2021 book recommendations for selective college admissions

Applying to College
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Now that both of my kids are in college, parents often ask me for guidance about the college admission process. And while I am happy to give advice, some parents don’t even have a good foundation on the basics. On the other extreme are the tiger parents that are asking too much of their kids.

Back when I was in the middle of this, there were two books that I found very helpful.

  • A is for Admission, by Michelle Hernandez. This is a book that laid out the entire admissions process for highly selective colleges.
  • How to be a High School Superstar Without Burning Out by Cal Newport. This book talked about students finding activities they loved, focusing deeply on them and developing uncommon expertise that stood out. More importantly, it talked about avoiding the rat race of taking too many AP courses and spreading too thin across many activities.

A is for Admission was written in 2009 and is now outdated. Cal Newport’s book is almost as old, but I feel it is still relevant today.

But I am looking to the community for advice. What books have you found useful enough that you would recommend to others?

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I would start with postmodern’s labor of love which has excellent book summaries here: Postmodern’ s Guide to the College Guides

Some additional recent books that are worthwhile include:

Who Gets in and why by Jeff Selingo

The Price You Pay for College by Rob Lieber

The Years That Matter Most, How College Makes or Breaks Us by Paul Tough

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Thank you @Mwfan1921. I was on CC at the time but missed that thread completely.

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I just finished Who Gets in and Why and am sending it to friends who have a rising sophomore.

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My kids were applying several years ago. I read the Gatekeepers. 1999, about Wesleyan, after they were all attending college already.

I didn’t want to read anything at all about admissions until they all were in. I just didn’t want to get into “molding” and “packaging” and wanted them to do activities because they wanted to, not for admissions. I felt that if I read any books on admission it would change things somehow.

I guess we naturally kind of followed Cal Newport’s advice without reading anything about it.

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Even though the Gatekeepers is over 20 years old, it’s still a worthwhile read IMO.

There are likely changes in how Wesleyan reviews apps (e.g., no more paper, addition of predictive analytics models), but the communications between the admissions staff are eye opening, and likely still representative of what happens at many schools.

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Even when I read it, it was quite old, but seemed like it would be helpful if anyone wanted to read a book on that topic.

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I read Gatekeepers, too. I was surprised how little things have actually changed over the years. Yes, a slight shift from “well-rounded” to “spike”, lower acceptance rates and more applications but the overall tone and mystery of the process is very much the same.

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@CC_Mike Postmodern’s thread I linked above (Postmodern’ s Guide to the College Guides) is a very good guide to the various books on colleges and admissions. Can it be pinned somewhere? Not sure where it would be best…maybe in ‘college admissions’, but up to you. What do you think?

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I read The Gatekeepers as well, and my first takeaway was it was a very useful look into holistic admissions.

My second takeaway from that book is that holistic admissions can sometimes go too far. It’s probably been 10 years since I read that book, but I still remember the admissions officer recruited one applicant with a weak background to come join Wesleyan, who subsequently flunked out. That student would have been better served at a less demanding college.

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I agree it should be pinned. But if so, the thread should also be reopened so that new contributions can be added.

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Pinned and Opened!

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Last points about The Gatekeepers…there are enlightening communications between the admissions people and counselors at Harvard Westlake HS about H-W students, and making appearances are Jordan Goldman, as an incoming Wesleyan student (founder of Unigo, the beginnings of which he started while at Wesleyan), and Bozoma Saint John (as a Wesleyan entry level AO, who has since held many senior executive positions in Tech).

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I always recommend that fellow parents read “Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be” by Frank Bruni. It deals with the common sequellae of applying to selective universities – i.e., the rejection part of the application process – and how everything will be just fine despite those rejections.

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