What Colleges Don't Tell You (And Other Parents Don't Want You to Know): 272 Secrets for Getting Your Kid into the Top Schools

by Elizabeth Wissner-Gross

Overview

A sought-after packager of high school students shares 272 secrets to help parents get their kids into the top schools

Targeting the savvy parents of today's college-bound teenagers who seek to gain a proven edge in the college admissions process, this book reveals 272 little-known secrets to help parents get their kids into the school of their dreams.

Did you know?
-A child's guidance counselor can help reverse a deferral.
-A parent can help get a child off a waiting list.
-There is a way for students to back out of Early Decision once they've been accepted.

Based on the controversial insider information Elizabeth Wissner-Gross has gleaned from working as a highly successful packager of high school students and from interviews with heads of admission at the nation's top colleges, this book empowers parents by decoding the admissions process.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780452288546
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/31/2007
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	543,074
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 - 17 Years

About the Author

Elizabeth Wissner-Gross, trained as a journalist, has for ten years succeeded in helping students, including her own children, gain admission offers to Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT, and other competitive colleges.

Editorial Reviews

An empowering insider’s guide.”—Melissa Hartman, Imagine magazine, Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth
 
“Insider Wissner-Gross… knows exactly how to help graduates gain admission to the most prestigious colleges in the country, including Harvard, Yale, and Princeton… Dig in and give your kid a much-needed advantage.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
“Wissner-Gross has found a keenly sought after niche in helping parents ‘package’ their children for college admissions… Most helpful is [her] advice gleaned from admissions officers… and her reminder to stay persistent.”—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

A self-styled "educational strategist" and mother of two high achievers, journalist Wissner-Gross has found a keenly sought after niche in helping parents "package" their children for college admission. The author's approach is to endow the student's advocate, usually a parent who has the most time to devote to the task, with the skills to elicit and enhance the student's natural accomplishments, rendering him or her desirable to colleges. Through sound experience, and the use of scattered case profiles, Wissner-Gross demonstrates that even students with extremely unlikely prospects for admission to good colleges can succeed handsomely when they are wisely packaged-i.e., when their specific academic passions ("the current buzzword") are extracted and polished. The author highlights 272 "secrets" to winning at the college application process, from answering the Big Question of why a specific college would take one's son or daughter to preparing for standardized testing and interviews with college admissions officers. Most helpful is the author's advice gleaned from admissions officers about the best and worst kinds of application essays ("Avoid writing an essay about a luxury tour"), and her reminder to stay persistent even when a student is waitlisted at her college of choice. (Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly