Rating: 
Summary: If you don't get into Duke...
Review: ...just get over it and move on. It is possible that the woman hired by Duke to decide the path of the rest of your life was just too busy timing how many minutes (3 at last count) it too her pig to pee.
How can anyone reviewing this book get past the author's relationship with her pig? Where was the editor? Were I to write a serious book of non-fiction, wishing to come across as a credible author, I would delete references to my deviant lifestyle. Is that just me, or is everyone sleeping with pigs because they are the "hypoallergenic" pet of choice?Perhaps there is some useful information between the covers pages of this book, but keep in mind that "between the sheets" with Ms. Toor, is her pig! This begs the question, is there any correlation between your life and your advice? While many admission process questions may go unanswered, you will be treated to the depth of Ms. Toor's love for Emma, the pig she sleeps with.
Rating: 
Summary: mix bag of tricks
Review: A good writer, Ms. Toor. Her suggestions at the back of the book for how the awful admissions process can be refined are truly insight. However, I lost respect for this woman due to her condescending attitude toward "average students". I've done very well in my career, but when reading this book I'm sureI would have been one of the applicants that Toor laughs and claims, "Sucks!"
Rating: 
Summary: Depressing for people who want to go to a top college.
Review: After reading this book, I was conflicted on what kind of a score to give it. "Admissions Confidential" is by no means a guide on getting into the top schools. It is instead the author's perspective on what her life was like during the three years she worked at Duke's office of admissions. It is certainly worth reading. It will make your blood boil when you realize that, despite your good grades and high test scores, you never got into a top school because your parents were not donors.
Rating:
Summary: Depressing for people who want to go to a top college.
Review: After reading this book, I was conflicted on what kind of a score to give it. "Admissions Confidential" is by no means a guide on getting into the top schools. It is instead the author's perspective on what her life was like during the three years she worked at Duke's office of admissions. It is certainly worth reading. It will make your blood boil when you realize that, despite your good grades and high test scores, you never got into a top school because your parents were not donors.
Rating: 
Summary: More about the author than the process
Review: From a "former editor of scholarly books" I expected better. Instead of informative, I found this to be more an annoying autobiography of Toor herself (do we really need to know about her dating life or her pet pig?) with run-on monologues about the Duke admission process. I suspect that what little information this book had to offer could be summed up in a pamphlet, and is of interest mostly to prospective Duke applicants or alums.
Rating:
Summary: Cleverly written but..
Review: I am a college admission professional and while I really enjoyed the peak inside the Duke Admission office, the author does not offer real advice for the type of people who will most likely buy this book. 3.9+ gpa and 1400 SAT's are great credentials, but what else--what is your hook--how do you stand apart from thousands just like you? I don't envy the challenge of handling 14,000 BWRK (Bright, Well-Rounded Kids) and a goal of selecting maybe 3,000 for admission? Lots of people who are qualified are not admitted, but you do not need a whole book to learn this. Toor's writing style does suck you in and you do find yourself rooting for the few students who she profiles a bit more indepth. I for one did not mind her forays outside the admission office as it showed some personality, however the pig stories might have been a bit much. Her introductions to each chapter show off her excellent writing skills, it is just too bad that her talent is tied up in an overlong newspaper article. If you are thinking about this book because you want a leg up on the competition, you are probably better off reading A for Admission (which Toor takes a swipe at in her introduction) by Michele Hernandez. Bottom line is that there are lots of great colleges out there, some have big time names like Duke, Yale, Stanford etc... While others offer excellent educations in their own right even if their name is Kenyon, Carleton, Albion or Grinnell. The names might not be as recognizable, but the experience will be just as good if not better. Glad I read this--yes for the inside look, but not much else.
Rating: 
Summary: It is what goes on.
Review: I am an admission director for your history graduate program and have two children in college. So I have gone through the admissions game from both sides. Toor is occasionally -- okay often -- too cute and this posturing is doubtless painful to readers caught in the meritocratic system. Nonetheless, what goes on at the most selective schools and programs is well reflected in this book. Especially valuable is the section on how legacies with big bucks totally transcend the selection system and are admitted by the development department.
Rating:
Summary: Admissions Confidential
Review: I have an 11th grade boy whom I believed was "ivy" material. Now after reading this brutally honest book, I know I am off the mark. I think every parent who is concerned about where their child goes to college needs to read this honest and helpful book. Rachel Toor tells it like it really is; I believe she is telling the truth, and even though we don't want to hear or believe it, it is real.
Rating:
Summary: The wrong people are reading this book
Review: I picked up this book because I love a good insider expose of an industry, a la Studs Terkel's Working or Fast Food Nation. I finished it in one sitting. Rachel Toor is an excellent writer and I was comfortable that she told it like it was. It gave me a window into a subculture I had previously only glimpsed, underscored by some memorable and telling anecdotes. The Amazon section "People who bought this book also bought..." explains the negative reviews. If you are a high-school senior or one of those pushy parents looking for an edge up in the admissions process, this book really is not intended to help you. The author says as much. If you buy it expecting it will and are then disappointed, it's not surprising. The extraneous intros were a little odd, but they were well-written and enjoyable as essays, without exception. A reader with some literary sensibility will be able to tie the theme of the intro to the theme of the chapter. As a NC resident, I can also see how these intros helped give a feel for the Duke culture to those who might not be familiar with the campus.
Rating:
Summary: Should be titled "Why Rachel Toor is cool"
Review: I picked up this book because I thought it might shed some light on whether or not my daughter was really a candidate for the elite schools she had been getting letters from. Fortunately, I read it on the bookstore couch before wasting any money on it. The apparent purpose of the book was not to give an insider's account of the admissions office, but rather to show how hip the author is, and how morally and intellectually superior she was to her fellow admission officers, the applicants, and their parents. For example, she's hung up on race, and she obviously feels she has an enlightened additude about it that differentiates her from the ignorant, racist masses that surround her. She's appalled at the racial stereotyping she sees in well meaning letters of recomendation for black applicants. She has no problem with stereotypes, however, when she expresses her contempt for "southern frat boys," or her indifference toward a "typical asian kid," or when she gleefully rejects a "classic Branford guy." You may find some useful tidbits in this book, but its not worth wading through all the author's snide comments, anecdotes about her personal life, and incessant bragging. Then again, maybe you're interested in what she had for dinner when she stayed at the house of some guy she met last year.
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