<p>My eldest will be entering 9th grade this fall, and we're now doing research so she can make educated decisions about her high school coursework and ECs.</p>
<p>To that end, I'm considering buying a book to peruse when I don't have immediate access to the internet and CC.</p>
<p>Has anyone read "What High Schools Don't Tell You: 300+ Secrets to Make Your Kid Irresistible to Colleges by Senior Year" by Elizabeth Wissner-Gross? She has another book called "What High Schools Don't Tell You (And Other Parents Don't Want You to Know): Create a Long-Term Plan for Your 7th to 10th Grader for Getting into the Top Colleges" available for pre-order.</p>
<p>Are there other books on the subject that you can recommend?</p>
<p>"What High Schools Don't Tell You: 300+ Secrets to Make Your Kid Irresistible to Colleges by Senior Year" by Elizabeth Wissner-Gross?"</p>
<p>I've read it, and am in the process of getting my one and only ready for the ninth grade too. I plan on re-reading it, as I enjoyed it the first go round, but read it rather fast. I want to absorb the information now.</p>
<p>I have read and found helpful Wissner-Gross"What High Schools Don't Tell You(And Other Parents Don"t Want You to Know)-good book and I just bought it this year with a Junior</p>
<p>We own the "What Other Parents Don't Want You to Know" book. We call it "the book of dirty tricks". Some of the advice is very good, but some of it just makes me angry because it is manipulative and dishonest (I would cite examples, but just loaned it to someone...). It really made me think that if that is what it takes to get my kid into a top school, and a lot of those types of kids are getting in, then I don't want D going there anyway...</p>
<p>I agree that there is some good advice in the book and some questionable advice. As I recall she was encouraging people to investigate and find out which college departments are not very popular with students and then have your child apply to those undersubscribed majors. I turned the book back into the library but I am thinking she was also the author that talked about trying to get your child on certain athletic teams such as crew just to get into certain schools. However, I liked her overall theme of looking at the competitiveness of college admissions on a nationwide basis (not just at your local school) and encouraging your children to enroll in bigger nationwide contests.</p>
<p>Yes, those are some of the types of examples I recall. Also, I remember that she had a tips on getting your kid a display of their "art portfolio" by asking a local business to display some of their artwork, then playing that up to the admissions office as a "one person art show" or something like that. And looking around for some obscure contests for your kid to enter senior year that you could then play up to the admissions offices. It just made me sad that this type of maneuvering is what the college admissions process has come to.</p>
<p>I found the book helpful in a couple of ways. It put into perspective why my D did not get into her reach schools and why my S in not going to apply to Ivy's. It also made me realize that we needed to do a few things --like take a look at S's EC's and such. But mainly for creating a list not in order to make stuff more important than it is. I did find some of her suggestions over the top and also came to the final feeling that all of this emphasis of getting into college is wrong-so many kids are in a frezy about it (or their parents are). Not the case in our house-he's out skateboarding right now-not at home studying for his SAT's.</p>