Getting into a top-ranked college has never seemed more impossible, with acceptance rates at some elite universities dipping into the single digits. In Who Gets in and Why, journalist and higher education expert Jeffrey Selingo dispels entrenched notions of how to compete and win at the admissions game and reveals that teenagers and parents have much to gain by broadening their notion of what qualifies as a "good college". Hint: It's not all about the sticker on the car window.

The Truth About College Admission is the easy-to-follow, comprehensive, go-to guide for families. The expert authors - with inside knowledge from both the high school and university sides of the experience - provide critical advice, thoughtful strategies, helpful direction, and invaluable reassurance during the long and often bewildering college admission journey.

Ready for college? Take a confident approach to college admissions with this definitive guide – all without stressing yourself out. Getting into college is a magnificent stepping stone that can definitely give you an edge in your professional career and in your life. Unfortunately, the part that comes before all this is not so easy.

Irena is a Russian Jewish immigrant, a PhD in comparative literature, a former Stanford admissions officer, and a private college counselor in Palo Alto, California—a city where everyone has to be good at something and where success often means the name of a prestigious college on the back of a late-model luxury car. But as Irena works with some of the most ambitious, tightly wound students in the world, she struggles to keep her own family from unraveling, and that sharp-edged divide lies at the heart of her memoir.

In the fall of 1999, New York Times education reporter Jacques Steinberg was given an unprecedented opportunity to observe the admissions process at prestigious Wesleyan University. Over the course of nearly a year, Steinberg accompanied admissions officer Ralph Figueroa on a tour to assess and recruit the most promising students in the country. The Gatekeepers follows a diverse group of prospective students as they compete for places in the nation's most elite colleges.