Navigating the college admissions process can be overwhelming for many families. There are a multitude of books published on the topic, and selecting one can be just as overwhelming. 

As I was preparing my curriculum for the Fall, I was curious to hear from other Independent Educational Consultants (IECs) on what college planning books they typically recommend to families. I ran a survey on a few forums, gathering about 50 responses from the community. Here are the results, highlighting the winner, runner-up, finalists, and honorable mentions. The list includes Amazon links, but you may be able to find some of these in your local libary, on the Libby app. Or pick up a used copy on BookFinder.com, an online book price comparison service where you can find the best prices for used books.

Hopefully you can find a resource or two here that will help you make informed decisions about the college admissions process

Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions by Jeffrey Selingo, September 2020. This book, which received the most votes by other IECs, provides an in-depth look at the college admissions process, drawing from the author's experienceinside three different admissions offices. Jeff reveals the complex factors that influence admission decisions, including institutional priorities, applicant demographics, and financial considerations. The book offers valuable insights for students and parents navigating the competitive world of college admissions. Amazon Link.

Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania by Frank Bruni, March 2015. Frank Bruni challenges the obsession with elite college admissions, arguing that a student's success is not determined by the prestige of their chosen college. He presents examples of successful individuals who attended less selective schools or took non-traditional paths. The book encourages readers to focus on personal growth and opportunities rather than brand-name institutions. Amazon Link.

• Fiske Guide to Colleges 2025 by Edward Fiske, July 2024. This authoritative guide offers detailed profiles of over 300 colleges in the US, providing valuable insights into academics, campus life, and admissions. The book is an essential resource for prospective students and their families, offering expert analysis to help match students with the best-fit institutions based on their needs. Amazon Link.
• The Price You Pay for College: An Entirely New Road Map for the Biggest Financial Decision Your Family Will Ever Make by Ron Lieber, January 2021. Provides a comprehensive guide to understanding the complex financial aspects of college education, addressing financial aid, scholarships, and the true value of different college experiences. The book can help you navigate the biggest financial decision you'll likely face, offering strategies to make informed choices about college investments. Amazon Link.
  

• College Admission Essentials: A Step-by-Step Guide to Showing Colleges Who You Are and What Matters to You by Ethan Sawyer, July 2020. Offers a comprehensive, step-by-step approach to the college application process, emphasizing self-discovery and storytelling. Amazon Link.
• College Match: A Blueprint for Choosing the Best School for You by Steven Antonoff, January 2022. A practical guide to help students find the best college fit based on their individual needs and preferences. Amazon Link.
• How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success by Julie Lythcott-Haims, June 2015. This book provides strategies for parents to help their children develop independence and self-sufficiency. Amazon Link.
• The Truth about College Admission: A Family Guide to Getting In and Staying Together by Brennan Barnard and Rick Clark, September 2023. A guide for families to manage the college admission process collaboratively and healthily. Amazon Link.
• Valedictorians at the Gate: Standing Out, Getting In, and Staying Sane While Applying to College by Becky Munsterer Sabky, August 2021. A former Ivy League admissions director offers practical advice on how to navigate the college application process. Amazon Link.

• Admission Matters: What Students and Parents Need to Know About Getting into College by Sally P. Springer, Jon Reider, Nancy Griesemer, and Joyce Vining Morgan, August 2023. Amazon Link.
• College Admissions Together: It Takes a Family by Steven Roy Goodman and Andrea Leiman, September 2007. Amazon Link.
• College Essay Essentials: A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Successful College Admissions Essay by Ethan Sawyer, July 2016. Amazon Link.
• How to Be a High School Superstar: A Revolutionary Plan to Get into College by Standing Out (Without Burning Out) by Cal Newport, July 2010. Amazon Link.
• How to College: What to Know Before You Go (and When You're There) by Andrea Malkin Brenner and Lara Hope Schwartz, April, 2019. Amazon Link.
• How to Talk So Teens Will Listen and Listen So Teens Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish, August 2006. Amazon Link.
• Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic-and What We Can Do About It by Jennifer Breheny Wallace, August 2023. Amazon Link.
• Soundbite: The Admissions Secret that Gets You Into College and Beyond by Sara Harberson, April 2021. Amazon Link.
• The Black Family's Guide to College Admissions: A Conversation about Education, Parenting, and Race by Timothy Fields and Shereem Herndon-Brown, January 2024. Amazon Link.
• The College Conversation: A Practical Companion for Parents to Guide Their Children Along the Path to Higher Education by Eric J. Furda and Jacques Steinberg, September 2020. Amazon Link.
• The College Finder: Choose the School That’s Right for You by Steven Antonoff, March 2023. Amazon Link.
• The Inequality Machine: How College Divides Us by Paul Tough, September 2019. Amazon Link.
• This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life by David Foster Wallace, April 2009. Amazon Link.
• Your Turn: How to Be an Adult by Julie Lythcott-Haims, April 2021. Amazon Link. 

Hi 

I decided to highlight UCLA as my school this month. I spent the last 2 days at a UC Conference for Counselors, so I have the most current stats released. I chose UCLA because they announced some big changes, and their stats were shocking. Below are 2 great resources. The first goes over undergrad admissions for all UC’s and the second gives stats for each high school for every UC.

Check this out, as it explains how applications are reviewed, school by school:

admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/...

Admissions by high school per year for each high school:

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-center/admissions-source-school

Examples of stats from the above link for UCLA from specific high schools.

For the Fall of 2022, this is how many students from each school applied to UCLA, # admitted, # enrolled.

Corona del Mar HS. 153 applied, 13 admitted, 4 enrolled

Newport Harbor HS: 119 applied, 9 admitted, 8 enrolled

J Serra: 105 applied, 7 admitted, 5 enrolled

St. Margarets: 65 applied, 7 admitted, 0 enrolled

Mater Dei: 239 applied, 18 admitted, 12 enrolled

2023 Counselor Conference:

GPA: The average unweighted for UCLA for 2023 admits: 3.95-4.0 (unweighted= not including AP’s/honors) 25-75% so most students had all A’s unweighted.  You might get in with 1 or 2 B’s.

Weighted GPA 4.58 mid.50%.   Range of 25-75% GPA 4.40-4.73  grade 10-12. YOU need a Weighted 4.5 to hit the median GPA.

Honors (Weighted): # 25 semesters HONORS, This is in semesters so the mid 50% of students have 12+ AP’s (honor points) You get honor points from AP/IB classes or Dual Enrollement college classes. A limited # of honors counts as .5 in the UC system. 

For 2023 UCLA had 145,909 applications. They admitted 12,781 students with a 9% admit rate

6749 enrolled as freshman

OVERALL admit rate 9%, but here is the rate by major:

Admit rate by Major

Engineering 5%

Archit./art. 5%

Music 21%

Nursing 1%

Film 3%

Science and Letters 11%

11,725 students were offered waitlist, and 1404 got off the waitlist. , 1587 appeals and 1 appeal offer was accepted.

2 new majors: Public health and Disabilities studies

This is the big news besides leaving the Pac 12 and joining USC in the Big 10. UCLA had 3 big new purchases:

1. Purchased the  Downtown LA Trust Building. 330,000 square feet. Building that they will use for classes, research, and undetermined uses at this point.

2. Purchased the Nimoy Theatre in Westwood.

3. Purchased the Marymount College Campus in Palos Verdes and San Pedro which includes over 35 acres for 80 million. They haven’t announced all the plans yet how they will use this new space. 

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/05/12/gates-foundation-attempts-redefine-value-higher-education?utm_campaign=Next%3A%20The%20Future%20of%20Higher%20Education&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter

The short answer is “yes.” Most college disability services offices don’t deny accommodations to students simply because they haven’t had an IEP or 504 plan in high school. In fact, there is a good chance that students won’t be asked whether or not they had a plan. (Remember that IEPS and 504 plans aren’t valid at college.) Instead, they will likely be asked to provide recent testing for their learning disability or ADHD.

When college disability services (DS) offices do ask about plans, it is often to get a sense of students’ educational history and use of accommodations that they found helpful. (Remember that colleges aren’t required to provide students with the same accommodations written into their IEPs or 504 plans, though they likely will, depending upon what they were.) However, DS offices are aware that there could be several reasons why students didn’t have an IEP or 504 plan, e.g., they attended a private school, were homeschooled, their parents didn’t want them in special education because they didn’t want their student to feel stigmatized, etc. Many will not penalize students simply because they didn’t have plans. What many will ask for is documentation that shows that students have a disability that substantially limits their functioning (typically, this will be found in fairly recent testing for those with learning disabilities).

Read Elizabeth’s book, From High School to College: Steps to Success for Students with Disabilities, to learn more about college accommodations, the registration process, and more. Also available on Amazon.

By the same token, colleges won’t automatically grant students accommodations simply because they have had an IEP or 504 plan previously. Colleges typically want to see objective evidence that the impact of a disability is significant enough to require accommodation, which is why they often want to see testing and only consider an IEP or 504 plan as supplementary documentation. If they don’t see evidence of that kind of deficit, the presence of an IEP or 504 (to document student’s history of receiving accommodations) may not be persuasive.

To help support students’ need for accommodations, private schools can assign someone to write a letter or some kind of narrative explaining how teachers have informally accommodated students (e.g., allowed him to take tests in a separate room with a proctor) even though these accommodations were not memorialized in a plan. It can be helpful to include comments from teachers (e.g., she often had to come after school to finish her lab because she couldn’t finish during class time). Parents/guardians of homeschooled students who are part of a learning community might wish to ask the teachers working with their student to provide similar observations. If parents or guardians are homeschooling by themselves, they can talk about their student’s work process and how they see their student’s disability affecting him or her in everyday life (e.g., “We had to set up a checklist for everyday chores to make sure she completed them thoroughly.”). These documents can be helpful supplementary documentation to back up the more formal documentation they’ll likely have to submit.

Parents/guardians should be aware that the process where students register with DS to request accommodations doesn’t occur until after they have enrolled at college (typically, right after they pay their enrollment deposit). Colleges cannot ask questions about students’ disability during the admission process (though students can certainly choose to talk about this, if they wish). Keeping this in mind, parents/guardians should not ask the school to take their student off of an IEP or 504 plan based on the mistaken idea that it will affect their college admissions chances.

To learn more, read From High School to College: Steps to Success for Students with Disabilities, available at amazon. Also review the resources available at the Families & Students web page.

[Note – this piece is for informational use only. It should not be considered medical, legal or technical advice, and it is not intended to substitute for advice from a qualified professional.]