In this episode you will hear:   (26:36) Julia and Mark discuss who are the students that are driving up the number of applications at selective colleges? What can we learn by a recent study that looks at the college application patterns of students.   (45:24) Lisa and Mark discuss a question Tricia from California sent in via Speakpipe: What is the POSSE scholarship; I’ve heard Mark mention this a few times.   (01:13:36) Our interview is with Brian Hodges, the Senior Associate Director of Admissions at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign. Lisa joins Mark for this interview. The topic is, “Understanding UIUC” and this is part 3 of 3     Preview for Part 3 Brian describes how holistic admissions works at UIUC Brian explains how admissions differ at other University of Illinois campuses? Brian comments on whether AP scores are factored in at UIUC for more competitive majors. What is your advice for us as counselors as to how to advise our students whether they should submit their test scores for UIUC? How does state residency and geographic residency impact admissions decisions? What do students do for fun? Brian talks about the food scene in Champaign. Brian explains why sometimes the location is referred to as Champaign and sometimes as Urbana Brian goes on the hot-seat in our lightning round     (01:26:30) The recommended resource is How to get the most out of college:  by Elliott Felix   (01:37:54) Mark and Lynda Doepker discuss Whittier College for the College Spotlight     We now have set up audio recordings in your own voice for any question you send in for our “question from a listener” segment. In order to send us an audio message, just go to speakpipe.com/YCBK. 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. Speakpipe.com/YCBK is our preferred method for you to ask a question but if you are not comfortable with this, we will also receive your questions either on Twitter at @YCBKpodcast using the Messages tab or via email at If you have a question for one of our upcoming interviews with admissions professionals, here is a list of admissions professionals who we will interview in 2023 or 2024 Confirmed interviews not yet completed Bard-Mackie Siebens Rice University-Tamara Siler American University-Andrea Felder Pitzer College-Yvonne Berumen Chapman University-Marcela Meija-Martinez Connecticut College-Andy Strickler* Trinity College-Anthony Berry* College of the Atlantic-Heather Albert* Spelman College-Chelsea Holley* Scripps College-Victoria Romero* Saint Louis University-Daniel Wood-(Interview is about transfer admissions, Daniel is a transfer counselor) Colby College-Randi Arsenault* University of Georgia-David Graves* University of Minnesota-Keri Risic Cornell University-Jonathon Burdick Oberlin College-Manuel Carballo Carleton College-Art Rodriguez Swarthmore-Jim Bok Joy St. Johns-Harvard Duke-Christoph Guttentag Florida State-John Barnhill Southern Methodist University-Elena Hicks Johns Hopkins-Calvin Wise Cornell University-Shawn Felton Haverford College-Jess Lord UAspire-Brendan Williams Yale University-Moira Poe MEFA Akil Bello of Akilbello.com Bard College Baylor University Butler University California Institute of Technology-Ashley Pallie Colorado School of Mines Creighton University   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.   Check out our new blog. We write timely and in