How to Prepare a Standout College Application: Expert Advice that Takes You from LMO* (*Like Many Others) to Admit 1st Edition

I have read many, many books on college admissions over the past few years, and have also read quite a bit online on the topic. I bought this book for my daughter the summer before senior year as it seemed to have a unique niche in the college admission book category: how to actually fill out the college applications in the most effective and high impact manner. I read the book from cover to cover (which I recommend for parents to do, there are lots of tips for parents too), then gave it to my daughter. This book provided great guidance for my daughter on creating a schedule for managing the time intensive college application process (while also juggling a heavy senior course load and several major extracurricular activities), as well as great advice on how to fill out every section of the common app. Every time my daughter had a question about the application process, she would first look to this book to see what specific guidance and kernels of wisdom were offered. My daughter's final applications were well crafted and portrayed her talents and positions of leadership/impact in a well thought out way, but also a way that was authentic to her personality and values. Per the suggestions in this book on schedule and timing, her applications were submitted well before the deadlines - her early action application was submitted 2 weeks before the deadline, and she kept up the momentum and finished all of her additional applications in early December. I am happy to report that my daughter was accepted early to her first choice school. I believe that this book truly helped her put together a stand out application. Many thanks to the authors!

Our family used this book as a guide and reference so often that we just called it, "The Book." Our oldest son is an Alan Turing Scholar in computer science and our youngest just got an acceptance letter from Georgetown. They exceeded our expectations. The book provided very practical advice to work through the many complex college applications. Each of our sons had to write at least 25 different supplemental essays just to apply to 6-8 schools each. The book was especially good at helping them target and develop each application fully. They were so busy with school, activities & applications that it would have been easy to overlook important details as they worked toward all of the admission deadlines. The advice in the book helped us all stay focused during each step in the process. It was easy for the boys to read a few pages of advice before each admission event. They didn't ever read the book cover-to-cover, but they read a few pages right before a college recruiter visit, interview, or or campus visit. This is a book you "do" rather than just read. The exercise that has students write a five sentence statement to use as the framework for navigating the applications was great. I believe it made a difference for our sons and I highly recommend this book to anybody who wants the best chance at a reach school.

I rarely give product reviews but I loved this book so much that I decided to express my views here. As a little background, I am a high school senior who got accepted to my top choice (Caltech), along with Princeton, Columbia, and UPenn among other places. Now, obviously this book isn't the sole reason I got in, but I felt it sincerely helped me produce a smooth polished application that presented my story well (and as they'll advise, having a coherent story that exhibits itself in many aspects of your life is the most important thing to present to colleges. Sort of a "common thread" so to speak). Their essay guidelines and advice were so helpful, and while I did use other books and the Internet to get ideas for some prompts, they were the best in addressing how to answer questions, particularly the "why college X" questions, which were typically the essays I was most proud of, particularly for Caltech (ironically, one of the positive book reviews on the back of the book was from a Caltech admissions person, but I never thought my dream would come true). At the very least, this book will help a student put their best foot forward and the student will be confident that they will be accepted into the colleges that are the right fit. I certainly had no worries at the time of my application that my application was lacking (well, maybe I was insecure about credentials, but you know what I mean).

I purchased this book to support my son during the college admissions process. This book had useful tips that I would not have thought of for specific aspects of the application, plus it outlined an overall strategy that I thought was right-on (but I would not have thought of myself). Plus, the people who wrote it have real-world experience with admissions, so I felt confident in taking their advice in areas where it was hard to know what the applications would allow or had in mind, such as what test scores to submit (should you submit your AP scores, for example) and the smartest way to characterize your activities so that even those tiny bits of text would help you stand out and tell your story better. My son had the credentials to get in pretty much anywhere, and although he might have been accepted without this advice, I do feel that the book helped him to put his best foot forward in an important way, plus it provided some support and structure in areas where it was otherwise unclear how to best proceed. And, my son was accepted ED at the school of his choice.

Needs an update for the internet age, but a lot of classic, solid advice here still.

Both my son and I read this book and it was invaluable. Another reviewer described how during the college application process they referenced this book so much that it simply began to be referred to as “The Book”. We had the same experience! My son used it for every part of his application to figure out how to best lay out his accomplishments. The sections on essay writing were extremely helpful as well. He was accepted to his top choice Ivy League college - I don’t think his application would have come out as well without reading this book.