7 College Admissions Books for High School Teachers

Published in August 2023, Springer’s guide is the most up-to-date guide I read, and the authors make a point of updating their blog with new information, organized by chapter. It’s also a really thorough guide, covering the entire admissions process, from the search for colleges through making a final decision in May.

I actually read this one last, and by the time I got to it, I was pretty familiar with a lot of the key points, but I appreciated clarifications on the parts that have been most in flux (like the how-to-navigate-the-test-optional conundrum). But it covers all the key points. Some of the guides below go into more depth about the actual application itself, but Springer’s guide is an excellent resource for juniors, seniors, and their families.

I particularly appreciated the long chapter about financial aid (which I find particularly befuddling) and the detailed chapters for students with special circumstances (athletes, artists, students with disabilities, homeschoolers, transfer students, international students, undocumented students, and American students who want to attend school in another country). Most of this information was new to me, and students who fit into any of these categories will find her recommended resources highly beneficial.

If you’re really interested in a comprehensive understanding of the college admissions process, this is the book for you. It probably goes into more detail than most English teachers need, but if you work with a large number of students with special circumstances, it might be a helpful reference to have on hand.

My boss asked me to read this one, and I learned a lot from it. As an English major, I was not particularly familiar with BS/MD (or BS/DO) programs, in which students are admitted to both undergraduate and medical school. The book thoroughly explains the programs and makes it clear what additional requirements applicants need to meet. One important thing your students should know is that these programs are even more selective than the Ivy Leagues: often, students are competing for one of only five spots. 

Students interested in BS/MD programs must absolutely show a passion for and experience with medicine prior to applying: just like a student trying to be competitive at an Ivy League should have completed research, internships, or projects outside of their high school experience, a student interested in a BS/MD program should have completed job shadowing, research, hands-on experience, or volunteering related to medicine.

While this might seem an odd recommendation for ELA teachers, Moon provides helpful definitions and explanations that any student would benefit from, including an entire chapter on improving your writing with suggestions for revising and polishing essays (and getting them under that pesky word count).

Full disclosure? This is not my top recommendation. Bedor is trying to sell her own company, so she refers to programs that “everyone uses” but are actually on her website or founded by her, which feels disingenuous.

That being said, however, if you’re working with especially high-achieving students, Bedor provides helpful insights into the kinds of highly-focused projects and activities necessary for admission to the nation’s most selective schools. At these schools, it’s impossible for students to stand out with only grades, test scores, and on-campus activities. Also, while these students have historically been encouraged to be well-rounded, selective schools are looking for “pointy” applicants: admissions officers want to create a well-rounded class by selecting a diverse group of students who are specialists in different areas.

What this means for students who want to attend these highly-selective schools is that they should have some idea of the field they’re interested in as high school freshmen, and by sophomore and junior year, they should be starting to specialize in that field, pursuing activities that support and develop that interest. They should be looking for opportunities to learn more than the school curriculum provides, conduct research, and compete in national and international competitions.

Bedor does a great job of outlining a timeline for students on this track, specifying what they should be doing in each year of high school. She also provides a lot of ideas for projects students can create that demonstrate their interest and make others’ lives better in some way, including lists of competitions and programs in a variety of fields.

If you work closely with students throughout the application process or are interested in passion projects, this book will be a helpful resource for you (just take some of her recommendations with a grain of salt).

I really liked this one and wish I had found it while I was still in the classroom. The ideas here reinforce the ideas presented in the other books about what, exactly, colleges are looking for as well as the emphasis on encouraging our students to be “pointy” rather than well-rounded.

Lifton and Knoppow emphasize that the purpose of personal statements is to show students’ personality. These essays should not reiterate anything that has already been provided elsewhere on the application but bring to life an experience or a moment that highlights a character trait the students would like to highlight for the admissions committee. Of course, this often means going into depth about one of the activities or interests referenced on the application, but the focus should be on selecting the best story to show the given character trait, which means the story can even be about something regular and mundane.

Because the emphasis for students is on writing in their own voice, I found their discussion of the role adults should play in the process incredibly helpful. Lifton and Knoppow reassure students that admissions officers are not looking for perfect writing, but they are looking for authentic writing (something I read in multiple books).

As they explained their process for working with students, they discussed the kinds of help they provide (and do not provide) to students, the kinds of questions they ask, and the kinds of things they let go. I wish I had read this years ago, as it would have made the college essay process less burdensome and helped me to understand how to help my students without overediting to the point that their own voice is lost.

Lifton and Knoppow have a consulting business in which they run classes and workshops for students, and they helpfully share the timelines, process, and exercises they walk their students through. It’s a great framework if you’re new to college admissions or looking to streamline what has become an exhausting burden.

I discovered this one after listening to an episode of Barnard and Clark’s podcast, and it is a fantastic resource for families: Barnard and Clark give families tools and talking points to use so that the college application process is a meaningful family experience rather than a source of constant stress and tension.

While there are certainly helpful nuggets throughout about the application process, I found the most valuable section to be the beginning, where Barnard and Clark walk families through researching colleges. They provide lists of questions to consider before even looking at colleges so that students are focused on why they want to go to college and what they want to experience there rather than the prestige of brand names. Barnard and Clark focus throughout the book on finding the school that is the best fit for students rather than adding to the noise of “tips and tricks” to get into the most selective name-brand schools our country has to offer.

The book’s perspective is healthy for both parents and teachers to consider (and adopt), and walks through the entire process, offering key insights for families (or teachers) to focus on when having discussions with students about this all-important decision.

Sabky is a former admissions officer at Dartmouth, and her insider insights provide a helpful perspective on the college admissions process.

Like Selingo (in my next recommendation), Sabky makes it abundantly clear that college admissions is a business: colleges have their best interests in mind while selecting candidates, not the students’ best interests. Sabky provides excellent suggestions for families navigating the application process, reinforcing key ideas that resonate throughout all of these books: to be accepted to the most selective colleges, students must stand out from an extraordinary pool of applicants, and what officers value most in students is genuineness and clear interest. Colleges want students who have passionately pursued one or two interests, and they want to read essays that sound like they were written by a real person.

What makes Sabky’s work stand out from some of the others is her reflection on the problems the college admissions process has created. She laments the fact that so many wonderful students are made to feel unworthy when they aren’t accepted to their dream college as well as the fact that instead of encouraging teenagers to enjoy their four years of high school, making the most of it and developing decency and kindness above all else, we are creating a generation of academic robots, intent on doing everything they must to look good on paper, but not developing a true sense of character or joy along the way. 

Sabky is a realist; she doesn’t propose a way to solve the problem, but it’s refreshing to hear an admissions officer from an elite college admit that yes, this is a problem, and this is not how life for high school students should be. 

It’s essential that our students know that college admissions decisions have no bearing on their worth and dignity as human beings and that we encourage them to consider a wide variety of colleges that might offer them the best experience they could have, even without a prestigious name or a top 50 ranking.

I loved this book. I think it’s a must-read for anyone involved with the college admissions process, and it would help students develop a realistic perspective on the process they’re going through.

Selingo goes “undercover” in the world of college admissions for a year, working closely with the admissions departments at the University of Washington, Davidson College in North Carolina, and Emory University. He also follows several high school seniors through their admissions journey, and he has been writing about college admissions for over two decades. The inside look he provides (and the insights he adds about which aspects are common practice and which are unique to specific schools) is invaluable.

The two biggest takeaways I got from Selingo’s book are (1) there are enough seats in college for all students who want to attend, just not at the top 50 schools everyone has heard of, and (2) colleges are businesses, so their decision-making process has their business interests in mind. 

When we read headlines about how impossible it is to get into college, it’s referring not to all colleges but to the 50–100 schools that now have acceptance rates in the single digits. Selingo breaks down the ranking system, highlighting that not only do rankings not reveal much about quality of education but that colleges are gaming the system to get the highest ranking possible: they want tons of students to apply for the limited number of seats available so their acceptance rate stays low (and thus makes them look highly selective). Our students need to learn about colleges other than the ones they have already heard of, and they need adults to guide them in finding schools that will be a good fit for them.

Students also need to understand that colleges are trying to meet their own needs first. Their decisions are not based on which students most “deserve” to attend their school or would most benefit from the experience. Sure, they take a few who just seem like good kids, but they want students who are likely to attend, thus increasing their yield; students who can pay full price; students who meet diversity requirements; athletes who have been recruited; students who fulfill their needs for that year (more men in English, more students in philosophy, more or fewer students from a certain high school or area of the country, etc.). 

Students are so devastated when they are rejected from these highly-selective (or, as some call them, highly-rejective) schools, and it’s important for them to know it has nothing to do with their value as human beings: it’s all about colleges making business decisions. It’s also a helpful resource when we see our students trying to make sense of peers who got into no UCs but were offered admission to Stanford, or a student with lower grades who got accepted to all the UCs. These decisions can seem random because the decision isn’t entirely based on student merit, but on what the universities need that year.

Selingo also added an introduction clarifying that, for the most part, his book (which came out in 2020) is still accurate post-pandemic. He adds a few words about test scores, as schools decide whether or not to remain test-optional, but it’s helpful to know that the bulk of the information is still true.