Customer Reviews

Greenes' Guides to Educational Planning: Making It Into a Top College: 10 Steps to Gaining Admission to Selective Colleges and Universities

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I am a big fan of the Greene's Guides, as I have read several of them. So far, they all were excellent. However, I found this one the weakest. It is too long for the amount of info it conveys. Do we really need that many pages disclosing numerous candidates essays, or in detail profile of international students applying to the U.S. As a result, the book is boring.

When I read a college guide I now look for two things. First, does it offer new insights, a new angle to the whole college admission process? And, second how many mistakes do they make due to outdated data, wrong assumptions. Then, I balance the two (the positives and the negatives).

This book does not come out well because it has few practical insights. The info provided is general, and readily shared by any other college guide. The one insight that is interesting is Chapter 7, the Pie Chart Analysis. This is where you figure out what are your unique qualities that make you a stronger candidate for a specific school. Unfortunately, how many of us own world-beating skills that make us a special candidate. The author mentions the case of a women who was the second nationally ranked squash player who got in a Ivy League with a strong women's squash program while she had a B+ GPA and a 1300 SAT (poor by Ivy standard). Well, that's great but how helpful is that for the rest of us.

However, the book contains several outright mistakes. The authors repeat several times that one should not apply Early Admission (EA) or Early Decision (ED) unless one's academic profile is stronger than the average accepted students. This is plain wrong. The authors made the human mistake to believe misleading, politically correct statements from admission officers. The reality supported by objective data is completely different. Just study "The Early Admission Game" the best book on the subject. And, based on that author's statistical analysis applying EA gives you an advantage equivalent to boosting your SAT score by 70 points (old SAT, probably 105 points new SAT). Meanwhile, applying ED gives you an advantage of 100 points on old SAT (probably 150 points new SAT). If you apply to any Ivy League, MIT, or Stanford you just owe it to yourself to apply through their EA or ED programs.

The authors also state that your overall GPA is much more important then test scores. How could that be? At that level (Ivy candidates) everyone has close to a 4.0 GPA. So, the GPA does not differentiate at all between candidates. From an academic point what does differentiate? Two things: your grades in AP and honors classes and test scores. These factors will determine whether you will get into an Ivy League school or not.

The authors also recommend going to a less selective school for the first two years; and transfer in your Junior year to a more selective school. From everything else I have read, that's not going to work. Transferring is very difficult anyway. But, in any case transferring sideways or downward is doable. Transferring upward is nearly impossible. It is not a recommended college strategy by any one else.

There are other mistakes. But, by now you already get my drift. The negatives far outweigh the positives. Thus, I recommend you pass on this one.

Instead, I can wholeheartedly recommend some of the other Greenes' Guides that are much more focused, streamlined, and informative. These include: The Hidden Ivies, The Public Ivies, and Inside the Top Colleges. This last one is a must read for anyone who is a serious candidate to an Ivy League school. You'll quickly see that the high profile, pressure cooker environment is not for everyone regardless of IQ.

Again, the most interesting book I have read on this subject is "The Early Admission Game." It is one of the first book that uncovered hard data on admission.

My son is a 17 year old High School Junior in a large suburban High School. I found this book while browsing for College information and direction on how to narrow all choices available. This was one of many books I bought as I developed our own library of College Books (Fiske, et al...). I can say without hesitation that this is the one book any parent needs to own. I have read it and re read many times since I bought it last summer. All other books repeat the same information over and over again. Mr. Greene's years of experience provide an uncommon insight and down to earth observations into the College admission process and how to improve your child's chances of being accepted by a competitive school. Not only that , Mr. Greene'sincere concern with making the right choice will open your eyes into options beyond the most competitive schools. He believes there are many choices available and what is important is making the right choice for your child. I recommend this book to any parent involved in the College selection process.

There are literally thousands of books for the college-bound student, whether you are looking for study guides or summaries of America's colleges. I have found that many books repeat the same information over and over, but this is not one of them!THis book provides parents and students with ten detailed steps to approaching the college process, beginning around junior year. Another great choice is the Princton Review's Best 331 Colleges.

I am a High School Freshman, but even though its how to get into college its also good on how to plan your high school years also. I strongly recommend this book for the college-bound and high school students.

This book is pretty good, but has some major flaws. I am 12, and got this book from my mom. "It's never too early to start thinking for college." Let start off by saying that about half of "step 1" is a big waste. They have only useless junk in there. The only useful info is stuff about early admissions, that is about 4 pages. And maybe some financial aid websites, and some other stuff. It has some useful information, but definitely not worth the list price of 16 bucks. My mom got it from Barnes and Noble for 4.98, and amazon also has a bargain price. It's worth up to about 8-10 bucks, but no more than that.

This book seems to focus on the advanced level high school
students looking for prominent institutions, BUT you can also
apply all the steps for any other colleges you wish to attend!
I found it very helpful and it really got me searching for the
best college that will match me.