Valedictorians at the Gate

Valedictorians at the Gate
Author: Becky Munsterer Sabky
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2021-08-03
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1250619041

Named one of Grown & Flown's “Best Book on College Admissions and Paying for College” “The most honest, most helpful book I’ve ever read on applying to college” —New York Times bestselling author Adam Grant A former Ivy League Admissions Officer offers an inspiring battle cry for sanity in the college application process that looks beyond the rankings to successfully determine what’s truly the best school for you or your child. After spending years as a college admissions director at Dartmouth, Becky Munsterer Sabky had seen it all. The perfect grades, the perfect scores, and the perfect extracurriculars. Valedictorians were knocking at the gate, but Becky realized that in their quest for admission many of these students were missing something. Their transcripts were golden, their interviews polished, but they weren’t applying for college, they were competing for it—and in the end they didn’t know what prize they were really striving for. In Valedictorians at the Gate, Sabky looks beyond the smoke and mirrors of the intimidating admissions gauntlet and places the power firmly where it should be: in the hands of the students themselves. Offering prescriptive, actionable advice for students and their (hopefully not helicoptering) parents, Sabky illuminates the pathway to finding the school that is the ideal match. Witty and warm, informative and inspiring, Valedictorians at the Gate is the needed tonic for overstressed, overworked, and overwhelmed students on their way to the perfect college for them.

The Gatekeepers

The Gatekeepers
Author: Jacques Steinberg
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2003-07-29
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780142003084

In the fall of 1999, New York Times education reporter Jacques Steinberg was given an unprecedented opportunity to observe the admissions process at prestigious Wesleyan University. Over the course of nearly a year, Steinberg accompanied admissions officer Ralph Figueroa on a tour to assess and recruit the most promising students in the country. The Gatekeepers follows a diverse group of prospective students as they compete for places in the nation's most elite colleges. The first book to reveal the college admission process in such behind-the-scenes detail, The Gatekeepers will be required reading for every parent of a high school-age child and for every student facing the arduous and anxious task of applying to college. "[The Gatekeepers] provides the deep insight that is missing from the myriad how-to books on admissions that try to identify the formula for getting into the best colleges...I really didn't want the book to end." —The New York Times

What You Don't Know Can Keep You Out of College

What You Don't Know Can Keep You Out of College
Author: Don Dunbar
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2007-07-05
Genre: Study Aids
ISBN: 1440623597

In the tradition of The Gatekeepers, a veteran counselor provides the missing key to the college admissions door with insider wisdom about how admissions committees think, and the thirteen fatal mistakes that can ruin an application. When Don Dunbar was a college counselor for Phillips Academy, Andover, in the 1980s, he got to sit in on the meetings where the nation’s top colleges decided whether to admit his students. Prep school counselors no longer get this kind of astonishing access, but in those meetings, Don discovered a little-known key to college admissions that still holds true today. Many applicants look alike, based on their grades, test scores, and extracurriculars, so colleges want something more: They want applicants with character. Most of us know what character means, but not in the way that admissions officers define it. Admissions officers have tremendous integrity, and to them, character equals what a student will contribute to his or her community, good or bad, over the next four years. Don explains the concept of character in terms that high school students can understand, using examples from his thirty years of working with kids. He shows readers how to avoid the thirteen fatal character mistakes that even the brightest students make when applying to college and democratizes the admissions process, making his advice available to all students.

Summary of Becky Munsterer Sabky's Valedictorians at the Gate

Summary of Becky Munsterer Sabky's Valedictorians at the Gate
Author: Everest Media,
Publisher: Everest Media LLC
Total Pages: 31
Release: 2022-10-07T22:59:00Z
Genre: Study Aids
ISBN:

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I had been on the job for a few months when I was assigned the task of voting on early decision applications. The process seemed straightforward, but actually voting—that was another story. The thing is, when it comes to college admissions, there are no clear-cut answers. No easy answers. The decision-making process is a messy, complicated, and imprecise art. -> The application process is not transparent. Admissions officers fiercely protect the privacy of their decisions. College admissions is a messy, complicated, and imprecise art. #2 In college admissions, there are no easy answers. #3 In college admissions, there are no easy answers. The process is a messy, complicated, and imprecise art. #4 In college admissions, there are no easy answers.

The Thinking Parent's Guide to College Admissions

The Thinking Parent's Guide to College Admissions
Author: Eva Ostrum
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2006
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780143037415

Furnishes a guide on how to negotiate the college admissions process, offering advice, tools, and procedures that cover everything from the college application timetable to writing an effective application essay.

The College Conversation

The College Conversation
Author: Eric J. Furda
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2021-09-21
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1984878360

From an Ivy League dean and a college admissions expert, a guide to help parents support their children as they navigate their way to college The College Conversation is a comprehensive resource for mapping the path through the college application process that provides practical advice and reassurance to keep both anxious parents and confused children sane and grounded. Rather than adding to the existing canon of "How to Get In" college guides or rankings, Eric Furda and Jacques Steinberg provide a step-by-step approach to having the tough conversations on this topic with less stress and more success. The book is organized around key discussions and themes that trace the chronological arc of admissions and financial aid--beginning before the assembly of a list of potential colleges and continuing through the receipt of decisions--with a final section that includes advice on the first year of college. The topics include preliminary conversations about the search, and specifically how parents can think about their children's interests and what kind of college would best suit them; choosing a college (based on its curriculum, culture, and community); writing the most effective essays; assessing acceptances, including considerations of finances and aid; and making the transition from high school to college life. The College Conversation will provide parents, students, and counselors with the credible, level-headed information often missing in this process, as well as a much-needed dash of perspective borne of experience.

Choosing College

Choosing College
Author: Michael B. Horn
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2019-09-11
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1119570115

Cut through the noise and make better college and career choices This book is about addressing the college-choosing problem. The rankings, metrics, analytics, college visits, and advice that we use today to help us make these decisions are out of step with the progress individual students are trying to make. They don't give students and families the information and context they need to make such a high-stakes decision about whether and where to get an education. Choosing College strips away the noise to help you understand why you’re going to school. What's driving you? What are you trying to accomplish? Once you know why, the book will help you make better choices. The research in this book illustrates that choosing a school is complicated. By constructing more than 200 mini-documentaries of how students chose different postsecondary educational experiences, the authors explore the motivations for how and why people make the decisions that they do at a much deeper, causal level. By the end, you’ll know why you’re going and what you’re really chasing. The book: Identifies the five different Jobs for which students hire postsecondary education Allows you to see your true options for what’s next Offers guidance for how to successfully choose your pathway Illuminates how colleges and entrepreneurs can build better experiences for each Job The authors help readers understand not what job students want out of college, but what "Job" students are hiring college to do for them.

How to Prepare a Standout College Application

How to Prepare a Standout College Application
Author: Alison Cooper Chisolm
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2013-08-06
Genre: Study Aids
ISBN: 1118702069

Demystifying the process of completing a college application Written by two former admissions officers at top universities and current admissions coaches, this book is a must-have for preparing a winning college application. The authors reveal the mystery behind what college admissions officers are looking for and show applicants how to leverage their credentials, stand out in the over-crowded applicants' pool, and make a genuine, memorable impression. This is the book that will help the college-bound get off the "like many others" pile and onto the acceptance list. Includes instructions and examples for every component of the college application, from writing the essay to answering questions like "Why do you want to go to College X?" Shows how to avoid underestimating the importance of critical features on any application Includes the latest information on the Common Application 4.0 and corrects outdated, holdover advice still stressed in many other books This book is filled with step-by-step advice that students and parents can use immediately and will refer to again and again.

Acceptance

Acceptance
Author: David L. Marcus
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2009-07-23
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1101105054

An engrossing profile of an extraordinary guidance counselor who helps kids get into the right colleges through focusing on self- awareness Gwyeth Smith, known as Smitty, is a nationally renowned guidance counselor who believes that getting into college should be a kid's first great moment of self-discovery. In Acceptance, David L. Marcus, Pulitzer Prize-winning former education writer for U.S. News & World Report, spins an absorbing narrative of a year in the lives of Smitty and "his" kids. At a diverse public school in Long Island, New York, Smitty works his unique magic on students' applications and their lives, helping them find the right college by figuring out who they are, rather than focusing on what their test scores, grades, and finances reflect. Loaded with advice that readers can apply to their own college searches, Acceptance is a book that thousands of students and their parents will find indispensable.

Get Real and Get In

Get Real and Get In
Author: Dr. Aviva Legatt
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2021-08-03
Genre: Study Aids
ISBN: 9781250773968

An insider's college admissions guide that teaches students to identify and harness their unique passions, stand out from the crowd, and achieve their dreams. Dr. Aviva Legatt has spent her career in higher education as a professor, counselor, and admissions officer in the Ivy League, and she wants to let students in on a secret: admissions offices are sick of seeing the same cookie-cutter applications. What were once considered best practices for “doing high school right” are now so commonplace that they have become a liability. Get Real and Get In teaches readers to think outside of the box and focus on what admissions officers are really looking for—young people who dare to be their most authentic selves. Through engaging, accessible, and empathetic prose, this book forms an inspirational roadmap for readers to uncover their true passions and leverage them to create applications that truly stand out from the crowd. It also features a variety of useful exercises and candid stories from many influential figures, which teach students to look beyond just getting into a “good” college and focus more actively on identifying and attaining their long term goals. Get Real and Get In is designed to ignite an essential mindset shift in students: stop trying to just “get in” and start figuring out exactly what you want from life and how to get it. Stop managing the impressions you make on admissions officers and start defying impressions. This is an essential guide to cutting through the noise of the admissions process and gaining the confidence to forge one’s own path to success—in college and beyond.