<p>what books are good for understanding the admission process?</p>
<p>This is a recent thread on books</p>
<p>k thanks i didnt see that</p>
<p>"A is for Admission" is another good one....it explains what happens behind the scenes and how an app is evaluated.</p>
<p>If that's the one by Michelle Hernandez, I definitely would not recommend it. The book is notorious for introducing some controversial basis for admissions decisions, and I have found many of the facts the author speaks of to be false, or at the least, prejudiced.</p>
<p>For example, Ms. Hernandez advocated lying about your parents' jobs so you will get more financial aid money.</p>
<p>I have heard that The Gatekeepers, written by former admission officers from Wesleyan University, is supposed to be a good read.</p>
<p>"The Gatekeepers" is a fun read actually.</p>
<p>I'd add:</p>
<p>The Colleges that Have Changed Lives...Loren Pope
Looking Beyond the Ivy League...Loren Pope
Making It into a Top College...Howard & Matthew Greene
Rock Hard Apps...???</p>
<p>rock hard apps is by katherine cohen</p>
<p>the best ones I've read (and I've read almost all of them) are: </p>
<p>1) Andrew Allen's "Trade Secrets"- very nicely written and informative.
2) Rachel Torr's "Admissions Confidential"- extremely hilarious.</p>
<p>As a follow up, I picked up "The Gatekeepers" from the library and I'm on page 70. I can't put it down. Actually, I'm glad I'm reading it because I was briefly considering applying to Wesleyan and now I'm fairly sure I wouldn't have gotten in (they put a lot of emphasis on minorities and women science majors - neither of which I am - and I also live about 25 minutes away from the campus and they're looking for more regional diversity). Oh well.</p>
<p>For the record, Hernandez doesn't recommend "lying", she just recommends not being specific. Like if your father is the CEO of a bank, she says that simply "banker" would suffice.</p>
<p>She offers a lot of common sense advice about admissions and her book is among the best on the topic. It is enlightening in a number of ways. </p>
<p>The only problem is that since the book was published, admission has gotten quite a bit tougher and her evaluation of stats that put you in the ballpark are a bit out-dated.</p>
<p>At the very least, I would consider that slanting the truth. And while I do agree that she does provide some interesting insights into Ivy-league admissions, she says (and I quote):</p>
<p>"If an [admissions] officer sees a well-off student from the Collegiate Student in New York City applying via the common application, he might just think the student was too lazy to request the the college's own application or that the student used the individual applications for those colleges whose were really important to him and then threw in a few less important ones using the common application. In my experience, I have found that few admissions officers will admit to these subtle biases, but in the examples I have just cited, using the common application could hurt your chances for admission."</p>
<p>The very reason that the Common App was created in the first place was to offer students as many opportunities as possible to apply to colleges, and I don't see how a former admissions officer at Dartmouth should make light of the fact that people in admissions might be biased over the way their students apply. That defeats the whole process.</p>
<p>I don't think that one point is even narrowly an excuse to turn down the wealth of knowledge that is in that book. And she may certainly very well may be telling the truth. Also, it's not her place to condemn or laud such practices, just to raise the applicant's awareness, just in case.</p>
<p>The common app was created to increase the % of students rejected by colleges. Sure, the app makes it easier to apply. But, the desired end result (for colleges) is that they'll take in more apps and be able to reject more applicants.....making them appear more selective.</p>
<p>I agree with what you are saying, but I think there are far better books available with substantially better advice. My overall impression was that the author did not really know what she was talking about in certain subjects. I have read loads of book on college admissions, and while I certainly do not believe that qualifies me to interpret the college process more than a former Dartmouth admissions officer, I felt that some of the material she included in her book was more applicable to her as an individual than for Ivy League admissions as a whole. I'm not trying to make you angry, I'm just saying that during the process of reading it, there were about 5 or 6 times where I reread a sentence she had written and said to myself, "Are you freaking serious?!" I wish I could offer you more examples, but I read it last summer so I cannot remember specific instances. Anyway, that's just my opinion.</p>
<p>My first recommendation would be "The Gatekeepers". It made me feel much better about the admission process ... and about how they are trying to create an overall community ... and that they want to understand who each applicant is and what they would bring/add to the community.</p>
<p>My second recommendation is "A is for Admissions". It provided a good look into the nuts and bolts of the admission process ... and helped clarify my advice to my kids through high school. Take the hardest course in which you can do well, don't fret over the standardized tests (20-40 points one way or the other is not going to break you), and be active and do stuff you like ... do those three things and things will work out fine.</p>
<p>You Need A Book -An Entire Book, At Least 150 Pages- To Understand The Admissions Proccess???</p>
<p>Man, You Guys Over-analyze Everything. Sh!t!! I Just Filled Out A Form In 20 Minutes And Sent It By Mail, That's It. It's That Simple, I Swear.</p>