Season 7 of Admissions Beat gets underway at just the right time to give this year's high school juniors a preview of what's to come, as they look closely at themselves, survey the college landscape, and weigh options in higher education. Host Lee Coffin, Dartmouth’s dean of admissions and financial aid, and recurring co-host Jacques Steinberg, author of The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process at a Selective College, and co-author of The College Conversation: A Practical Companion for Parents to Guide Their Children Along the Path to Higher Education, offer calming, concrete advice about how to get started on a search for the school that will best fit each applicant's abilities and aspirations.

In the Season Six finale, Trinity College's Matthew Hyde returns to AB to reflect on his own son’s college search this year. As a veteran admissions dean and a first-time admissions parent, Matt shares advice for his fellow parents on the lessons he has absorbed as his parenting collided with his day job in a very real—and sometimes emotional—way. Following host Lee Coffin’s conversation with Matt, Dartmouth’s admission officers offer a “digital carol” as they reimagine ’Twas the Night Before Christmas with an application deadline theme.

Suburban public high schools in America are home to a significant pool of applicants to most selective colleges. The admissions chatter in those classrooms, counseling offices, hallways, and social media channels can hum at a high frequency as guidance counselors do their best to advise students and parents alike. This week, a quartet of these school counselors from suburban Connecticut join AB host Lee Coffin for a roundtable discussion on admissions life in a suburban town.