Tests and the Rest: College Admissions Podcast

Students often approach their college applications as if each essay is the most important piece of prose they've ever written, which leads to overthinking and anxiety. There is a better way! Amy and Mike invited essay specialist Jill Margaret Shulman to share guidance for writing a stress-free college essay. What are five things you will learn in this episode? 1. What are myths that exist in essay writing? 2. What stops students from getting started with their essay in the first place? 3. What techniques help empower students to write? 4. What are some positive steps if a student gets stuck? 5. What is the one piece of advice about personal essay writing that every student needs to hear? MEET OUR GUEST Jill Margaret Shulman is the author of College Admissions Cracked: Saving Your Kid (and Yourself) from the Madness and College Essay Confidence: Conquer Blocks, Free Your Voice, and Write a Knockout Application Essay. She's also the founder of In Other Words, a college essay coaching service. She has spent decades shepherding families through the college admissions process and has evaluated applications at elite colleges. Shulman has also taught writing at The New School, City University of New York, and NYU and has been featured in Forbes, LA Times, The New York Times, Parents, and elsewhere. She lives in the higher education mecca of Western Massachusetts.  Jill can be reached at jillshulman.com. LINKS College Essay Confidence: Conquer Blocks, Free Your Voice, and Write a Knockout Application Essay RELATED EPISODES COLLEGE ESSAY SECRETS MAKING YOUR COLLEGE ESSAYS COUNT DESTRESSIFYING THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS PROCESS ABOUT THIS PODCAST Tests and the Rest is THE college admissions industry podcast. Explore all of our episodes on the show page. ABOUT YOUR HOSTS Mike Bergin is the president of Chariot Learning and founder of TestBright, Roots2Words, and College Eagle. Amy Seeley is the president of Seeley Test Pros and LEAP. If you're interested in working with Mike and/or Amy for test preparation, training, or consulting, get in touch through our contact page.  

Expanding your tutoring business with MentoMind with educator Amit Jain What are five things you will learn in this episode? How are tutors using MentoMind? How is the MentoMind platform evolving? What are the users of MentoMind like? What kind of courses are tutors creating on MentoMind? What is the new video solution platform Think10x all about? ABOUT MENTOMIND MentoMind is a white-label platform that helps tutoring companies, test prep businesses, and college advisors scale their SAT, ACT, and AP prep services. Your curriculum, ours, or both: use MentoMind's expert-created practice questions and full-length tests across SAT, ACT, and AP, bring your own, or run entirely on your existing curriculum. Tutor-led or fully automated: deliver it through your tutors, or run it fully automated with no added workload on staff — opening up a lower-cost, self-paced option for families who can't afford or fit into your tutoring schedule. MentoMind's Think10x is an AI product that generates step-by-step whiteboard-style video solutions — complete with figures and diagrams — narrated in the teacher's own voice, in English, Spanish, and many more, giving students 24/7 support for every question in the curriculum. It is integrated into MentoMind and also available as a standalone platform. Amit first appeared on the podcast in episode 539 to discuss How Can Tutors Use AI?, in episode 631 for a SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT: MentoMind, and in episode 691 for another SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT: MentoMind. To learn more about MentoMind, please reach out to [email protected]. ABOUT THIS PODCAST Tests and the Rest is THE college admissions industry podcast. Explore all of our episodes on the show page. ABOUT YOUR HOSTS Mike Bergin is the president of Chariot Learning and founder of TestBright, Roots2Words, and College Eagle. Amy Seeley is the president of Seeley Test Pros and LEAP. If you're interested in working with Mike and/or Amy for test preparation, training, or consulting, get in touch through our contact page.  

While all teenagers are alike in certain ways, those at the very top and very bottom of the socioeconomic spectrum share some disconcerting similarities. How are these peer groups connected, and what can be done to help them? Amy and Mike invited psychiatrist Anthony Villani to bring clarity to the topic of anxiety and socioeconomic status.  What are five things you will learn in this episode? What fascinating aspects of teen life has Dr.Suniya Luthar uncovered in her research?  What behaviors do teens at the highest and lowest socioeconomic levels exhibit? Does gender enter into the teen anxiety equation?  How can parents, educators, and counselors mitigate these levels of teen anxiety? How does envy undermine teens in school? MEET OUR GUEST Dr. Anthony Villani is a practicing psychiatrist, former school board member, parent of two teens, and college applicant interviewer. He's also a competitive math coach. LINKS Children of the Affluent: Challenges to Well-Being (Suniya S. Luthar and Shawn J. Latendresse) RELATED EPISODES COLLEGE TRANSITIONS AND DISTRESS TOLERANCE FROM STAGE TO TEST: WHAT PERFORMANCE TEACHES US ABOUT TEST ANXIETY DESTRESSIFYING THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS PROCESS ABOUT THIS PODCAST Tests and the Rest is THE college admissions industry podcast. Explore all of our episodes on the show page. ABOUT YOUR HOSTS Mike Bergin is the president of Chariot Learning and founder of TestBright, Roots2Words, and College Eagle. Amy Seeley is the president of Seeley Test Pros and LEAP. If you're interested in working with Mike and/or Amy for test preparation, training, or consulting, get in touch through our contact page.

The apprenticeship model of academia requires more than just passive learning from students. How can applicants seeking entry to selective programs demonstrate that they have the ability and ambition to contribute to their desired fields? Amy and Mike invited professor Robert Malkin to consider what student research matters the most to colleges. What are five things you will learn in this episode? What are the different forms of research high school students have access to? Why are in-person lab experiences becoming increasingly valuable for high school students? What are the biggest mistakes students make when trying to find research or lab opportunities? How can students approach professors, universities, or labs even if they don't have prior experience? What makes a research experience truly meaningful from a college admissions perspective? MEET OUR GUEST Dr. Robert Malkin is a Professor of the Practice of Biomedical Engineering and Global Health, Emeritus at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He is also the Founder and Executive Director of the International Research Institute of North Carolina.  Previously, he was the Herbert Herff Professor of Biomedical Engineering at The University of Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee, and The University of Tennessee. Before moving to Tennessee, Dr. Malkin was a professor of Electrical Engineering at The City College of New York and a member of the graduate faculty at The City University of New York and a research associate at Columbia University. Dr. Malkin was the founder and Director of Engineering World Health and The Global Public Service Academies, organizations dedicated to improving healthcare in the developing world. Dr. Malkin received his MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Duke University in 1993. Prior to attending graduate school, Dr. Malkin taught English in Thailand, worked at EM Microelectronics in Switzerland designing integrated circuits, worked for Cordis Corporation designing pacemakers, and worked for Sarns Incorporated designing heart-lung machines. Dr. Malkin served as an expert advisor to the World Health Organization's Advisory Group on Healthcare Technology, Advisory Group on Innovative Technologies, and on the World Health Organization's subcommittee on medical equipment donations. Dr Malkin received the BS degree in Electrical Engineering from The University of Michigan in 1984. Dr. Malkin has received numerous awards, including service awards from The Republic of Nicaragua; EM Microelectronics and Cordis Corporation. He was named an Engineering Hero Award by IEEE and received an Outstanding Faculty Research Award from The College of Engineering, an Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association, and an award for Innovation and Excellence in Undergraduate Education from The President of The City College of New York. Currently, he serves as the Founder and Executive Director of IRI, wherein they provide STEM remote research opportunities to students around the world with the goal of empowering young minds that can potentially advance human knowledge, especially through their peer-reviewed journal publications. Bob can be reached at [email protected]. LINKS International Research Institute of North Carolina RELATED EPISODES HOW STUDENT RESEARCH IMPACTS COLLEGE ADMISSIONS CREATING A PASSION PROJECT CULTIVATING AND RECOGNIZING ACADEMIC CURIOSITY FINDING YOUR AUTHENTIC SELF IN THE PATH TO COLLEGE ABOUT THIS PODCAST Tests and the Rest is THE college admissions industry podcast. Explore all of our episodes on the show page. ABOUT YOUR HOSTS Mike Bergin is the president of Chariot Learning and founder of TestBright, Roots2Words, and College Eagle. Amy Seeley is the president of Seeley Test Pros and LEAP. If you're interested in working with Mike and/or Amy for test preparation, training, or consulting, get in touch through our contact page.  

Many of today's high school students somehow appear to cram 30 hours of academic, extracurricular, work, and social commitments into each of their 24-hour days. Is that frenzy of activity sustainable or even healthy? Amy and Mike invited school counselor Eric Domroes to analyze the need for bringing critical balance to high schoolers' lives.   What are five things you will learn in this episode? What does balance mean for a high school student? Where does the pressure to do too much come from? What should students consider when planning for life after high school? Is balance just a euphemism for doing too much? How can counselors help students find balance? MEET OUR GUEST Eric Domroes is a 21-year veteran educator and lead school counselor at Pittsford Mendon High School, which has the notable distinction of consistently achieving top academic standing in all of Upstate New York. His work developing a diversity of students gives him some unique perspectives on how best to support good planning and advocacy for student preparation for college and beyond. RELATED EPISODES DESTRESSIFYING THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS PROCESS FAMILY CONVERSATIONS ABOUT COLLEGE ADMISSIONS ABOUT THIS PODCAST Tests and the Rest is THE college admissions industry podcast. Explore all of our episodes on the show page. ABOUT YOUR HOSTS Mike Bergin is the president of Chariot Learning and founder of TestBright, Roots2Words, and College Eagle. Amy Seeley is the president of Seeley Test Pros and LEAP. If you're interested in working with Mike and/or Amy for test preparation, training, or consulting, get in touch through our contact page.