The Admissions Directors Lunchcast

This week's episode sponsored by Geneologie, where you'll get 10% off your first order if you mention The Admissions Directors Lunchcast.⁠https://www.geneologie.com/promo-box/ ⁠College fairs: Are they still worth it?Have they evolved enough to keep up with the way students search for colleges today? And what’s next for these staple recruitment events?In this episode, we tackle the changing role of college fairs, the impact of technology, and whether they still belong in the modern admissions strategy.Joining us are two experts:Zachary George, Senior Director of College & Fair Relations at StriveScan, who shares insights on how technology has transformed college fairs and what’s coming next.Alison Crowley, Assistant Director of Admissions at Northern Michigan University, who brings 27 years of experience working college fairs and explains how states like Illinois have successfully restructured them.We discuss how student behavior has changed, the rise of parent involvement, the role of budget constraints, and whether in-person college fairs still have a place in the recruitment funnel.

This week's episode sponsored by Geneologie, where you'll get 10% off your first order if you mention The Admissions Directors Lunchcast.https://www.geneologie.com/promo-box/ Politics have always played a role in higher education, but in today’s climate, are they actually influencing where students apply and enroll? In our Season Nine premiere, we tackle the complex relationship between politics and the college search—what the data tells us, how families are navigating these concerns, and what admissions offices can do about it.Joining us this week are two expert guests:Grant De Roo, Founder and Principal of ADV Market Research & Consulting in Iowa City, Iowa, who shares key insights from his recent nationwide study on how state politics affect student decision-making.Robert Nowak, Associate Vice President of Enrollment Management and Dean of Admissions at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, who offers a campus-level perspective on how politically divided states impact recruitment and student perceptions.We discuss surprising findings from the research, strategies for communicating institutional values without getting caught in political crossfire, and how admissions professionals can help students focus on belonging and fit rather than just red vs. blue.

Ready or not, we're back for another season!Coming to your podcast feed every Tuesday between now and May 1, you can expect Nathan and Teege to deliver their signature banter on current topics in admissions. Each week, they'll be joined by two guests: one influencer and one practitioner, each discussing the same topic.We strive to be the most productive lunch meeting you'll take all week!

The Admissions Directors Lunchcast recently launched an exclusive video podcast series - Lunchcast Live. Twice a month, Teege and Nathan will welcome a guest to discuss a hot topic on their mind. The interview will often be shared here, but the full conversation with the audience is available only to members of the Lunchcast community. If you would like to be added to the invitation list, email adlunchcast@gmail.com. For this Lunchcast Live, we are sharing a conversation from December, 2024, with Emily Smith, VP of Partner Success at CollegeVine. We discussed all things related to AI in admissions, ugly sweaters, and a few other tangents before we moved to the exclusive interactive conversation.

The Admissions Directors Lunchcast recently launched an exclusive video podcast series - Lunchcast Live. Twice a month, Teege and Nathan will welcome a guest to discuss a hot topic on their mind. The interview will often be shared here, but the full conversation with the audience is available only to members of the Lunchcast community. If you would like to be added to the invitation list, email adlunchcast@gmail.com. For this Lunchcast Live, we were joined by Jennifer Lonchar, Co-Founder of AmbioEDU and a well-known veteran of the recruitment space to discuss the challenges experienced admissions professionals are having in today's job market.

Every season, we take a few interviews way too long to fit into a regular episode of the Lunchcast. Sometimes, the content is just too good to leave on the cutting room floor. When that happens, we bring these extended interviews as a J Term or Summer Session. That's what happened during our conversation with Paul McGinnis, Vice President of Marketing and Enrollment at Bethel University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Enjoy this extended interview, from season seven's episode, "Admissions as a Business."

Every season, we take a few interviews way too long to fit into a regular episode of the Lunchcast. Sometimes, the content is just too good to leave on the cutting room floor. When that happens, we bring these extended interviews as a J Term or Summer Session. That's what happened during our conversation with Thom Golden, Founder and CEO of Golden Educational Consulting in Hendersenville, Tennessee, discussing the program he has put together to help folks come over to the independent side. Enjoy this extended interview, from season seven's episode, "Going Independent."

We meant to publish this extended interview last July, but we just kept putting it off. Okay, enough procrastination jokes. Each season, we find a few conversations go way too long to fit into a regular episode of the Lunchcast, and we bring them here, to the J Term or Summer Session episodes. Given the format of the last season, we didn't have any - fortunately, this interview with Laurie Kopp Weingarten, President of One-Stop College Counseling in Marlboro, New Jersey was in the vault. During season seven, the Counselor's Choice season, she brought forward the topic and challenge of student procrastination. Enjoy this interview, currently aged about a year, about an enduring challenge for all of us.

Every season, we have a few interviews that run long - and we release the extended cuts later. Given the format change for the last season, we didn't have that - which means it's quite fortunate that we had this great conversation from season seven. Originally published in March, 2024, during our Counselor's Choice season, we had this great conversation with Kerri Caruso, College Scholarship Coordinator at Mount Carmel Academy in New Orleans, Louisiana to bring you. We intentionally held this extended cut back until January, because although the interview is almost a year old, this is the perfect time for the reminder to have onboarding development plans that can launch at any point in time.

The Admissions Directors Lunchcast recently launched an exclusive video podcast series - Lunchcast Live. Twice a month, Teege and Nathan will welcome a guest to discuss a hot topic on their mind. The interview will often be shared here, but the full conversation with the audience is available only to members of the Lunchcast community. If you would like to be added to the invitation list, email adlunchcast@gmail.com. For this Lunchcast Live, we were joined by Seinquis Leinen, Senior Director of Strategic Enrollment Management at North Dakota State University discussing staff morale.