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Title: A Is for Admission : The Insider's Guide to Getting into the Ivy League and Other Top Colleges by Michele A. Hernández ISBN: 0-446-67406-0 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.43 (54 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: THE book on college admissions
Comment: This book is THE book to buy if you are looking to find out more on the admissions process at all the highly selective colleges. Even though I'm a freshman in high school, this book has helped me greatly in explaining all the factors that truly impact whether or not you will be admitted. It gave me all the answers that I had been searching for, and cleared up many myths. In fact, I strongly urge parents or students to buy this book as soon as possible, because that way you can begin implementing some of the suggestions that are in this book early, rather than later, in your academic career. By the end, you feel like you've sat in the meeting room with the admissions officers and watched them in action. My dream is to one day attend Harvard, and I can say without a doubt that this book has equipped me with the knowlege to reach that goal. A must buy.
Rating: 3
Summary: Verbal Skills in the Second Quartile
Comment: This is not a bad book. To hear any "inside" account of the admissions process is illuminating. As an outsider, I can only credit the author's arguments when they seem to have the ring of truth. For example, the importance of standardized test scores is argued convincingly. She explains the difficulties of using other metrics (high school transcripts, essays, etc.), and the angst felt by admissions officers who juggle these imprecise and contradictory pieces of information.
Hernandez also makes a wonderful point about the weak and clichéd application essay. Her examples of stand-out essay subjects, like an essay about the killing and eating of a squirrel, provide interesting examples of originality. (Though one wonders whether they would appeal to all admissions officers.)
Sadly, it's not the well-written book one would expect from a Dartmouth graduate. This undercuts the author's credibility (as well as casting doubt on the value of a Dartmouth education). It does bolster the author's own argument that admissions officers are not the cream of the Ivy League crop.
I got off to a bad start with this book early in Chapter 2 (p.12), where I learned that "Those who are gifted in math but who are weak readers and writers will ultimately stand a lesser chance of acceptance at top colleges (unless they apply to ... MIT)". Oh, MIT has no standards?
In criticizing the pre-1995 SAT scoring, the author says, "...ETS had to extrapolate at the extreme ends of the scale based on their own judgment, one that seems not to have been based on hard data. I do not mean to criticize their procedures, but there seems to be a disturbing lack of mathematical method...it almost sounds as if they had to fudge the data..." Well, if this were true, it would be a fascinating story, and criticism would be in order! But Hernandez does not explain sufficiently. Perhaps she assumes the reader can't handle the logic involved, but one suspects she doesn't understand the issue herself.
Be prepared for informal and chatty writing, like this sentence: "Besides, Dartmouth is the only Ivy League college that I know of that even asks for a peer letter" (p. 141). Yikes! Is that how they write in the Ivy League? Or: "I can say without a doubt that academic 4s are usually not weak students..." (p. 82). Huh? Run that by me again?
Her writing is heavy with use of the personal pronoun. The useful description of the process (what you want to know) is mingled with personal opinions about how the process ought to work, and it takes some effort to disentangle the two. While her criticisms are sometimes interesting, they don't form a coherent theme, and often come across as random, flippant complaints.
If the author's verbal skills are lagging, what about her math? We learn (p. 65) the interesting fact that .0458 = 67. The discussion of the "academic index" computation (ch. 6) may or may not be correct, but it's written with a lack of grace and clarity, putting this reader to sleep.
The book reads like a rough draft. But if you know little about college admission, you will benefit from this inside view.
Rating: 5
Summary: College Admission Secrets Revealed
Comment: This book claims to reveal admission secrets of the ivy league colleges, such as the so called "Academic Index" they use in evaluating an applicant's academic strength. Although most of the "secrets" do sound convincing, whether the they are definitely true or not, I do not know. Nontheless, the book contains plenty of useful and valuable tips on college application process which make it almost a MUST buy for a high schooler shooting for the top colleges in the nation. Some informations are slightly outdated.
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