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Crazy U: One Dad's Crash Course in Getting His Kid into College
Now in “Both a hilarious narrative and an incisive guide to the college admissions process….Ferguson’s storytelling is irresistible” ( The Washington Post ).
Once a straightforward process, applying to college has evolved into a multi-year ordeal and spawned a multi-billion dollar cottage industry of freelance counselors, tutors, essay coaches, interview advisers, and political activists. In Crazy U , Ferguson spends time with the most sought-after private counselor, provides a pocket history of higher education in America, looks at the growth of the college marketing industry, and Why the hell does college cost so much, and how can my kid get in?
Writing with humor and humility, Ferguson chronicles his perilous journey through this seemingly impenetrable, hall-of-mirrors process where, it seems, even the slightest misstep could derail his son’s future. Crazy U doesn’t divulge the secrets of getting accepted to a dream school, but it will help readers maintain a measure of sanity as they enter the trenches of college admissions.
Once a straightforward process, applying to college has evolved into a multi-year ordeal and spawned a multi-billion dollar cottage industry of freelance counselors, tutors, essay coaches, interview advisers, and political activists. In Crazy U , Ferguson spends time with the most sought-after private counselor, provides a pocket history of higher education in America, looks at the growth of the college marketing industry, and Why the hell does college cost so much, and how can my kid get in?
Writing with humor and humility, Ferguson chronicles his perilous journey through this seemingly impenetrable, hall-of-mirrors process where, it seems, even the slightest misstep could derail his son’s future. Crazy U doesn’t divulge the secrets of getting accepted to a dream school, but it will help readers maintain a measure of sanity as they enter the trenches of college admissions.
240 pages, Paperback
First published February 15, 2011
22 people are currently reading
423 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Ferguson
14 books10 followersAndrew Ferguson is a senior editor at the Weekly Standard and has written and editor for many publications, including Washingtonian magazine, Time magazine, Fortune, TV Guide, Forbes FYI, National Review, Bloomberg News, Commentary, the New Yorker, New York magazine, the New Republic, the American Spectator, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, and many other publications. In 1992, he was a White House speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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May 30, 2011
A good friend went off to college last fall and signed up for a major in Great Books with a minor in history. She started reading Plato and Euripides and studying early US history. Hmm, I thought, maybe the alarms about grade inflation, binge drinking on campus, extremely high college tuitions, lack of rigor in the curriculum, and other reports of how higher education is in trouble are being overstated.
So I poked around and found some books that purported to take the pulse of tertiary education in the US. There were none assuring us that our colleges and universities are in good health, that our students are becoming versed in the liberal arts and coming to appreciate the treasures that are Western Civilization and the American form of government, while preparing themselves to take their places in the world of work. I did find a couple that lament the threat to our universities from the right – a threat to impose on students out-of-date ideas of what college students should learn, usually a core curriculum from about 1960 emphasizing works by men. (More on this below.)
But most of the books range from dusty research to apocalyptic alarms showing that SAT scores have been in precipitous fall since 1960, that students are routinely taking five years to graduate, that tuition has increased since 1970 at three (or six or nine) times the rate of inflation, and that out of control drug and alcohol use and sexual promiscuity are routine even on our nations more elite campuses. Not a pretty picture.
Crazy U is by far the best of these books. In the process of helping his son maneuver the maze that college admissions has become, the author has interviewed people at schools ranging from small state colleges who let in people with a total SAT score in three digits to the exclusive schools where a perfect 2400 is the baseline and the student must prove himself worthy with advanced high school classes, excellent grades (valedictorian if possible), and many extra-curricular activities showing skill and talent in the arts and a sensitivity and dedication to the needs of the community.
The competition is stiff. Thirty percent of the typical Harvard class is composed of legacies (parents and grandparents went to Harvard) and people whose parents are so rich it’s worth a shot admitting the kid in hopes of donations in the future. Also getting a free ride are athletic stars, famous people (Jodi Foster, Brooke Shields – easy in), and the children of politicians. Then the admissions office has to “sculpt” the class to make sure there are enough (but not too many) foreign students, out-of-state students, working class kids, and minorities. Then there’s the problem of women and Asian students. Can’t have too many of either of these categories and both are notorious for getting above average SAT scores and grades. Some schools are reduced to a sort of affirmative action for white males. When all the other categories are taken care of the “normal” student is left competing for about 30% of the incoming class slots.
The Five-Year Party addresses the appalling fact that even with skyrocketing tuition costs (our local state university tuition is going up 16% this year) more and more students are staying in college for a fifth year. And while they are at Podunk State Teacher’s College they are much more likely to be taking classes (it’s up to them) in Film Noir or Queer Theory than economics and physics. Most students now major in “soft” subjects like English literature, sociology, and education. (Back in the 60s I did a double major at a state teacher’s college, English and education, and believe me it was far from soft.) Very little work is expected outside of class and class itself is required to be entertaining. Even the smartest and most motivated of students expect to be amused. And since students now rate the faculty the wise teacher toes the mark lest he be denied tenure. Needless to say no one flunks out any more.
And then there’s the partying. Drunken revels take place every weekend at most schools. The underage drinking and associated minor assault and property damage are taken care of on campus. No need to worry about a police record because after all these are just kids having a little fun. Of course any behavior that can be interpreted by a shrinking violet as “sexual harassment” is prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But if your roommate brings a boy back to your room to stay the night, hey, relax, what do you expect when so many young people are on a campus together. I suspect the author of The Five-Year Party exaggerated a bit, but the basics are correct. If a student wants to goof off for four or five years and if his parents don’t force him or her to tell all and toe the line, this scenario is entirely possible. The school will tell the parents (who are forking out the $80,000 or more to pay for all this) nothing. Students are entitled to their privacy.
Some students, like my friend, are serious, work hard, search out the demanding professors, and comport themselves like the adults they are fast becoming. But the students are surrounded by an ambience of fun-fun-fun rather than scholarship and love of learning. Colleges and universities are all about marketing these days, climbing the page on the US News and World Report college rankings, offering more hot tubs, taller climbing walls, more plush accommodation in the dorms, more specialized foods at every hour of the day and night, and whatever else entices young people to choose one school over another.
The cost? How can tuition have gone up 1,000% at some schools in the last 50 years? Well, somebody has to pay for all those amenities, and the number of administrators has increased by a factor of 10. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough money to raise faculty salaries significantly. In fact, most schools now use graduate students to do much of the undergraduate teaching, along with adjunct faculty who are paid starvation wages. And as long as we all believe everybody has to have a college degree (though not necessarily a college education) the colleges can keep raising their prices and the parents have to pay. Any school that tried to compete by cutting costs – less fancy dormitories and amenities, fewer classrooms, larger classes, less spectacular libraries, and on-line classes – well, good luck getting accredited. It’s the faculty and administration from those expensive schools who create the standards for accreditation and do the on-campus inspections and they aren’t going to let that camel’s nose under their cloth-of-gold tent.
There are some folks who, looking at all this and watching it get increasingly out of hand, predict that this bubble is going to burst. If enough parents refuse to go along with this game – and it has become a game – and begin sending their children to for-profit schools, or find apprenticeships for them, or skip college altogether, if colleges can no longer entice students to come to their campus and parents to pay outrageous amounts of money for who knows what –measures of outcome of a college education are not released by the schools if they even attempt to discover them – then schools will be unable to find enough students and will begin going out of business. (Don’t hold your breath.)
And as for that threat from the right that is menacing our nation’s institutions of higher learning. One of the things those authors are talking about is the campaign by David Horowitz for what he calls an academic bill of rights, or academic freedom for students. He points out that many schools have a statement of academic freedom for faculty – nobody can tell them what to teach or how to interpret what they choose to present to their students. But students have no such guarantees.
Horowitz was one of the radicals back in the 60s. As time went by he changed his mind about that rebellious time and became increasingly conservative. He now looks around him and sees the flower children, the people who took over the “People’s Park,” former Black Panthers, people like Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn teaching at college and universities and preaching the same things they were preaching then, sometimes to the exclusion of other points of view. Horowitz thinks students should be protected from proselytizing by professors on the far left and from being ridiculed or shamed for asking questions and interpreting events from the point of view of the right. Polls have repeatedly shown college faculties to have voted Democratic by margins of 8 or 9 to 1. Some of those people are ideologues and Horowitz has dug up enough cases of discrimination against conservative students or classes in which no mention is made of any opposing viewpoints that he has come to believe that students need a written and enforceable bill of rights assuring them a balanced education. His campaign is not getting anywhere except to alarm some of the more excitable faculty on the left. His is not a particularly interesting or entertaining book.
2011 Nos 82, 83, and 84
So I poked around and found some books that purported to take the pulse of tertiary education in the US. There were none assuring us that our colleges and universities are in good health, that our students are becoming versed in the liberal arts and coming to appreciate the treasures that are Western Civilization and the American form of government, while preparing themselves to take their places in the world of work. I did find a couple that lament the threat to our universities from the right – a threat to impose on students out-of-date ideas of what college students should learn, usually a core curriculum from about 1960 emphasizing works by men. (More on this below.)
But most of the books range from dusty research to apocalyptic alarms showing that SAT scores have been in precipitous fall since 1960, that students are routinely taking five years to graduate, that tuition has increased since 1970 at three (or six or nine) times the rate of inflation, and that out of control drug and alcohol use and sexual promiscuity are routine even on our nations more elite campuses. Not a pretty picture.
Crazy U is by far the best of these books. In the process of helping his son maneuver the maze that college admissions has become, the author has interviewed people at schools ranging from small state colleges who let in people with a total SAT score in three digits to the exclusive schools where a perfect 2400 is the baseline and the student must prove himself worthy with advanced high school classes, excellent grades (valedictorian if possible), and many extra-curricular activities showing skill and talent in the arts and a sensitivity and dedication to the needs of the community.
The competition is stiff. Thirty percent of the typical Harvard class is composed of legacies (parents and grandparents went to Harvard) and people whose parents are so rich it’s worth a shot admitting the kid in hopes of donations in the future. Also getting a free ride are athletic stars, famous people (Jodi Foster, Brooke Shields – easy in), and the children of politicians. Then the admissions office has to “sculpt” the class to make sure there are enough (but not too many) foreign students, out-of-state students, working class kids, and minorities. Then there’s the problem of women and Asian students. Can’t have too many of either of these categories and both are notorious for getting above average SAT scores and grades. Some schools are reduced to a sort of affirmative action for white males. When all the other categories are taken care of the “normal” student is left competing for about 30% of the incoming class slots.
The Five-Year Party addresses the appalling fact that even with skyrocketing tuition costs (our local state university tuition is going up 16% this year) more and more students are staying in college for a fifth year. And while they are at Podunk State Teacher’s College they are much more likely to be taking classes (it’s up to them) in Film Noir or Queer Theory than economics and physics. Most students now major in “soft” subjects like English literature, sociology, and education. (Back in the 60s I did a double major at a state teacher’s college, English and education, and believe me it was far from soft.) Very little work is expected outside of class and class itself is required to be entertaining. Even the smartest and most motivated of students expect to be amused. And since students now rate the faculty the wise teacher toes the mark lest he be denied tenure. Needless to say no one flunks out any more.
And then there’s the partying. Drunken revels take place every weekend at most schools. The underage drinking and associated minor assault and property damage are taken care of on campus. No need to worry about a police record because after all these are just kids having a little fun. Of course any behavior that can be interpreted by a shrinking violet as “sexual harassment” is prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But if your roommate brings a boy back to your room to stay the night, hey, relax, what do you expect when so many young people are on a campus together. I suspect the author of The Five-Year Party exaggerated a bit, but the basics are correct. If a student wants to goof off for four or five years and if his parents don’t force him or her to tell all and toe the line, this scenario is entirely possible. The school will tell the parents (who are forking out the $80,000 or more to pay for all this) nothing. Students are entitled to their privacy.
Some students, like my friend, are serious, work hard, search out the demanding professors, and comport themselves like the adults they are fast becoming. But the students are surrounded by an ambience of fun-fun-fun rather than scholarship and love of learning. Colleges and universities are all about marketing these days, climbing the page on the US News and World Report college rankings, offering more hot tubs, taller climbing walls, more plush accommodation in the dorms, more specialized foods at every hour of the day and night, and whatever else entices young people to choose one school over another.
The cost? How can tuition have gone up 1,000% at some schools in the last 50 years? Well, somebody has to pay for all those amenities, and the number of administrators has increased by a factor of 10. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough money to raise faculty salaries significantly. In fact, most schools now use graduate students to do much of the undergraduate teaching, along with adjunct faculty who are paid starvation wages. And as long as we all believe everybody has to have a college degree (though not necessarily a college education) the colleges can keep raising their prices and the parents have to pay. Any school that tried to compete by cutting costs – less fancy dormitories and amenities, fewer classrooms, larger classes, less spectacular libraries, and on-line classes – well, good luck getting accredited. It’s the faculty and administration from those expensive schools who create the standards for accreditation and do the on-campus inspections and they aren’t going to let that camel’s nose under their cloth-of-gold tent.
There are some folks who, looking at all this and watching it get increasingly out of hand, predict that this bubble is going to burst. If enough parents refuse to go along with this game – and it has become a game – and begin sending their children to for-profit schools, or find apprenticeships for them, or skip college altogether, if colleges can no longer entice students to come to their campus and parents to pay outrageous amounts of money for who knows what –measures of outcome of a college education are not released by the schools if they even attempt to discover them – then schools will be unable to find enough students and will begin going out of business. (Don’t hold your breath.)
And as for that threat from the right that is menacing our nation’s institutions of higher learning. One of the things those authors are talking about is the campaign by David Horowitz for what he calls an academic bill of rights, or academic freedom for students. He points out that many schools have a statement of academic freedom for faculty – nobody can tell them what to teach or how to interpret what they choose to present to their students. But students have no such guarantees.
Horowitz was one of the radicals back in the 60s. As time went by he changed his mind about that rebellious time and became increasingly conservative. He now looks around him and sees the flower children, the people who took over the “People’s Park,” former Black Panthers, people like Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn teaching at college and universities and preaching the same things they were preaching then, sometimes to the exclusion of other points of view. Horowitz thinks students should be protected from proselytizing by professors on the far left and from being ridiculed or shamed for asking questions and interpreting events from the point of view of the right. Polls have repeatedly shown college faculties to have voted Democratic by margins of 8 or 9 to 1. Some of those people are ideologues and Horowitz has dug up enough cases of discrimination against conservative students or classes in which no mention is made of any opposing viewpoints that he has come to believe that students need a written and enforceable bill of rights assuring them a balanced education. His campaign is not getting anywhere except to alarm some of the more excitable faculty on the left. His is not a particularly interesting or entertaining book.
2011 Nos 82, 83, and 84
March 24, 2025
A breezy and entertaining read that is as much as the hopes and dreams and stress that is poured into children by their parents as much as the contemporary American experience in college admissions.
June 18, 2012
In the category of Someday, We'll Look Back on This and Laugh, people who already have run the college admissions obstacle course along with their children will find some fond memories in "Crazy U: One Dad's Crash Course in Getting His Kid Into College."
Andrew Ferguson offers a wry view of an exercise that most people would describe as frustrating or even frightening -- but not funny. Ferguson demonstrates that humor can be found in even the darkest of places.
My favorite passage so far is his description of the SAT, which he took as part of his research and in a spirit of "parental fellow feeling":
"I had to keep reminding myself, as I plowed my way through one section after another, that this boring test, this heaping mass of tedium, is, paradoxically, the most passionately controversial element in the world of college admissions. That something so dull could have an effect so pyrotechnical is hard to credit. It's as if the Trojan War had been fought over Bette Midler."
He goes on to report that, yes, indeed, he "managed to screw up the test for the second time in my life."
The book is well written, entertaining and researched not only by reading and interviewing, but by doing. It's anecdotal and makes no claim to authority, but as those of us who have lived it can testify, it's authoritative.
For me, it's fun reading. For you, if you have a son or daughter in middle school, heh-heh-heh. YOU'RE WAY BEHIND! WHAT KIND OF PARENT ARE YOU?
Andrew Ferguson offers a wry view of an exercise that most people would describe as frustrating or even frightening -- but not funny. Ferguson demonstrates that humor can be found in even the darkest of places.
My favorite passage so far is his description of the SAT, which he took as part of his research and in a spirit of "parental fellow feeling":
"I had to keep reminding myself, as I plowed my way through one section after another, that this boring test, this heaping mass of tedium, is, paradoxically, the most passionately controversial element in the world of college admissions. That something so dull could have an effect so pyrotechnical is hard to credit. It's as if the Trojan War had been fought over Bette Midler."
He goes on to report that, yes, indeed, he "managed to screw up the test for the second time in my life."
The book is well written, entertaining and researched not only by reading and interviewing, but by doing. It's anecdotal and makes no claim to authority, but as those of us who have lived it can testify, it's authoritative.
For me, it's fun reading. For you, if you have a son or daughter in middle school, heh-heh-heh. YOU'RE WAY BEHIND! WHAT KIND OF PARENT ARE YOU?
Read
November 15, 2020Ferguson tells a comic tale of his quest to get his son into a good college, and like a good reporter, makes good use of the experience to enlighten and inform the rest of us. He doesn't appear to take himself too seriously, either. After taking a career aptitude test in high school,
"'You must understand,' my career counselor said, glancing through the papers, 'that you have no marketable skills whatsoever.'
So, I became a journalist."
First up in his quest, he attends a seminar held by a professional independent college admissions counselor, known as Kat, as well as a personal interview. The main takeaway from the visit is that Ferguson learns that college admissions committees at selective schools (as opposed to state universities where folks like you and I send our children) use a "holistic" method to evaluate applicants. The holistic method "involves weighing a dozen intangible factors along with hard data like SAT scores and grade-point averages in deciding whom to admit." E.G., "Joe...raised money for a Native American school...Kim recorded concertos with the local symphony orchestra...Teresa single handedly kept a nearby Hispanic grade school afloat."
This almost takes us back to the turn of the century method of college admissions, which Ferguson discusses in a later section, when a personal interview which measured less obvious qualities than academic ability was used to make sure only "the right sort" of people attended Harvard, Yale, etc.
Got a chuckle out of a section on high school "leadership programs". For a fee, they invite students to Washington, D.C. or a state capitol for summer internships and seminars.
"Another mom was objecting.
'He was invited to do this,' she said. 'He got so much out of it, learning leadership skills.'
'The invitation came in the mail, I guess,' Kat said. 'It said he was "selected." Do you know why he was selected? Your zip code. Because of your zip code, they knew you could pay.'"
Remember "Who's Who in American High Schools"? I was so honored 40 years ago to be "selected". Ah, my youthful illusions shattered at last.
Kat was having her own experience with the admissions process for her daughter, getting her into an exclusive DAY CARE!
"this day-care center fed into equally exclusive pre-Ks, which fed into prestigious kindergartens, which fed into even more exclusive grade schools, and then prep schools, and then, perhaps eighteen years from now, the kid would be in a position to be crowned with admission to Princeton or Wellesley or Brown. One misstep at the beginning could doom the whole process."
I wonder how my neighbor's brother from Borah High in Boise, Idaho ever made it into Yale, with his lack of the proper pedigreed kindergarten.
I was surprised to see how many of the venerable old schools were founded by Christian sects. Anglicans - The College of William and Mary, Presbyterians - Princeton, Congregationalists - Dartmouth, and Old School Baptists - Brown.
Ferguson devotes considerable time on the history of U.S. News annual college rankings, how they are determined, how they are marketed to a new crop of prospects every year, and how they are gamed by the colleges themselves, while the college presidents decry the validity of the rankings.
Of course, if you can't afford the pros, you end up in the DIY section. Ferguson describes buying a huge pile of college guides, test prep books, combing the internet, and picking friends' brains for more information. This sounds familiar, in fact, a family tradition - my mother did it for me - I did it for my children - in sixteen years or so the cycle will lather, rinse, repeat. One of the amusing things Ferguson mentions here is "the law of constant contradiction". For every piece of advice in a book, online, or a hot tip from a friend, there exists a perfectly legitimate bit of wisdom that states the exact opposite.
Students should prepare a professional looking education resume.
Admissions officers are tire of seeing too many glossy, perfect professional resumes.
Parents should get involved - don't be afraid to call or email admissions offices.
Too many calls and emails alienate an admissions officer.
If a teach provides a recommendation, they should receive a nice gift from the student.
Gifts might be regarded as bribery, and could offend the teacher.
Another subject that gets a lot of play in the book is SAT tests and scoring. The SATs were created in the early twentieth century to eliminate the discrimination by Harvard and other Ivy League schools found in their less data-driven admissions practices, and became the go-to criteria for academic aptitude for a long time. Now, however, after outcries from activists who believe that the SAT is biased towards rich, white folks, a number of more "progressive" universities are de-emphasizing the SAT - ironically, since it was "progressives" who created it in the first place.
Without getting deeply into the issue of why it's a good thing to go to college, and why politicians of any stripe are promoting universal university access (hint - "access" means someone else pays for it) for every student. It makes a great sound bite to support education - don't we all? - and makes the sheep believe you actually care about them more than just at shearing time (April 15), it's a well known fact that a college degree is the ticket to admission to leadership in business, politics, engineering and the sciences. It's also been obvious for about as long as higher education has existed in this country that poor people probably aren't as well prepared for college as rich people. Duh. However, the folks with FairTest (is that like Fair Tax?) have pulled out all the stops to remove all hints of bias, condescension, and exclusivity from the SAT as now being presented. I think they may have actually surgically removed its utility as a collegiate yardstick, as well.
Patterns in SAT result data have indicated for quite a while now that Asians outperform whites, Whites outperform Hispanics, Hispanics outperform blacks, rich outperform poor, and men do better than women on some sections, while women do better on others than men. True to form, eh?
"You could react to this pattern in one of three ways. Option one is to ask what relevance group numbers had in a country, and an educational system, where merit is supposed to attach to individuals, not groups. Option two is to note that the data reveal that some test takes - owing to their schools, their family lives, their neighborhoods, the social services they were provided, the expectations of parents and friends - had been less prepared for college than other test takers and, as a result, had a slimmer chance of doing well in some colleges than in other colleges. Option three is to insist that something is wrong with the test.
The activists chose number three."
I liked the passage about the new "allowance" made for students who claim to be learning disabled by ADHD. They get to take an extra hour on the test. As soon as this option was made available, a huge number of students claimed to be ADHD, and their scores on the test went through the roof - better than "normals". As Gomer Pyle would say, "Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!"
Also, when the mean score on SATs fell between 1941 and 1995 in both the verbal and mathematics sections - which to me indicates that there's a problem with how well our public schools are preparing children (an entire wild and crazy topic in and of itself) - the solution was to "re-center" the test, adjusting all the scores so that a 425 on the old scale becomes a 501 on the new. Un-ummm-believable.
The facts are that, if you average together (in general over a large enough statistical sample) a student's grade-point average in high school and their SAT scores, it is a very strong predictor of what sort of grades they will get their first semester in college. In response to critics like Lani Guinier (wasn't she a Clinton advisor?) who say that the SAT should be called a "wealth test", UCSB education professor Rebecca Swick writes, "it's impossible to find a measure of academic achievement that is unrelated to family income." Every other way of putting a metric on academics correlates strongly with family income. Which provides even more evidence to my long-held hypothesis that the prime factor in scholastic achievement is the parents of the student.
It's not saying that poor children cannot do well, or that they are necessarily less intelligent, but perhaps has something to do with priorities. When you are struggling just to survive daily life, it's hard to sit down with the kids and help with homework, to provide extracurricular supplementary activities on your own or to pay for school-sponsored one, or even to make sure that there is enough appropriate reading material in the house, and that reading, writing and math skills are seen as highly valued by the family.
Reading about colleges marketing themselves, the cynic in me wonders if the constant political rhetoric about "everyone must go to college" is the result of colleges lobbying their pet congresscritters in order to ensure a steady plentiful stream of "customers", and especially customers who will spend money in the first year or two, then drop out, so that the college won't actually have to part with its precious "product", the baccalaureate.
I have a ton more I could say about Ferguson's book, and Ferguson has a ton more to say about the insanity involved in getting into a college to obtain the all-important degree these days. But I've already run way too long. Read the book!
"'You must understand,' my career counselor said, glancing through the papers, 'that you have no marketable skills whatsoever.'
So, I became a journalist."
First up in his quest, he attends a seminar held by a professional independent college admissions counselor, known as Kat, as well as a personal interview. The main takeaway from the visit is that Ferguson learns that college admissions committees at selective schools (as opposed to state universities where folks like you and I send our children) use a "holistic" method to evaluate applicants. The holistic method "involves weighing a dozen intangible factors along with hard data like SAT scores and grade-point averages in deciding whom to admit." E.G., "Joe...raised money for a Native American school...Kim recorded concertos with the local symphony orchestra...Teresa single handedly kept a nearby Hispanic grade school afloat."
This almost takes us back to the turn of the century method of college admissions, which Ferguson discusses in a later section, when a personal interview which measured less obvious qualities than academic ability was used to make sure only "the right sort" of people attended Harvard, Yale, etc.
Got a chuckle out of a section on high school "leadership programs". For a fee, they invite students to Washington, D.C. or a state capitol for summer internships and seminars.
"Another mom was objecting.
'He was invited to do this,' she said. 'He got so much out of it, learning leadership skills.'
'The invitation came in the mail, I guess,' Kat said. 'It said he was "selected." Do you know why he was selected? Your zip code. Because of your zip code, they knew you could pay.'"
Remember "Who's Who in American High Schools"? I was so honored 40 years ago to be "selected". Ah, my youthful illusions shattered at last.
Kat was having her own experience with the admissions process for her daughter, getting her into an exclusive DAY CARE!
"this day-care center fed into equally exclusive pre-Ks, which fed into prestigious kindergartens, which fed into even more exclusive grade schools, and then prep schools, and then, perhaps eighteen years from now, the kid would be in a position to be crowned with admission to Princeton or Wellesley or Brown. One misstep at the beginning could doom the whole process."
I wonder how my neighbor's brother from Borah High in Boise, Idaho ever made it into Yale, with his lack of the proper pedigreed kindergarten.
I was surprised to see how many of the venerable old schools were founded by Christian sects. Anglicans - The College of William and Mary, Presbyterians - Princeton, Congregationalists - Dartmouth, and Old School Baptists - Brown.
Ferguson devotes considerable time on the history of U.S. News annual college rankings, how they are determined, how they are marketed to a new crop of prospects every year, and how they are gamed by the colleges themselves, while the college presidents decry the validity of the rankings.
Of course, if you can't afford the pros, you end up in the DIY section. Ferguson describes buying a huge pile of college guides, test prep books, combing the internet, and picking friends' brains for more information. This sounds familiar, in fact, a family tradition - my mother did it for me - I did it for my children - in sixteen years or so the cycle will lather, rinse, repeat. One of the amusing things Ferguson mentions here is "the law of constant contradiction". For every piece of advice in a book, online, or a hot tip from a friend, there exists a perfectly legitimate bit of wisdom that states the exact opposite.
Students should prepare a professional looking education resume.
Admissions officers are tire of seeing too many glossy, perfect professional resumes.
Parents should get involved - don't be afraid to call or email admissions offices.
Too many calls and emails alienate an admissions officer.
If a teach provides a recommendation, they should receive a nice gift from the student.
Gifts might be regarded as bribery, and could offend the teacher.
Another subject that gets a lot of play in the book is SAT tests and scoring. The SATs were created in the early twentieth century to eliminate the discrimination by Harvard and other Ivy League schools found in their less data-driven admissions practices, and became the go-to criteria for academic aptitude for a long time. Now, however, after outcries from activists who believe that the SAT is biased towards rich, white folks, a number of more "progressive" universities are de-emphasizing the SAT - ironically, since it was "progressives" who created it in the first place.
Without getting deeply into the issue of why it's a good thing to go to college, and why politicians of any stripe are promoting universal university access (hint - "access" means someone else pays for it) for every student. It makes a great sound bite to support education - don't we all? - and makes the sheep believe you actually care about them more than just at shearing time (April 15), it's a well known fact that a college degree is the ticket to admission to leadership in business, politics, engineering and the sciences. It's also been obvious for about as long as higher education has existed in this country that poor people probably aren't as well prepared for college as rich people. Duh. However, the folks with FairTest (is that like Fair Tax?) have pulled out all the stops to remove all hints of bias, condescension, and exclusivity from the SAT as now being presented. I think they may have actually surgically removed its utility as a collegiate yardstick, as well.
Patterns in SAT result data have indicated for quite a while now that Asians outperform whites, Whites outperform Hispanics, Hispanics outperform blacks, rich outperform poor, and men do better than women on some sections, while women do better on others than men. True to form, eh?
"You could react to this pattern in one of three ways. Option one is to ask what relevance group numbers had in a country, and an educational system, where merit is supposed to attach to individuals, not groups. Option two is to note that the data reveal that some test takes - owing to their schools, their family lives, their neighborhoods, the social services they were provided, the expectations of parents and friends - had been less prepared for college than other test takers and, as a result, had a slimmer chance of doing well in some colleges than in other colleges. Option three is to insist that something is wrong with the test.
The activists chose number three."
I liked the passage about the new "allowance" made for students who claim to be learning disabled by ADHD. They get to take an extra hour on the test. As soon as this option was made available, a huge number of students claimed to be ADHD, and their scores on the test went through the roof - better than "normals". As Gomer Pyle would say, "Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!"
Also, when the mean score on SATs fell between 1941 and 1995 in both the verbal and mathematics sections - which to me indicates that there's a problem with how well our public schools are preparing children (an entire wild and crazy topic in and of itself) - the solution was to "re-center" the test, adjusting all the scores so that a 425 on the old scale becomes a 501 on the new. Un-ummm-believable.
The facts are that, if you average together (in general over a large enough statistical sample) a student's grade-point average in high school and their SAT scores, it is a very strong predictor of what sort of grades they will get their first semester in college. In response to critics like Lani Guinier (wasn't she a Clinton advisor?) who say that the SAT should be called a "wealth test", UCSB education professor Rebecca Swick writes, "it's impossible to find a measure of academic achievement that is unrelated to family income." Every other way of putting a metric on academics correlates strongly with family income. Which provides even more evidence to my long-held hypothesis that the prime factor in scholastic achievement is the parents of the student.
It's not saying that poor children cannot do well, or that they are necessarily less intelligent, but perhaps has something to do with priorities. When you are struggling just to survive daily life, it's hard to sit down with the kids and help with homework, to provide extracurricular supplementary activities on your own or to pay for school-sponsored one, or even to make sure that there is enough appropriate reading material in the house, and that reading, writing and math skills are seen as highly valued by the family.
Reading about colleges marketing themselves, the cynic in me wonders if the constant political rhetoric about "everyone must go to college" is the result of colleges lobbying their pet congresscritters in order to ensure a steady plentiful stream of "customers", and especially customers who will spend money in the first year or two, then drop out, so that the college won't actually have to part with its precious "product", the baccalaureate.
I have a ton more I could say about Ferguson's book, and Ferguson has a ton more to say about the insanity involved in getting into a college to obtain the all-important degree these days. But I've already run way too long. Read the book!
January 7, 2020
I'd been meaning to read this since it originally came out even though I don't have children anywhere near college age. Now I've read it and it didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, but it was still well-written, clever, and interesting. There is much I want to say in this review, but I would probably piss off 90% of the goodreads population.
April 12, 2011
I had a really easy time getting into school. All things being equal, I think my top choice school would have probably been a safety school as well, but since I was planning on keeping things local, that was to be expected. Regardless, I applied to my school on a normal schedule and got in before I applied anywhere else or even took the SAT. My "getting into college" routine was significantly stress-free compared to many of my peers.
This book is about the stresses I missed out on. About how completely insane the college application and admittance process has gotten. Much of it, such as the craziness of the SAT and test prep and such, was not news. The reality of acceptance rates, the little tips and tricks along the way were different, though, and kind of scary. Scary in that I'm glad I missed it, scary that there doesn't seem to be an exit strategy for us as a nation.
Still, a decent, if occasionally draggy, read. I'd imagine this would be more worthwhile for me if I had a 16 year old and was reading this, but as it stood, it's definitely an interesting read.
This book is about the stresses I missed out on. About how completely insane the college application and admittance process has gotten. Much of it, such as the craziness of the SAT and test prep and such, was not news. The reality of acceptance rates, the little tips and tricks along the way were different, though, and kind of scary. Scary in that I'm glad I missed it, scary that there doesn't seem to be an exit strategy for us as a nation.
Still, a decent, if occasionally draggy, read. I'd imagine this would be more worthwhile for me if I had a 16 year old and was reading this, but as it stood, it's definitely an interesting read.
August 10, 2015
I picked this book because I expected a lighthearted read about a father/son journey through the college admissions process. Not so much... Much of the book was taken up by a rather dry recapitulation of the history of the college admissions process/debates over the college admissions process. But I suppose there is some value in that. What was truly annoying about this book was the constant rending of garments on behalf of the middle/upper-middle class about the unpredictability of the admissions process and the cost of college. I am also somewhat leery of an author who says that he is purchasing writing from an essay-writing service for "research" purposes and the proceeds to show the product to his son who is surprise, surprise writing his own college essay. There are much more fun, interesting and worthy subjects on which an author could expend his time to write a book about.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 5, 2011
This book makes me laugh out loud and has fun with skewering the traditional college search process. It walks through the 'how did we get to this place' with college applications. He also provides a look back for the history of colleges in the U.S. A fascinating and fun read. Andrew Ferguson peels back the layers of the SAT's and the admissions process. His account on when he sat down to take the SAT (at the same time as his son) is absolutely hilarious! Much of what he writes provided assurance to our family's laid back approach to the college search.
October 19, 2011
We are in the crazy stage of ED 1 and EA, common app, essays, letters of rec, and all the rest. I was hopeful for a parent's sane perspective on the process. I should have given up on the book when he wrote that he hadn't even talked about colleges or toured a campus with his h.s. junior. By the time he mentioned ACT's were for students in the Midwest it confirmed he was clueless. Skip this book.
September 3, 2012
I gave this five stars not because it is a ground-breaking literary work, but because it is a very witty, laugh-out-loud at times look at the college search and application process. Given the stress surrounding this process for both students and parents, I found it the perfect read to kick off my son's junior year and the start of the craziness! (according to the "experts" Feguson interviews, we are already way behind!)
May 12, 2013
I think this dad and I live in different hemispheres, judging by some of the company he keeps, but I enjoyed his recounting of getting his kid into college. I am the mother of a male high school Junior, so I could identify with the hyperness and craziness of this dad. And after reading the book, I thank him for his insight and helping me to relax a little bit. Ferguson gives lots of good information that will keep me from going down some of the time-wasting holes he went down.
December 25, 2014
Reads more like a "law of constant contradiction" history of the admissions process. He rambles- a LOT, name drops and isn't particularly any more informed at the end of the process than he was at the beginning. The "scenes" with his son are well done at least.
April 3, 2021
Great book about the challenges of college admission. It is humorous and informative.
January 30, 2012
For all the parents that are going through the craziness of sending their kids to college, finally sanity through sarcasm of the author.
June 20, 2018
Getting into the college or university that the high schooler and/or parent want can be an anxious process. The visits, the applications, the essays, the financial forms, the SAT's. How does your kid stand out from the rest? What does the school really want? What am I willing to pay for?
Ferguson expresses the bewilderment and exhaustion that many a parent will identify with. As he tells the story of his first born applying for college admission, Ferguson digs deeper to learn about the businesses that rise from the higher education industry and the anxiety of college admissions process.
Why do we take the SAT's again? Why is school so expensive? Ferguson finds answers to these and other questions too. You may not be amused by the answers.
Ferguson's intertwining of the personal experience with investigative reporting make this an engaging read. The last chapters describing his son's departure and the family's adjustment to his absence is heart warming.
Ferguson expresses the bewilderment and exhaustion that many a parent will identify with. As he tells the story of his first born applying for college admission, Ferguson digs deeper to learn about the businesses that rise from the higher education industry and the anxiety of college admissions process.
Why do we take the SAT's again? Why is school so expensive? Ferguson finds answers to these and other questions too. You may not be amused by the answers.
Ferguson's intertwining of the personal experience with investigative reporting make this an engaging read. The last chapters describing his son's departure and the family's adjustment to his absence is heart warming.
June 6, 2018
A wry, humorous, enlightening look at the process. Dad went to the experts – college consultants, admissions people, the brain behind the rankings, an economist who studies the role of college. Interesting background on the evolution of the purpose of college - “As higher education was democratized, a college degree became more desirable than the learning it was meant to signify.” - and the history of the SAT. Inside look at the rankings and how they are shamelessly manipulated, easily so by a school with money. Speculation on how the government’s loan program has had the effect of increasing tuition. An attempt to puncture the idea that somewhere out there is the “perfect” college. The trend to believe “the future of our children is too important to be left to our children.” And the disturbing idea that in the competition to attract students, colleges might have dumbed down education.
June 26, 2019
Bill, Central patron, June 2019, 4 stars:
This book was characterized by George Will (a DN-R columnist with whom I do not often agree) as "grimly hilarious." It traces in great detail the process by which the author's son was admitted to an unnamed Big State University ("BSU"). As a first-generation college student who graduated in 1965 and took every step from a 79-student high-school graduating class to a 40,000-student BSU, entirely on my own initiative (with the full support of my loving parents and a small scholarship to boot), I was astounded by how complicated the process has become and the supervisory hand-holding that today's helicopter parents (especially those with college degrees) seem to think they have to provide. And the book was written in 2011, so the picture is probably even more grim now.
This book was characterized by George Will (a DN-R columnist with whom I do not often agree) as "grimly hilarious." It traces in great detail the process by which the author's son was admitted to an unnamed Big State University ("BSU"). As a first-generation college student who graduated in 1965 and took every step from a 79-student high-school graduating class to a 40,000-student BSU, entirely on my own initiative (with the full support of my loving parents and a small scholarship to boot), I was astounded by how complicated the process has become and the supervisory hand-holding that today's helicopter parents (especially those with college degrees) seem to think they have to provide. And the book was written in 2011, so the picture is probably even more grim now.
December 18, 2019
The descriptions of college tours, essay writing and financial stuff were quite enjoyable. I wasn't as fond of the history of college education in the US and other sections like that. My favorite passage, regarding the FAFSA's EFC (Expected Family Contribution):
Who does the expecting? And how does the expecter calculate how much he will expect me to pay? A reasonable assumption is that somewhere in the basement of the Department of Education sits a moist, heavyset, bespectacled fellow with an overstuffed pocket protector splitting the seams of his shirtfront, hunched in a windowless cell lit only by a computer screen that glows with algorithms of his own devising. He's the Expecter: unseen, unfathomable, and unspeakably powerful.
Who does the expecting? And how does the expecter calculate how much he will expect me to pay? A reasonable assumption is that somewhere in the basement of the Department of Education sits a moist, heavyset, bespectacled fellow with an overstuffed pocket protector splitting the seams of his shirtfront, hunched in a windowless cell lit only by a computer screen that glows with algorithms of his own devising. He's the Expecter: unseen, unfathomable, and unspeakably powerful.
July 18, 2019
I'm now closer in time to my grandchildren applying to colleges than my children. Sigh. College prices continue to go up much faster than the price of other goods. There is beginning to be a little pushback against the idea that everyone should go to college, and that just going to college will guarantee a good job for anyone. People with degrees that don't represent saleable skills are agitating for the rest of us to pay off their loans. I think this book is still topical, though, and it's much more entertaining than all the get-into-the-college-of-your-choice books that used to take up so many bookstore shelves when there used to be bookstores.
June 29, 2017
This is an insightful look at the get-into-the-best-college-ever craze from a parent perspective, but was helpful to me as a teacher also. Ferguson spends a chapter each on topics like why we're so obsessed with college anyway, figuring out where to go, why it costs so much, writing the personal essay, should you pay an expert, etc., all through the lens of his own son's applications and decisions. It's not a how-to book, by any means, but brings up a lot of issues to consider in a light-hearted way.
November 24, 2017
Ferguson's book is part personal of experience of guiding his son through applying to a near top ranked college, part investigation into how the college application game got this way. It's an interesting read, though by its nature it's not very systematic in breaking down how different types of colleges address these issues and how the experience might vary depending on the type of college. Amusing and interesting but not necessarily the type of systematic investigation I was looking for.
July 31, 2017
Humorous and very readable (I blitzed through it in 3 days) account of getting his son into college. It has informative sections on the various elements interspersed with wry commentary and some gut-level honesty about the emotional stresses and strains on both parents and kids.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
May 17, 2018
Funny look at college application process through the eyes of a well-intentioned dad. Skewers the education industry and associated fields, rightfully, but makes a serious point about what we are expecting colleges to do for our children, and why we are expecting our kids to jump through so many of these ridiculous hoops to attend those colleges.
May 17, 2021
I will preface this by saying I dont think most people are as dorky as me so I am not sure this book is for everyone. I did, however, laugh out loud at two different points while reading this and quote it to my husband a few times.
Andy Ferguson did a ton of research and so much of it was really interesting, that being said I am so glad I did not do the research.
Andy Ferguson did a ton of research and so much of it was really interesting, that being said I am so glad I did not do the research.
August 4, 2019
If I had known the author was a Weekly Standard editor / Washington Examiner writer I probably wouldn’t have started it. When I read something dismissive about “progressives” I flipped to the author bio and confirmed that he and I couldn’t have more opposing values.
September 7, 2019
As advertised. One dad's story about college admissions. Ferguson is a talented writer and tells an entertaining story. In many ways, this book is more about the parent's journey than the student's though there are useful details.
May 11, 2021
My one critique was that this book, or maybe just the author, seemed to be about 10 years behind in technology. But, the overall message leaves such a bitter taste in your mouth. I would recommend reading before your kid applies to colleges, not while they are in the throes of it.
August 19, 2017
I have mixed feelings about this book. He seems to both admire and despise the crazy college admissions system.
October 1, 2017
Well written funny recap of the things we go through to get our kids motivated to get into a good college
August 17, 2018
Engaging book.
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