College Admissions Book Review

Getting In: Inside the College Admissions Process, by Bill Paul

Paperback - 272 pages (April 1997) Perseus Press

Although this book is a bit dated, it's probably among the very best inside looks into the super-elite admission process. Bill Paul is a Princeton alum who spent an entire year with Princeton's legendary Dean of Admission, Fred Hargadon, observing both the Princeton admission cycle along with some key students affected by it.

If you're contemplating an application to the HYPSM realm, then you have to read this book, especially the section that details some of the accomplishments these schools' applicants present. It's daunting, to be sure, but seeing the level of fairness Hargadon and his staff bring to the process will hearten you. Princeton's not the country club for the privileged it's cracked up to be. It's a superior place to get one of the world's great educations. I read this book in one evening. I couldn't put it down. Five mortarboards!

-reviewed by Dave Berry

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