One of the best books on college admissions in recent memory.
A veteran higher education reporter pries open the gates to the college admissions process and distills his findings in a book sure to help students and parents navigate their search.
During the 2018-2019 school year, Selingo accompanied admissions officials at Emory University, Davidson College, and the University of Washington as they read thousands of applications, sorted them into admit and reject piles, and then made the painful final cuts. He opens with the closing days of admissions at Emory, where officials received 30,000 applications and were filling the 721 spots left for regular decision applicants after two rounds of early admissions. The author sets the scene to show why lovingly crafted essays get cursory reads and why many students with perfect SAT scores and straight-A records are rejected in favor of applicants that show evidence of leadership and perseverance. Selingo’s message for parents and students: When it comes to admissions, it’s not about you; it’s about the college. “College admissions,” he writes, “is a business—a big one—that you have very little control over. Top colleges are inundated with more well-qualified applicants than they can accommodate.” Admissions officers are looking for the ideal class, one that will enhance the college’s reputation and bring in money. They must assemble the right mix of top students, athletes, legacies, underserved students, and those who can pay the full price of up to $75,000 per year. Selingo, who writes that he is “astonished and frustrated” at the preoccupation with a small group of elite colleges, hammers home several points: Apply to colleges that will actually accept you. Consider what you and your parents can really afford, and carefully scrutinize financial aid offers. Think as much about what you will do once you’re in college as where you will go. In this meticulously researched and evenhanded book, the author provides a unique mix of in-depth reporting, insight, and advice that may save readers needless frustration and thousands of dollars.
One of the best books on college admissions in recent memory.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-982116-29-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: June 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
The sub-title of this book is "Reflections on Education with Special Reference to the Teaching of English in the Upper Forms of Schools." But one finds in it little about education, and less about the teaching of English. Nor is this volume a defense of the Christian faith similar to other books from the pen of C. S. Lewis. The three lectures comprising the book are rather rambling talks about life and literature and philosophy. Those who have come to expect from Lewis penetrating satire and a subtle sense of humor, used to buttress a real Christian faith, will be disappointed.
Pub Date: April 8, 1947
ISBN: 1609421477
Page Count: -
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1947
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