissions at Bucknell. If Becca's name (and voice) sound familiar, that's because she's been a guest on several prior...
Apr 11, 2022•14 min
Send us a text Whether we met them in elementary, junior high or high school, we all have that one teacher who went above and beyond to mentor and encourage us. It's easy to think that those wonderful teachers were simply born for the job. But dedicated, compassionate and empowering educators aren't magic — they're made. This episode of College Admissions Insider is for future college students who want to be that wonderful, life-changing teacher someday. In this episode, we'll discuss how to cho...
Apr 04, 2022•22 min•Ep. 39
Send us a text Alongside stick-figure families and save-the-environment slogans, there’s another bumper sticker you're bound to see if you spend enough time on the road: "My kid and my money go to [insert university name here]." It's a sticker that's quite real and honest. And in the spirit of being real and honest, we wanted to share an episode of College Admissions Insider that’s all about the truth behind college affordability. In this episode, we’ll define need-based aid, discuss how familie...
Mar 21, 2022•19 min•Ep. 38
Send us a text Take a moment to consider what you’re good at — an achievement you're most proud of, a skill you’ve spent years perfecting, or an activity or cause you’ve passionately pursued. If you’re a high school student on the track to college, there may be numerous merit scholarships out there for you. Just like colleges and universities themselves, higher education scholarships are abundant and diverse. But unlike need-based financial aid, many of these merit awards don’t consider a studen...
Mar 07, 2022•21 min•Ep. 37
Send us a text You researched every fact and figure about your choice institutions, wrote and rewrote the perfect admissions essay, and connected with everyone from current students to admissions counselors — all in hopes of receiving that life-changing notification that says, “Congratulations! You’ve been admitted.” Well done! You should be quite proud. But after the confetti settles to the floor, there's still work to be done. Receiving an acceptance letter on Decision Day is far from the end ...
Feb 21, 2022•23 min•Ep. 36
Send us a text While search engines provide millions of answers in less than a second, there is one life-changing question for which the answer doesn't arrive as quickly: Did I get in? When you want to know whether you’ve been accepted into your college of choice, things don't happen quickly. In fact, it may be months between the moment you press “submit” on your application and the day that acceptance notification appears in your virtual or physical mailbox. So what do you do in the meantime? I...
Feb 07, 2022•26 min•Ep. 35
Send us a text When do you find "the one"? Some people don't pinpoint their perfect career path until midway through college. For others, that true passion waits to reveal itself after years of being in the workforce. But for a lucky few, that dream job shines brightly early on. These ambitious high schoolers are certain of what they want to do with their degrees before they even begin their college search. This episode of College Admissions Insider is for that last group — the high schoolers wh...
Jan 24, 2022•29 min•Ep. 34
Send us a text For high school students who aspire to be doctors or work in health care, there are numerous fields to choose from — areas like surgery, physical therapy and dentistry, to name just three. But what is the right path to reaching that career? What majors might best set you up for success? And how many years should you expect to be in college? Helping us navigate those questions and more is Alison Patterson, a pre-health adviser at Bucknell’s Center for Career Advancement. She holds ...
Jan 10, 2022•24 min•Ep. 33
Send us a text It’s one of the oldest professions and a job that touches nearly every aspect of our lives, from finances and real estate to commerce, health care, and beyond. That far-reaching trade is law, which encompasses far more than the intense courtroom scenes we see in crime movies and TV shows. In fact, there are more than a dozen major fields of law and an array of even more nuanced concentrations offered at law schools around the country. But for those who dream of attending law schoo...
Dec 27, 2021•21 min•Ep. 32
Send us a text Think about the latest TV series you binge-watched. Did it start by saying, "In this TV show, you'll meet a messed-up family with lots of problems." Probably not. It likely threw you right into the story, sharing something interesting just a few moments after you pressed "play." In other words, it hooked you quickly, and it did so by showing, not telling. What if you applied this same strategy to application essays? In this episode of College Admissions Insider , we'll share how t...
Dec 13, 2021•20 min•Ep. 31
Send us a text If you're on Bucknell's mailing list, you might have seen an email telling high school students that when they apply to Bucknell, a real human — not some computer algorithm — reviews their application personally. At Bucknell, we're proud of that fact. But that statement might raise a follow-up question: Who are those humans who will review my application? In this episode of College Admissions Insider , you'll meet two members of the team that reviews Bucknell applications. Whether...
Nov 29, 2021•33 min•Ep. 30
Send us a text There's no better resource for learning about a university than its students. Nobody else truly knows what it's like to live in that campus community 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Students are the ones who take the classes, attend the events, participate in the clubs and live in the residence halls. That's why it's so important to talk to actual students when researching colleges. By hearing why they chose that school and learning what life is like there, you'll gain a cleare...
Nov 15, 2021•32 min•Ep. 29
Send us a text Sometimes you travel a long distance to go see a college or university that interests you. Other times, if you're lucky, that college or university comes to see you. They're called counselor visits, and they're a great way to learn more about a university without leaving school grounds. In this episode of College Admissions Insider , we'll share our top tips for making the most of these counselor visits. We'll cover it all — what happens during a typical counselor visit, whether s...
Nov 01, 2021•27 min•Ep. 28
Send us a text A lot of emotions go through a student's head as their mouse cursor hovers over the "submit" button on a college application. There's excitement. There's hope. And yes, there's probably a fair amount of second-guessing, anxiety and maybe even a dash of all-out panic. To be fair, that's a pretty important click in the life of a college student. But if you have prepared in the right way, it doesn't have to be so terrifying. That's where College Admissions Insider is here to help. In...
Oct 18, 2021•21 min•Ep. 27
Send us a text Imagine this: Every time you visit a college, email a counselor or even click a link in an email from a university on your list, you’re helping your chances of getting admitted. For schools that consider demonstrated interest, those scenarios are often a reality. Some schools keep a record of the actions you take to, as the name implies, demonstrate that you're interested in that school. It’s one way for those colleges to know whether an applicant considers that school one of thei...
Oct 04, 2021•20 min•Ep. 26
Send us a text When applying to college, so much of a high school student's experience is laser-focused on perfecting every step of the college application journey. As a freshman, you build your initial list of schools you want to explore. As a junior, you begin visiting schools and reaching out to admissions offices. And as a senior, you wait with anticipation for good news. But the journey of preparing for college doesn't end with an acceptance packet. There's a whole new set of challenges — a...
Sep 20, 2021•22 min•Ep. 25
Send us a text In a household where a parent or family member completed a four-year college degree, a high school student has someone right under their roof who can answer any question that student might have about the college search process. But some students don't have that luxury and might need to find other ways to get the information they need to find, apply to and prepare for college. They're called first-generation college students, or first-gens. In this episode of College Admissions Ins...
Sep 06, 2021•19 min•Ep. 24
Send us a text Choosing a college home is a bit like choosing an actual home. It should be the perfect size, offer the features you want, and feel safe and comfortable. Just like shopping for a house, searching for a college starts with that one key word: location. So where exactly do you start when considering a school's geographic location when planning your college search? What factors should you absolutely keep in mind and which might you be okay to ignore? In this episode of College Admissi...
Aug 23, 2021•28 min•Ep. 23
Send us a text By some counts, there are about 4,000 colleges and universities in the U.S. As a prospective student, you can slice and dice that list in a seemingly infinite number of ways. You could sort by state, you could look at urban schools and rural ones, you could filter out schools that you consider too big or too small, you could look at what majors are offered, you could look at whether the school offers Division I, Division II or Division III athletics. The list goes on and on. You c...
Aug 09, 2021•24 min•Ep. 22
Send us a text They're the three letters on the mind of pretty much every college-bound high school student: G, P and A. But understanding how colleges and universities will interpret your grade-point average isn't so simple. Some institutions recalculate applicants' GPAs using their own scale. Some only count certain core classes in their calculations, meaning electives don't factor in to the final number. Some universities even look at how an applicant's GPA might have improved over time. GPA ...
Jul 26, 2021•23 min•Ep. 21
Send us a text By now you know that so many things go into a university’s decision of whether to admit someone. They might look at extracurriculars, essays, letters of recommendation, demonstrated interest, test scores (if you submit them and the school isn't test-optional), and, of course, grades. But higher-ed institutions don't just take a surface-level view of those A's, B's and C's. They look closer to see just how difficult the classes were — something called academic rigor. That can bring...
Jul 12, 2021•23 min•Ep. 20
Send us a text When exploring colleges, there's only so much you can do online. At some point, you have to see these places for yourself — all five, 10 or 30 schools on your list. Unless a family member has unlimited vacation days (or a teleportation machine), the only way to realistically visit multiple schools in a reasonable amount of time is by planning a college visit road trip. But how do you organize one of these info-gathering trips? How can you keep all these visits straight in your hea...
Jun 28, 2021•24 min•Ep. 19
Send us a text College is more than a place to learn, meet interesting people and grow. For most students, it's also where you'll live — perhaps for four years of your life. Young people who may be accustomed to living in their own room at home will suddenly be sharing a room (and bathroom) with others. That fact makes finding the right housing fit just as important as finding the right academic fit. So how do you do it? In this episode of College Admissions Insider , we'll swing those doors wid...
Jun 14, 2021•24 min•Ep. 18
Send us a text If a typical college semester is about 15 weeks long and students eat three meals a day, that means they're eating 315 meals on campus each semester. That's more than 600 meals during each academic year. That makes food a pretty important part of the college experience — and an important part of choosing which college to attend. This is especially true for students who have special food allergies or dietary needs — or even those students who want to make healthy decisions about fo...
May 31, 2021•19 min•Ep. 17
Send us a text The college application process is highly personal — no two journeys are ever the same. Even still, we can learn a lot from those who have traveled that road before by asking what they did right and what they wish they'd done differently. In this episode of College Admissions Insider , we invite listeners to our first college admissions roundtable. It's a chance to hear from current college students about each step of their application process. Listen as three Bucknell students — ...
May 17, 2021•32 min•Ep. 16
Send us a text Today's high school students don't just rely on websites and viewbooks. They turn to social media to help them get a complete picture of life at a particular college. At some schools, the reverse happens, too. Some colleges and universities (not Bucknell) actually look at an applicant's social media to give them a fuller picture of the prospective student. In this episode of College Admissions Insider , Becca Haupt, the Senior Assistant Director of Admissions at Bucknell Universit...
May 03, 2021•17 min•Ep. 15
Send us a text These days, your dream school will look at way more than grades. They want the complete package: someone who shows promise both inside and outside the classroom — not some computer who can ace any exam but does little else. So how do you present that complete package to a college? Which out-of-the-classroom parts of your life are worth highlighting? Do some extracurriculars look better on a résumé than others? And what should you do if your after-school time is consumed by a singl...
Apr 19, 2021•24 min•Ep. 14
Send us a text There are dozens of reasons a student might choose to take a gap year, a voluntary yearlong break taken between the end of high school and the start of college. It might be to travel, find a job or internship, or complete volunteer or service work. In recent years, we've seen that about 3% to 5% of students take a gap year after high school. At Bucknell, that number is about 1% of each incoming class. But what are the pros and cons of taking that year away? How do you apply for a ...
Apr 05, 2021•21 min•Ep. 13
Send us a text Waiting is the most agonizing part of the college admissions process. You send off your materials and then keep clicking that refresh button until the decision arrives (or your phone dies). But for a select group of applicants, that waiting period is significantly reduced. These are the students who applied Early Decision or Early Action to their top-choice school or schools. These students could get a decision as early as December instead of the following March or April — a huge ...
Mar 22, 2021•23 min•Ep. 12
