Over the past decade, the once niche market of college admissions books has grown into a thriving industry. On Amazon.com, hundreds of books claim to answer that question most high school students ask sooner or later (hopefully sooner): How do I get into my dream school?
Some are written by former admissions officers, consultants, counselors, or even former directors of admissions, while others are written by pseudo academics who think a personal statement is something read in court just before a trial. Fortunately, we at RMA enjoy reading, so we are sharing our top five college admissions books. Although they cannot guarantee your admission to Harvard, they will provide valuable information to every applicant before they click submit.
5. College Admissions Essentials by Ethan Sawyer
In the past ten years, if you have applied to college, chances are you have visited Ethan Sawyer’s website. As the “College Essay Guy,” Ethan provides easy-to-follow essay guides and a bevy of resources for seniors and those who are interested in starting their college applications early. His website is up-to-date, and he offers great tips on brainstorming and outlining. According to this book, the key to a successful college application is to honestly answer these two questions:
What matters most to you?
How does it manifest in your life?
It may seem obvious to you, but RateMyApp consultants have seen applicants time and time again without any sense of what they care about, even if they have straight A’s and high SAT scores. Articulating their passion is an incredibly difficult thing for many high school students to do, and Ethan’s book is the perfect launching pad for the applicant just discovering who they are.
It has expert advice and guidance from a dean of admissions, counselors, and advisors, and interactive tools that help you create the perfect application. Additionally, it offers access to a vast collection of online resources, including organizational tools and detailed guides. As well as providing guidance to veterans, students with learning disabilities, LGBTQ+ students, women’s colleges or HBCUs, it also provides information for students with disabilities. If you get one book for your teen about applying to college, this should be it.
4. Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania by Frank Bruni
Frank Bruni is not a college admissions officer at an Ivy League college. He is a writer for the New York Times who’s spent his career uncovering the uncomfortable truths about subjects we’d rather not go deep into. What Bruni understands is that most parents want to skip to the part where they can tell the other parents that their kid got into a better school than your kid. He understands the untouched psychological component of the admissions process and how it affects the entire family.
He calls the admissions process a “mania,” and rest assured that while it can be, it doesn’t have to. “Where You Go…” is essential reading for any parent or student who wants to understand the emotional realities of the process from the school’s point of view. For example, Ivy League colleges accept around 2,000 students from a pool of applicants that can reach 40,000 in some cases. Despite this, these colleges do everything in their power to increase first-year applications. Application deadlines are extended, lists are bought from companies that administer standardized tests, and high scorers are encouraged to apply, even though few of them will be accepted.
It also dives deep into what we consider when we apply the same standards to ourselves with respect to our own self esteem, and how where we go to school can affect that. He neither praises nor demeans the process. He tells it like it is – heartbreaking, thrilling, and ultimately, like our first job interview, a rite of passage we must face with our eyes open.
3. On Writing the College Application Essay by Harry Bauld
The Common Application requires a 650-word personal statement, and this is probably the most important piece of writing that any high school student will complete, and lots of those students go to Harry Bauld to get the best writing advice out there.
However, you don’t have to, because 25 years ago he wrote On Writing the College Application and since then thousands of students have used the advice in this book to craft an authentic, meaningful and engaging personal statement. These days, Harry travels the world, helping students find their voice for their essays and supplements. In a recent interview, he said, “It’s often the good students who just want to get things right who get paralyzed. A lot of what I do is say, ‘Let’s try writing the wrong thing, shall we?’” It’s this up front approach to the college admissions essay that’s evident throughout his thoughtful and incisive book.
With chapter titles like “Danger, Sleepy Prose Ahead” and “Sweetheart, Get Me Rewrite!” Harry wants you to know that YES the essay can be a fun writing process, but NO, chances are you won’t get it right on your first draft. He breaks down in detail the do’s and the don’ts of essay writing because he understands how busy students are and how difficult writing a brilliant essay is. For 25 years this has been a must-read in the college essay space, and for good reason.
2. Who Gets In and Why by Jeffrey Selingo
For more than two decades, Jeffrey Selingo has covered higher education for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Wall Street Journal. In Who Gets In and Why, Jeffrey was embedded in three admissions offices, closely watching gatekeepers as they made painful, life-altering decisions. During his research, the author also observed students and parents, and interviewed marketing consultants and high school counselors.
He reveals the clandestine world of college admissions. Reviews have compared it to a spy thriller, and the book is a suspense-filled page-turner that gives you the inside scoop on what it is like to make decisions that can forever alter a person’s life. Spoiler alert: counselors do care, and parents will unfortunately break the bank to hire consultants who’ll guide them through the application process.
Who Gets In and Why can be found on RateMyApp CEO Matt Klinestiver’s desk, dogeared on nearly every other page because it’s required reading for anyone in higher education, and those who want to know what “they” think will be surprised at the revelation that schools, students, and parents are all in it together.
1. Valedictorians at the Gates by Becky Munsterer Sabky
Becky Munsterer Sabky is a former Director of International Admissions at Dartmouth College and has traveled extensively around the world to speak with prospective high school students about the application process. Those trips will become even more frequent with her published expose, commentary, and college admissions guidebook Valedictorians at the Gates. Sabsky’s title is #1 on our list because it blends lived experience in college admissions with an inviting writing style and an encouraging tone. Students might be put off submitting their applications by books that provide details on this process because they read the first chapter and say, “This is too hard, who needs college? I have an Instagram account with a thousand followers.” Sabsky understands that, and writes accordingly.
We at RateMyApp always place more emphasis on passion than productivity. The same applies to Sabsky’s writing about extracurricular activities:
“Best of all, students who participate in activities because they’re interested might just become more interesting. They might become more curious community members. They might care about something other than résumés. And they might become better people, not just better college applicants.”
This, to me, is the crux of the entire book. I usually begin every meeting with a student by asking: Why do you want to go to college? When they can’t answer that, I move on to: How would you like to change the world? When they can’t answer that, I try something a little easier: What are you doing this weekend? After that, the kid won’t stop talking, and sooner or later, they discover they have more to offer the world, and a university, than they ever thought possible. In Sabsky’s Valedictorians at the Gates, you’ll get a detailed look at every trial that you and admissions officers experience leading up to January 1st, and there is no better book on the application process currently available.
