Watsamatta U: The Get-A-Grip Guide for Staying Sane Through Your Child's College Application Process

Rating:
Summary: Keeping Parents Sane Whether They Want to Be or Not
Review: This is the book I've been waiting for. For years I've been watching my friends -- people who are otherwise loving and sane -- pressure and torment their kids in the name of getting into the "right" college. I've been waiting for a parent who is guilty of temporarily succumbing to this toxic cultural madness, to come out the other side and share with us her enlightenment. This is what Karin Kasdin does in Watsamatta U. I don't think I've ever seen such an honest and important book that is simultaneously side-splitting: Kasdin thoroughly dissects the entire circus via her oldest child's college application process, exposing the idiocies of new-parent fantasies, high school "college nights", the SAT industry, and that hallucinatory culmination, "the college tour".

I was going to say, "Buy this book for every single parent you know who has a high school student." Instead, I recommend we all go out and buy it as a baby gift as well, for the newest crop of new parents who are sure that repeated reading of "Pat the Bunny" in 6 languages is the first mile on the way to Brown.

Rating:
Summary: Keeping Parents Sane Whether They Want to Be or Not
Review: This is the book I've been waiting for. For years I've been watching my friends -- people who are otherwise loving and sane -- pressure and torment their kids in the name of getting into the "right" college. I've been waiting for a parent who is guilty of temporarily succumbing to this toxic cultural madness, to come out the other side and share with us her enlightenment. This is what Karin Kasdin does in Watsamatta U. I don't think I've ever seen such an honest and important book that is simultaneously side-splitting: Kasdin thoroughly dissects the entire circus via her oldest child's college application process, exposing the idiocies of new-parent fantasies, high school "college nights", the SAT industry, and that hallucinatory culmination, "the college tour".

I was going to say, "Buy this book for every single parent you know who has a high school student." Instead, I recommend we all go out and buy it as a baby gift as well, for the newest crop of new parents who are sure that repeated reading of "Pat the Bunny" in 6 languages is the first mile on the way to Brown.