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College Uncovered

GBH News

In a world focused on getting in, do you know what you’re getting into? College Uncovered, from GBH News in collaboration with The Hechinger Report, pulls back the ivy on American higher education, exposing the problems, pitfalls and risks — and helping you navigate them. If you wonder how college really works, subscribe now. Because it’s a real education.

College Uncovered is made possible by Lumina Foundation.

©2023 WGBH Educational Foundation

In a world focused on getting in, do you know what you’re getting into? College Uncovered, from GBH News in collaboration with The Hechinger Report, pulls back the ivy on American higher education, exposing the problems, pitfalls and risks — and helping you navigate them. If you wonder how college really works, subscribe now. Because it’s a real education.

College Uncovered is made possible by Lumina Foundation.

©2023 WGBH Educational Foundation
12hr 49min
Thumbnail for "Secret Sophomore Admissions".
Another secret to gaming the college admissions process? Apply as a freshman to get accepted as a sophomore. It’s not well known, but colleges recruit students to fill seats vacated by freshmen who don’t return. It’s a backdoor admissions strategy, one that colleges don't openly advertise but happens more than you think.
November 9, 202320min 4sec19.31 MB
Thumbnail for "Why Do Colleges Rarely Revoke Tenure?".
June 19, 202513min 57sec13.42 MB
Thumbnail for "Apprentices of the World, Unite!".
May 29, 202523min 7sec22.26 MB
Thumbnail for "Cyber School".
May 22, 202517min 42sec17.04 MB
Thumbnail for "The Old College Try".
May 15, 202516min15.42 MB
Thumbnail for "The Student Trade Wars".
May 8, 202520min 48sec20.06 MB
Thumbnail for "The Revenge of the Humanities".
May 1, 202525min 25sec24.48 MB
Thumbnail for "The Missing Men".
April 24, 202518min 27sec17.77 MB
Thumbnail for "The Demographic Cliff".
April 17, 202521min 14sec20.47 MB
Thumbnail for "“Tag, You’re In!” – The Rise of Direct Admissions".
April 17, 202520min 53sec20.14 MB
Thumbnail for "College Uncovered Season 4 is here!".
April 14, 20252min 43sec2.65 MB
Thumbnail for "What Comes Next On Campus?".
November 25, 202437min 12sec35.79 MB
Thumbnail for "Abortion on the ballot … and in the mail".
November 2, 202430min 4sec36.1 MB
Thumbnail for "The Politics of the College Presidency".
October 17, 202426min 16sec25.28 MB
Thumbnail for "DEI Backlash".
October 10, 202434min 57sec33.61 MB
Thumbnail for "The Rural Higher Education Blues".
October 3, 202423min 54sec22.99 MB
Thumbnail for "The Borrowers' Lament".
September 26, 202420min 33sec19.79 MB
Thumbnail for "The Politics of Protest".
September 19, 202428min 25sec27.35 MB
Thumbnail for "Un-Welcome to College".
September 12, 202419min 25sec18.7 MB
Thumbnail for "College Uncovered Season 3 is here!".
August 29, 20244min 30sec4.34 MB
Thumbnail for "[Bonus]: Dear College - Tayana Antoine".
June 20, 202410min 59sec10.57 MB
Thumbnail for "[Bonus]: Dear College - Jenessa Otabor".
June 20, 202414min 35sec14.05 MB
Thumbnail for "What Do College Students Learn, Anyway?".
May 30, 202438min 15sec36.77 MB
Thumbnail for "Junk Fees".
May 16, 202423min 37sec22.72 MB
Thumbnail for "The Other College Debt".
May 16, 202417min 34sec16.93 MB
Thumbnail for "The Real Cost of "Free"".
May 2, 202421min 46sec20.97 MB
Thumbnail for "Closing Time".
April 18, 202426min 2sec25.08 MB
Thumbnail for "Loss Leaders".
April 18, 202418min 32sec19.28 MB
Thumbnail for "Bait and Switch".
Colleges work hard to make their prices seem much lower than they actually are.
April 4, 202416min 24sec15.79 MB
Thumbnail for "Buyer Beware".
Congratulations, you got accepted to college! The next notification you’ll get: a financial aid offer, telling you what it will cost.
April 4, 202414min 56sec14.42 MB
Thumbnail for "College Uncovered Season 2 is here!".
March 21, 20242min 56sec2.84 MB
Thumbnail for "The Enrollment Industrial Complex".
Listen to most broadcast stories, and you’d think it’s really hard to get into college. But here’s one of higher ed’s dirty little secrets: colleges are competing hard to be on your shortlist. Let’s talk about the US college enrollment industrial complex.
December 14, 202320min 44sec19.92 MB
Thumbnail for "The “M” Word".
Colleges and universities have a problem: a public skeptical of what they’re getting for their money. So, like all red-blooded American institutions, they’re responding … by buying advertising!
December 14, 202318min 34sec17.88 MB
Thumbnail for "Graduation Frustration".
Almost all freshmen starting out at four-year universities and colleges think they’ll finish in four years. But fewer than half of them actually will. The numbers are even worse for Black and Hispanic students. Let’s talk about why, and how to graduate on time.
November 30, 202315min14.46 MB
Thumbnail for "The Transfer Trap".
What’s the “transfer trap?” It’s when you transfer into a four-year institution from a two-year or community college and learn that your credits have been rejected by your new school. It’s a problem that costs students money, and can ultimately prevent them from graduating on time and with less debt.
November 30, 202321min 49sec21.04 MB
Thumbnail for "The Meritocracy Myth".
Former admissions officer Kyra Tyler says she was asked to remove a young Black applicant from consideration in favor of a less academically qualified white student, solely because of the latter's family connections and wealth. Let’s talk about how college admissions really works.
November 9, 202321min 3sec20.24 MB
Thumbnail for "Affirmative Action … for the Rich".
The Varsity Blues scandal where rich and famous parents effectively paid off colleges to admit their kids, exposed alarming shenanigans around college admissions. There are other ways colleges give preferences to wealthy students, and they’re all completely legal.
October 26, 202318min17.38 MB
Thumbnail for "Misleading U".
How do you pick the “right” college? Very carefully. And how do you know you’re getting the best deal? You don’t. Welcome to the messy world of higher education, where colleges aren’t upfront about costs or how long it takes to graduate.
October 26, 202320min 5sec19.33 MB
Thumbnail for "Introducing College Uncovered Season 1".
Higher education looms large in the American psyche: as the route to prosperity, a good job and a stable career.
October 12, 20232min 25sec2.37 MB

Secret Sophomore Admissions

Thumbnail for "Secret Sophomore Admissions".
November 9, 202320min 4sec

Getting turned down by your dream college doesn’t always mean you’ve been categorically rejected. Some applicants who fail to get in as freshmen, for example, are invited back … as sophomores. They don’t even need to reapply. It’s one of many secrets admissions officers prefer to keep quiet.

Colleges don’t do this kind of thing out of the goodness of their hearts. They know a shamefully high number of freshmen – about one in four on average, will drop out. That’s a lot of seats they need to fill.

Colleges also know that the students they accept as sophomores won’t count in all-important college ranking calculations, which are based mainly on the characteristics of entering freshmen. This makes it a way to admit the children of alumni and donors who might not have made the first cut.

The Hechinger Report’s Jon Marcus and GBH’s Kirk Carapezza dive into how secret sophomore admissions works — and whether it might work for you.

“College Uncovered” is made possible by Lumina Foundation.

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Credits:

Hosts: Kirk Carapezza & Jon Marcus

Supervising Editor: Megan Woolhouse

Editor: Jeff Keating

Executive Producer: Ellen London 

Mixing and Sound Design: David Goodman & Gary Mott

Theme Song and original music: Left-Roman

Artwork: Matt Welch 

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Consulting Producer and Head of GBH Podcasts: Devin Maverick Robins

"College Uncovered" is a production of GBH News and The Hechinger Report.

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Secret Sophomore Admissions
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