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The Florida Travel Pod is a podcast to help Florida residents and visitors get the most out of the Sunshine State. Hosted by Christina Sawyer and Tonya Denmark from the Detail Oriented Traveler. Christina and Tonya are great friends, sharing their insights to great places to enjoy in Florida. From St Augustine to Sanibel Island, join us as we explore all the incredible things to do in Florida!
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Practical, up-to-date interviews with experts in college admissions, financial aid, personal statements, test prep and more. Ethan Sawyer (aka College Essay Guy), interviews deans of admission, financial aid experts, and veterans of the admissions field to extract, then distill their advice into practical steps for students and those guiding them through the process. From creating an awesome college list to appealing a financial aid letter, Ethan skips the general advice and gets right to th ...
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Dec 8-11, 2016 // Celebrating 10 years of food and wine // #pbfwf
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517: Inside the Application (Part 3): Supplemental Essay Deep Dive + Developing the College List w/ Special Guest Renee Ferrerio
1:14:26
1:14:26
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Today’s episode is part three of our series, Inside the Application. Ethan is joined by Cassidy, a current high school senior who is working on her college applications for the Fall 2025 term. This episode is a deep dive into the supplemental essays — specific essays that many selective colleges and universities require. In particular, Cassidy and …
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516: Inside the Application (Part 2): Developing the Personal Statement, Supplemental Essays, and College List with Cassidy, HS Senior
1:02:00
1:02:00
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1:02:00
Today’s episode is part two of our series, Inside the Application. Ethan is joined by Cassidy, a current high school senior who is working on her college applications for the Fall 2025 term. Ethan and Cassidy will be walking step-by-step through the college application process as it unfolds this school year. In episode 2, they get into: How is Cass…
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515: Inside the Application Part 1: Brainstorming, Outlining, and Drafting with Cassidy, HS Senior
43:33
43:33
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Today’s episode kicks off a new series, Inside the Application. Ethan is joined by Cassidy, a current high school senior who is working on her college applications for the Fall 2025 term. Ethan and Cassidy will be walking step-by-step through the college application process as it unfolds this school year. In episode 1, they get into: How did Cassid…
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514: Navigating Mental Health Disclosures in the College Application: The Student Perspective
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50:22
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Welcome to the final episode to our special three-part series on mental health disclosures in college applications. In Episode 3, Ethan’s guest is Emi Nietfeld, author of Acceptance (Penguin Press '22), a critically-acclaimed memoir of her high school journey through foster care, homelessness, and the troubled teen industry to attend college at Har…
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513: Navigating Mental Health Disclosures in the College Application: The Admission Officer Perspective with Christina Lopez
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51:22
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Welcome to the next episode to our special three-part series on mental health disclosures in college applications. In Episode 2, Ethan is joined by Christina Lopez, Dean of Enrollment Management at Barnard College. They cover, among other things: Why is this topic important—both generally, but also personally, for Christina? What advice would Chris…
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512: Navigating Mental Health Disclosures in the College Application: The Counselor Perspective
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59:01
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Welcome to our special three-part series on mental health disclosures in college applications. To kick things off, Ethan interviews Chris Loo, Director of College Counseling at The Stony Brook School, where Chris has been working to help students navigate mental health disclosures in their applications for years. In this episode, they explore: Whic…
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511: Identity, Self-Care, and the Future of College Admission w/ NACAC CEO Angel Pérez
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55:44
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In today's episode, Ethan connects with Angel Pérez (CEO of the National Association of College Admission Counselors) to discuss identity, his personal journey with self-care, and where he sees the college admission profession heading. On the episode, you’ll hear Angel and Ethan discuss: Angel’s brainstorming work for his own imagined college essay…
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510: What Colleges Want (Part 9): A Crash Course in Standardized Testing
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Today’s episode concludes our 9-part “What Colleges Want” series, where we’ve been walking through the results of the report released by the National Association of College Admission Counselors (NACAC) regarding the factors that colleges deem important. Ethan is joined by Jay Rosner (Executive Director of The Princeton Review Foundation) to talk ab…
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509: What Colleges Want (Part 8): Extracurricular Activities Deep Dive: How Getting Involved In and Out of School Can Boost Your Application
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56:57
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On today’s episode, Tom Campbell (CEG’s Community Manager) is joined by Carolyn Starks, a former Pomona and Bates admissions officer and Associate Director of College Counseling at Oakwood School (North Hollywood, CA) at the time of recording, to talk about extracurricular activities and the activities list on college applications. They get into, a…
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508: What Colleges Want (Part 7B): Recommendation Letter Crash Course for Counselors and Teachers
1:08:56
1:08:56
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Today’s episode is all about writing letters of recommendation for teachers and counselors. Continuing our series on What Colleges Want, Tom Campbell (CEG’s Community Manager) is joined by Hanah Lim (CEG’s Director of Workshops and a former high school English teacher), where they provide their tips, tricks, and hacks to help you write more efficie…
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507: What Colleges Want (Part 7A): Recommendation Letter Crash Course for Students and Families
52:08
52:08
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This week, Tom Campbell (CEG’s Community Manager) is joined by Ayesha King (Director of College Counseling at the International School of Los Angeles) to talk about letters of recommendation. They get into: What goes into a letter of recommendation? How are they evaluated by colleges? Who should students consider asking, and how do they ask? What c…
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506: What Colleges Want (Part 6): Demonstrated Interest: What Is it, Why Is it Important, and How Do You Show it? with Dean of Enrollment Christine Bowman
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58:30
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On today’s episode, Ethan is joined by Christine Bowman, Assistant VP for Admission at Southwestern University. In part 6 in our series on What Colleges Want, Ethan and Christine get into: What is demonstrated interest and how do colleges track it? How important is demonstrated interest to a student’s chance of getting in? How might students find o…
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505: What Colleges Want (Part 5): A Crash Course in the Supplemental Essays + Application with Ethan Sawyer (College Essay Guy)
50:53
50:53
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50:53
On this week’s episode, Tom Campbell (CEG’s Community Manager) sits down with Ethan Sawyer (College Essay Guy) for Part 5 in our What Colleges Want series to talk about some of the other written parts of the application—the activities list, additional information section, and supplemental essays. Tom and Ethan get into: How can students write a gre…
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504: What Colleges Want (Part 4): A Crash Course in the Personal Statement with Ethan Sawyer (College Essay Guy)
51:18
51:18
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On this week’s episode, Tom Campbell (CEG’s Community Manager) sits down with Ethan Sawyer (College Essay Guy) for Part 4 in our What Colleges Want series to talk about the personal statement. According to the latest State of College Admission report – after grades, course rigor, and positive character traits (see previous episodes), the college es…
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503: What Colleges Want (Part 3): "Positive Character Attributes": What Are They, and How Do You Show Them in Your College Application?
1:02:26
1:02:26
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In today’s two-part episode, we’re delving into one of the potentially more confusing aspects of what colleges want — “positive character attributes” — which 65.8% of colleges give considerable or moderate importance. In part 1, I’m joined by Tom Bear (VP for Enrollment at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology) and Bob Massa (former chief admissions/…
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502: What Colleges Want (Part 2): A Deep Dive into GPA, Course Selection, and Making the Most of the Academic Opportunities Available to You
1:01:20
1:01:20
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On today’s episode, Tom Campbell (CEG’s Community Manager) and Nitzya Cuevas-Macias (Director of College Programs at Downtown College Prep) cover: How do students decide which classes to take—and what questions should they ask when deciding? Key recommendations for selecting English, math, science, social studies, language, and elective courses The…
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501: What Colleges Want (Part 1): A Deep Dive into the Factors Colleges Deem Important & State of College Admissions Report
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Show Notes On today's episode, Ethan sits down with David Hawkins, Chief Education and Policy Officer at National Association of College Admission Counselors (aka NACAC), and they get discuss, among other things: What are the most important factors colleges consider? What significant changes has he seen in the college admission landscape in the pas…
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414: A Crash Course in Paying for College & Common Affordability Myths
56:05
56:05
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On today’s episode, Ethan is joined by Amanda Miller, who got her start in financial aid through the College Advising Corps at Davidson College in 2014. A few thousand students, several resources, and dozens of financial aid presentations later, Amanda’s an independent financial aid specialist and college adviser who also serves as the financial ai…
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413: Intellectual Curiosity + College Admissions: What It Is, Why It Matters to Colleges, and How to Show It
47:54
47:54
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In today’s episode, Tom Campbell (CEG’s Community Manager) and Susan Tree (a college counseling and admissions legend with 40+ years of experience) chat about “intellectual curiosity”: a quality that many colleges actively look for in students, yet is a little more ambiguous and nuanced compared to mapping out a high school course plan. This is par…
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412: Applying to College as a First-Generation or Low-Income Student: The Matchlighters Scholars Program Experience
43:24
43:24
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Hey all, today’s episode is a special one. We had one of our rockstar essay coaches, Shira Harris, sit down with two of her former Matchlighter students, Milena Veliz and Sayem Kamal, to discuss their experiences navigating the college application process as First Generation Low Income Students. At the time of the recording, Milena was an incoming …
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411: Finding Your Why, What a Liberal Arts Education Really Is, and How to Figure out What You Actually Want
56:17
56:17
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On Season 1 of the podcast, Ethan had a great conversation with Maria Furtado, then Executive Director of the Colleges That Change Lives organization (also known as “CTCL”). It’s a lovely chat and to date one of our most downloaded episodes. On today’s episode Ethan had the pleasure of sitting down with her successor, Ann Marano, and they get into:…
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410: Regional Spotlights: Attending College in The South w/ Renee Ferrerio
1:17:32
1:17:32
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On today’s episode, Tom Campbell (CEG’s Community Manager) hosts the first installment of a new series called Regional Spotlights, which will bring on college counseling experts who have deep history or knowledge of the exciting college options from (and cultural nuances of) a particular geographic region. We’re kicking off this series with College…
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409: A Crash Course in College Athletic Recruiting w/ Katie Andersen
58:23
58:23
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My guest is Katie Andersen, a former NCAA Division 1 Women’s Soccer player at Duke University, who now advises student-athletes through her organization, College Fit OC. She’s also the co-founder of The Student-Athlete Advisors, which focuses on educating and mentoring educational consultants who advise college-bound student-athletes. Our conversat…
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408: 10 Critical Things Trans Youth (and Their Counselors and Caregivers) Should Know in High School and When Applying to College w/ Shannon and Sam Bergeron
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1:00:35
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On this episode I had the honor of sitting down with Sam and Shannon Bergeron. Sam is a transgender man who transitioned in high school (in Texas) and who now works in college admissions at his alma mater, Hampshire College. Shannon is Founder of Core College Consulting, where she specializes in using a whole child college counseling™ approach. She…
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407: Behind the Scenes of an Admission Office + Supplemental Essay Deep Dive w/ Rick Diaz
58:19
58:19
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On today’s episode I got to sit down with Rick Diaz, the Regional Director of Admission for Southern Methodist University (SMU) and someone I’ve known for more than 15 years. We have a pretty wide ranging discussion that covers: A behind-the-scenes look at how SMU reads applications and how they shape a class—and what that even means Then we dive i…
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