Who Gets in and Why
A Year Inside College Admissions by Jeffrey Selingo
While students have submitted their early applications and as students continue to submit their applications to universities in hope for their best scenario, a great book for parents and students to read before decisions come in would be: Who Gets in and Why A Year Inside College Admissions by Jeffrey Selingo. Jeffrey Selingo is a prolific author, blogger and speaker who has been writing about higher education for the last two decades.
This latest book by Selingo discusses the lucky students who are admitted to the high profile schools, talking about what makes an application standout, though, buyer beware, because Mr. Selingo discusses why a student with a perfect or close to perfect profile is denied admission and someone with a profile not so stellar may gain acceptance. This book has some of the answers.
Mr. Selingo gained access to three universities during the admissions ‘season’. He sat in on a high profile flagship public university, a leading private liberal arts college, and a selective private university (Davidson College, Emory University and University of Washington). He observed the admissions team making agonizing decisions, interviewed high school counselors, high school students, Independent Educational Consultants, and spoke to marketers as well (by marketers, I think about all those emails and shiny brochures you receive in the mail).
What this book illustrated is getting accepted to university is complicated, however, if applicants and their families learn about the ‘buyers’ and ‘sellers’ of universities and learn how to balance their list and figure ther financial leverage, Jeffrey Selingo’s book will show families how to make the best of these schools and plan accordingly.
Who Gets in and Why will give the reader great insight into the ‘goings on’ inside admissions offices. This is an important book and assists parents and students on how to look with clarity at the college admissions process with clarity and maintain balance and reality.