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

A sought-after “packager” of high school students shares highly coveted strategies to help parents get their kids into the country’s most competitive colleges

Did you know? A child’s guidance counselor can help reverse a deferral. A parent can help get a child off a waiting list. And 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 for years as a successful packager of high school students and from interviews with heads of admission at some of the nation’s most competitive colleges, this book helps parents answer questions such as: Can an application be sabotaged by a competing student or parent? How do colleges really know if a student applies to two or more schools for Early Decision? Is it possible to prescreen a teacher’s recommendation? As well as the biggest question of all: Of the tens of thousands of highly qualified students that graduate each year, why should a college choose yours?

Targeting the college-educated parents of today’s college-bound teenagers who seek to gain a proven edge in the highly secretive and seemingly arbitrary college admissions process, What Colleges Don’t Tell You (and Other Parents Don’t Want You to Know) reveals 272 little- known, unconventional, tried-and-true secrets to help parents get their children into the most competitive schools of their dreams.

Genres: Education

336 pages, Hardcover

First published August 3, 2006

Reviews

[Suzanne]

This book certainly has some useful tips and is worth skimming. That being said, it is also heavily biased towards kids racking up credentials and contest wins in math and science, and not paying adequate attention to other unusual accomplishments an applicant may bring to his college application. In addition, it presumes that money is never an object for parents who wish to help their children get into the college of their choice. In reality, money spent on teenage expeditions or cultural exchanges is less money in the bank to pay that college bill when it comes due. My daughter, who considers me a Caucasian tiger mom, thought the intensity of parental involvement suggested by Wissner-Gross rose to the level of creepiness. I would not totally dismiss this book, however, since my daughter and I learned things we did not know previously.

[Coolwhipcat]

Good tips!
and the bad tips are quite entertaining!

[Kimberly]

from 2007, an updated version would rate a little higher.

[Karla]

Since I am a school counselor, there was no breaking news flash here that I learned and a couple of points with which I totally disagree. However, I can see how this information would be helpful to a parent who has not been exposed to this information since their own college application. This is also aimed at affluent students. It is not practical for an average public school kid.

[J.A. Busick]

I'd like my kids to be able to go to school wherever they want to -- if they want to go to Harvard, I'd like them to be able to do that. This book is an eye-opener on just what it takes to get into the very top colleges (tip: Getting to Carnegie Hall would be a good start!).

[Aude]

I read this book because I thought it would be helpful in the college process. And it was... the other college book I read was more useful though.

[MelanieMM]

Ok, so this book is highly snarky but she has a number of good points for helping kids succeed.

[Zui]

Helicopter parenting 101. The book do provide lots of good advice and resource though.

[C]

Has some good tips.

[Carolina]

A few useful tips, but overall I found it neurotic and dysfunctionally aggressive.