"Information" floods a college search from many spigots, not all of which are reliable or helpful. Each September, social media feeds erupt with advice and comment from various "expert" sources while parental social gatherings and pick-up lines at school are hot spots for admissions news and commentary. This week, four longtime college counselors from Fairfield County in Connecticut, Fort Lauderdale, Baltimore, and Denver join AB host Lee Coffin for a listener-inspired conversation that redirects the chatter and debunks some myths. "We spend so much time undoing misinformation,” one of the veteran counselors notes. Her colleague adds, "Lots of the hysteria and anxiety are rooted in outdated misinformation that is just wrong.”

In the Season 10 premiere, Common App CEO Jenny Rickard returns to AB for a back-to-school primer on the application used by over 1,100 colleges around the world. Fifty years since it debuted, the Common App has become "the passport for entry" into most selective institutions, and its elements represent the building blocks for a student's personal narrative. "Approach the Common App with clarity and confidence," Dartmouth's dean and AB host advises.

In a "listener mailbag" bonus episode, Jen Simons from Bright Horizons College Coach joins AB host Lee Coffin to answer an array of listener questions. The mailbag queries spark riffs on a wide range of admissions topics from applying to college as a twin to the option of a state honors college to interpreting newsfeed posts about 2026 acceptance rates, the "new Ivies," and "over-rated" colleges. And the longtime friends and colleagues touch a few topics no one asked them to discuss!