Resource informed by this episode
Show Notes
This is part 2 of 2 of podcast episodes recorded last month in Eastern China. I met with Mark Moody, a friend of mine and a fantastic counselor with a ton of experience and some cool opinions you may not have heard before. During our chat we cover:
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His “Quick and Dirty List Builder,” a document he put together to help students and counselors find their best-fit schools in much less time
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We talk about Early Decision (also known as ED) and yield and why many schools like it when students apply early… but we also discuss why you might not want to apply early
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Why it’s important for students and parents to have a good understanding of what an admissions rate really means
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We also talk about this notion of “fit” — something you’ll hear counselors talk about a lot — but Mark has a different perspective on it and he believes “fit” may in fact be a myth
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We’ll talk about what fit really means (according to Mark’s perspective), how you can use that knowledge when you’re searching for college–and even a gem that can help you settle in once you’re already on campus.
Play-by-Play
Who is Mark Moody? [2:22]
A regular day sitting by a lake in Eastern China talking about college admissions [3:46]
Mark Moody’s Quick and Dirty List Builder [5:35]
What the list builder includes [6:10]
How epic is the college list? [7:00]
How Mark decided which schools went on the list [7:15]
What is this list for and what is it not for? [8:44]
How should a student use this list? [9:43]
How many schools you should apply to [13:19]
Why schools are shifting in selectivity [13:09]
What is Early Decision? [15:25]
Why schools want students to apply Early Decision [15:43]
Why yield is important to a school [16:10]
Why schools might be playing with statistics like yield and selectivity [16:45]
Why it’s important for students and parents to have a good understanding of what an admissions rate really means [16:52]
Why you may not necessarily want to have an early decision school [18:23 ]
What is the idea of fit? [20:12]
What does fit actually mean? [21:42]
Mark’s favorite idea about fit [24:56]
What to say to students who are in college and not sure if they’ve chosen the right school [25:39]
Mark’s Show and Tell: a cup of Chinese tea [27:20]
Ethan’s Show and Tell: The Rap Year Book [27:53]
And: Don Quixote, College Choice, and the Myth of Fit [28:16]
Resources Mentioned in the Episode
Show transcript
Ethan Sawyer 0:00 Ethan, hello, hello. This is Ethan Sawyer, aka the College Essay Guy, and my goal is to bring more ease, joy and purpose into the college application process. How do I do that? Well, this is the college essay guide podcast, where I interview brilliant folks from the college admissions world. Sometimes it's an amazing counselor, sometimes it's a test prep guru, and sometimes it's a writer or someone who's an admissions officer. And I try and take their tips and their advice and put them into practical guides and really break it down to make your process more simple, whether you yourself are applying to college or whether you're helping somebody else. So this what you'll hear right now is part two of the podcast that I recorded while I was in eastern China last month. I met Mark moody several years ago, and he's become a friend of mine. He's a fantastic counselor with a ton of experience. He just made the transition from Colorado Academy in Denver to the Shanghai American school. And during our chat, we talk about his quick and dirty list builder, and that's a document that he's put together over the last few years, and it's really helped him develop college lists more rapidly because he's worked with a bunch of students. So he'll tell you more about that. We talked about early decision, also known as Ed, which I talked about earlier on the podcast. And we talk about yield. We'll explain what that is and why a lot of schools like it when students apply early. But we'll also talk about why you might not want to apply early. We talk about why it's important for students and parents to have a really good understanding of what an admissions rate actually means. We also talk about fit. And this is a really popular phrase. A lot of college admissions officers and counselors especially talk about this. But Mark's kind of got a different perspective on this. He believes that fit is a myth, and he gave a really cool presentation a few years ago. It's when I first met him on this topic. He'll share more about that, and then we'll talk about what fit really means from his perspective, and how you can use that knowledge when you're doing the college search process, but also once you're on campus, say you're already at college, how do you use this definition of fit to really settle in even better? So all this and more on this episode, thanks for listening. My guest today is Mark moody. For the last nine years, Mark's been the CO Director of College Counseling at Colorado Academy in Denver. He before that, was the Director of College Counseling at the Bush School in Seattle, and before that, was at the John Cooper school in the Houston area. He worked in an admission at Trinity University in San Antonio for five years. Before that, and before that, attended Trinity, same place in San Antonio, where he got a BA in Spanish lit, which to me, seems like natural preparation for college admissions counseling. Mark Moody 2:51 That's exactly right. I had the idea of being a college admission officer and a college counselor from the time I was about four years old, and Spanish literature was the path to that end, it Ethan Sawyer 3:01 was the clear path to the basket. He was also an early volunteer in the founding of something called axis, which is the Association of college counselors in independent schools, which has become a pretty important professional network. He was on the board for that. He was a founding member of the clambake Institute, which is a summer gathering of college counselors and veteran admission officers, but he's probably best known for his NACAC parties, right? So this is like NACAC is the National Association of College admissions counselors, and Mark was kind of the guy who brought people together, and you know, was about making things happen. And I'd say that's still true, wouldn't you? Mark Moody 3:36 I try to make that true. Ethan, Ethan Sawyer 3:40 so right now, Mark, will you just set the scene for us, like tell the folks where we are? Mark Moody 3:47 Well, as you probably would expect if you're listening to this podcast, Ethan and I are looking out on a lake in eastern China. There's some lovely Hills beyond, and we're just sitting here talking about college admission like Ethan Sawyer 4:01 we do. And I want, I want to just say that like that sounds like you're like you're joking, but as he's not joking. We are actually in eastern China. We've been the Shanghai American School, which is Mark's new school, where he'll be taking over as director of college admissions. Is that your name of your role, Director of College Counseling, Director of College Counseling, right? Admissions is what the other people do, and I've been tapped to come in and help lead 400 juniors through their college application writing or college admission essay writing, their person what do you call it, the personal statement? So here we are on day five, and I don't know if they're gonna be able to tell that we're tired. Are you tired? Or how are you feeling? I'm Mark Moody 4:41 feeling okay, little foggy, a little jet lagged, good on it. I think that's Ethan Sawyer 4:44 perfect time to do a podcast. Exactly. Okay, so Mark and I had an idea, or I had an idea, I said, I want to get you on the podcast, and I want you to talk about this session that you did at NAT act a while back. So just to give context in the college admissions world. There's a lot of talk about fit, and we'll get into that in a few minutes. But fit means, like, you've got to find the college that's not the most selective, but that's right for you. And Mark and some colleagues were doing a session called the myth of fit, and this is actually how I first got to know Mark. I saw him present, and then we met a few years later. So I want to, we're going to get into that a little bit. But as we were trying to think of what's a practical tool or a thing that would be interesting to share with folks. Mark shared about something that he was calling his college prism admission predictor. That's right, but we've renamed it. We have we've renamed it the mark moody quick and dirty list builder. So Mark, give us the context for how the quick and dirty List Builder came to be. Mark Moody 5:39 The quick and dirty List Builder came to be as a tool I was using in my office as I was working with juniors each spring to help them get an initial list of colleges to look at. And I shared it with my colleagues. They liked it. I shared it with a few other colleagues at other independent schools, and they helped me fine tune it. They used it in their offices, and they helped me also kind of expand the reach of it a little bit to some schools that we weren't doing as much business with out in the west, but that were good places to have in your go to list. Ethan Sawyer 6:09 So give us a sense of like, the depth and breadth of like, the kind of stuff that's on this list. Mark Moody 6:14 Okay, so what I put together is a list of colleges from around the country and around the world that are frequent go tos as we're putting together research lists for juniors as we're getting started. And I feel like there's something there from just about every category of college, so students can find something that resonates with them and then use that to fine tune their search and look for similar places. Yeah. And Ethan Sawyer 6:37 what's really cool about it, we're looking at it right here. There's, like, Mark split them up in terms of colors, you know, so like the blue schools are 3.0 to 3.4 GPA students who've got around 1100 on the SAT and maybe about a 25 on the A, C, T, and then he split them on, you know, in terms of region, northeast, Midwest, South. Because, you know, a lot of students and parents are interested in that. Now, it sounds like it's like a ton of stuff. Mark how long and how epic is this list? Mark Moody 7:04 This list is phenomenally epic, and it clocks in at a full two pages front and back. Ethan Sawyer 7:11 Two pages front and back, folks, that's how long this list is. So how did you decide which 200 or so schools ended up on Mark Moody 7:18 a list? So when you're having initial meetings with juniors and trying to help them get oriented, to the landscape of colleges that could be available to them. You know, a few years doing college counseling, you begin to have a mental list of places that you go to frequently and places where you have known students to have had good experiences. And I just wanted to get that down on paper, in one sense, just to jog my memory as I together a list for students, but also without a resource that I could share with them to do a little bit of their own thinking along the way. Ethan Sawyer 7:48 That's awesome. Yeah, the way I imagine it is like, as somebody who I know you know, you do this, and you do this for many years, you have kind of like this Rolodex, to use an old term, of just colleges in your head, and it seems like you've kind of externalized your Rolodex a little bit. Yeah. And I could see how this could be useful for new counselors who were just trying to, like, learn all this 4500 schools out there. But I also think it's really cool for experienced counselors to check this out, because I feel like, you know, as you know somebody who's done this a little bit, you know myself looking in to see what schools you're thinking about is, you know, kind of, kind of, as you said, jog my memory and go like, Oh, hadn't thought about that. So it's kind of cool to peek in on that. What's cool for students and parents who are going through this is like, Hey, here's the encyclopedic, you know, brain of schools. And, you know, here are some options, some things to think about. But I want to qualify it a little bit, because you did a great job qualifying it in our conversation before the podcast. So clarify for us what is this list for and what is the list not for? I'll Mark Moody 8:47 start with what this list is not for. It's not meant to be infallible. It's not a definitive predictor of where a student is or is not going to get into college, and it certainly does not represent every one of the colleges and universities in the United States, there are over 4004 year colleges and universities, and I've selected around 200 that are good representations of what's out there in the world. But you know what? For people who like the idea of being a little bit selective in their search, there's an easy tendency to focus on 10 colleges out there and think that those are the places where the magic happens. And in fact, I think we can say, Wow, among this two, 202 20 or so colleges, we're actually looking at the top five to 7% of of the colleges and and within them have some great starting points. Ethan Sawyer 9:40 So how would you recommend, say a student goes to the show notes page? Because we, I, obviously I'm going to share this stuff. Be really funny if I didn't share this list. But if you go to the show notes page, you can actually download this marks, quick and dirty List Builder. How would, how would you recommend that a student use this list? Sure, Mark Moody 9:57 so a student can use this list on. By first getting a sense of where they are. And you really need to be in junior year to have a realistic sense of how you're going to look in senior year. So I'd add that condition, and I'd also say that it's important to have a sense of kind of your standardized GPA to enter this thing. And to do that, you need to recalculate your GPA to a 4.0 scale, and maybe we can provide a resource for how to do that, but that's what colleges are going to do. You know, every high school in America has a different way of calculating grades and weighting grades, or not weighting grades, and the colleges that, for the most part, actually begin looking at your application by standardizing your GPA so that they can compare apples and apples. So you need to do that to start Ethan Sawyer 10:42 awesome. So once a student has done that, you know, they've calculated their GPA, they've got some and by the way, that's a great idea. The show notes will link to how to recalculate your GPA to be able to use this list, because that's going to be, you know, important once they've got that, and they've got the, you know, the once they've got what they need, what do they do? All Mark Moody 11:02 right, here's what they do. So I divided my list into colors from the very beginning. And I like the idea of colors because they are unweighted. They do not have better or worse assigned to them. And I think that's really don't see color of Mark. Is that what you're saying? That's exactly what I'm saying. All right, so Ethan, if you're a student who's looking at this, this tool, what you're going to do is you're going to find what I call your home zone, and that's the color group of colleges where that roughly corresponds to what your GPA is at the towards the middle or end of junior year. And basically an idea of where you're going to land with your standardized tests within that zone, you can find a list of colleges that are what I would call your possibles, places that are have a reasonably good chance of working out if you're genuinely interested, if you put the work into your application, there's always some unpredictability, and I'm going to add that caveat as many times as I can. But But again, these are places where you have a reasonable chance of getting in, and you can feel great about about that zone as you move up and down the list. And it's designed as kind of a ladder of the colors. You know, if you go above your home zone, you find the really happy place where your odds of getting in or even more likely, again, it's always important that you put your effort into the application, and it looks like and feels like you're connecting to the place, and you might actually attend when you go down the list, things get a little more risky, and your odds of being admitted are going to decrease. And those are what we call the reaches the places above your home zone, or what I like to call your likelies, places that have a really good chance of working out. And what you want to do when you put together a list of schools is at the end, at the end of the process, when you're actually applying. Have I would recommend around six to eight places that you're applying and that those places are kind of focused among the possibles. You definitely have some likelies in there that you feel really good about and would definitely attend. And maybe you have some places in the reach categories, but you don't want to spend too much time on there, because that time and effort is not really likely to pay off. Ethan Sawyer 13:17 So what do you recommend, just real quick as a sort of good number of schools to apply to. What do you what's your go to? Number or range? You Mark Moody 13:24 know, I generally recommend, again, the students apply to six to eight schools. You know, above all, it's important to keep it at 10 or fewer if possible. And the reason I say that is because there really is a law of diminishing returns. You know, senior year, you're trying to manage your coursework, stay on top of your activities, be present in your life, in high school, and also manage those applications. And the more that you stack onto the pile, the harder it is to put the effort you need to into each application to really show that you're interested in that place and would be likely to attend. Awesome. Ethan Sawyer 13:56 Now, one of the things you talked about when we were talking about this is that some of these schools are shifting categories, that some of these schools are becoming more selective. You mentioned Claremont, McKenna, you mentioned BC. Will you just share a little bit about what that why schools are shifting? You know what factors are are influencing that? Sure. Well, Mark Moody 14:14 there's all kinds of factors that influence it. And we talked about the organic factors, like Villanova being in the basketball finals last year led to a surge in applications there. But there are also things that colleges, it also, Ethan Sawyer 14:26 side note, led to a surge in my ire against philandovic, Carolina. It was a dagger in my heart, but, but it was a clean it was a clean blow. So I was glad for that, but that, so you're saying that's the kind of thing that could, like bump up applications. Mark Moody 14:39 So those kinds of things happen. And also, you know, I hate to break anyone's bubble, but colleges sometimes do things intentionally to make themselves more selective, like, what? Well, you know, they do things like encouraging more students to apply by, you know, we'll talk, we'll talk more about the. Be a fit, but you can sometimes broadcast what fit is in a way that's going to generate more applications, but also, very literally, some colleges send out applications to encourage more students to apply. The other things that colleges do that can really dramatically shift what their selectivity looks like in the short term, is to use heavily things like early decision, the binding process. Ethan Sawyer 15:23 Say more real quick, for folks who may not know how early decision works. So Mark Moody 15:27 early decision allows you the chance to apply to one college, and yes, it tends to be early, usually in November, is the deadline, and you're making, really a contractual commitment to attend that school if you're admitted. So Ethan Sawyer 15:41 why would schools want to accept more students during early decision? Mark Moody 15:44 Well, on one level, colleges like admitting students that are going to have a very high probability of enrolling, and when you apply early decision, there's about a 99% yield rate on on the those group of students. And what is yield weight? Just for people who don't know sure the yield is the percentage of students who who accept offers of admission. It's kind of the return on the offers that the colleges put out there. And Ethan Sawyer 16:07 for folks who may not know why that's a big deal, why is yield even important to a school? Mark Moody 16:12 Well, it impacts the way colleges land in ratings like the US, News and World Report ratings. And you can ask yourself whether or not you think that's important as you assess colleges, but also then it allows them to become more selective if they're if they're getting a high yield rate and early decision and selectivity also impacts those rate rankings, and it tends to, let's be honest, influence the way people think about a college. If it's harder to get into, it must be better, right? And I could see Ethan Sawyer 16:43 why that would be smart from a college's perspective. Like you want to get the students that you want to get, you know, and that makes sense. What does that mean for students and for parents, you know, as they navigate this process? Is there any sort of takeaway or advice you'd give? Well, Mark Moody 16:57 there's one important takeaway from the beginning, and that's that when you're assessing colleges by their admit rate, you need to look a little bit deeper and ask some other questions. And I'll give you one example. So Middlebury College, a great college up in Vermont, has a 51% admit rate in the early decision process and it but what you're going to see when you look at that college and are trying to find general information about it is that it has an overall 20% admission rate, and that seems reasonable one in five. I mean, still, the odds are kind of against you, but you know, you can get your head around one in five. However, the regular decision admit rate is under 4% and so that really means if you're going to have a shot of getting in there, it's probably going to be in the early rounds. Wow. Ethan Sawyer 17:43 So for those of you who are interested in learning more about the you know what percentage they accept early decision, which percent they you know they accept regular decision, you'll check. You can find out on another podcast, which I'll link in the show notes, you know, where I interview Jeff Levy, where he talks about this resource that he created that has this list of many schools and what their ED rates, their early decision rates are, versus their regular decision rates. So just a quick side note for another resource that you can check out go and Mark Moody 18:13 I just want to add as we're talking about this, so I think it's really easy to conclude if you're thinking about applying to college in the next year, so that, my goodness, you have to have an early decision option and a couple of pieces of advice. And thinking about that, number one, I would really caution any student against entering the college search in the hunt for their early decision because you're making a commitment to go to this place, and you'd be surprised how much buyer's remorse I've experienced in my years counseling from students who get into a place early that in September was their dream school, and by April they're not so sure about because guess what? In your senior year, you're growing and changing a lot. You're learning a lot about yourself, and you might learn a little bit more about other colleges that are out there in the world and and here's the thing you know, if you're gonna, if you're gonna use early decision, I would really advise against using it to shoot for something that's totally unrealistic. The fact is, you still need to be kind of in your zone of possibility. If you're gonna be admitted early decision, it doesn't, it doesn't work in miracles. And if you're using that strategy, use it to your advantage by applying, by applying to a place where there's a reasonable chance that you're going to get in. If it all works, well, great. You've, you've tied up your process early, taken some heat off, but you miss fire, and you shoot for the school. That's, you know, two two zones down on the quick and dirty finder, if we want to go back to that, and you know what? It's probably not going to work out. And then you've kind of lost that opportunity to close up your process Ethan Sawyer 19:49 early. Yeah, the way I think of it is like you have this chip and you can spend it once, you know. And so just be really smart about how you spend it, so you know what you're talking about. Reminds me of the. This other thing that we've talked about before, and the session that I saw you, you know, where I saw you, speak the myth of fit. So just to set this up, talk to me just a little bit, maybe, about how this notion of fit, like where it even came from. Well, Mark Moody 20:12 the notion of fit was introduced by well meaning college counselors like myself. I think its origins could be traced back to about 30 years ago, and they coincide with the birth and growth of the US News rankings. This, this publication that was presenting the idea that there are quote, unquote best colleges and college counselors really wanted to redirect students conversations to what was best for them, like what fit them right. And it's a really, it's a great thing. It's a great idea. The problem is that, guess what? Colleges in their marketing pretty quickly grabbed onto that idea, and you find that pretty soon they're marketing the idea of fit, and projecting in a view book, or, these days, on a website, the idea that they're a great fit for for you, no matter who you are Ethan Sawyer 21:01 and what this has led to. And you talked about this in the presentation, or one of your co presenters talked about is the homogeneity of, like, the view book. And a couple of things that happen is, like, every, you know, campus photo is, like, very diverse, and it's always sunny. And also, you know, you've got, in some cases, you know, research schools that are touting their liberal arts, you know, and you've got art schools that are talking about, no, but we've got a new gym, you know. So there ends up being every the fit, the notion of fit kind of becomes blurred, right, Mark Moody 21:30 right, exactly. And it starts to, it starts to really lose, lose meaning. Ethan Sawyer 21:35 So, what is it then? So let's talk about like, as you think of fit, you know, what are, what does fit actually mean? Mark Moody 21:43 All right, so I think to make sense of fit, you have to break it down into its three components. The first one is admission fit or institutional fit. The second one is financial fit, and the third one is emotional fit. Ethan Sawyer 21:56 Got it so you break those down for us just a little bit. What is? What are each of these? And if you could, is one more important than the other? That's Mark Moody 22:04 a good question. So I think the first dimension, pretty much, is the first test you have to pass, and that's, can you get in or not? And that's what the quick and dirty finder is all about, helping you understand. Look, if, if the college isn't going to admit you, meaning they don't see you as a fit. The rest doesn't really matter. So you have to be really realistic about your chances for being admitted to a place. And I think that's really the most important element of fit. The second one is financial, and that's almost as important. You have to be able to afford it once you get in. And you know. So again, you want to look at, if you're a student who has financial need, you need to be doing those net price calculators that you can find on the college's website. You need Ethan Sawyer 22:47 to be and also on the show notes page. We'll link you to that so you can see what that is sure. Mark Moody 22:51 And you also, you know, as early as possible, talk to financial aid officers at colleges, start to get a sense of where you'll land. And for those students who might be looking for merit aid, the same thing applies be researching that find the colleges that offer merit aid. And let me give you a tip and maybe one of the most valuable uses of something like the quick and dirty finder. Ethan Sawyer 23:15 You keep laughing every time you say it Mark Moody 23:18 as you move up the list to your likely zones. Guess what? The probability of your financial need being met generously and affordably becomes higher. And also, if you're looking for merit aid, you absolutely need to go into your likely zones to find the schools where you're going to be stronger in the pool and where you're going to be more likely to get that merit money. And the third piece is actually what students generally refer to when they're talking about fit. And that's that kind of emotional fit, that feeling of belonging when you walk onto a campus, that feeling that people like me go to this school, which very often really is all about people like the kind of person I want to be applied to and attend this college, right? That's the one that Ethan Sawyer 24:03 we're familiar with, right? There's sometimes you'll hear the advice of, like, you know, you just gotta go and like, feel it out. And like, you know, you'll just know. You'll know in your gut. You'll know in your gut, right? And so there's like, sometimes chasing the Golden Fleece a little bit where it's like, No, I haven't felt it yet. You know Mark Moody 24:17 exactly. And you know, as a counselor, I would say this, after advising students for many years, fit isn't necessarily something that you're going to find in this aha moment when you walk onto a campus and the ray of light shines down and the heavens part. And sometimes happens, sometimes it does happen, and sometimes it happens, and you really need to question what you're experiencing, and if it really has much to do with what the day to day experience of attending a college is going to be. So you got to do your research. And here's what I'm going to say. My favorite idea of fit is this, that fit is something that isn't just handed to you. You don't find. Something off the rack that fits you perfectly at the very beginning in your college search, that you need to think of fit as something active that you're going to grow into through your own engagement and involvement with the college that you attend and through your own personal growth. So think of it as maybe like a pair of jeans that maybe is a little bulky, but over time you you shrink them, and you grow into them, and they kind of stretch and conform to your body. And you'll find, you know, in a couple of years, the college that you attend, if it meets your basic needs, and it takes off a few of those categories related to that, your sense of emotional fit, that it's going to work for you. And Ethan Sawyer 25:38 what do you say to those kids who are, let's say, at college, or are in that freshman year, and they're not quite feeling it yet. They're a little uncomfortable, and they're like, I don't know if this was the fit for me. Mm, hmm, Mark Moody 25:48 well, Ethan, I'm gonna say, lean into that discomfort and stretch out those pants because, because you know what the exciting thing about education and your opportunities in college are the opportunities to grow and challenge yourself and stretch dimensions of yourself that haven't been really tapped yet. And I think that's where your college experience can become really exciting and can lead you to pathways that you would not have experienced if the college that you attended was 100% a fit for who you are in high school. Like, how boring is that? To go to a place where everyone's like you to go to a place that isn't pushing you to become something new, Ethan Sawyer 26:32 awesome? So fit, what I'm underscoring, what I'm bolding for myself, is fit is an active process, and I find that really satisfying actually, and really useful. And it's a great way of reframing this notion of fit, you know? And so what I take away from this is that it's not actually like a myth. Fit maybe just isn't what we thought it Mark Moody 26:51 was exactly. I think you have to think of it as an active process that requires some some participation. Yeah, actually do stuff. Yeah, you got to do stuff and and for me, I try to tell, I try to tell students all the time that you know, if you embrace the adventure, and if you really embrace the idea of what I like to call the unfit, or the things that don't seem to fit you, you will really get a lot out of your college experience. Ethan Sawyer 27:17 Awesome. So we're at the point of the show where we do the show and tell, which is just share a resource or something that's meaningful to you in your life, whether it's life in general or the college admissions process. Mark, what have you brought for show and tell, Mark Moody 27:30 what I brought for show and tell is this cup of Chinese tea that I'm drinking. It's helping me stay up right through my jet lag. It's cutting through a little bit of my mental fog, and it tastes really good, awesome. Ethan Sawyer 27:45 Let's see. What do I have? Let me let me see I'm like looking around the hotel room. You know what I've got. This is totally a side note, but this is my show and tell. It's called the rap year book. And if there's anybody who's a rap fan out there, I this guy, Shay Serrano, who wrote for grant land from 1979 till, I think 2014 picks the greatest, basically the rap song of each year. And it has nothing to do with college admissions, but it's an amazing piece of writing, and I highly recommend it. On a more practical level, there's this cool thing that Mark created, which is for the this, no, this article he wrote on myth of fit, which is in the Chronicle of Higher Ed. So I'm doing kind of a two part show and tell. So check out the rap year book. When you're done reading the rap year book, you can check out Mark's article on fit. Mark Moody 28:33 My article is a much shorter read, so if you want to priority Ethan Sawyer 28:40 Mark, thank you. I really appreciate your time and your friendship and and your and your shorts, the shorts that you're wearing Mark Moody 28:48 right now. Wow, that's getting really personal. Ethan, you're also Ethan Sawyer 28:51 wearing some Oh, you're not wearing them. You're not wearing the mark, moody flip Mark Moody 28:54 flops. You know, I changed. I'm more known for my cowboy boots. We have to say. Ethan Sawyer 28:58 Ethan, oh, sorry. We'll have to do a retake. Mark, you're not wearing your cowboy boots. Mark Moody 29:03 I'm not Ethan, and my luggage space was limited coming to China, and my size 14 custom cowboy boots are hard to fit in, but if you ever see me out and about in the world, I'm probably wearing them. And Ethan Sawyer 29:15 I just want to note that they didn't initially fit him, but with a little work and a little participation, they did and do, Mark Moody 29:23 thanks. Thank you. Ethan Sawyer 29:28 That's the podcast. Be sure to check out the show notes at college sa guy.com/podcast if you're not signed up for the newsletter, you can find that on the college essay guy.com home page, tons of free resources coming at you about once a month, and that's it. Stay curious. You. Transcribed by https://otter.ai