18th Annual College Admissions Panel! Hour 2 - podcast episode cover

18th Annual College Admissions Panel! Hour 2

Dec 10, 202442 min
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Episode description

We began our program with our special annual College Admissions Panel! We were joined by Deans of Admission at Harvard University, William Fitzsimmons and at Boston College, Grant Gosselin. Both Deans answered questions about getting into college, the SATs, paying tuition, the application process, what colleges are looking for in prospective students, and so much more! If you are a student, parent or guardian looking for insight into how the college application process works, this is your opportunity to speak directly to the Deans of Admission at two of the country’s most prestigious academic institutions!



Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!

Transcript

Speaker 1

It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Costin's new radio.

Speaker 2

All right, this is our eighteenth annual college Admissions panel, and we're delighted to be joined once again by Bill Fitzsimmons, the Harvard College Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, and Grant Goslin, Dean of the undergraduate Admission and Financial Aid at Boston College. Now we have one hour down and we may, depending on the phone calls, go all the way till ten, but we shut it off no later at the ten o'clock. This is a busy season for

both of these gentlemen. It is not easy for me to prevail upon Bill fitz Simmons, now in year eighteen, and Grant Goslin, who has been here. John Mahoney was the Boston College representative for many years, and Grant is now in John's position. John has moved on and retired actually from Boston College. So we're going to get to phone calls, and I'm going to ask you to keep you your questions regarding college admissions. I have many questions, but I'd love to give as many folks an opportunity

to jump in with their questions. So let us without any further ado, let me go to Kathy and Exeter, New Hampshire. Kathy, you a first this Hour with Bill Fitzimmons of Harvard and Grant Goslin of Boston College. What's your question of comment.

Speaker 3

Kathy, Hi, I have a couple quick questions. I think a lot of people would love to hear the answer to number one. How has this common apt and the fact that everyone can just click a button and apply to a crazy number of colleges changed it for everyone?

I mean, you've obviously got just top kids applying to you, but with all these schools, everyone I know's kid is applying to like ten fifteen schools and getting into many of them, which has got to skew everything for those poor kids who maybe didn't you know, do as well freshman year. Yes, I've got that trajectory. They will make great college students, but now they just can't get in,

Like what has the common life? And you know, I even know if you who have kids that are amazing candidates know they're going to get into top schools and still apply to fifteen because some of it. Oh, I wanted to turn that one down, and I'm like, whoa you are really messing with other kids opportunities.

Speaker 2

Quality of a quantity is your question. Grant. Let's let's start with you on this one, if you don't.

Speaker 4

Mind, well, Kathy, thanks so much for your question. I grew up nine miles from Exeter in Southampton, New Hampshire, so it's nice to have a seacoaster on a call. You know this. You know, things have really changed, as you mentioned, the Common Application has you know, maybe had some unintended outcomes. You know, was designed many years ago to make the process of applying to college simpler. When I applied to college in the early nineteen nineties, I did that on a on a typewriter and you know,

applied to six colleges. I remember, you know, the I'm not familiar exactly. I remember the University of New Hampshire's application was blue and I made a mistake and I had white out on a blue application. So there was stress back then as well. But you know, when the Internet really took off, I think that's when the common app really took off and student behavior did as well.

And you know, in the mid nineteen nineties, students were applying to about six colleges on average, depending on the survey today, students are applying to somewhere between ten and twelve colleges on average, and I think, Kathy, you're right that students are sometimes not going about this process in

a thoughtful way. It's more throwing, you know, as much as they gan against the wall and seeing what sticks, Whereas if they had really been a lot a bit more discerning earlier in the process to think about the types of colleges in which they would best thrive, the opportunities that they might be looking for, they might not be applying to some of the schools that they have if they really did term and that, you know, an urban school might be a better match than a more

of a suburban campus, or a small school rather than a larger school.

Speaker 1

Those are the.

Speaker 4

Types of things that students ought to be doing, and I think many school counselors are working hard to try to give students the information they need to make informed choices. But we often hear from students that apply to twelve schools and then they get into ten and they think that it's going to help them narrow down their choices, but then they find themselves in early April with ten options and in less than a month to make a decision,

and it's really delaying the process. So we encourage students to, you know, if you've got you know, high school students, to get them, you know, on a few college campuses, you know, maybe in the second half of tenth grade or the summer before eleventh grade, and really trying to begin this journey of figuring out where they might feel most comfortable and that may help them be a little more focused down the road.

Speaker 2

Bill fit Simmons every year saw So it seems around April second or third, I'll be watching some network television show and they will have on some student who applied to you know, I don't know, twenty nine colleges and was a shifted to all of them, every Ivy League school, et cetera, et cetera, and it's celebrated, and all of a sudden that student has to pick one out of twenty nine or one out of nineteen, which seems to me to be crazy. Your observations on this issue as well.

Speaker 5

We were the first of our kind as an institution to be a part of the common app and was right around the time Grant was applying to college in the in the mid nineties, and I guess I would.

There was certainly our abuses and crazy things that happened, but I'll just make it really personal as a first generation college student who was trying to help out at home, work in the gas station, and the comedians tour across the street, go to college, go to high school, and try to put pay for college, play ice hockey at a high enough level maybe to be recruited. Lots of different things going on, and my parents had not gone to college, so couldn't really give the advice on what

to do. A thing like the Common App would have been a real blessing because the whole idea was that

you could do this well and do it once. And you know, as oppose, you know, on the other side of the tracks, there were people whose families knew how to play this game, and many cases perhaps had professional help and you know, putting putting the app together, and all those kinds of things, you know, the idea of I think the Common App has done a great deal to democratize access to colleges like Harvard and Boston College, because you know, let's say, you might not have even

you know, just given how hard it was to apply to colleges in those days you might have been able to get into b C or M I T or you know, Stanford or whatever. But you said it's such a long shot. I won't, you know, I won't go through the trouble with a common app. You can give it a run and and sort of see what happens. So for all the abuses of having you know somebody, uh really, you know, you use it to the to the extreme negativity sometimes, I think, and that you see

out shown in the press. I think it helps way way more people than it hurts. And I think it's done a lot to democratize access to higher education.

Speaker 2

All right, to two very different points of view, perhaps, Kathy, great question.

Speaker 3

Great, thank you so much.

Speaker 5

Help Cappy, it does.

Speaker 3

I guess I still just know so many you know kids who are they're using it, Like you said, you hear the people the twenty nine on this show. It's like it's a contest and it's really hurting that three.

Speaker 5

That's crazy, isn't It doesn't help anybody?

Speaker 2

Yeah, I might have overstated that. I think the biggest one of them was seen was like fifteen, So I might have I might have overstated that.

Speaker 3

How many kids in this age were arrange and all of them are applying to over ten and I just think it's hurting the kids. Who are you know, I have a student who didn't do so well freshman year, and that's really coming, you know, to get back at them now. And you know, I don't want to comment on that, like that projection. Obviously they're not going to be able to apply to BC or Harvard. But you know a kid who right now has a three eight, who freshman year had a two eight. What those kids are?

You know, you're trying to compete with these you know, outstanding four point whatever is applying to you know, twelve schools and taking what appears what could have been spots for you know, other learners and performers. But anyway, I appreciate, Well, look, thank you for the question.

Speaker 2

It was a really good question.

Speaker 5

We've got to take a break Bankabby, all right, that was one.

Speaker 2

That's one off my list. Now we'll take a quick break back with Bill Fitzsimmons of Harvard and Grant Goslin of Boston College. They both are in charge of the undergraduate UH admissions programs at these two just incredible universities, and there are so many universities, and at some point, gentlemen, I do want to talk about picking the best university for every student. It is not as if the best university for every student is Harvard or is BC, but

there are lots of great universities around the country. If you'd like to join the conversation one line at six one seven, two, five, four to ten thirty, love to hear from some students. That's what I'm We always do this. We'll always hear from a couple of students, will have the courage to call, or six one seven, nine three one ten thirty. Back on Night Side right after this. This is our eighteenth annual College Admissions Program Panel.

Speaker 1

Now back to Dan Way live from the Window World Life Side Studios on WBZ News.

Speaker 2

Radio, back with our very special guest Bill, Bill Fitzimmons, Grant Goslin. They are the admissions deans at respectively Hardard and Boston College. Grit you told us that you'd have about thirty thousand applicants, thirty five thousand applicants for twenty four hundred seats. I'm not good at math anymore, but I think it's about a five or six percent acceptance rate, or that's that's very competitive.

Speaker 4

It is, you know, and you know, the myth out there is that you just do that math and you find the acceptance rate. The reality is most institutions are admitting more students than they have room for. As these students, you know, as Kathy mentioned in the previous call, we'll have multiple options from which to choose. But last year we admitted about sixteen percent of the students that applied

for admission. So it is a competitive process, a highly competitive process, not quite at the level my good friend Bill at Harvard enjoys, but you know, it is also something that you know, we struggle with. You know, I think the hardest part of working in highly selective admission is entering each cycle knowing that we're going to need to disappoint some very deserving students. And we are human beings that work in these roles. We care deeply about

young people and helping them achieve their goals. And you know, selectivity, you know, helps the college I think, feel good and be popular, certainly, but there is a reality to the fact that we are working with seventeen year olds that are you know, working through this process, and we don't take that responsibility lightly.

Speaker 2

Yeah, so I think that those acceptance rates are it's interesting to point that out. People maybe have more of a chance than they might believe, particularly if there are people out there who are applying to large numbers and they get accepted to five, six, seven, eight, ten, twelve colleges, they can only go to one, so they might their acceptance rate of the acceptances that received might be in the in the single digits. Aid as well, let's keep

rolling here, going to keep Next up is Scott in Quincy. Scott, you're next on Nightside with Bill Fitzimmons of Harvard Green Boston of Boston College. Go ahead, Scott.

Speaker 6

Well, great show, Dan, gentlemen, I would imagine that you guys have a wide professional network of college admitters. And my question to you is this is should the United States Armed Services votccational Aptitude battery tests be a mandatory requirement for college entrance and presentation of proof that students are registered for selective service and extra admission points be given to students agree to participate in ROTC and other similar programs. Given the geopolitical.

Speaker 2

Yeah, let me do this, Scott. We're waiting into some political waters there which I'm not comfortable with and if my guests are not comfortable with them, I don't think that either of them are in a position, in my opinion, to answer that on behalf of the universities. Gentlemen, any of those questions one, did you feel pertinent to tonight's conversation?

Speaker 5

I actually I would like to dive into this a little bit because it's very important to us. Especially over the past five six seven years, we have increased our recruitment of veterans for undergraduate admission at Harvard greatly. So it wasn't too many years ago we might have only one or two veterans a year coming into the first year undergraduate class. In recent classes, we've been averaging over twenty veterans, and we've done all kinds of recruiting and've

been involved in various organizations to get that done. So we're very, very pleased to see that. The obviously, at the graduate level at Harvard there are many, many more veterans, and that's a whole other story. Our OTC is another piece where we have increased our recruitment and gotten the

word out. We hope that we are interested in having more and more people come to Harvard who are interested in ROTC, and so we've been recent years been averaging over forty a year of students either with an ROTC letter directly coming out of high school or a strong interest that could then turn into a a sort of an experience in ROTC at Harvard. So these are big priorities for us, and we've made enormous progress just in the past four or five, six, seven years.

Speaker 2

I think that there was a period of time, I'm bill if I'm not mistaken, where r OTC members at Harvard. Harvard for some period of time did not want ROTC on campus, and I think that might be where Scott's question comes from. And it's good to know that maybe policies and philosophies have changed. I know that Congressman Seth Moulton was a graduate of Harvard, and I.

Speaker 5

Believe that absolutely yeah.

Speaker 2

TC student and went on to have several tours of duty in Iraq, and I believe both Iraq and Afghanistan, and was an aid to then General David Petraeus. Has there been a change? Am I correct in recalling that there was a time where the rot students at Harvard actually had to participate in r OTC through on the MIT campus or am I incorrect.

Speaker 5

In that I don't want to put no, you're you're correct, and just going back to my era, and uh, you know they were Rotzi of all kinds was available at Harvard and for undergraduates. And one of my mates was Navy ROTZI and served in their rick Over nuclear power program on the subs nuclear subs for about five or six years after college. Another one was in Air Force ROTZI. But then ROTZI has discontinued for many years at Harvard

and then brought back relatively recently. And we have done everything in our power to get the word out that Rotzi has been back for a while and that we are really interested in getting more students, you know, we're interested in Rotzi to come to Harvard the classes they actually take r at MIT when that still remains the case because there are limited numbers of opportunities around the country,

you know, for for these programs. But it's really been amazing when you look at Harvard's military record, because it's the oldest university in America and you would expect this, but we have contributed more of our graduates to all the different wars America has been involved in for all these years. It's a great track record, and at this time, I think when the world is even shall we say less, a certain place where the importance of having a strong

military is I think greater than ever. I'm delighted to see you Harvard's progress that's been made here over the past five or six or seven years, and so the word is out. I hope that if you're a veteran or a person interested in Razzi, I hope you would consider Harvard.

Speaker 2

And of course we don't have to go back too many presidencies to think of John Kennedy, who true believe that he was a member of the ROTC at Harvard, but he certainly was a hero World War Two and went on to become the thirty fifth President of the United States. Also assume building just like the military, the Rozzi Corps of today, the Rozzi participants r O T C RETIP participants at Harvard would be of either male in or female.

Speaker 5

Absolutely, yeah, exactly. It's a whole whole, whole different thing, much much better.

Speaker 2

Gotcha. Okay, Scott, good question, and I thank you for raising it. I wasn't sure do you want to weigh in at all? Grant does does b C have an R O T C program or are they concerned about you know, people who maybe left high school joined the military and uh and we're applying to college later. Is that a factor at BC?

Speaker 4

Yes, Dan Scott, thanks for the question as well. Just like Bill said that, you know, Boston College is also really trying to increase our enrollment of veterans. At Boston College, we are members of an organization on a service to school that works with vets and their re entry. Many of them might start at a community college and then might be looking to transfer into a four year bachelor's degree and their scholarship opportunities where members of the Yellow

Ribbon program that I'm sure Harvard is as well. One of the challenges that we have with veterans is around housing, right as many of these veterans have families and might not be looking to live on campus in a traditional environment, and so there are opportunities not just through the residential program, but through the Woods College of Advancing Studies, which is our Nights and Evening program, where many of our vets are really successful balancing their re entry to civilian life

in the workforce as well as earning their degrees. And we do also have RTC on campus in conjunction with Northeastern University, so as Harvard is working with their classes at MIT, our students are taking their classes with Northeastern. But it definitely provides it's a nice pathway for students that might be thinking about service down the road.

Speaker 2

Great, Okay, Scott, appreciate the question starting it kicked off a good conversation. Thank you, sir.

Speaker 6

All Right, Dan, have a good night and great show.

Speaker 2

Thank you, sir. Appreciate. Take quick break nine thirty news about a minute late. I'll tell you I've got a couple of open lines if you'd like to get in, and if there are students out there listening, you're missing a great opportunity. Six one. Every year we've had two or three students, so I'll be disappointed if we don't have a couple of high school students participate. Summon up the courage and ask whatever question you would like. I have plenty of questions, but the more important ones are

those for people who are just approaching the process. And whether you're a parent or a grandparent very important as well. Six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty this is the night Side. My name is Dan Ray. My guests from Boston College Grant Goslin, the Dean of Undergraduate Admission and Financial Aid, and from Harvard College, Bill Fitzsimmons, the Dean of the Harvard College. Harvard College Zene of Admissions plural and Financial Aid.

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Speaker 1

It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.

Speaker 2

Well, we have our first high school student tonight, for which I am thrilled, and his name is Riley and he's from the state of Virginia. Riley, appreciate you listening to the Night Side. You're on with Bill Fitzimmons of Harvard and Grant Goslin of Boston College. How are you tonight, Riley? Hi?

Speaker 7

Am good.

Speaker 8

How are you?

Speaker 2

I'm great? Are you a regular listener or did someone tell you, hey, there's a good show to listen to tonight in Boston.

Speaker 8

My mom's from Boston and she had the show on and she just let me know about it.

Speaker 2

So I've been knowing what you are you and are you still in high school?

Speaker 8

Yes, I'm a senior in high school.

Speaker 2

All right, Well, whatever your question is for Bill, Bill Fitzimmons or Great Goslin, you go right ahead, Riley.

Speaker 8

Okay, so obviously I'm an out of state student, but my mom went to school in Boston and she loved it, and I've loved the Boston schools, and I'm super interested in both schools, and obviously they're both super competitive. So I was wondering other than the essays. I know that the common app essay is important, but I didn't know if there's another way to stand out.

Speaker 2

That's a great question, and I think you're going to get a great answer for both of these gentlemen who would like to take this one for us. Grant you want to lead us off.

Speaker 4

Sure thing, Riley, thanks so much for your question and for calling in, and I'm glad to hear that you're looking north at potential options for college. You know, I think when students go through this process, we often will hear from them that you know they're they're looking to stand out. And I think the best way, very honestly, is to be yourself in this process, to let us know the things that you value in your life thus far, the things that you're looking for in an institution like ours.

Boston College gives students the opportunity, in addition to the common application essays to respond to one of four supplemental prompts that are very much tied to our values as an institution, our mission as a Jesuit Catholic university, and those questions for us are probably the most enlightening part of the application in many instances, because you can't fill out the responses to our questions and have them make sense at other institutions, so you really have to do

your homework. They do require some discernment upfront, but don't try to be something that you're not. I think oftentimes students might visit BC and they learn about the fact that we're a Jesuit university and we value UH, you know, students that look to use their education for the greater good and want to be involved in service UH, and many of our students do that. That doesn't mean that we're only looking for students that have been involved with

certain service in high school, right. We are looking to bring together a class with a wide range of backgrounds and talents. So I if doing service has been part of your identity, then then tell us all about it. But don't go out and join a service club this this fall just because you think it will look good

on a college essay, college application. Tell us the things that you do, uh, and trust that we're going to be looking to take those talents that you have and and see how they might fit into a greater class of students from around the country and throughout the world.

Speaker 2

Than rarely. Don't go away. You got to talk to from Harvard too, Bill fit Simmons. I know that you have talked about this before on this program in the context of kids who go off on a one week trip to build a house in Columbia or whatever, while at the same time there are great opportunities for service in their own community. You folks are not impressed. I think that the I don't know the distinction of going five thousand miles from home to spend a week building something.

I think the novelty of that maybe has worn off. Or am I did I misread you? No?

Speaker 5

I think you bring an important point to the right out for people to consider. I mean, not everyone can afford, of course, to travel hundreds of thousands of miles, you know, to do such a project. Now there are people who can afford it and who do it for all the right reasons. We're in a great deal and are better for it, but there are also ways to help out. Write in your own family, right your own neighborhood, right

in your own community, your own high school. You know things closer to home that that you could make a real difference. So, Riley, you've already told us kind of an interesting story. You've got a mother who went to school in Boston. You know something about Boston from her. You know about Virginia, I mean your region of the country we call mid Atlantic at an area where I've traveled to quite a bit in my recruiting along. I

have one recruiting group Georgetown, Penn, Duke, and Stanford. I've got another one Yale, Princeton and UVA and a whole bunch of different I won't go through our travel groups, but we we hit your area very hard and we get some really wonderful students that it sounds to me as though you in some ways have kind of a

special story to tell. And you can tell up through your common application essay, of course, and as Grant said, you can also tell up through our supplementary questions, and we have five of them, including one where we try to ask you to think about it. Was there a time you and someone else disagreed strongly about a particular issue, and how did you talk about it, How did you resolve your differences? And what did you go what did you learn from that? It's one of the issues that

we're trying to get people to think about. To be able to talk about difference, you know, we've got to give free speech and intellectual vitality I think are very very important, and I think in a world that is complex and requires, I think compromise on everyone's part. How can you you know? How will you perhaps mean? One of our five questions has to do with what kind of a roommate will you be? It's the last of

our five questions. We ask you about the future, We ask you about your your extracurricular stuff and community stuff. But the reality is you have a unique story to tell about who you are and why you might be interested in going to college in the Boston area. So they always say, right about something you care about and something you know about, And it sounds to me as

though you have both. And so you can tell this story and you'll be able to make your case about how you can how you might be a person who could make a real difference to others during your time at BC or at Harvard and maybe make a real difference to the world later.

Speaker 2

Rollie, you got some great suggestions. We had a student a couple of years ago, more than a couple of years ago, been seven or eight years ago, Bill Fitzimmons. You might remember her dad called in and said that she had had a rough sophomore year, but her grades and the other years were pretty john good. And I think it was you, Bill who had the the insight to ask, well, what caused the drop? And her mom

had died during that year. And the point that you made, and I hope you remember it, Bill, was that that was a great topic for her to talk about the terrible loss, but you know how she was able to, you know, bounce back in her junior and senior year. So everyone has a story, they just have to dig down and figure out what that story is, and hers was a very appealing story. I hope you recall this conversation. Oh, I do.

Speaker 5

And you know there have been COVID has created so many tragic stories within families and within communities as well. I don't think the country has come close to recovering from COVID yet, and the young people whose talents were not as well developed during that time. But nor your memory is as always dan perfect And that's I mean. And I will just say myself. You know, as I was going through high school, middle school especially, there were some issues and perhaps I was also spending a little

bit too much time playing ice hockey. But you know, whatever the reasons, I ended up not doing as well as I had hoped in my first ninth grade. So I'm now an expert in ninth grade. So I was very lucky enough to be able to repeat the ninth grade at Archbishop Williams and Braintree. Uh And that made

an enormous difference in my life. I had a chance to start over and and and you know, there was a story there, and I think again, you've got to tell your own story and and create in your in your truth, I think will win out in the ends.

Speaker 2

Rolly, great call. Thanks for having the courage to call uh I boy. I'll tell you if I was in a missions director at any school in the country, someone who had the courage to do what you did tonight. And you're awfully well spoken. You are very very well spoken. I suspect you're going to be a strong candidate wherever you apply. Thank you so much, Thank.

Speaker 8

You very much. Thank you for all the advice. I'm looking forward to telling my story about becoming a Navy nurse. The advice on Rossy was super helpful too well.

Speaker 5

Sound good. Let us know if you apply.

Speaker 8

All right, I'd like to hear Riley good night.

Speaker 2

We'll take a very quick break, coming right back. Got a couple more calls we're going to get to. I think tonight's been one of our better shows. We've had a lot of good ones over the years, and I think we're going to finish strong tonight in the final ten minutes. Coming back on Nightside.

Speaker 1

Now back to Dan Ray Mine from the Window World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.

Speaker 2

Let's keep rolling here. I got three callers, going to try to get them all in. Let me go to Jovanna in Newburyport. Jovannah next on Night's Side with Grant Goslin and Bill Fitzimmons. Go right ahead, Jovanna. Hi.

Speaker 7

My mom actually called earlier Joy Moy and she recommended I come and ask my question.

Speaker 2

Are you a student?

Speaker 7

Yeah, I'm a junior in high school right now. I go to from Long Island, but I go to a boarding school up in Massachusetts.

Speaker 2

Okay, go right ahead. We're just really tied on time, So whatever you I wish you had called earlier, but we'll get you. We'll get your question in. Go ahead.

Speaker 7

Yeah. So, like my mom said, she had a lot of opportunities at BC and now going to the college process, I was wondering how many colleges should I be applying to, because I know when she was, you know, a senior in high school, she applied to six or seven. But now I'm hearing from outside sources that it should be more than twelve, maybe fifteen. What do you recommend?

Speaker 2

How many?

Speaker 7

How many do you think I've applied to to get the best opportunity.

Speaker 2

Let the experts recommend, but I think you pick four or five and good and good ones that you would intend to go to. Don't don't, don't look at it as an Olympic competition. Go ahead, Grant or Bill, whichever would like to take that, go get them.

Speaker 4

Yeah, you know, Jovanna, I don't think there's a real easy answer to this question. I think the first piece of this is to take a careful look at the list of schools that you have and do an honest assessment about the selectivity of those institutions. If you're applying only to schools that have single digit admit rates, that might be a challenge for you down the road if

things don't work out of those schools. I think if you have a balanced list and you're certainly reaching for some schools that it might be aspirational or you know, might be a bit of a reach. Or also having some schools that are pretty you're pretty confident you'll earn admission to and some you're absolutely sure that's going to be an option. I think that's going to take some of the pressure off from feeling the need to apply to fifteen colleges. I think a well designed college search

doesn't have to include that many. You know, and the reality is that the average admit rate into a four year degree program in the United States is about seventy percent. And here in the Northeast we have so many really strong schools that have very selective admission processes that sometimes you can become a little disillusioned at the college process, thinking that it's impossible to earn admission. So my advice is, have a well balanced list and you can get away with applying to a smaller.

Speaker 2

Number, Billy, any other information I suggest you like that?

Speaker 5

Well, I thought Grant summed it up beautifully.

Speaker 2

All right, thank you, Jovanna A good question and best of luck.

Speaker 7

Okay, thank you so much, thank you, thank.

Speaker 2

You very much. So we go to Paul in Plymouth. Paul, you gotta be quick for me. I got one other caller as well.

Speaker 9

Go ahead, Paul, Hi, gentlemen. I just wanted to thank mister Goslin because back in the eighties, I got out of the service out of the coast and I went to Massasoyt and I applied to After getting out of there, I applied to ec U, mass Amherst and Bridge Rawer. I got kept it at all three. Ec offered me a wonderful whole scholarship and this and that and uh, but I couldn't afford to live on campus. They had no on campus housing at the time, so I ended

up going to UMass. I had a great experience out there, but I never sent a thank you note to BC. So it's a long related thank you, and I appreciate that it was a nice thing for folks to do.

Speaker 2

Well.

Speaker 9

Thank yeah, thank.

Speaker 2

You, thank you for your service and thank you for being a gentleman. Thanks, Paul, I got to get one more.

Speaker 9

I appreciate it.

Speaker 2

Good night now, Mary, good night, Merry Christmas. Do you as well? George and New Bedford. George, you're gonna wrap it for us. We got a little tight on time. Go right ahead, George.

Speaker 10

Yes. I wonder if anybody.

Speaker 11

At Harvard is responsible for informing interested students and what the dropout rate is for the bachelor's program, uh, those who frunk.

Speaker 10

Out, those who drop out, those who transfer. And then finally, is anybody possible beer for informing people with a definite career agenda and program what the placement rates are in jobs and how soon after they get it?

Speaker 2

Okay, Bill.

Speaker 5

Story here for New Bedford and for the world, we typically have among the very highest graduation rate in the country. Typically it's ninety seven ninety eight percent, so very few

people end up dropping out, as it turns out. And the other thing is that over time, and especially recently because of the Mignoni family, we have a brand new career center, the Minone Center for Career Success, which helps people who are interested in any number of different careers that in almost any career you can imagine, and for that matter of careers that haven't even been invented yet. So it's a really great story BC or Harvard or

places like it. Great, very very high graduation rates, very low dropout rates, and very good things happening after college.

Speaker 2

And I'm sure great the story is very similar at PC in terms of the loss of students from a freshman to senior year.

Speaker 3

It is.

Speaker 4

Yeah, we have, you know, the best majority of well of a ninety percent of our students graduating from BC and at most recent survey, ninety six percent of students within six months meeting with success, whether that's going to the workforce or a graduate school.

Speaker 2

And I'm sure that you guys have some great placement programs and career guidance counseling.

Speaker 4

You sure do, We sure do.

Speaker 2

Gentlemen, gentlemen, this was a great two hours. Bill Fitzimmons, thank you very much for number eighteen. Let's see if we can hit nineteen a year from now. But I know you're a little bit on the disabled list tonight. You held up for the two.

Speaker 5

Hours, man, I no, no, this was great, And yeah, we're going to shoot for nineteen and and and kind of go from there as they say, you know I yeah, you're right. It was diagnosed on Saturday with COVID, and after one really bad day, things have been all on the upward trend. So thank you. If my voice didn't sound quite the same as usual, I apologize.

Speaker 2

No, it sounded fine. I hope that your docs. I introduced you to pax Clovid because that helped me a couple of years ago. Immensely. That's between you and your doctors, but it really worked for me, and I hope you get a quick recovery. Grint. As always, thank you very much. Look forward to the BC Nebraska football game at Yankee Stadium for what they call it the Christmas Bowl down there.

Speaker 4

For that one, we'll call it Christmas Ball. I think it's a pinstripe Bowl. But looking forward to a great game.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and I'm predicted BC he beats the Huscars, that's for sure. Gentlemen. I can't thank you enough on behalf of every one of my audience tonight, and of course this is available. Both of these hours will be put up on podcast form tonight at nightside on demand shortly after the program is over by our great producer Rob Brooks. So this will be replayed by many, many students and many many families around the country. Both Bill and Grant. I'm indebted to you deeply on behalf of my audience.

Thank you, gentlemen, and have great.

Speaker 5

Aank you Dan for being such a champion of higher education.

Speaker 2

My pleasure. Merry Christmas to both you and yours and your families and to your student bodies who celebrate whoever celebrates Christmas. Thanks guys, Talk to you soon.

Speaker 5

Yeah bye bye.

Speaker 2

Here we go where I'm heading to the other side of the ten o'clock news, and we are going to get back to a more regular fear. Of course, the big story today is the arrest of the twenty six year old in al Tuna, Pennsylvania. He is a strong suspect not yet charged in the murder, but I think the writing's on the wall. Back after the ten here on nightside,

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