Ivy League Books

The book is very informative, well organized data, and makes for a great reference guide to College Football.

I am over the age of 13.
I read this book and saw the path. The path to Manson. Manson led me jesus. jesus led me to murder. murder led me to you.

Perfect for students and parents familiar with the college-admissions process with funny sections on interviews, SATs, applications, etc. Provides much needed laughter to this ridiculous process.

This book proves again that the worth of a book is not by its weight, but by its content. This book is certainly much, much better than "Hononrs Programs and Colleges" published by Thomson and Peterson's.

This book selects the best 55 out of all the honors programs at the public universities nationwide. This guide gives an analysis for each honors program, which you will not find in any other books. Furthermore, it ranks these 55 honors programs. This gives students and parents a very good way to choose among the programs.

Indeed, some of these programs provide education as good as Ivy League's. Overall, I highly recommend this book as one of the must-have's college guides.

Dr. Nolan edited my essays when I applied to Yale four years ago. I never would have gotten accepted without her assistance. To prepare my medical school applications, I have bought every product of Dr. Nolan's that I could get my hands on, including this one. As I expected, it did not disappoint.

If you want to know the "inside scoop" on reference letters, buy this product. If you want the best editor out there to review your writing, hire Dr. Nolan.

Is it true that winning isn't everything? The Hall sisters were no strangers to success. And Ivy, the youngest and shiest sister, had a lot to live up to. So when she started a new job, she was determined to show the world just what she could do. There was one flaw in her plan, though. Rick Scott, her oh-so-handsome co-worker, didn't think she could succeed on her own. Of course, it was only after she resisted his help, demanded he treat her like everyone else and made a big mistake, that she realized she might be the wrong woman for that job. And he might be the right man for her.

I've read several of these books, and I'd definitely recommend them to anyone searching for a college. If you want to get a feel for a college on a truly subjective level rather than just learning the admissions statistics and SAT percentiles and such, then this is the book to get.

Written with amazing detail and sensitivity, "A Hope In the Unseen" manages to avoid making trite observations about race or poverty, which is uncommon

Great book. It details the last year in high school, and the first year in college of Cedric, a determined, intelligent inner city black kid who fights to make it out of the ghetto and to the promised land -- an ivy league college where he won't be taunted, beaten and despised for being smart.
I lost my first copy, and went out and bought a second. I loan it out to anyone I can. Cedric's story is very compelling and inspirational. I love to give it to people whose idea of a rough upbringing is that the family only owned one car . . .

The protagonist makes no excuses for himself. I love that. I think he realised early on (after the book was written) that he wanted to be most of all "real." It wasn't to be about how he overcame, living in the ghetto etc but more importantly, the emotions and finding himself.
At certain points, I am like this kid is not a very pleasant person but even with that I could understand where he was coming from. This made him real.
He also along the way learnt he was in charge of his and only his destiny. He couldn't pull his siblings up. or his mom and I think for the longest time that must have irked him a lot.

He had to also learn to let go of this incessant rage murking in his soul. He had to face these demons so he could finally interact in the real world in a full capacity. This was not easy for him to do and he had so many missteps.

This is a tale not fairy tale perfect but gritty and still on-going, right now as we speak.

Cheers,

A Hope in the Unseen was an engaging read and I absolutely fell in the love with the beginning. Cedric's life was put into a perspective that I could connect to and it was as if I could see everything through is eyes. It is a story that is uplifting and can be appreciated by people of any gender or color.

However, I did find a few things to frown upon. One part of the book that bothered me was the constant racial labeling. Understandably it is one of the main themes throughout the story and it is what makes this book so appealing to many. You get to see a struggling young black man make it out of a situation where many others would have gotten swallowed up. Yet, to me it became annoying because when I would finally reach a moment when I could connect to the characters as people the writer, and sometimes Cedric, would draw the whole focus back to who was what race and where they come from. It is great to be proud of who you are and what your background is but it doesn't have to define you.

During one of the later chapters we encounter Cedric and Zayd eating lunch. Zayd's friend, Josh, wanders over and immediately Cedric makes a remark about he should not be seen with two white guys. Whether he meant it jokingly or not it hurt Josh's feelings and created an awkward situation. Maybe it's because I just don't understand it but I think it was a little insensitive of Cedric. This was the only flaw that I had problems ignoring. It just seemed as if Cedric felt that he was entitled to be at Brown simply because he was a minority. Even if he wasn't in the minority, I sense a certain attitude that develops from attending an ivy league institution. It is almost as if by having your name on their roster that it makes you superior to everyone else.
This is definitely not the case and if people to hold on to such a mentality is disturbing.

Another problem I had with the novel was that after finishing such an uplifting story you start wondering what is next and if the system has ever changed. Sure, Cedric made it out and became successful but what about everyone else who was left behind? What about the students who were not as academically inclined or those who were not fortunate enough to have people supporting and pushing them like Cedric did? This book gives people an insight into a world that many are oblivious to. This could have been a great opportunity to open people's eyes about social injustice and to spark their interest in finding a way for more students to become like Cedric. I believe the author could have steered this book into becoming a link between the readers and social activism. Plenty of people have either had similar experiences or are now more aware of such situations and would be more than happy to support and contribute to any programs that are trying to turn this around. I believe more could have been done with A Hope in the Unseen in this regard.

All in all, this story was fairly interesting and inspiring. It was definitely helpful to read about the transitions from high school to college and to see how one person dealt with the common worries of university life. However, I do not see myself recommending this to many people and I believe that it is highly overrated. I do not believe it is "formula shattering" as one reviewer described it. In fact I think it follows the basic guidelines to any underdog story. I felt as if I could have been reading any number of stories, except with a different setting and character. A Hope in the Unseen is good for classroom reading assignments or book clubs because it has many discussion points and may lead readers to be more aware of the various issues it touches on. Other than that, I must truthfully say that I would not have read this given the chance to choose it for myself.

This book is another ghetto story that has a lot of rhetoric regarding "inner city" life that is packaged to appeal to those who have no idea that this is pure bulls**t. In the book the high school is described as a place where learning is discouraged and success is frowned upon. I was raised in Detroit (the real Detroit, not the suburbs) and I attended Detroit Public Schools. Furthermore I taught for Detroit Public Schools for six years and currently teach for Columbus Ohio City Schools. With about two decades of "inner city" school involvement as a teacher and a student, I have RARELY seen someone picked on because they got good grades. There are some serious issues with inner city education but it is not how they portrayed it. I have seen many students like Cedric and some of them were harassed. It was not because they were smart or had good grades; it was because they were socially clumsy and immature. Students who are socially immature are harassed in many schools, not just in the "inner city". Additionally, the book never mentions what happens to his classmates. The tone implies that they are stuck Southeast Washington. I understand that this book attempts to expose the trials and tribulations of a "inner city" student but it does so by portraying negative and untrue images. If someone wants to read the book to understand the life of an "inner city" student, don't read this book, go to an "inner city" school and see for yourself.

This book was really fantastic in that it let out the exact things that go through a college admissions officer when they look at an applicant. However it was only one officer's point of view and that seemed to be a little limiting for me.
The book gave a lot of encouragement for me as a prospective college applicant and really helped me plan my way into applying for colleges and gave me a clear idea of what would be my best options, especially regarding when to take standardized tests and to arrange your extra-curriculars.
The thing that really bugged me about this book though is that it is a few years old. This led to a number of problems for me. First of all, the admittance rates were all much higher than they are now and the standardized testing results of applicants has completely changed. This left me with the illusions that it really is not that difficult to get into the ivy league.
The authors new book, "Acing the College Application," however is a great alternative and offers the same really great advice about constructing an application coupled with extremely relevant and current information.

This book has totally exceeded all my expectations! With absolute candor, simple but supberb writing style, and the expertise of an insider, the writer provides an amazing wealth of info and insight into the complex college admission process. To give an example: I never knew that the "Acadmic Index" (AI) is the key to predicting admissibility to a particular college. I strongly recommend this book to all college bound students and their parents!

So I thought I knew about getting into college. Wrong. The author worked at Dartmouth for four years doing Admissions and what she reveals is that there is an actual formula for getting in. There are also flags for minorities that allows these students to be pulled from the general pool and be evaluated seperately. There is a great list on what you should be doing year by year to prepare for applying to that Ivy League. Put this book in your cart, read, highlight and take notes. This is a page turner.

This certainly ranks up there. My other choices for 2007, hands down:

1) How To Ace Your Way Through College & Still Have a Life
2) The MLA Handbook
3) Fiske Guide to Colleges

Dr. Vernon M
Cambridge, MA

This book is the first one you need to get. Also get her other book, "Acing the College Application," "Winning the Heart of the College Admissions Dean," "You're Gonna Love this College Guide," "America's Elite Colleges," "Cracking College Admissions."

Ms. Hernandez was an admissions officer when she wrote this book, but now she is a private consultant, charging $40,000 to help privileged kids get into the Ivy League schools. Part of her expertise helps them present themselves as not privileged. Too bad with all of her talents she could help the ones who really need her help.

Every book I've ever gotten about A.D.D. focus on diagnosing and medicating the symptoms. Mooney and Cole go into actually living with the pluses and minuses that A.D.D. brings to the table. They cover so many different areas of learning with suggestions on each and multiple suggestions at that. It's very helpful to someone who doesn't want A.D.D. to rule their future academic prospects.
(PS I use A.D.D. instead of A.D.H.D. because not all of us are hyper, some are hypo)

Does a great job in giving you a better understanding of what society deems as important, how to interpret/deal with that understanding, along with use your own unique strengths to get results in easier, fun, and less depressing manner. Good book to have in your mental repertoire.

I have always thought that there is a piece of ADHD in everyone. Some people has a bigger piece, some people has a tiny piece. How can anyone be so "perfect"? My children are not "scientifically" diagnosed to be ADHD. But there are times when they can be showing bits of "symtoms" of ADHD.
I was in tears when I read about what happened to young Jonathan and young David. It must have been hard for them and their parents.
Everyone should read this book.
Parts of this book are going to help you with raising your own child since, like I said, everyone has bits of ADHD, and you just never know when anything in this book would come in handy.
Plus, we should also try to UNDERSTAND why some other children are doing what they have done. They are not ill and they are not stupid. It is just that they cannot walk within the lines like everyone else. Yet they CAN still learn and bloom, only that, just like the title of the book, they need to do it "outside the lines".

Anybody can use the great tips and techniques in this book from students who procrastinate on studying to people with ADD or ADHD that have a hard time focusing on studying and preparing for projects and tests. I highly recommend this to anyone who has difficulty with school regardless if you have ADD or ADHD or not.

I purchased this book because I have ADHD, I am in college and I am struggling some with test performance and grades (GPA is 3.65 but I want to increase it). I found *nothing* about what I was searching for in this book, and here's why.

For one, the first part "deviant minds", the one telling the school story of the two authors, is no use whatsoever, because it constantly blames the system (which doesn't work for ADHDers, true, but DOES work for 85% of people --- and they omit reporting this essential data). On top of it, the two stories are about how the entire world should be preoccupied with accommodating LD/ADHD kids as if nothing else mattered. Furthermore, the whole take on non-LD/ADHD people's feelings and behaviours (especially teachers) is *very* confrontational and displays an overall (and well-known) lack of empathy that many ADHDers have toward whoever doesn't have either LD or ADHD. As I also am a significant other of people with ADHD (my mom, a coworker, some other friends), I found it *appalling* to see how the strains that ADHD puts on relationships are completely overlooked when not entirely blamed on others, abuse included.

A second reason I don't suggest this book is, it's full of useless advices, such as "when the teacher says the word example it means he is about to give you an example" (I have ADHD, I'm not *dumb*!!!), "make summaries" (I know I'm supposed to summarize but the ADHD-related difficulties with summarizing are *precisely* linked to the fact that we see ALL the endless ways to do it... how about providing strategies to sort out which way works best in a specific contest???), "structure your answer" (yeah, how clever! That's what I've been told since grammar school... care to provide a template or at least explain *how* to do it??). When conflicting advices are given (like in the case of multiple ways of taking notes), there is no explanation on how to figure out which way might work best for the individual and/or the specific situation. They only say "do what's best for you", again, yeah right I've been trying to figure that one out for my whole life -- care to help some for 15 dollars?

A third reason I found this book useless is that it gives you no strategy for memorization... so if you are in medical school (like me), law school, are becoming a pharmacist or a vet or simply are facing an exam that isn't some dumb English Literature or Writing class, you can safely skip this book and buy *any* other available one.

Finally, having ADHD is about overcoming one's shortcomings, whereas the authors try to teach you how to cheat the system. In the specific, they teach you several tricks to pretend that you've studied something well enough that you manage to get higher grades. However, what I was trying to do was, getting higher grades as a consequence of having *really* learnt something!!!

In other words, unless all you are a victim and all you're interested into is cheating the system and never *really* face the challenges that comes with ADHD, run away, it's not for you.