Admissions Books

This is an excellent reference for the entire process of applying to and getting into PA school. I bought it specifically for the interview process (three chapters on interviews...what to expect, the format, and sample questions and tips on how to answer them). I actually had several questions in my interview that were exactly the same as those presented in this book. I highly recommend this text to anyone interested in Physician Assistant educational programs.

The book is not real current, but still has a lot of great info and was an excellent resource in applying for PA school.

This book was unbelievably helpful in the application process. I was hoping to get into one program.....I was accepted at all 3!! It tells you everything you need to know and provides insight into what the programs are looking for as well. HIGHLY RECOMMEND TO ANYONE CONSIDERING PA SCHOOL!!

This is book was a great help in preparing for my interview process. I wish I had found it sooner. Anyone applying to PA school would definitely benefit from the book.

My wife read this book when applying to PA school, but was dissapointed that it had not been updated for many years. After completing and subsequently teaching in PA school, she wrote her own book on applying to PA school, which she recently listed on Amazon: An Applicant's Guide to Physician Assistant School and Practice.

While she would not foist her book on anyone, I have no such reservations. After reading her book (many times), I highly recommend checking out her book in addition to Mr. Rodican's.

This is a solid book that contained just what I was looking for. It gives good tips on how to approach the graduate application process and contact professors. Then it goes into tips for writing a statement of purpose.

Good book for a small price.

This is the most comprehensive guide to each step of the grad school application process. Not only does Don offer great tips for writing an essay, he outlines several PROVEN methods to set your application apart. Best of all, this guide is easy to read & very entertaining. If you're thinking about applying to grad school, this is a MUST read!

I still haven't finished reading this book, but so far it has helped a great deal with most of my doubts as to what to do when applying for a master's in the US.

I bought this book because I wasnt quite sure where to start with my essays. The year before I felt my personal essay was lacking and I didnt get into graduate school. This year with the advice the book gave as well as a jumping point to start my essay's, I was accepted to 8 out of 9 graduate schools where I applied and chose to go to the number 2 school for my field! This book is worth looking at if you dont know where to start with your essays. You need to remember that other people are looking at it which is giving them the edge up so if you arent looking at it yours will just be boring!

I rated this book a 3 for two reasons. First many of the essays are from people with extraordinary circumstances or experiences that inspired them to apply to grad school. Secondly I thought many of the examples were longer than the 1 page max allowed by some graduate schools.

The title offers the key to the MBA application process: Marketing.

1) Treat your application as a whole with each part adding a new piece to the jigsaw puzzle. Naturally, you must know the product (you) and the customer (school/admissions committee).

2) Know yourself. Determine your positioning statement first. What is the major theme that will pervade your application? What makes you different from the other 10,000+ Harvard applicants?

3) Know the school. Learn as much as you can about the schools. Each of them has a different market position and culture. You have to get past the information on the website or else you will bore the admissions committee to sleep. Visit the schools and talk to alumni.

4) Good tips on writing: keep it simple, write colorfully, edit mercilessly. (chapter 7)

5) 42 pages of essays, but if you want to see a lot of essays, read Richard Montauk's HOW TO GET INTO THE TOP MBA PROGRAMS (over 90 essays from 30 different people).

As other reviewers mentioned, this book is not a bad place to start, but it is terribly outdated - no mention of the internet.

If you skip over the parts where they tell you things like set aside time to call the school and request materials, this book is great. A new edition that recognizes the advent of that thing called a computer and its friend the internet, and this book would be five stars. Very valuable information.

My only warning is : don't think that with this kind of books you will get a seat in a top business school.

This book is a useful tool to organize your postulation, the other "recipes" are not valuable.

As a agenda, it is a good book.

THis book is useful but it is somehow outdated. I wish that the authors would write a new version that would be more up-to-date. I have the impression that the rules of the game have a bit changed.

This book covers many of the same ideas that Richard Montauk's book does: how to position yourself to business schools, the importance of knowing the school, etc. However, the advice is outdated with much of the advice written in reference to the early 1990s when the authors attended HBS. Further, most of the advice is given in the form of critiquing the essays of others, which is a somewhat tedious way to get the message.

I think that the Montauk book does a better job of addressing the positioning/marketing issues, and Montauk has is a more robust treatment of the rest of the application process. Save your money and skip this book.

Buy it. Read it. Pass it on.

Great advice contained in a perfectly readable and entertaining 125 page book. In just a couple of hours students, and their parents, can get their heads screwed on straight before sitting down to create their personal masterpiece.

Although written years ago, the advice is timeless and the book is a proven classic. I almost didn't buy it because I thought it might be dated, but, aside from a minor fictional anecdote near the beginning, it feels current and up to date.

As the author points out, the advice within is useful for all writing, not just for the one time college application essay.

Buy it. Read it. Pass it on.

good book (although some dated references) and great examples of types of essays with clear instructions. very readable and engaging.

The personal essay is one of the less important factors in a college application. Your high school transcript and test scores are paramount, and the author of this book, a former college admissions dean himself, doesn't pretend that the essay counts for more than it really does. However, the personal essay can be a tie-breaker between two similarly-qualified applicants, so it pays to put time and care into the essay section, even though it can be the most time-consuming, challenging part of an application.

Back in my frenzied college application days, I read a couple of college application books. Most were mind-numbingly boring, both in style and content. This book, however, was a delight to read and by far the best of the lot. It's the only college application advice book that I was willing to buy for myself and that I would be willing to read again. I've still got my copy. It's witty, elegant, focused, and wise, both artistic and practical; everything a good book (of any kind) should be. It transcends mere advice/strategy and is really about the pursuit of excellence.

It has proved useful even beyond those hectic high school days, because Bauld knows that to be able to write a good college application essay, one has to write well. That means the essay you submit to those various colleges and universities should ideally be something that a person would choose to read in their spare time, or at the very least, that reading it should not involve mental pain for the harried admissions office worker to whom it is assigned. A tall order, perhaps. The personal essay is an art, and Bauld includes both excellent examples of essays both from high-school age college applicants and from masters of the form such as George Orwell, H.L. Mencken, and E.B. White. He also shows you what clichés to avoid, and what writing mistakes are the most common.

You will be inspired to write a better essay if you read this book. Also, as a coda, yeah, I did get into the school that was my first choice, though my initial joy faded into more complicated and contradictory feelings over time. But I don't regret that I made my best effort.

For the college bound and everyone else, this concise, well-written primer
holds the potential of dramatically improving your writing skills. Writing
with humor, common sense, economy of language, and a wonderfully entertaining
selection of illustrative essays, Harry has gone a long way to help us reach
that goal. This book by itself of course isn't getting anyone into college
with the possible exception of Harry Bauld. Harry can have his pick, though
I don't imagine returning to college offers much allure for a former athlete
who's lost a step and can no longer bend his unforgiving back.
Harry has done several tours in University Admissions and knows whereof he
speaks: The personal essay is how you tell them who you are, how you distinguish
yourself from the ever-multiplying hordes. When your future at the University
of Choice is being weighed, another asset in the plus column couldn't hurt. I
originally bought the book for my college-bound daughter, read it, loved it,
and in a few weeks will be substituting for Harry (I am also bauld) at a family
seminar in our kitchen. At this juncture my wife and I seem much more interested
than our daughter.

Do not apply to college without reading this book! At last something really different yet supremely helpful too on how to get into the best schools. Bravo Mr. Bauld, from far away Greece!

I have used this book more than the US News and World report. I give this book more value than the other one. I like the student reviews.

My daughter and I referred to this book hundreds of times when starting her college search - I believe information is current and accurate.

Have recommended to friends

This, along with Fiske's Guide to Colleges, are essential to the college search process. The hard data includes all the deadlines, a quality of life rating, demographic makeup, and lots of facts about admissions and financial aid. Very useful are the "comparable colleges" section which begins with the banner "Applicants Also Look At" and the "Survey Says" section.

This book is a great way to start the college search. My kids liked it since the basic facts for each college appear on two pages, quick and easy stats to review.

I saw the 2005 edition of this guide at one of the colleges we visited and really liked it. So I bought it. However the new 2007 edition is so much tamer and more politically correct than the earlier one that it is much more boring and much less helpful than the 2005 version. The student comments have been totally watered down and the star ratings are gone.

Bottom line: you're much better off getting your hands on a used copy of the 2005 edition (which is called The best 357 Colleges).

This is the best book yet for my math phobia! I am switching careers and need to take the GMAT again. The book is written in a simplified way that even I can understand. Never thought that math could be fun. Buy it, you'll like it...

I found this book very useful as first step in GMAT Math. Zero step was math refreshener, but ARCO math is perfect to go into GMAT Math orbit.

I've always been a math person, but because I passed all of my math requirements for college, I never took a single math class in college. But 5 years after graduating, I realized that I wanted to pursue business school, so this was one of the books I picked out mainly to brush-up on my math. WOW, THIS IS SUCH AN AWESOME BOOK. It covers the BASICS, but trust me, if you don't know them, you're completely screwed. There were plenty of rules I had forgotten and this book covered them ALL. And it even gives you GREAT practice on the yucky data-sufficiency questions. Sure the problems aren't extremely challenging, but again, IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BASICS. SO GET THIS BOOK, YOU WON'T REGRET IT.

I've read just up till part 2 of this book and the basics and examples plus exercises are great. however, i was working on problem 15, pg 134 and the answer should be -21 instead of -20 for a solution of x<-20. haven't read the rest, but guess you have to trust your own solutions are times. happy reading !

I don't have this book but I've read its table of content. The material is TOO EASY for GRE in Math. Probably it is good for your GMAT but definitely not for GRE. It does not contain much information about Calculus and Algebra (well, it does contain elementary algebra which is not useful for GRE). If you're preparing for GRE in Math, do not choose this book.