The Race for Admission to a Top Rated College

The book opens with the author racing about like crazy trying to find all the appurtenances for a successful college admission for her youngest daughter. There are tutors and coaches and always the question of how much you can afford just to get through the application process. Behind it all is money. You want the best for your child, but you also have to eat and take care of your other children. The other factor about money is that the college or university wants to make money. In fact, they have to make a lot of money to pay administrator salaries, provide amenities for the students, and keep star faculty.

The book is filled with anecdotes about how some well-qualified students are denied admission to top ranked colleges because of bias by the administrators of their prep schools and other problems that have little to do with how well qualified the student is. There are also stories about how parents cheat and bargain to get their students into the top ranked schools. The questions is whether the top ranked schools are worth the effort.

The book has good information for parents facing the challenges of college admission, but it also points out the problems with the system. Financial aid is hard to come by for students that really need it. The rich have an advantage because they can pay the outrageous tuition. Student loans are in many instances designed to suck you in and limit your future because of monstrous debt.

I enjoyed the book. I did find the author a bit repetitive. She had one story to tell and told it in every chapter although bolstered by different anecdotes. In the opening, I found the spectacle of the author racing about to do all the right things to get her daughter into college off putting. The question it raised for me is whether college is really that important right out of high school. Even if you go to a top ranked college the degree in most fields with be ancient history once you’re in the job market.

I received this book from St. Martin’s Press for this review.