In this episode you will hear:

Mark and Susan discuss the history of NACAC and Susan shares what stood out to her at the NACAC conference. Mark interviews David Hawkins of NACAC, about factors 5-15 of the things that matter the most when admission decisions are made.

Rank these from 1 to 30 according to what is most important to you in a college

1. Area Surrounding the College

2. Campus Beauty and Feel

3. Career Outcomes

4. Class Size

5. Clubs, Sports and Extracurricular

6. College Rankings

7. College Setting (large city, small city, suburban, college town, remote)

8. Cost/Affordability

9. Distance from home

10. Diversity

11. Experiential learning (Co-ops/Internships, Study-Abroad, Research

12. Facilities

13. Financial Resources and Financial Wealth

14. Food Quality

15. Fraternities and Sororities

16. Friendliness

17. Graduation and Retention Rates

18. Housing Options

19. Name Recognition/Prestige

20. Nature/Green Spaces

21. Overall Academic Excellence

22. Political Climate

23. Religious Affiliation and/or Religious Culture

24. Residential vs Commuter Students

25. Safety

26. School Size-

27. Sports/ School Spirit

28. Strength in my major

29. Student Support

30. Weather

Mark interviews David Hawkins

Part 2-Preview

· David introduces the next most important factor that colleges rated as considerably important and moderately important after the big four we discussed last week

· We have a robust conversation about the factor that came in at number 6 in the State of College Admissions Survey

· David introduces some more factors and where they came in and David and I have a robust conversation about why class rank has dropped so much from their past studies to where it is now

· David shares where standardized testing comes in and we also talk about why testing ranked so high in the past and why it has fallen so far in the recent State of College Admissions Report

· David walks through the final factors that show up as important but not in decisive numbers

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