{"podcast":{"title":"Admissions Beat","slug":"admissions-beat-4462287","podcast_index_feed_id":4462287,"rss_url":"https://feeds.simplecast.com/Xa7viccF","website_url":"https://admissions-beat.simplecast.com","image_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/0439f9d6-ef41-4970-954e-2e52feec7fe4/f346788d-53d7-44e8-930d-559ce9f7e836/3000x3000/s8-admissionsbeat-logo-1500x1500p.jpg?aid=rss_feed","author":"Dartmouth Admissions","episode_count":136,"summary":"On the Admissions Beat, veteran dean of admissions Lee Coffin from Dartmouth College and a range of guests provide high school students and parents, as well as their counselors and other mentors, with \"news you can use\" at each step on the pathway to college. With a welcoming, reassuring perspective and an approach intended to build confidence in prospective applicants, Dean Coffin offers credible information, insights, and guidance—from the earliest days of the college search, to applications, decision-making, and arrival on campus. He does so by drawing on nearly 30 years of experience as an admissions leader at some of the nation's most prestigious institutions.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/admissions-beat-4462287"},"episode":{"title":"March Madness Part 2: \"How Do You Decide?\"","slug":"march-madness-part-2-how-do-you-decide","published_at":"2026-03-17T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/admissions-beat-4462287/march-madness-part-2-how-do-you-decide","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/admissions-beat-4462287","url":"https://admissions-beat.simplecast.com/episodes/march-madness-part-2-how-do-you-decide-Tcwi6_Th","audio_url":"https://cdn.simplecast.com/media/audio/transcoded/5f9b28a5-bf1d-4441-9db5-096790089ed7/b86abed6-d3fe-4642-bea6-db292e207f10/episodes/audio/group/e6480eb9-1161-4479-8f29-d1634271d354/group-item/80ab1724-d888-4400-8273-478f83384cde/128_default_tc.mp3?aid=rss_feed&feed=Xa7viccF","summary":"\"How do you decide?\" is one of the most probing questions associated with selective admissions. With so many qualified candidates competing for limited spots, decisions are often presumed to be random for those on the outside of the process. In the second conversation of AB's \"March Madness\" two-pack, New York Times journalist and best-selling author Jacques Steinberg interviews AB host and Dartmouth Dean Lee Coffin to unpack and illuminate the deliberations that unfold in a selective admissions committee. As Steinberg (who has observed such meetings) notes, there is no simple formula dictating their final choices. \"I can tell you with every confidence that it doesn't exist. This is my Indiana Jones quest, and so far, I have come up empty, and I expect that I will always come up empty,\" he says.","meta_description":"\"How do you decide?\" is one of the most probing questions associated with selective admissions. With so many qualified candidates competing for limited sp…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2443,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/admissions-beat-4462287/episodes/march-madness-part-2-how-do-you-decide/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/admissions-beat-4462287/march-madness-part-2-how-do-you-decide.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}