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In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Office of Communications reached out to , dean of admissions and financial aid, with a proposition:

Would he like to partner on an admissions podcast?

At the time, high school students and their parents were fairly bewildered as their schools—to say nothing of college admissions offices—were abruptly shuttering their doors and moving in-person activities onto Zoom and other video platforms. 

Coffin’s communications colleagues thought those audiences would benefit from credible, transparent information on this “new normal” in the college search and application process, a world where standardized admissions tests were paused and the extracurricular activities that would typically help fuel applications had been suspended.

And Charlotte Albright, a veteran public radio journalist working as a staff writer in the Office of Communications, believed that Coffin—who came to �ڰ������� from Tufts in 2016 and who had more than three decades of experience in the admissions field—had the soothing, informative voice that people needed to hear at that fraught moment.

Happily, Coffin was game.

Launching the podcast

And so, with Coffin as on-air host and Albright in his ear as producer, they launched a podcast they called “The Search,” which made its debut on May 21, 2020. It ran for two seasons. Once the pandemic receded, Coffin relaunched and rebranded the podcast as its name a nod to the journalists at mainstream media organizations who report on the admissions process. Its mission, in the spirit of service journalism, was to demystify the selective college admissions process for high school parents, their children, and their counselors.

Admissions Beat reached a milestone on April 29 when Coffin’s podcast dropped its 100th episode on , , , and the other platforms on which it can be heard. The episode’s title: “The Mindy Project: Admissions Edition.” Its very special guest: television writer, producer, and actor Mindy Kaling ’01, who discusses her own college search and provides tips to prospective applicants on telling their own stories most effectively.

In addition to his admissions experience and expertise, as well as the network of professional contacts he has mined to book guests (107 and counting) for the program, Coffin has drawn on his own journalism experience, going back to his days as a teen. Coffin was the editor of the student newspaper at the public high school he attended in Shelton, Conn., and traces his admittedly “hammy” side to his background in high school and community theater. 

“By nature, I am a storyteller and I am a performer, and I am a counselor,” he says. “The podcast,” he adds, “is a way for me to help explain, to counsel, and to demystify, and to democratize admissions advice so that it is available to every kid, regardless of whether they attend a charter school, a rural public school, or an independent school.”

Finding its footing

Over the course of seven seasons since its launch in September 2021, Admissions Beat has found its footing and niche, in large part, through word-of-mouth buzz among counselors, parents, and other influencers. All told, its episodes have been played well over a half million times,its average rating on Spotify is 4.9 out of 5,and the podcast has been recognized by the National Association for College Admission Counseling, the parenting website Grown & Flown, and Forbes, which included Admissions Beat in its list of

Erica Rosales, executive director of , a community-based organization that supports students from low-income families, said she includes links to episodes of Admissions Beat in student newsletters and in texts to colleagues and friends because “it takes a subject that can really feel daunting and breaks it down into these approachable, bite-sized ‘pods’ of information.”

“One of our current juniors actually found College Match because her dad listened to the podcast,” says Rosales, who was a guest on an episode recorded at the NACAC national conference in Los Angeles in 2024, as well as on earlier episodes offering advice on financial aid and application interviews. “This tells me that one of the things that makes this podcast special is that it sounds like a friend sitting with you, giving you solid advice, and helping you feel like you’ve got this.”

While Admissions Beat is produced by �ڰ�������, Coffin is careful to say it is not “about �ڰ�������.” 

“It’s an act of admissions citizenship sponsored by �ڰ�������,” he says. “It’s not a how-to guide to get into �ڰ�������.”

To that end, the podcast has featured admissions deans and other leaders from Amherst, Brown, Clark, Colorado College, Davidson, Duke, St. John’s College of Annapolis and Santa Fe, Southern Methodist University, and Yale, among other institutions; dozens of counselors from public and private high schools; nonprofit organizations, and students and parents themselves.

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Adam from Needham, Mass., was one of the parents who gave advice and posed questions during the live recording. The parents were asked to provide their first name and hometown. (Photo by Katie Lenhart)

The podcast also has an international following.

“You don’t know me, but we’ve spent a lot of time together,” is how Luis Agüero, a regular listener and high school student from Paraguay, put it in an email to Coffin after, as it turns out, he was admitted early decision to the Class of 2029 at �ڰ�������. “You kept me company on long nights when my personal statement refused to make sense. You walked me through the process, nudging me to be real, to show who I am instead of guessing what the admissions committee wanted to hear.”

“You reminded me,” he added, “that this whole process goes beyond getting in: it’s about telling my story in a way that matters.”

Jacques Steinberg ’88, a former journalist on the admissions beat at The New York Times, and the co-author, with Eric J. Furda, of The College Conversation: A Practical Companion for Parents to Guide Their Children on the Path to Higher Education, has been a periodic guest and co-host of Admissions Beat.