Admissions Confidential: An Insider's Account of the Elite College Selection Process
by Rachel Toor
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List Price: $23.95
Our Price: $0.61
Your Save: $ 23.34 ( 97% )
Availability:
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 378.161
EAN: 9780312284053
ISBN: 0312284055
Label: St. Martin's Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: 2001-09-04
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Studio: St. Martin's Press
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: candid
Comment: a fast read. some parts have value as an insight into admissions. the author almost comes across as at times somewhat mean and meanspirited.
the book does have entertainment value.
lousy picture in the dust jacket.
Customer Rating:
Summary: These are the days of our lives
Comment: I borrowed this book from my director to read on my fourth week of admissions travel, and I'm glad that I did. As a fellow admissions counselor, I felt that this book related what our lives are like down to the letter. I see this book not as a tool to find out the "magic formula" to get your kid into the perfect school, but really a kind of memoir that lets you know that we are more then just signatures at the bottom of your letter. We have lives, we passionately lobby for our universities, and we recruit the students that will fit in and enhance our academic communities. No one is going to have the "right" answers for you when it comes to college. Every school is way too different for that. What works at Duke, may not work at Arizona State. I guess what parents really need to know is to ask questions, listen to your kid, let them find their way, and apply early. That should save you some heartburn, and maybe you can use the money that you spent on college guides on college visit trips instead. Be respectful to your admissions and guidance counselors, we're here to help!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not essential...unless your heart's set on Duke
Comment: I'm a professional tutor in an upscale area in DC. This book packages itself in a manner that will apply to the superaware parent. Admissions Confidential: It sounds like someone did reconnaisance behind enemy lines. Like one of those cops that infiltrates the mob and comes out with powerful evidence to indict the bad guys and make the world safer. One of Toor's colleagues speculates that she's a "spy" and whether she's a spy or not, I get the sense that her decision to work in admissions may have been more curiosity that calling.
How can this book help you to master the college game? I'm not sure how this book will directly help most parents and students. Toor says that she is writing a "Dear John" letter that exposes college admissions. But she's also taking advantage of her opportunity to write a book that will be read and sharing her humanity with us. I found that interesting and it helped make the book a quick and enjoyable read. But that doesn't mean it's $15.00 worth of insight or worth the time for hectic families who have to sift through an enormous amount of resources in a short amount of time. Toor herself would probably advise against throwing a lot of time and money trying to master the game. Her book is more one person, who was low on the admissions totem pole, sharing her experience. Some will gain from her insights but I'm not sure this should be a high priority new purchase. It's a more a book to check out the intro to in a bookstore or library and see if the author's voice resonates with you enough to purchase it used.
The one exception I'd make to my recommendations above would be for students who are set on Duke as a top choice school. For those students, getting a snapshot of what the admissions office is like and what some of the likely personalities and biases are of this particular institution may be real helpful in digging beyond Kryzeski[s[?]Laettner[a horrible Washington Wizard!]GrantHillJJReddicksouthernfrateliteIvyishminoritymarginalizingresourcerich impressions to an under the hood kind of perspective. I don't know much more about college admissions from reading this book, but I have several specific stories to arm me in my quest to give minority students authentic impressions of well-marketed schools.
3 stars
--SD
Customer Rating:
Summary: Overrated by herself
Comment: The author's opinion of herself -- how interesting she is and how her Yale background (frequently mentioned) makes her eminently qualified to rate others -- is the driving force behind this book. There is a certain amount of informative material here that can open the eyes of college applicants and their parents and counselors. However, the only thing that really makes the book unique is its personal memoir style, which on balance detracts from rather than adds to the value of the book. Padding the book with irrelevant "insights" into her personal life and with reprints of columns previously published elsewhere both reflect that the book is really as much about the author as anything else. The reader also gets the impression that the author sought the job in the first place in order to write a book about it later. There is some justice in the world, however. Telling applicants to be careful not to submit essays with "embarrassing typos," the author relates a tale of having a girl applicant write that "she wanted to go to a 'smaller private school like Duke,' not one the the 'big state pubic institutions." (2001 paperback edition, p. 49.) It is so sweet that a few pages later, she herself writes: "Kids from elite private schools rarely get fives in achievement. And only the top few from the good pubic schools do." (Page 94.) Oops! If you're going to be smugly superior about others' imperfections, you'd better also be perfect.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It is what goes on.
Comment: I am an admission director for your history graduate program and have two children in college. So I have gone through the admissions game from both sides. Toor is occasionally -- okay often -- too cute and this posturing is doubtless painful to readers caught in the meritocratic system. Nonetheless, what goes on at the most selective schools and programs is well reflected in this book. Especially valuable is the section on how legacies with big bucks totally transcend the selection system and are admitted by the development department.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: candid
Comment: a fast read. some parts have value as an insight into admissions. the author almost comes across as at times somewhat mean and meanspirited.
the book does have entertainment value.
lousy picture in the dust jacket.
Customer Rating:
Summary: These are the days of our lives
Comment: I borrowed this book from my director to read on my fourth week of admissions travel, and I'm glad that I did. As a fellow admissions counselor, I felt that this book related what our lives are like down to the letter. I see this book not as a tool to find out the "magic formula" to get your kid into the perfect school, but really a kind of memoir that lets you know that we are more then just signatures at the bottom of your letter. We have lives, we passionately lobby for our universities, and we recruit the students that will fit in and enhance our academic communities. No one is going to have the "right" answers for you when it comes to college. Every school is way too different for that. What works at Duke, may not work at Arizona State. I guess what parents really need to know is to ask questions, listen to your kid, let them find their way, and apply early. That should save you some heartburn, and maybe you can use the money that you spent on college guides on college visit trips instead. Be respectful to your admissions and guidance counselors, we're here to help!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not essential...unless your heart's set on Duke
Comment: I'm a professional tutor in an upscale area in DC. This book packages itself in a manner that will apply to the superaware parent. Admissions Confidential: It sounds like someone did reconnaisance behind enemy lines. Like one of those cops that infiltrates the mob and comes out with powerful evidence to indict the bad guys and make the world safer. One of Toor's colleagues speculates that she's a "spy" and whether she's a spy or not, I get the sense that her decision to work in admissions may have been more curiosity that calling.
How can this book help you to master the college game? I'm not sure how this book will directly help most parents and students. Toor says that she is writing a "Dear John" letter that exposes college admissions. But she's also taking advantage of her opportunity to write a book that will be read and sharing her humanity with us. I found that interesting and it helped make the book a quick and enjoyable read. But that doesn't mean it's $15.00 worth of insight or worth the time for hectic families who have to sift through an enormous amount of resources in a short amount of time. Toor herself would probably advise against throwing a lot of time and money trying to master the game. Her book is more one person, who was low on the admissions totem pole, sharing her experience. Some will gain from her insights but I'm not sure this should be a high priority new purchase. It's a more a book to check out the intro to in a bookstore or library and see if the author's voice resonates with you enough to purchase it used.
The one exception I'd make to my recommendations above would be for students who are set on Duke as a top choice school. For those students, getting a snapshot of what the admissions office is like and what some of the likely personalities and biases are of this particular institution may be real helpful in digging beyond Kryzeski[s[?]Laettner[a horrible Washington Wizard!]GrantHillJJReddicksouthernfrateliteIvyishminoritymarginalizingresourcerich impressions to an under the hood kind of perspective. I don't know much more about college admissions from reading this book, but I have several specific stories to arm me in my quest to give minority students authentic impressions of well-marketed schools.
3 stars
--SD
Customer Rating:
Summary: Overrated by herself
Comment: The author's opinion of herself -- how interesting she is and how her Yale background (frequently mentioned) makes her eminently qualified to rate others -- is the driving force behind this book. There is a certain amount of informative material here that can open the eyes of college applicants and their parents and counselors. However, the only thing that really makes the book unique is its personal memoir style, which on balance detracts from rather than adds to the value of the book. Padding the book with irrelevant "insights" into her personal life and with reprints of columns previously published elsewhere both reflect that the book is really as much about the author as anything else. The reader also gets the impression that the author sought the job in the first place in order to write a book about it later. There is some justice in the world, however. Telling applicants to be careful not to submit essays with "embarrassing typos," the author relates a tale of having a girl applicant write that "she wanted to go to a 'smaller private school like Duke,' not one the the 'big state pubic institutions." (2001 paperback edition, p. 49.) It is so sweet that a few pages later, she herself writes: "Kids from elite private schools rarely get fives in achievement. And only the top few from the good pubic schools do." (Page 94.) Oops! If you're going to be smugly superior about others' imperfections, you'd better also be perfect.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It is what goes on.
Comment: I am an admission director for your history graduate program and have two children in college. So I have gone through the admissions game from both sides. Toor is occasionally -- okay often -- too cute and this posturing is doubtless painful to readers caught in the meritocratic system. Nonetheless, what goes on at the most selective schools and programs is well reflected in this book. Especially valuable is the section on how legacies with big bucks totally transcend the selection system and are admitted by the development department.
There are hundreds of books available that coach kids on writing college application essays, improving SAT scores and trying to beat the admissions system. Admissions Confidential is a definitive look at why those books don't work. Toor lifts the veil on a process that anxious parents and high school students have never had decoded before. And they may be shocked to find out:
--that elite colleges spend thousands of dollars recruiting students they will never admit
--why some students at the bottom of their high school classes are admitted to top schools when the valedictorians are rejected
--how pricey independent college counselors can hurt an applicant's chances
--why admission to a top school depends on who reads your application
--why the top of the class at a high-performing high school may end up at their second and third choice
Written in engaging first-person and covering the entire admissions process--from recruiting to enrollment--Admissions Confidential is a year in the life of a college admissions officer.
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