Customer Reviews

How to Get Into the Top Colleges

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is strongly recommended to those who have almost no idea of applying for colleges. It contains almost everything throughout the whole process you will encounter. NOTE: this book is designed mainly for general white american citizens or green card holders. If you are a minority or international student, there's not much information that is suitable for you.

This book is the most useful undergraduate admissions book. You do not have to read the whole book if you are in a time crunch; you can read just the sections pertinent to your case. It also has direct quotations from deans of admissions and financial officers from numerous schools; explains the differentiating factors among the top colleges.

I am still in high school, but I plan to use this book very extensively during my application process. I checked this book out from the library and it had so much good information I had to buy it. It's a little more expensive than most books on the admissions process but well worth it! What I did to make the best use of this book: In a notebook, I made a page for about 15 or so colleges that I'm considering. This books contains a TON of quotes from admissions officers about what they're looking for, so I took notes on each university. When I apply to these colleges, I will have a great reference of EXACTLY what their admissions departments are looking for in applicants. I can't testify to it yet, but I'm sure it will give me an extra edge! I feel I am a good but not breathtaking candidate for college, so I am worried about getting into the colleges that I have set my sights on. This book assured me that, through my application (which this book helps you out with), I could possibly gain acceptance to an Ivy. YOU MUST GET IT!

No, I`m not related to the authors. I don`t even know them. This is the first & only college admission advice book that I`ve read that expertly describes how admissions committees select candidates. I have been on medical & post graduate medical selection committees and can verify their information. The book contains comprehensive, yet still clear & concise information. Much of it I have not seen anywhere else. The section on "Marketing Yourself" is particularly informative, especially for college applicants. Quotes from numerous Directors & Deans of Admissions open the closed doors of admissions committees and illuminate their decision making process. There is even a section on "Taking Time Off Before College". Nothing like the real world to motivate you to get an education. Great resource, easy to read and well organized. Forget about all the magazine ratings, you can find them for free on the web. Buy this book, read it & follow their advice.

As both an educator and parent, I have read most of the college guides on the market written primarily for parents going through the college application and selection process for the first time. This comprehensive publication clearly explains all parts of the college application and how they are weighted by those who will ultimateley determine ones admittance or rejection. The authors' explanation of the early decision and early action options are the best I have read anywhere. There are many helpful suggestions for evaluating the college rating guides, visiting campuses and writing effective essays. Selecting the right college from the 5000+ choices across the nation can be a daunting task. Today, tuitions in private colleges can run between 140,000 and 170,000 dollars for a four year degree. Parents must become more informed and involved in this very important and expensive decision. To this end, How to Get Into the Top Colleges, is one of the best resources available to both parents and students alike. Good-luck!

I bought this book not knowing how incredibly useful it would be during the application process. I applied to 12 of the top schools and got admitted into 11, with Princeton being the only one that wait listed me. Without this book, I am pretty sure that the number would probably have been 7 or 8 admits instead of 11. Montauk explains, step by step, what to do to make your application stand out from the other 1400 SAT scorers. Buy this book and you will not regret the 20 or so dollars you are spending.

Richard R. Soto, Brown '06

While this book has a lot of good points, I think a better title would be You're Not Panicked Enough: The Admissions Guide For Families That Want More Stress. It should be noted that the book is written by paid professionals who help students get into elite colleges. Therefore, if families weren't worried about getting into those schools, the authors would make less money. The authors state things that have been proven false in books like Harvard Schmarvard such as you have greater chance to succeed and get higher salaries or have more opportunities if you attend an elite college. That's not true. Read Jay Matthews. Read Loren Pope. How to Get into the Top Colleges claims that rather foolish tricks like applying to a weaker division of a university in order to gain admission so you can transfer to the division you really want later are sometimes okay. They state, in all seriousness, that students should skip admissions interviews if they are anorexic or if they are "so contentious they will inevitably get into a verbal battle with the interviewer" or if they can't modify inappropriate behavior such as dressing like a neo-Nazi skinhead. Actually folks, parents of kids like those should probably be looking into therapy or nurturing care facilities instead of highly stressful college environments.

To be fair, this book does have a lot to offer, and the breadth of topics it covers is exhaustive. There are informative quotes from admissions officials at various colleges, although their definition of a top college focuses on exclusivity rather than educational opportunity. They have a large number of well-written essays that could give students ideas on how to compose effective essays of their own. Some of their advice on how to approach a teacher for a recommendation is very wise. (For example, make sure you give the teacher the opportunity to say no if she doesn't think she can write a "strong letter.")

Still, I do not recommend this book because of the atmosphere it creates. My favorite is the Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College. It's the most readable and concise. (How to Get into the Top Colleges is very thick and probably too overwhelming for busy students. It's really geared for the parent consumed with the prestige schools.). Fiske also creates a calming atmosphere. While not as clear as Fiske, I think families that insist on focusing only on the elite colleges would do pretty well with Admissions Matters by Sally Springer. It prepares students for the application process without scaring them and goes into more detail on application strategies for the toughest schools than Fiske.

Honestly, How to Get into the Top Colleges would probably help the kind of student with stellar GPA's and incredible test scores who will only look at schools like Swarthmore and Stanford. But if you find that the things in the book are making you hyperventilate, stop reading it and buy a different title.

This comprehensive book covers it all from understanding the rankings and deciding where to apply to test taking, positioning yourself, and writing essays (a particularly in-depth analysis). There are even chapters on applying to the US service academies and colleges abroad. Every parent should read the chapter on Financing College as the options have changed dramatically since we went to school. Among the highlights of this book are the abundant quotations from admissions officers at the top schools, including the Ivies. They broaden the book's perspective and help clarify the similarities and differences between schools. If you buy one college admissions guide, this should be the one.

Having recently graduated from one of the colleges mentioned numerous times in this book, I decided to check it out to see if I could have done anything more to ensure admittance into the school of my choice. In hindsight, this book would have been a tremendously useful resource, and probably given me more choices in my college selection process. Students who use the advice of Montauk and Klein will definitely have an advantage in getting admitted to the schools of their choice. I also see that these two have also worked on a similar book on getting into an MBA program called, How to Get Into the Top MBA Programs. As I look to continue my education, I will definitely use their book to help me get into the MBA program of my choice.

Being a senior in high school, I have read at least a dozen books filled with advice about how to get into top colleges. This book was the most helpful by far. Not only did it supply me with ideas on how to decide which colleges to apply to, but it offered me specifice advice pertaining to specific colleges to which I am applying. I found to text to be well-written and straightforward, unlike many books on the market. Furthermore, the information included about attending a college overseas was enough to convince my best friend to apply to a school in England! I would like to thank the authors, wherever you may be, for boosting my chances of being admitted to some of the nations most competitive schools by tenfold. I would recommend this book to anyone.