Admissions Beat Starter Pack: International Edition

A photo of international Dartmouth students walking on arm-in-arm on the lawn in front of Baker Library
As high school students, you get advice everywhere about college—even when you don't ask for it. How to apply, where to apply, why apply...it can be dizzying. As international students, you might have specific questions about going to university in the U.S. Lee Coffin, veteran Dean of Admissions at Dartmouth College, has thoughtfully assembled this specialized playlist of his podcast, Admissions Beat, to serve as a comprehensive resource for international students with U.S. college aspirations. 

 

Expert Admissions Perspectives: Hear directly from Dartmouth admissions officers who evaluate applications from diverse international markets. These professionals share insights and clarify common misconceptions about the U.S. admissions process.

Authentic Student Voices: Current international Dartmouth students share their application journeys, cultural transitions, and practical advice for navigating the college application process from abroad.

Actionable Tips and Advice: Each episode provides concrete strategies and resources that you can immediately implement in your college admissions process, from initial exploration through final application submission.

 

The Enduring Value of 'Uni' in the U.S.

For decades, coming to America for university (or "uni," as it's known in the UK) has been the shared goal of students around the world. Today, that plan is less certain as geopolitical issues raise questions about the wisdom—and even the possibility—of coming to America for undergraduate studies. College advisors from the UK and India join AB host Lee Coffin to ponder the enduring value of an international student body as the classes of the 2030s queue up for their admissions journey. 

The Enduring Value of 'Uni' in the U.S.

A transcript is available for this episode. 

 

Globe Trotting: College Options Outside Your Country

For students around the world, going to college in America has been a goal of many for decades. AB host Lee Coffin and his guest Robin Appleby—who led schools in London, The Hague, and Dubai—ponder the opportunities of American higher education for an international audience of prospective applicants. Appleby encourages students to explore the "why?" of applying to schools abroad and to ask questions like "what kind of learner am I?" They discuss the advantages of studying a wide range of subjects versus the norm of a more structured concentration in a local university as well as the cultural and personal lessons such an American adventure offers.

Globe Trotting: College Options Outside Your Country

A transcript is available for this episode.

 

Take an 'Existential Selfie': International Edition

The thought of pursuing a college or university education in the United States can be particularly daunting to students living in other countries. This week on Admissions Beat, host Lee Coffin interviews three current undergraduates who traveled from Brazil, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom to attend Dartmouth. They provide tips on how international students can search for, apply to, and, ultimately, thrive on an American campus. They also describe challenges they've overcome, as well as opportunities they've seized. Whether prospective applicants are from the U.S. or abroad, Dean Coffin encourages them to point a virtual camera at themselves and snap an "existential selfie." It's an exercise, introduced in the second episode of the current season of Admissions Beat, that can reveal values and priorities, as well as guiding questions.

Take an 'Existential Selfie': International Edition

A transcript is available for this episode.

 

The Story of Luis: How One International Applicant  Found His Own Route to College 

Meet Luis Aguero, a first-generation college-bound student from San Bernardino, Paraguay. Self-taught in English as well as the unfamiliar ways of the college admissions process in the United States, Luis navigated his admissions process entirely on his own: "I didn't have any information at all, I had to go out of my way to learn about the colleges, to learn about admissions and how it works..." He followed his dream toward an American undergraduate experience with the help of the U.S. State Department's EducationUSA program in Paraguay, a book he found about college admissions, and a certain podcast that appeared in his newsfeed. "There's a lot of talk about holistic admissions, but listening to you made me believe it," he tells Coffin. To anyone without a working knowledge of selective college admissions, Luis offers an accessible playbook for self-advocacy.


The Story of Luis: How One International Applicant Found His Own Route to College

A transcript is available for this episode. 

 

What Counts?

Many people ask, "What counts?" as they ponder the elements of "merit" in a college application. This week, two Ivy deans tackle this perennial query as Brown's Logan Powell joins AB host Lee Coffin from Dartmouth for a wide-ranging conversation about assessing merit and where it is discovered. They consider the numbers and the narrative--the quantitative as well as the qualitative information--that emerges from a college application. Both deans channel a wise adage from Albert Einstein: "Not everything that can be counted, counts; not everything that counts can be counted."

What Counts?

A transcript is available for this episode.

 

"I've Never Heard of It…"

"I've never of it is…" is a frequent reaction from students and parents as college options are introduced, but there is real opportunity when a student is open to options that aren't fully "known." AB host Lee Coffin welcomes Clark University's Emily Roper-Doten, Ben Baum from Saint John's College in Annapolis and Sante Fe, and college counselor Kate Boyle Ramsdell from Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, Mass., for a conversation about fit versus familiarity, honoring potential, and the intentional introductions that arrive in your inbox or mailbox. Coffin advises, "Instead of saying 'I've never heard of it,' ask 'why haven't I heard of it?! Let's learn about it.' Sometimes discovery leads you someplace unexpected, and that's where you're supposed to be."

"I've Never Heard of It…"

A transcript is available for this episode.

 

A Degree in Thinking

For centuries, the liberal arts have been foundational to the mission of higher education. But trying to explain the concept of this course of study — and the multifaceted roadmap a liberal arts degree provides for one's life and work in the 2020s and beyond—can be challenging. And so AB host Lee Coffin called in a specialist: Cecilia Gaposchkin, a Dartmouth history professor whose courses range from the fall of Rome to the Crusades to the medieval kings of France. She was also the College's longtime dean for pre-major advising.  But the subject matter of the liberal arts—chemistry or history, philosophy or French—is often less important than the skills a student learns: how to think critically, pose tough questions, write clearly and persuasively, and be a productive citizen. "A liberal arts degree is a degree in thinking," Professor Gaposchkin advises high school seniors and juniors as they consider their options.

A Degree In Thinking

A transcript is available for this episode.

 

Data Dive, Part 1: The High School Transcript

In the first of a two-part conversation about the academic data that populates an application, Yale's Jeremiah Quinlan and Emily Roper-Doten from Clark join host Lee Coffin to discuss the high school transcript as "the foundational element" of an application. The trio reflects on an admission officer's assessment of curriculum, grades, and "patterns" as key metrics of academic merit, and they offer "a way of understanding the numbers and letters that dance around a college application, what they mean, and how we use them."


Data Dive, Part 1: The High School Transcript

A transcript is available for this episode.

 

Interpreting Testing: Your Scores May Be Stronger Than You Think

What constitutes a strong SAT or ACT score? What do admissions officers mean when they say they consider scores in context? If a college is test-optional, should you submit your scores, or if it requires testing, are your scores strong enough to apply? The answers may surprise you. To talk through these and other questions, AB host and Dartmouth Dean of Admissions Lee Coffin is joined by Dartmouth professors Bruce Sacerdote and Michelle Tine, whose research helped inform Dartmouth's recent decision to reinstate admissions testing requirements, and Jacques Steinberg, co-author of "The College Conversation," an admissions guide for parents.

Interpreting Testing: Your Scores May Be Stronger Than You Think

A transcript is available for this episode.

 

Let Your Life Speak Through Your College Essay

In the 50th episode of Admissions Beat, host Lee Coffin from Dartmouth College welcomes college counselors Sherri Geller from Gann Academy in Waltham, Mass., and Ronnie McKnight from Atlanta's Paideia School for a timely conversation about the college admissions essay as an essential component of any application. The trio of veteran admission experts channels the Quaker saying "Let your life speak" as they share insights and advice for high school seniors about drafting an effective personal narrative as a compliment to the academic data in the application.


Let Your Life Speak Through Your College Essay

A transcript is available for this episode.

 

"I'm good at math…"

What if math was a fundamental skill you could develop, rather than something you were simply good or bad at? Engineering programs are designed to blend theory with practice—analysis with practical problem solving. But engineering also spans organically across disciplines into the humanities and social sciences. This week on AB, host Lee Coffin dives into the undergraduate realm of engineering programs with Stu Schmill, Dean of Admissions and Student Financial Services at MIT. They discuss how to begin preparing for those experiences in high school and where a student's untapped engineering potential might take them.

"I'm good at math…"

A transcript is available for this episode.

 

Reading an Application: The Work of the Work

For any college admissions officer, reading and evaluating an application is the work of the work. It is the heart of the admissions process itself, its most essential task. Reading season is the moment when recruitment yields to selection, when assessing merit and potential becomes a blend of reflection and decision as each application is evaluated and a class is shaped. The Dartmouth-based cast of last year's "Learning to Read," AB's most downloaded episode, reunites for a second, heartfelt conversation about their work as admission readers in a most selective admissions environment. The trio offer insights into "what counts" as each moves from file to file, and each reveals the invisible humanity that animates the work of the work.

Reading an Application: The Work of the Work

A transcript is available for this episode.

 

Inside the Admissions Committee: The "Gatekeepers" in Action

Twenty-five years after New York Times education reporter Jacques Steinberg, author of The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College, spent a year observing at close range the selection process at Wesleyan University, Steinberg joined admission officers at Dartmouth for a day inside its selection committee. After his "fly on the wall" day in Hanover, he quizzes Admissions Beat host and Dartmouth dean Lee Coffin about what he saw and heard as applicants from California entered the admissions spotlight. "I would smile when a student would take the time to tell you something that really made them a person, where you could actually almost see and feel having them there. And you all got that message, surfaced it, talked about it. It became part of the discussion," Steinberg tells Coffin, reassuring applicants that the time and care they put into telling their stories to colleges is well worth the effort.

Inside the Admissions Committee: The "Gatekeepers" in Action

A transcript is available for this episode.