Rating: 
Summary: poor grammar and syntax makes information seem dubious
Review: This book is interesting but frustrating. It explains in excruciating detail the admissions process at ONE Ivy League school (Dartmouth), and purports to offer this as a general guide to admissions at the ten or fifteen most selective colleges in the country. It is questionable whether (a) any such analogy is really valid and (b) this is a true glimpse of even Dartmouth's process. Ms Hernandez's biography states that she has an advanced degree in English but you could never tell that from her grammar and syntax. Even my 17-year old son threw down the book in disgust at the sentence structure and the childish prose.I know that many parents view this as the Bible of admissions books, but I think it is more like the Apocrypha or the Book of Mormon--a pretender or a fake, or, at best, an adjunct to more serious and intelligent books such as Bill Paul's Getting In and Bill Mayher's book on the admissions process.
Rating: 
Summary: a real downer...
Review: This book made it seem like if you didn't have a 4.0 GPA and a 1600 on your SAT that you didn't have a chance to get into the top colleges in the US, which is not true! She DID explain the admissions process, but didn't give any tips on how to increase your chances. the book was also poorly organized. Try another book besides this one.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is a must read for serious applicants!
Review: I highly recommend this book - it was very readable and includes invaluable information about the college entrance process. If you really want to figure out your chances of getting into a school or even just want to find out what kind of essay to write, read this book! There were some seriously eye-opening parts to this book. I even think that those who are not going for an Ivy League school would get a lot of useful information from this book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent insights into how it really works.
Review: Getting your kid into a good college is a nerve-racking process for most parents. It certainly has been for us. We have found the customer reviews in Amazon very helpful. That prompts us to distill our ratings of the various guidebooks. The best short reference on each college is the Princeton Review of The Best (311) Colleges. It gives ratings of academic quality, difficulty of admission, percentage admitted, etc. There is also a brief summary of college life and what each place might be looking for. Peterson Guide is comprehensive, and has long write-ups for each school. There is a front section for each school, listed alphabetically within each state, and a back section with detailed profiles of selected institutions. Fiske's guide is interesting, but he basically has something good to say for each school, so careful reading between the lines and for "damning with faint praise" is called for. The Yale Insider's Guide is extremely subjective, with different students writing various reviews. We did not find it too reliable, except in conjunction with other books. Likewise for Barrron's Guide to the Most Competitive Colleges. Recent alumni write of their (invariably positive) experiences. Take it with a grain of salt, or read carefully between the lines. Choosing the Right College by ISN was extremely helpful. Some readers criticized it for being allegedly right wing. We did not find it so. Rather, knowing the point of view of the authors helped us evaluate their observations. Other books do not make their biases explicit. A feature of the book we found particularly helpful was the naming of excellent professors and departments in each college. Antonoff's College Finder was interesting only in conjunction with other books. Three books written from the perspective of college admissions officers were very interesting and helpful. They are The College Admissions Mystique, by Mayher, Getting In, by Bill Paul, and most of all A is for Admission by Michelle Hernandez. We strongly recommend that parents and the kids who are the applicants read at least one of these. Another very helpful book was You're Gonna Love This College Guide, by Marty Nemko. It takes the student through the decision process of big vs. small, urban vs. country, elite vs. the level just below, geography, and so forth. That really got our daughter unstuck in her thinking process. Loren Pope is another helpful author for those who think that not getting into Harvard is the end of the world. Three books we did not find to be particularly helpful are Getting Into Any College, by Jim Good and Lisa Lee, The National Review College Guide, by Charles Sykes and Brad Miner (too out of date), and The Real Freshman Handbook, by Jennifer Hanson. One book we found to be unexpectedly useful was Getting Into Medical School Today, by Scott Plantz, et. al. Even if your child is not interested in medical school, this book puts college in perspective for any post-college program. We hope readers find our review helpful.
Rating: 
Summary: Fair with some good insights
Review: Although A is For Admission is a revealing book in some sense, it is probably more useful for the Dartmouth applicant than the general ivy pool. Readers should be wary that although Dartmouth, UPenn, and Cornell might follow the AI as a guide, Harvard Yale and Princeton always look at applicants more holistically than a simple number. But as said before, it does have some good insights as far as classifications.
Rating:
Summary: very helpful in dealing with admissions process
Review: This was the best of many books on college admissions I read. It was very helpful in understanding how to design college application including essays. Our child was admitted to Harvard, and this is first book I would recommend to parents and students with similar goals.
Rating: 
Summary: A book for talented writers
Review: Mr. Bauld gives some of the best advice on writing I've ever read. He tends to be sharp and even sarcastic, but for talented writers he can be a great help. He certainly gives an accurate description of the type of college admissions workers who read student applications. For most students applying to most colleges, however, Bauld's advice is intimidating. Most colleges put essays on their apps for two reasons: to see if the applicant can write a simple essay, and to learn something new about the applicant that may not appear or be fully explained on other parts of the app.
Rating:
Summary: This book is AWESOME
Review: I'll be terse: this is a must-read for everyone planning to attend a good college. Even if you're not planning to go to the Ivies, there are SO MANY useful tips that apply to ALL. I'm only a sophmore, but the novel's title caught my attention right away, as did the author's impressive background. And I'll go so far as to say that no one who reads this book will be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: She's Right !
Review: As a former admissions officer at Dartmouth from 1989 to 1993, I would like to congratulate Michele on finally exposing and explaining the process by which students are evaluated and admitted. She has put forth in a very controlled and lucid way the intricacies of highly selective college admissions, as well as touched upon the concepts of affirmative action in its entirety. Having worked with many of the unnamed co-workers in the office, I expect that many were not pleased by the full and public airing of what has been for many years a cloudy secret: the very objective process of student evaluation. She has done a masterful job of making clear what could be quite confusing. If you are considering applying to a highly selective college in general or Dartmouth in particular, you need to read and understand this book. She's right !
Rating:
Summary: The bible of the college admissions process.
Review: This is the only book available that interestingly tells you everything you need to know about the college admissions process. I am still a couple years off from graduating high schol and this book tells me things I can do to increase my chances of being selected to a highly selective college. It also tells me things I need to emphasize or devalue in a college application. I loved this book and am considering it my bible for my college aspirations. Anyone reading this book will be suprised at how the application process works and will be able to use the information to better their chances of getting into a highly selective college.
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