YCBK 529: An interview with Jim Bock, Dean and VP at Swarthmore College-3 of 3

In this episode you will hear:   (01:55) In The News Vince Garcia and Mark Stucker discuss observations from admission decisions from this year’s class. Part 2 of 3 (18:27) Question from a listener:  Mark and Hillary answer a question from a listener about how her student can demonstrate interest effectively (39:37) Interview: Mark Stucker and David Blobaum, The Co-Founder of Summit Test Prep Debate whether selective colleges should make the SAT or the ACT mandatory-Part 3 of 3 Preview of Part 3 of 3 ²  I share a position that one of MIT’s competitors has that I agree with ²  I share a reason why I do not believe using first year GPA is a valid way to see how well a non-test submitter is doing in college ²  David pushes back a little and shares why there is some validity to looking at first year GPA ²  David talks about the “big fish small pond concept” that Malcolm Gladwell uses ²  I push back by talking about individual autonomy over your own life decisions ²  David shares the most compelling reason why he holds his view ²  David and I talk about how test scores can increase your merit scholarship ²  David goes on the hotseat ²  Mark adds a few comments about things he thought of after the debate was over   (01:09:55) College Spotlight-Jim Bok Interview, Understanding Swarthmore College Preview of Part 3 ²  I ask Jim to talk about Swarthmore’s wooded arboretum campus ²  I ask Jim to share how Swarthmore and Haverford are different ²  Jim shares a little about the bi-co and tri-co consortiums ²  Jim explains what it means for a college to be a Liberal Arts school ²  Jim explains what skillset a Swarthmore liberal arts education inculcates in its graduates ²  I ask Jim about several financial challenges colleges are facing and I ask him how these financial challenges are impacting admissions ²  I ask Jim if he sees selecting colleges that are not land locked trying to expand their class size as a way of bringing in more revenue. ²  Jim goes on the hot seat in our lightning round         Speakpipe.com/YCBK is our method if you want to ask a question and we will be prioritizing all questions sent in via Speakpipe. Unfortunately, we will NOT answer questions on the podcast anymore that are emailed in. If you want us to answer a question on the podcast, please use speakpipe.com/YCBK. We feel hearing from our listeners in their own voices adds to the community feel of our podcast.   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.   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. We will include many of the hot topics being discussed on college campuses.   Check out our new blog. We write timely and insightful articles on college admissions:   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 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   1. To access our transcripts, click: https://yourcollegeboundkid.com/category/transcripts/ 2. Find the specific episode transcripts for the one you want to search and click the link 3. Find the magnifying glass icon in blue (search feature) and cl