College admissions 101 - book recs?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
I am an immigrant and unfamiliar with the college process in the US. It is overwhelming. My kid is at the beginning of high school but a very high achiever to date. Can anyone recommend a book that will give me an overview? I’m particularly concerned that I might miss something that my child should be thinking about in early high school that would help with college admissions later. I don’t even have any understanding of the various acronyms or the process of applying. (How do you work out what institutions would be a good fit AND your child has a reasonable shot AND you can feasibly afford?)
Any basic initial reading recommendations would be welcome. Thanks. |
Anonymous
| “Who Gets In And Why” by Jeff Selingo |
Anonymous
|
Colleges Worth Your Money
The Price You Pay for College |
Anonymous
| College Admissions Cracked |
Anonymous
2nd this one and "Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning a Master's or a Ph.D." by Robert Peters (should your kid voice interest in that route in their later HS career). Also, scour forums like CollegeConfidential and even peak on in on reddit. Google, google, google with anything that might come to your mind or question. Was in the same boat as you. Began early in DC Junior year to gather information, so I could provide guidance and FYI to DC in late junior year. As a parent of a HS freshman that is high achieving, just make sure the kid takes the level of rigor they are comfortable with and still achieve good grades. Let them take charge of their EC (extracurricular) interests, what tickles their intellect/interest. Check with counselors at school regarding any question for classes, especially public schools. There might be possibilities that you will only hear about once you start asking questions. Some HS share where their students go and what major they plan on pursuing. This can give you ideas. Even better if the school has Naviance. You can see the trend if you check for the next 2 years. Most important, ask, ask, google, google. Anything! |
Anonymous
Thanks! What is Naviance and do MCPS schools have it? Kid is taking most challenging courses available with all As so far including precalculus and Spanish 4 in 9th (plus both honors physics and chem) and will continue to do so (including calc BC in 10th)— but volume of homework could be an issue in pursuing extra curricular activities. I’m amazed at kids who can get state or national awards/recognition in activities and cope with 3 hrs homework a night! Also want kid to just be a teenager sometimes, but that seems to be tough in this climate of high achievement! |
Anonymous
| If your kid wants to go to a top college in the US, they need to take time for extracurriculars. Perfect grades and rigor aren’t enough. Top schools want to see it all. |
Anonymous
| Any of Richard MOntauk's books like "How to get into a top college". see amazon. |
Anonymous
|
Skip any book that focuses on strategy for getting into 'elite colleges'. They will unnecessarily add significant stress to the high school experience.
Read: Where You Go is not Who You'll Be The Truth About College Admission Harvard Schmarvard (older, but still good) study by Stacy Berg-Dale and Alan Krueger about financial outcomes of elite colleges vs. non-elite colleges https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1871566 Less High School Stress--website with loads of data showing that what matters is the individual, not the college (same message as Where You Go book). Read the essay linked below plus the section of lists and the rankings section. https://lesshighschoolstress.com/ Also, MCPS does have Naviance and it is a fantastic resource for seeing what colleges are possible with what GPA and test scores. Ask your counselor about it. And go ahead and let your kid be a teenager sometimes! If they're putting in 3 hours a day of homework plus 35 hours of school a week, that's 56 hours a week of work, more than the vast majority of adults put in. They'll be fine. |
Anonymous
| Listen the College Essay Guy’s podcasts. Very informative. |
Anonymous
| Where Tou Go is Not Who You’ll Be (by Frank Bruni) |
Anonymous
+1 As are his books. I paid for one writing workshop this summer for dd. It was a 4-week online live class for 4 Thursday evenings. Best money spent. Ethan is fabulous. |
Anonymous
|
Try not to stress too much. If you have a kid taking bc calc as a sophomore, he/she is already situated to end up at a great school. I grew up in a pressure cooker nyc burb in the 90s, didn’t want that for my kids. They are happy Midwest public school kids now who are ant Emory and kenyon college (with significant merit aid at the latter). The emory student also got into UVA oos. One took bc calc as a senior, the other took ap stats senior year after pre calc. Maybe in the dmv they could’ve shot for the Ivy League, or maybe they would have been burnt out and depressed.
HS guidance departments will vary, but you can reach out to your kids guidance counselor and see if they are available to meet. There are a lot of nuances about admissions depending on your particular community and school |
Anonymous
| Listen to the “Your College-Bound Kid” podcast. |
Anonymous
|
Valedictorians at the Gates
Ron Leiber’s book about the price you pay for college |