<p>What are your thoughts? Useful? Any information not available in "The Gatekeepers" or "A is for Admission" which I've already read?</p>
<p>An excellent guide to putting together an app. Not a "how to do" so much as another viewpoint. Michelle Hernandes has a newer book out, (the name escapes me) that is also a good read for those who really want to pull together a good presentation in their apps.</p>
<p>Amazon has a "search inside this book" feature available for that book. It's not quite as useful as the method where you go into Barnes & Noble, buy a cappucino, then pull a books you are interested from the shelf and sit down in one of those comfy chairs to leaf through them, but if you are too lazy to drive to the bookstore, then it will suffice. Basically, you can get a pretty good idea of what is in the book before you get it. If you find yourself cursing Amazon because the page limits for the search feature are too constraining, then you probably want to buy the book. (or at least get on over to B&N). </p>
<p>Someone else posted a comment about something called a "library" in another thread, too. Apparently there are places that let you take the books home with you for free..... ;)</p>
<p>QuiltGuru, I have read it and in fact, it was the first book I ever read to do with the college admissions process. I was totally oblivious to any of this stuff or even what books were out on the subject. It was in late summer of 2002, and I was buying a few college related books to give my oldest child for her sixteenth birthday which was the first day of her junior year and when we began the process and thinking about all this stuff. I had bought the big directories and saw this book about Getting In and it had to do with selective colleges and it was not like I had heard of it or of any other book on the subject but I bought it. </p>
<p>Cohen is a high powered (expensive) college counselor in New York. However, I found the book useful as an overall perspective on each aspect of the process. It was a good first book for me on the subject and there are parts of it that I still refer to. It is different from the two books you mentioned which I have since also read. The Gatekeepers is more a narrative (quite fascinating) than a "how-to". A is for Admissions is helpful and explains how the college admissions process works from someone who had been an adcom. But Cohen's book, Getting In, is more like what ya need to know to go about selecting/applying and the various steps of the process. </p>
<p>I'm not sure how I would view the book now or not, since I am far more well versed on the subject having gone through it with two kids and been on CC for almost three years, but I just know that it was a good one for me to read at the time.
Susan</p>
<p>Let me give you a quotation from the book (page 117):</p>
<p>"I believe the best test date are March and May of the junior year, and October of your senior year. March seems to be the best test date overall because more people take the SAT I on that day than any other. Since your score and percentile ranking are determined in relation to all the other students taking the test on that day, it is to your advantage to take it when more students are testing."</p>
<p>Wouldn't you expect someone who loves to brag about her own degrees and great knowledge to spend some time reading the information posted on The College Board? She claims that her book is about myths and truths. Well, the recommendation of Mrs. Cohen is not only a myth, but an absolute falsehood. </p>
<p>While I could forgive Mrs. Cohen inability to name the tests correctly -the ACT changed its name SIX years prior to the publishing of Mrs. Cohen book,- I cannot overlook such blatant ignorance of the inner workings of the SAT. It also casts a pretty dark and wide shadow on the remaining "tips" offered by the $30,000 lady. </p>
<p>A person buying her book would expect to find solid and PROVEN advice, not a rehash of information that is widely available on the web. This book could be helpful for someone who does not know a thing about admissions. The main benefit of the book resides in its organization of OUTSIDE sources and links. The rest of the information shared in this book requires a grain of salt as big as the ego of Mrs. Cohen. However, at a list price of $14.95, it won't break any budget and represents a correct value for the generic information. It also represents a few seconds of her time, and that is a pretty generous estimate of what you are buying!</p>
<p>All of these books have very useful nuggets and also will at times give you the "willies" and anxiety attacks that are best avoided. I bought four or five of them used on Ebay, which lessened my guilt about the investment in this genre. Of course the tone of the authors and some of their advice is going to rub you the wrong way, but it will help you develop perspective and your own personal game plan for admissions. The books helped my son develop realistic match and reach school lists. He also realized that even though he is not a guy who likes to talk about himself, now was the time...and he did not waste the time of his references either. It is terrible to sit down to write a HS student reference and then realize that the student did not give you anything special or individualistic to write about. He gave them plenty of information to do their jobs, and he appreciated their work and time.</p>
<p>I recommend hitting Ebay and getting a handful of them and scattering them in a place where your high school junior might sit down in front of a window now and then to chill out. Ditto on a couple books that have nothing but good essays. Leave them around the snack food. If you expect your son or daughter to have a clue about length and punch in personal essays, you need to expose them to a variety of good essays now. Essays need to develop over time.</p>
<p>One positive about having a Cohen or Hernandez book laying around: Your HS Junior doesn't believe you no matter how much you as parent natter on about getting together a handsome activity sheet, thinking ahead before going to an Alumni Interview and learning how to communicate well with your potential references. Public lectures on these subjects were very cursory and or totally not happening in our public schools. My son is an anti-suck-up and had to learn the difference between tooting his horn and giving his references valid and specific information personal to him to use in their essays. He "got it" when he saw the examples of student letters and activity and honor sheets critiqued in these advisory books.</p>
<p>My son skimmed a couple of those books and the good outcomes included that he decided it was worth sacrificing a couple sunny weekends in May to study SATII Prep manuals for instance. It is pretty hard for a parent to get a kid to take these exams seriously when they coincide with Beach Weeks and Final Exams being over. And that choice to prep for SATIIs in Spring of Junior year paid off for him. He nailed three great SAT II scores because he saw that things like that count in admissions offices that have many equally qualified students. </p>
<p>Although he got lucky and got in two Reach Schools, he really did like his match schools a great deal! And he recognized that Reach Schools could not be counted on at all. These books help break through the over-optimism or over-entitlement of youth and give kids the facts they need to be realistic. I also recommend Harvard Schmarvard, which is authored by a Harvard grad who believes that many top tier colleges deliver great educations and should be considered excellent schools. Too many kids waste their total psychic energy bonding with colleges with 10% admission rates...don't let that happen to your child. Love the colleges you apply to and appreciate their specific charms.</p>