<p>I read about two dozen books when my daughter was applying last year, but the ones that made the biggest impression on both of us were THE GATEKEEPERS and Harry Bauld's book on Writing the College Application Essay. I also liked HARVARD SCHMARVARD by Jay Matthews. There's also some good insight in A IS FOR ADMISSION and COLLEGE CONFIDENTIAL.</p>
<p>Someone recommended this one to me. It's not college prep but for those already in. "College of the Overwhelmed: The Campus Mental Health Crisis and What to Do About It" by Richard D. Kadison, Theresa Foy DiGeronimo.</p>
<p>Despite having my own favorites, I think it is fair to repeat that individual opinions and recommendations on books are de facto subjective. My opinion is that the more books one buys and reads, the better off he will be. I do not think that there are books that are clearly superior, except for the books published by The College Board. There are glowing errors and contradictions in most books. Some are excusable, some are impardonable. For instance, I find the books written by Katherine Cohen -of Ivy Success- to be entirely lacking and factually incorrect. I would expect the owner of a company that is proud to charge $30,000 to its clients to, at least, master the technical details of the SAT. Her recommendation to select specific administrations of the SAT demonstrated how little she knows about the equating process of the SAT and the curve scoring. </p>
<p>Reading the books written by former adcoms is educative, but not so much for the advice as to avoid potential mistakes. For instance, in his book, Chuck Hughes decries the use of the simple word myriad as a noun. He says that the incorrect use of myriad could be sufficient to toss out an essay. That statement would not be so appalling if the position of Mr. Hughes was correct since the use of myriad solely as an adjective is unfounded. However, readers can still learn from reading the book, in this case by making sure the essays and application are void of any words that are potential land mines in the hands of vocabulary-autistic adcom. </p>
<p>The same goes for essay and test preparation books. It is better to acquire them all and CHECK their accuracy and helpfulness. There are a few books that are abysmal -as an example, the REA series- but most books are better than adequate. There are good and bad strategies in every book. For essays, the books that publish essays that work(ed) are helpful but dangerous. Several books publish books that pretend to contain great essays that worked, yet there is no guarantee that this is a verifiable fact. Also, considering that the best essays are truly personal, one should be highly suspicious about the persons who released their essays. My personal take on this is that the majority are fabricated or testaments to long gone years. But again, it is helpful to read such books for the sole purpose to get started. Using published essays as guidelines or examples to emulate is a very bad idea.</p>
<p>As far as organized classes a la Kaplan or PR, I believe that an overal assessment has to yield a grade of no more than a C- , being a combination of a few B and a majority of F. In my opinion, Princeton Review and Kaplan are pros at exploiting the feeling of inadequacy and guilt of parents. Simply stated, I believe that the classes costing $600 to $1,200 are worthless, mostly because they are nothing more than having poorly paid and prepared tutors rehashing material widely available in their $30 books. Except for forcing students to allocate 20 to 40 hours towards an organized event, I see few benefits. Anyone with a modicum of drive and desire should do much better by self-preparing. Learning techniques and strategies is only a small part of the preparation. Just like it is for sports and music, the key to success is repetition and practice. Duh, isn't that a profound statement? It is, however, so true! </p>
<p>On the other hand, I believe that there ARE tutors and tutoring companies that are well worth the price. It is pretty easy to find them and verify their credentials: they are mostly local, smaller, have an owner who is involved in the business, have verifiable references, and do not mind showing examples of their portfolio. If you are set on using PR or Kaplan, I would highly advise anyone to stick to the one-on-one tutoring. This is a way to ensure that the tutor will have a bit more than a few months of experience. </p>
<p>My overall conclusion: if you consider organized classes, use the budget to buy every book written on college admission. When you are finished with the process, you could resell the books at Amazon or, better, donate them to your local school. It may sound overwhelming to buy a bunch of books, but it does not take long to separate the bad ones from the very good ones. The bad news is that you may get tired to find a SAT prep book in every bathroom of your house. A fact that may cause your visiting neighboors and family to wonder about you! </p>
<p>Last note: the new book 10 Real Sat has been out for a while. I would highly recommend to purchase it and suscribe to the companion online tool. This is the best 70 to 80 dollars investment one could make.</p>
<p>PS If anyone wondered, I am still having a wonderful time at CMC. Only bad news is that there are not enough hours in a day ... hence my dismal post count!</p>
<p>We miss the Xiggi!!!</p>
<p>I'll re-iterate... don't get A is for admission... it's a waste of money.</p>
<p>Hmm...this isn't exactly on point because it's not books, but....the best sources of information for me were my past experience as Harvard interviewer, and our school's college counselor. I actually did find A is for Admission helpful because it confirmed some of my impressions gleaned from interviewing. </p>
<p>After that, I agree that CC was the best source for information. </p>
<p>I also agree that 10 real SATs were fantastic and helped my son immensely (judging from his scores) prepare for the SAT2s. </p>
<p>I read and skimmed a LOT of books but the fact is, I think, that most of that was just "anxious-time" reading and I don't think that much that I read ever got shared with my son. I like the Insiders Guide as well as Fiske and Princeton Review and read all 3 over and over, but again I think it was just comfort reading.</p>
<p>On CC, there were so many very helpful posts from the minutely detailed practical advice about filling in apps using Adobe to the most helpful I ever read here, as I've mentioned before, which was Rowan's notes from the talk given by the Stanford admissions counselor.</p>
<p>My son really did do his own thing and I doubt that much in where he applied or how he applied would have changed if I had buried my head in the sand for 6 months (I'm sure he would have been glad if I had :) ).</p>
<p>I bought the Fiske Guide when D was a sophomore and started getting college mail after taking the PSAT; I think I've memorized some of the entries by now. I like Acing the College Application for its nitty gritty instructions on filling out the common app such as where on the page to write in "see attached sheet"; D likes to have assurance that she's doing this "correctly" and I tend to fall apart when I see a form. I seem to have put tons of post-its into Montauk's How to Get into the Top Colleges. It contains a lot of quotes from admissions officers and helped us get somewhat of a handle on what colleges are looking for. Granted this was way before I discovered CC. I own and have borrowed from the library a lot more books than that, but that's because the way I approach any new experience is to hit the book stores, the library, and amazon. Oh--the best book I borrowed from the library on college admissions was the Harvard Lampoon's Guide to college admissions.</p>
<p>What I need now are books to help ME adjust to D going away to college...</p>
<p>I have to agree with Xiggi. What great advice!</p>
<p>Having gone through the admissions process with two very different children. I found the more I read the more comfortable with the process I was. Did it make a difference? Probably not. The point is that I felt comfortable with the process.</p>
<p>My children were not ivy contenders, although, my oldest did apply to many ivies. What I found to be most important in the whole process is to present your child to the colleges for who they are. Between your child, their recommenders and the guidance counselors, let the colleges get a glimpse of who they really are. Keeping this in mind, let their essays be them.</p>
<p>My daughter's English teacher hated my daughter's essay. It was about her first day at school in kindergarten. The teacher felt the thoughts expressed were not that of kindergartener's. I was there and, yes, they were exactly the thoughts that were going through this child's mind. Obviously, the teacher did not know my child well enough. My daughter took note of the comment, but knew this was who she was and handed in the essay. By the way, she was accepted to the school which we felt was a reach.</p>
<p>Using the books, I got a good feel how to do the brag sheets. I wanted a format that was easy on the eye and allowed the adcoms to peruse as efficiently as possible. Knowing that they only spent X hours on each application, gave insight on how to organize for maximum efficiency.</p>
<p>Also, it is nice to know what adcoms, are looking for from guidance counselors. My children went to a public high school where the guidance counselors were overworked and certainly overwhelmed. Knowing what information was needed. I made an appointment for my child and myself in the spring of junior year. We had all the information organized. This gave sufficient time for the counselor to prepare something during the summer months.</p>
<p>As far as SAT's, both kids used the SAT prep books which helped to improve their scores, we also, used the AP prep book for my youngest and she received one of the higher scores in her class. I have been recommending this to all my friends.</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone... this can a stressful time... naturally, the kids survive the process just fine... the parents dwell on it forever!</p>
<p>Oops... I meant X minutes on each application.</p>
<p>Xiggi- it's wonderful that you "drop in" as time allows. Glad to hear you're enjoying CMC!</p>
<p>I've heard lots from many of you about brag sheets. This is not something we've done. What's the purpose? Does it list your accomplishments and ECs that wouldn't fit onto the normal app page or does it give more detailed info about the accomplishments already listed on the app page?</p>
<p>In response to Xiggi's post re: books and classes....I have a comment about SAT prep. Son is a strong student with high PSAT Scores. His first crack at the SAT was shockingly horrible (when copmpared to his level of preparation in academics and his PSAT scores). He had previously attended a group SAT class at school. I don't think it helped at all. He came home from his first SAT test and told me that he thoguht it was hard....much harder than he expected.</p>
<p>I checked out the top name SAT prep courses online....Kaplan, PR.....and found them to be more expensive than I thought they would be. But, I guess I would have paid the price had I not taken this next step. </p>
<p>Whne son was moving from elementary to high school, we used an educational consultant to help sift through the options. I returned to that same consultant for help with SAT prep options and he recommended a local operation.....with a cost in the $1300 range for 12 weeks of in-home prep. The recommendation turned out to be one of the best investments made.....the firm was VERY flexible, owner-operated, very personable....son's math tutor was a graduate of his HS and his verbal tutor was a teacher and from our church. Son's point increase on the SAT was incredible (200+) and he had a good experience with the tutors. When we decided to use them again for SAT II help, they made sure to place son with the same tutor. The owner called me once a week to make sure I was satisfied with everything and everyone....tutors, administrators, owner.....everyone seemed to feel vested in the results.</p>
<p>I'm a big fan of supporting local businesses as opposed to national chains...and in this case it really worked out. Everyone else we know has used PR SAT prep (in home)....and they have all consistently reported score increases in the 100 point range. Who knows, maybe my son would have jumped (200+ points) with no prep...or with PR....maybe he just had a bad day or was too nervous on the first try. I don't know what "might" have happened.....</p>
<p>Just my plug for local prep operations....</p>
<p>Momsdream- to answer your ? about brag sheets, the answer is "both". Most college apps offer limited space for listing ECs, awards, etc. An annotated resume can highlight the student's achievements and accomplishments in a way that adds another dimension to the applicant for a more wholistic picture. In elite college admissions, this is especially important. But, it's important to check the college's policy regarding resumes. Some colleges clearly prohibit using them while others require using their own formats. I also would caution not to label it as "Brag Sheet" as the term is synonomous with Kat Cohen, the pricey NY admissions counselor.</p>
<p>Thanks Kissy. The apps seem to have been adequate for my son's ECs and awards, thus far. Perhaps he should create a brag sheet for use during the interviews.</p>
<p>The term "brag sheet" is used in our school for the information sheet that students and parents are asked to fill out for used by the GC and teachers when writing recs. </p>
<p>At his interview, my S provided the interviewer with a one-page resume that the interviewer took away (this interview took place before the application was submitted, so noone in the admissions office would have access to S's information). </p>
<p>For interview purpose, it is probably better to have a one page resume that the interviewer can glance at quickly, even if it provides only minimal information, rather than pages and pages of information that will distract the interviewer from the purpose of the interview, namely talk with the students. In fact, this minimal information can be a good jumping off point for further elucidation during the interview.</p>
<p>so much information geez</p>
<p>Another use for a 'brag sheet' is to help with completing applications of various sorts. If you have it all organized, the expedited applications are a breeze to fill out. I think it makes the student feel a little more confident - seeing what he or she has accomplished.</p>