Students who embrace the Luterman/Bloom strategy not only improve their chances of getting into their top-choice college but also acquire a skill set that equips them for success during college and in the postgraduate world. The strategy is summed up in a four-word phrase: be alike but spike. The book, illustrated with New Yorker cartoons, is organized in a straightforward, logical, easy-to-follow way:
Part I, BE ALIKE, covers how to measure up to other qualified applicants in academic achievement, standardized tests, and in-school leadership activities. These are the areas that colleges expect students to excel in, so it is hard for any student to distinguish himself/herself through great grades, text scores, and positions of leadership alone.
Part II, SPIKE, is devoted to showing students how to identify and develop their spike, or distinctive interest, through the process of layering –a gradual deepening and expanding of their knowledge of, and skill in, that interest–complete with inspirational, instructional case studies. Creating a spike not only sets the student apart from the pack but also leads to great personal growth, self-confidence, and self-awareness.
Part III, PULLING IT ALL TOGETHER: BEING ALIKE AND SPIKING ON THE COLLEGE APPLICATION, methodically examines all aspects of the college-application process, showing how to highlight the student’s spike in each of them and thus make his/her application stand out from the rest. Individual chapters cover compiling a well-balanced list of colleges, visiting those colleges, preparing an Activity Chart and completing the written application forms, writing essays, requesting letters of recommendation, interviewing, submitting supplemental materials, and applying for financial aid.
CONCLUSION: COLLEGE AND BEYOND takes all the lessons learned about developing a defining interest, or spike, and shows how they apply to both college and the postgraduate job world.
The sidebars throughout the text go into detail about specific topics in each chapter (such as Score Choice and Super-Scoring in the Standardized Tests chapter). Most chapters have sidebars addressed to parents, giving them guidelines about how much (or how little) to get involved in that particular aspect of the application process.
APPENDIXES
The COLLEGE PREPARATION TIMELINE provides a season-by-season checklist of steps in the college-application process from ninth grade to senior year, cross-referencing the chapters in which the specific information appears in the book.
WAITLIST AND DEFERRAL STRATEGIES offers helpful information on what to do if a student is waitlisted or deferred.
RESOURCES provides a comprehensive listing of college-application-related Web sites, scholarships, gap year programs, study-abroad programs, and high school summer programs.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY includes all of the sources referenced in the text, as well as other college admissions guidebooks.
