Rating: 
Summary: More Memoir Than Expose
Review: I'm wondering if I read the same book as the other reviewers. I found Admissions Confidential to be an interesting, lively, funny and beautifully written take on a process that I didn't really understand. The author devotes no more than 2 pages to her pet pig, and it seems to me that the "personal statements" with which Toor opens each chapter are simply examples of the kinds of essays that college applicants are asked to write. Toor is opening herself up (bravely, perhaps sometimes unwisely) to the same scrutiny that admissions officers give students.The way the book was packaged made it look more like an expose; reading it, that was clearly not the author's intent. SHe seems to want only to describe what she saw. She states her own personal biases clearly, and talks about how this influences the larger process. Sometimes the personal stuff is relevant, sometimes not. But I for one learned a lot about how the system works. Knowledge is always power. It may not help my daughter get into her first choice school, but then again, if she doesn't, I'll have a better idea what she was up against. Perhaps those who "read" the book while standing in a bookstore didn't really read it all.
Rating: 
Summary: Hope you're not a fan of Milton Friedman
Review: I've given this book two stars because it accomplishes a purpose, even if it's not the one the author originally intended. It's not completely fair to say that this is a book about how cool Rachel Toor is. Nor is it fair to say that it provides a through-the-keyhole glimpse of the complicated, utterly personal world of college admissions. It does give the reader a fairly clear idea of how one admissions officer at one college several years ago evaluated a group of applicants. For anyone who wants to understand how the leftist mind works under the conditions in a highly selective college's admissions office, "Admissions Confidential" is your book. In one particularly bone-chilling scene, Toor disparages an applicant for writing admiringly about Milton Friedman. His application is tabled. (Apparently, no one has informed the very superior Ms. Toor that Milton Friedman did more for the economies of the third world than any Marxist guerilla. Then again, you wouldn't expect anyone with her political commitments to examine evidence objectively. A rather strong indictment of her ability to work at an admissions office, I think.) In a long, discursive essay about her pets, she comes to the sudden and trite conclusion that "species, like race, like gender, matters." (Again, Toor seems ignorant of, or unwilling to engage with, facts. All humans belong to the same species, homo sapiens sapiens. Race is a simple product of where our ancestors first set up camp.) It's fitting that this is such a personal account, because admissions is an intensely personal process. From this, we should take heart. Toor's ignorance, militant leftism, and frequent name dropping created nothing but contempt among her colleagues. They seemed unlikely to reject a candidate on the basis of free market leanings, or accept one because she is a self-described ecofeminist who tutors Cambodian children. The message of this book is simple: cross your fingers. If you're the aforementioned ecofeminist from Berkeley, hope that your application, inferior as it may be in some respects, crosses the desk of Rachel Toor and her ilk. If you're sensible enough not to be a Marxist, hope that the admissions officer for your region is, likewise, sensible.
Rating:
Summary: More about the author than the process
Review: Many important events in all of our lives are decided subjectively and sometimes capriciously - being hired into a job, getting elected, being selected to join a club. Getting into a highly selective college seems to be another one of these little joys - there is no exact science to who gets in and who doesn't. Toor brings this home in a powerful way by interjecting personal aspects of her life - at the end of the book, you feel like a real, fallable, and interesting (sure, maybe a little atypical) person is reading your childrens' applications. It feels to me like her account is genuine, honest, and insightful. I take away from the book a new outlook on the process, one that will help me honestly explain to my teenager that if she doesn't get into her school of choice that it may not be because she isn't good enough, but maybe because of some other human (arbitrary) factor. The book has prompted me to rethink what is important about college, and realize that my child might not be best served by going to a highly selective college. The book isn't a how-to get into college book, but rather is a how-to think about what's important in selecting schools. How-to books are a dime-a-dozen, books that change how you think are rarities. Toor's book is definitely a keeper. Glad it was recommended to me.
Rating:
Summary: Not a cookbook - a refreshing and honest account
Review: Many important events in all of our lives are decided subjectively and sometimes capriciously - being hired into a job, getting elected, being selected to join a club. Getting into a highly selective college seems to be another one of these little joys - there is no exact science to who gets in and who doesn't. Toor brings this home in a powerful way by interjecting personal aspects of her life - at the end of the book, you feel like a real, fallable, and interesting (sure, maybe a little atypical) person is reading your childrens' applications. It feels to me like her account is genuine, honest, and insightful. I take away from the book a new outlook on the process, one that will help me honestly explain to my teenager that if she doesn't get into her school of choice that it may not be because she isn't good enough, but maybe because of some other human (arbitrary) factor. The book has prompted me to rethink what is important about college, and realize that my child might not be best served by going to a highly selective college. The book isn't a how-to get into college book, but rather is a how-to think about what's important in selecting schools. How-to books are a dime-a-dozen, books that change how you think are rarities. Toor's book is definitely a keeper. Glad it was recommended to me.
Rating: 
Summary: Parents of ivy hopefuls must read!
Review: OK, I admit it, I didn't actually buy this book. But I sped-read it in about an hour at my local bookstore; that's about how much time it takes to get the point of this book. Parents of high schoolers who think their kids are ivy (or other competitive college) material should read this book. I work in a large public high school college advising office; it is a brutal process. Brand-name conscious parents are the main problem; who wants to spend $40K a year sending your kid to a school that your tennis club buddies won't recognize the name of? Toor gives what I believe is a pretty accurate look at how an admissions committee physically undertakes its task; and lets kids and parents know what it takes to stand out. Parents should take to heart her sarcastic comments about things that turn off admissions officers. Her basic message is that BWRK's (bright well-rounded kids) need not apply; the colleges are only encouraging your applications so that they can boast about how many applied and how few they accepted. Toor knows it's all about "yield."
Rating: 
Summary: a poor imitation of the real thing
Review: Rachel Toor is a sad case of someone who needed some attention in her life in order to build herself up. I feel sorry for the students who were in her region -- she obviously has a giant chip on her shoulder and does nothing more than glorify how much she looked down on them. Though the author asserts that this is not a book about how to get into college, that's certainly the market she's aiming for. Methinks she doth protest too much. She takes great pains to distance herself from "other" authors who write about the admissions process even though they do an infinitely more credible job and don't hide their motives as Toor does. As the reviewer above points out, there are much more informative books (A is for Admission, Writing the College Essay) than this one which is so offensive that it was hard to read through it at my local bookshop. I'm glad I didn't spend any money on it. What an ego-trip.
Rating: 
Summary: mixed bag
Review: The writer of Admissions Confidential provides us with a detailed, easy-to-read book on the day-to-day life of an admissions officer. The book reads like a summer novel. I would give it higher marks except for two things that really bothered me: 1) Ms Toor struck me as a liberal snob. She was excited about admitting the "edgy" student, but had her nose up at the rich people, jocks, and others who didn't seem to fit her profile. I began to think she was hired for diversity reasons vs the need to fill in some regional spots. 2) I really resented the section where she was stuffing the final response letters to students and was telling her partners "sucks!" when she came upon a person she remembers interviewing and didn't care for. That blew me away and even for a "personal memoir" struck me truly unprofessional and put the whole profession in a bad light.
Rating:
Summary: Reveals More Than She Thinks
Review: This book is extremely informative. It explains the admissions process at a selective school and clarifies many admission decisions which at first glance appear arbitrary (ie. why the valedictorian isn't accepted). At the same time, it paints the Duke Admissions team as a group of rude, arrogant and somewhat racist individuals. The author, however, is herself rude, arrogant and racist in a condescending way. I particularly dislike the "nicknames" she uses for less than stellar applicants ("stinky," "dull," "jerk," etc.).
Rating:
Summary: Doubtful Objectivity; Not Carefully Written
Review: This book seemed to be too quick, too breezy and a little self-serving. It is always suspect when a former insider is revealing the goings-on in an environment that she las left and I felt that Ms Toor was more than a little superior-feeling and perhaps even bitter. The personal information did not seem to blend well with the rest of the book and I found it forced and not terribly interesting. Also, I saw one case in which she is talking about a student and changes mid-paragraph from "he" to "she." If you are interested in this topic, I would recommend you read "The Gatekeepers" and "Bright College Years."
Rating:
Summary: Admissions, not academics, may determine success
Review: This is a nice, light, fast, fun read. College admissions staff have many stories to tell. Toor tells plenty about applicants, admissions officers, and her friends. This is a personal case study, not empirical research, so any findings or conclusions should be viewed with real caution. Many will find it too personal and, at times, self-centered. Personally, I would have been glad to forego the pig stories, and I'm not referring to applicants. That said, writing here as a long-time university professor and administrator, none of what Toor wrote surprised me. In fact, I continue to be more surprised by people who think that students applying to great schools are admitted based only on their SATs, just like some parents believe that students at large public universities have full-time professors teaching all the first-year classes. Toor reports the abundant resources (if low pay for admissions staff), intense competition and sometimes convuluted admissions decisions of one of our most prestigious schools. The portfolio of scores, skills, essays, recommendations, extracurriculars and other facets of the first twelve years of an education comes under closer scrutiny than any of the work the student is likely to put forth in his or her classes in the coming four years. The investment part of the educational model at Duke appears to be spent in the admissions office, not saved for the classroom. Research shows, contrary to the elitist assertion repeated here, that it matters less what university you attend than to what university you are admitted. Its the admissions process that is the hallmark of the top schools, not the academic experience itself. Get admitted to Penn State and Princeton, attend Penn State, and statistics show that the graduate will do as well having attended Penn State instead of Princeton. And she will have saved enough money in four years to fund much of her entire retirement. Strange but true. So it just might be worth finding out if you can cut it in the (Duke) admissions rounds. Pray you get admitted. But then save your money and attend a good but affordable school.
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