Illini Bluffs Beyond the Tassel
34 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 3 years ago -Illini Bluffs Beyond the Tassel is a weekly podcast hosted by education equity advocate and rural communities champion, Craig Williams, featuring insider tips to help families and students prepare for the transition from high school to college. College isn’t for everyone but, on average, about two out of every three kids from rural communities wind up going to college. Our mission is to help rural kids make the most of that process, helping them with the tools to gain admission to the schools of their choice and to help parents with strategies to make college more affordable. Through this podcast, and our website, journey12.com, we hope to enhance the odds of young people from less populous areas finding success with their college admissions process. Our kids are just as smart and hardworking as kids anywhere and we strive to share insights and strategies in an effort to level the playing field for our students as they ramp-up for college application process and other post-secondary intentions, to include military, the trades, family business, and the world of work. Episodes drop every Tuesday. Subscribe to always have access to the latest insights.
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Episodes
Illini Bluffs - Affording College: Finding the Money Through Merit, Aid, and More
July 16, 2021 02:00 - 12 minutes - 8.5 MBWhere will the money to pay for college come from? Some parents were able to sock away enough money from the time their children were very young to be able to draw on that account now, and fully fund college, but many families just didn’t manage to do that. In fact, about half fall into that second category. So when it comes time to talk about the college option, there’s usually plenty of anxiety and even more than a little panic to go around. I’m fond of saying where there’s a will there’s ...
Illini Bluffs - The Extraordinary in the Ordinary: Authenticity of Story in College Applications
July 08, 2021 19:00 - 14 minutes - 10 MBIf you’re going to make a dent in this world, you’re going to need to take a big, authentic swing at it. This week, we discuss the importance of positioning yourself as your own authentic brand with respect to your college applications. The aspects of your story you may find uninteresting or ordinary may often be the most differentiating aspects of how admission officers may see you. Your most extraordinary self is often hiding in plain sight in your everyday self. Sharing your interests and...
Illini Bluffs - Debunking College Myths: What It Is and What It Isn’t
July 01, 2021 15:00 - 15 minutes - 10.9 MBThis week we go into full myth-buster-mode and explore some of the things you might have thought you understood about college as well as some of the things that probably never occurred to you. In short, we debunk some myths about what college is, what it isn’t, who goes, and who doesn’t. Bonus: We break down the economics of what a 4-year degree can mean over your lifetime as compared to a high school diploma. And, newsflash, it isn’t quite as obvious as you might think.
Illini Bluffs - Public vs Private Colleges/Universities: Pros and Cons
June 15, 2021 13:00 - 16 minutes - 11.2 MBThe differences between the actual degree earned at a public institution versus a private one are fairly inconsequential. But between the two formats, there are plenty of variances to consider: Cost, selectivity, culture, social vibe, and more. We explore the primary differences in this episode between public schools and their private counterparts. Both have their strengths, and, in the end, the choice is yours and should always be about fit. Listen, as we provide you with a few insights you...
Illini Bluffs - Leveraging Your Network For Post-secondary Success and For Life
May 26, 2021 03:00 - 13 minutes - 9.08 MBIn 1624, an Englishman by the name of John Donne wrote the words, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” What he meant was we are all connected, one-to-another. Not only connected, but dependent in ways we may not even entirely understand. And, while that sentiment may fly in the face of the the ascendant rugged American individualism so popular in some quarters today, the fact is, John Donne was right; we really do need each other...
Illini Bluffs - The College Essay
May 20, 2021 01:00 - 14 minutes - 10.1 MBThe college essay is an essential piece to your college application. The common app calls it your personal statement. And, in many ways, this essay is as personal as it gets. But more people than you’d imagine consider a request to write something meaningful as a stressor on-par with skydiving or giving ones self stitches. And, I get that. Writing something meaningful can be really hard. Most admissions people tell us that the college essay most applications require can be responsible for as...
Illini Bluffs - College Choice, Near or Far: Considering the Distance Factor
May 12, 2021 16:00 - 10 minutes - 7.27 MBHeading off to college after high school is — let’s face it — a huge adventure in and of itself. But when a student leaves their family and the home they’ve lived in for 17 or 18 years to attend college in a completely different city, state, or even country, it is a genuine life-event. This week we explore the idea of attending college more than a short drive from home. There are enormous benefits in terms of confidence and independence building, as well as in seeing the world through a ne...
Illini Bluffs - Navigating the Anxiety of the College Application Experience
May 05, 2021 04:00 - 16 minutes - 11.3 MBRamping-up for the college application process is part preparation, part inspiration, and part anxiety navigation. This week, we discuss the steps of a solid application, the keys to making the most of each of them, and the importance of keeping your eyes on your own work, of being somewhat circumspect or even private about your progress toward admissions to your dream school. You’ll find supplemental content at our website, journey12.com.
Illini Bluffs - Seeking Programmatic Strength
April 28, 2021 03:00 - 11 minutes - 7.96 MBIn the world of things that matter to your academic outcomes, I cannot overemphasize the importance of understanding institutional programmatic strength. That’s just gotta be job one, if you’re primarily concerned with the strictly academic outcome. But here’s the thing, college is about more than strict academic outcomes. Sure, it matters. It matters a lot. But there are other things that also matter. How those other things compete for attention in your mind is something only you can answer...
Illini Bluffs - Plotting Your Trajectory and Choosing Your Major
April 21, 2021 03:00 - 16 minutes - 11.1 MBWe’ve come through infancy, toddlerhood, childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Each and every one of us is made up of uniquely individual characteristics and experiences, which give shape to who we are, and hopefully each of us will plot a path forward that best aligns with our interests, aptitudes, and capabilities. The post-secondary transition is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ program. There are those who will serve our Nation by enlisting in the military. There are those who will join a f...
Illini Bluffs - The College Roommate Dynamic
April 13, 2021 05:00 - 17 minutes - 11.9 MBRoommating is hard. And sometimes — more frequently than you might imagine — roommate situations erupt into really tough, super distracting outcomes. I spoke with a few current college students and several recent grads for this episode, and let me tell ya, this is one of those things your guidance counselor probably isn’t talking much about very much. We examine a few ideas, here, about the best way forward as both a roommate and a student with roommates. There are a few things you can do to...
Illini Bluffs - The Different Flavors of Public Universities
April 08, 2021 00:00 - 12 minutes - 8.43 MBWhen most students think of where they’ll go to college, many immediately consider the three schools with which they’re most familiar: their state flagship school, their regional university, and their community college. I’m going to talk about those first two today. We covered Community College pretty thoroughly a few months back, so we’ll leave that option out of today’s discussion. For many students, these schools are outstanding fits for all kinds of excellent reasons. But just like any o...
Illini Bluffs - Behind the Admissions Curtain
March 31, 2021 03:00 - 11 minutes - 7.67 MBThe post-secondary path often takes a circuitous route through a series of dark tunnels, switchbacks, dead-ends, trial balloons, and unknowns but at the end of the day, those who remain true to the journey, approach it with an open mind, and retain a willingness to put their back into it, stand a very good chance of finding excellent fit. And if there’s anything I love, it’s good post-secondary fit! But when we’re wrapping-up the Junior year in high school and heading into Senior year, it ca...
Illini Bluffs - Community Leadership and its Impact on Local Education: An Interview with Norma Lansing
March 23, 2021 05:00 - 21 minutes - 14.8 MBEducators tell me all the time that it takes a village to successfully build a robust, energized school community with positive outcomes. And that’s not something that happens automatically. The state can’t do it. The school board can’t do it. The best faculty in the world can’t do it. And it cannot be administered into submission. It takes everyone. Parents, students, teachers, civic leaders, community volunteers, the business community, alumni, and a kind of cohesion of purpose that is dif...
Illini Bluffs - Social Media & Our Post-Secondary Hopes
March 16, 2021 05:00 - 9 minutes - 6.88 MBWe live in an extraordinarily interconnected society. But that’s really not new. Truth is, we always have. And those of us who grew up in small towns understand that reality, perhaps, better than most. Seems like having the inside scoop on the goings-on of my hometown, population 3,372, was almost an olympic sport when I was growing up. There was a crowd-sourced web of information gathering woven into the fabric of daily life. And, for the most part, the intel delivered through this web was ...
Illini Bluffs - The Golden Keys: Passion, Intellectual Curiosity, and Perseverance
March 10, 2021 02:00 - 21 minutes - 15 MBToday, I want to explore these three important attributes of successful people. What they are, how we can acquire them, and how we can leverage them to accomplish remarkable things in our lives beyond the high school tassel. Not coincidentally, these are also the three things most often sought by college admissions departments, and so we’ll talk about what that looks like, as well. Those things? Passion, intellectual curiosity, and perseverance — The Golden Keys.
Illini Bluffs - Dual Credit
March 03, 2021 05:00 - 15 minutes - 10.8 MBFirst of all, can we all just accept that learning new things, along with the practical insights and strategic advantages they bring, is really one of THE most remarkable things about being human? I mean, sure, you could argue that all our fellow phyla in the animal kingdom do their share of learning and adapting, too, but best we know, none of them have quite the intellectual leveraging capabilities of humankind. Because of the way we’ve developed, and the resulting extent of the raw compu...
Illini Bluffs - Leveraging Local Resources
February 24, 2021 05:00 - 19 minutes - 13.7 MBThis week, I’d like to do something a little different than usual. I’d like you to meet two students with rural roots but very different personal stories. Jackeline Garcia is a senior at Effingham High School in Effingham, Illinois, a county with a population of just 34,000. She is the first generation daughter of Mexican immigrants and she has an acceptance letter from The University of Notre Dame. We’ll hear from her and learn more about her Journey. We’ll also speak with a third year stud...
Illini Bluffs - Major Undertakings, Pin Action, and Bowling Metaphors
February 16, 2021 06:00 - 9 minutes - 6.64 MBI think hustle, exploration, and throwing a 15 pound ball down 60 feet of hardwood is entirely underrated, vastly under appreciated but it plays a huge role in so many of the success stories we hear about. And not just the success stories that we hear about, but the quieter ones too. The ones that never appear in the national media or on the first page of a Google search. And, for the record, the success I’m talking about is the kind I heard defined by a man named Earl Nightingale many years...
Illini Bluffs - The ACT and/or the SAT
January 20, 2021 04:00 - 12 minutes - 8.7 MBIt is January 19, 2021, and at this moment, nearly 2 million high school juniors are beginning to ramp up to take the ACT and/or the SAT this spring. By the time Halloween rolls around, more than 50% of the class of 2022 will have taken one or both of these standardized tests. Even though many top colleges and universities were already going test optional before COVID further accelerated an institutional relaxation of the testing requirement in 2020, having your best score tucked in your poc...
Illini Bluffs Why Would a Top College Want ME?
January 12, 2021 06:00 - 12 minutes - 8.43 MBAs I talk to students and their parents from around the country living in rural communities, I’m always impressed with the commitment to hard work and a willingness to make the most of resources. But there is this tendency toward ‘not-good-enough-ism’ that rears its head far too often. I see kids choosing not to even apply to top schools because of this notion that somehow they’re not sufficiently accomplished, academically, or that their ACT scores aren’t high enough, or that they couldn’t ...
Illini Bluffs College vs. University
January 05, 2021 07:00 - 9 minutes - 6.52 MBWe hear the term college interchanged with university fairly regularly, but are they the same thing? Or are they, in fact, quite different? Generically, most people would say that they’re the same, and they’d be right, but there are a number of differences, some quite pronounced and others quite subtle, that are worth a bit of exploration. We dive into the origins and the meaning of both in this episode, and also take a moment to brush-up on our liberal arts!
Illini Bluffs Community College vs 4-Year College
December 30, 2020 05:00 - 13 minutes - 9.35 MBMany rural high school students choose community college as their post-secondary go-to. Some choose a 4-year college. Both can represent an excellent fit, so long as you’re making your choice for the right reasons. In this episode, we explore the relative merits of community college and the traditional 4-year college experience and we discuss the critical differences between the two. Hint: It’s not as much about the money as you may think!
Illini Bluffs Navigating the Anxiety of the College Application Experience
December 22, 2020 07:00 - 16 minutes - 11.3 MBRamping-up for the college application process is part preparation, part inspiration, and part anxiety navigation. This week, we discuss the steps of a solid application, the keys to making the most of each of them, and the importance of keeping your eyes on your own work, of being somewhat circumspect or even private about your progress toward admissions to your dream school. You’ll find supplemental content at our website, journey12.com.
Illini Bluffs Debunking College Myths: What It Is and What It Isn’t
December 16, 2020 01:00 - 15 minutes - 11 MBThis week we go into full myth-buster-mode and explore some of the things you might have thought you understood about college as well as some of the things that probably never occurred to you. In short, we debunk some myths about what college is, what it isn’t, who goes and who doesn’t. Bonus: We break down the economics of what a 4-year degree can mean over your lifetime as compared to a high school diploma. And, newsflash, it isn’t quite as obvious as you might think.
Illini Bluffs Building Post Secondary Castles with Solid Foundations
December 09, 2020 05:00 - 11 minutes - 8.2 MBI started this Podcast because I have long valued the benefits of engaged learning and the pursuit of greater understanding of our world. But there’s more to the story that most of my listeners may not know. And it is actually quite personal. I’d like to share it with you this week with a particular purpose, which will emerge toward the end of today’s episode.
Illini Bluffs - What About For-Profit Institutions?
December 02, 2020 01:00 - 14 minutes - 9.78 MBThis week, we examine the for-profit education sector, and provide a bit of clarity as to how the three main formats of post-secondary schools compare and, in particular, what you need to know when considering a for-profit school, because there are some differences which are quite significant. I’m going to put this right up front: For-profit educational institutions have cropped-up everywhere, and along with them, some of the worst cases of academic misrepresentation, corruption, and ethical...
Illini Bluffs Determining Your Match, Safety, and Reach Schools
November 24, 2020 06:00 - 11 minutes - 8.22 MBWe discussed finding college fit back on November 3, and part of that discussion centered on making a list of your targeted schools. I dropped a lot of information on you during that episode, having to do with making the choice that would best assure fit. But this discussion is different. This discussion has to do with how high up the selectivity ladder you can jump; what rung can you safely grab a hold of, which rungs are within reach even without jumping, and than which rungs are so high o...
Illini Bluffs College Choice, Near or Far: Considering the Distance Factor
November 18, 2020 05:00 - 10 minutes - 7.27 MBHeading off to college after high school is — let’s face it — a huge adventure in and of itself. But when a student leaves their family and the home they’ve lived in for 17 or 18 years to attend college in a completely different city, state, or even country, it is a genuine life-event. This week we explore the idea of attending college more than a short drive from home. There are enormous benefits in terms of confidence and independence building, as well as in seeing the world through a ne...
Illini Bluffs Rural vs Suburban vs Urban College Settings: Environment Matters
November 10, 2020 06:00 - 9 minutes - 6.45 MBChoosing for best fit is important when you’re considering college options, and environment plays a huge factor. Big city, suburban, or smaller communities can all present hundreds of outstanding options for your ideal college or university. You will find some of the nation’s best schools in each category. But not only is backdrop community size and density important, so is the environment, period. It can be an amazing part of your college education, so make an effort to leverage it however ...
Illini Bluffs Developing and Refining Your Target Schools List
November 03, 2020 07:00 - 18 minutes - 12.9 MBMaking the decision to attend college is the first of many important decisions, but of all the decisions you’ll face in the process, the choice of school itself may be the most important. Weight the factors carefully in order to find the best fit. Use our self-guided tour of what matters most to you as your punch list for refining your choice of reach, target, and safety schools. Remember, this is your college experience, not someone else’s and it’s all about fit. For you!
Illini Bluffs Public vs Private -- Pros and Cons
October 27, 2020 05:00 - 16 minutes - 11.2 MBThe differences between the actual degree earned at a public institution versus a private is fairly inconsequential. But between the two formats, there is plenty of variance to consider: cost, selectivity, culture, social vibe, and more. We explore the primary differences in this episode between public schools and their private counterparts. Both have their strengths, and, in the end, the choice is yours and should always be about fit. Listen, as we provide you with a few insights you may no...
Illini Bluffs Affording College: Finding the Money Through Merit, Aid, and More
October 20, 2020 06:00 - 12 minutes - 8.5 MBWhere will the money to pay for college come from. Some parents were able to sock away enough money from the time their children were very young to be able to draw on that account now, and fully fund college, but many families just didn’t manage to do that. In fact, about half fall into that second category. So when it comes time to talk about the college option, there’s usually plenty of anxiety and even more than a little panic to go around. I’m fond of saying where there’s will there’...
Illini Bluffs The Different Flavors of Public Universities
October 13, 2020 05:00 - 12 minutes - 8.43 MBWhen most students think of where they’ll go to college, many immediately consider the three schools with which they’re most familiar: their state flagship school, their regional university, and their community college. I’m going to talk about those first two today. We covered Community College pretty thoroughly a few episodes back, so we’ll leave that option out of today’s discussion. For many students, these schools are outstanding fits for all kinds of excellent reasons. But just like any...