Describes the individual admissions process of fifty students accepted to the prestigious university, sharing strategies for identifying key talents, submitting the perfect application package, and improving networking skills.

Drawing on decades of research, Karabel shines a light on the ever-changing definition of "merit" in college admissions, showing how it shaped--and was shaped by--the country at large.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A fire-breathing, righteous attack on the culture of superprivilege.”—Michael Wolff, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Fire and Fury, in the New York Times Book Review NOW WITH NEW REPORTING ON OPERATION VARSITY BLUES In this explosive and prescient book, based on three years of investigative report­ing, Pulitzer Prize winner Daniel Golden shatters the myth of an American meri­tocracy. Naming names, along with grades and test scores, Golden lays bare a corrupt system in which middle-class and working-class whites and Asian Ameri­cans are routinely passed over in favor of wealthy white students with lesser credentials—children of alumni, big donors, and celebrities. He reveals how a family donation got Jared Kushner into Harvard, and how colleges comply with Title IX by giving scholarships to rich women in “patrician sports” like horseback riding and crew. With a riveting new chapter on Operation Varsity Blues, based on original re­porting, The Price of Admission is a must-read—not only for parents and students with a personal stake in college admissions but also for those disturbed by the growing divide between ordinary and privileged Americans. Praise for The Price of Admission “A disturbing exposé of the influence that wealth and power still exert on admission to the nation’s most prestigious universities.”—The Washington Post “Deserves to become a classic.”—The Economist

The ultimate insider's guide to getting into the nation's most competitive colleges Written by a former senior admissions officer at Harvard University, this book provides keen insights into what it takes to get into America's top schools. With the help of case studies of successful Harvard applicants, Charles Hughes II defines the goals and mission of highly selective schools. He explains the relative weight given to: Academics Extra-curricular activities Personal qualities Intangibles in the admission process Hughes breaks down the components of the application, explaining the significance of each and how they are evaluated. And, drawing upon his extensive experience, he clues readers in on effective ways for applicants to improve their candidacy, including: How to prepare early in high school How to write a better application How to find the school best suited to their interests, personality, and goals With this essential guide, students will be able to present their talents in the best light possible, and create a winning college application.

Here, 55 of the successful applicants to Harvard Law School share the essays that helped them make the cut. Each is analyzed by the staff of the "Harvard Crimson" and accompanied by no-nonsense advice to help readers craft their own winning essays.

Offers surefire advice as well as 50 successful application essays from current students and recent graduates.

Just as Harvard University is a place “where world-class professors, innovative research, and a dynamic student community come together to advance education and foster change in the world”, Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), founded in 1920, grants students and visiting scholars who are determined to “learn to change the world” valuable opportunities to meet great professors and participate in shaping meaningful research. The book’s twenty interviews are organized into five parts: Values and Goals, Development, Media, Student Life and Institutions, and Putting Learning into Practice—Engineering Education. While our team of interviewees consists largely of HGSE professors and administrators, it also includes world-renowned professors and deans from other Harvard schools, as well as an outstanding representative of global engineering education transformation. Each chapter consists of an interviewee profile, editors’ note, the interview dialogue itself, references, and notes, so that our dear readers can experience the impact of the interviewees’ ideas and reliably trace their sources. While each individual interview is an instructive snapshot of a specific area of educational research and practice, we hope that the collection as a whole will enlighten and inspire each of our readers to do their part to improve the world. Contributors are: Jane (Chao) Bai, Joseph Blatt, Jack (Jiajie) Chen, Chris Dede, Catherine Elgin, Tracy Elizabeth, Tianyu Fu, Yidan Gao, Hunter Gehlbach, Paul Harris, Helen Haste, Mingzhu He, Thomas Hehir, Siang Huat (Jason Hong), Arthur Kleinman, Charles H. Langmuir, Stephen Lassonde, Harry Lewis, Yinqi Li, Yi (Elaine) Lin, Jed F. Lippard, Richard K. Miller, Siwen Zhang Minero, Samuel Odamah, Robert L. Selman, Nancy Sommers, Justin M. Thomas, Sonia Maria Pereira Vidigal, Lianjiang Wang, Richard Weissbourd, Gary Yu, Haiqin Yu, Ting Zhang, Jing Zhao, Qiuzi Zhou, Songyu Zhu and Julie.

It's the ultimate challenge: breaking into the Ivy League. The hack: To get one deadbeat, fully unqualified slacker into the most prestigious school in the country. The crew: Eric Roth -- the good guy, the voice of reason. Max Kim -- the player who made the bet in the first place. Schwartz -- the kid genius already on the inside...of Harvard, that is. Lexi -- the beauty-queen valedictorian who insists on getting in the game. The plan: Use only the most undetectable schemes and techno-brilliant skills. Don't break the Hacker's Code. Don't get distracted. Don't get caught. Take down someone who deserves it. The stakes: A lot higher than they think. They've got the players, the plot, and soon -- the prize. It's go time.

Making Harvard Modern is a candid, richly detailed portrait of America's most prominent university from 1933 to the present: seven decades of dramatic change. Early twentieth century Harvard was the country's oldest and richest university, but not necessarily its outstanding one. By the century's end it was widely regarded as the nation's, and the world's, leading institution of higher education. With verve, humor, and insight, Morton and Phyllis Keller tell the story of that rise: a tale of compelling personalities, notable achievement and no less notable academic pratfalls. Their book is based on rich and revealing archival materials, interviews, and personal experience. Young, humbly born James Bryant Conant succeeded Boston Brahmin A. Lawrence Lowell as Harvard's president in 1933, and set out to change a Brahmin-dominated university into a meritocratic one. He hoped to recruit the nation's finest scholars and an outstanding national student body. But the lack of new money during the Depression and the distractions of World War Two kept Conant, and Harvard, from achieving this goal. In the 1950s and 1960s, during the presidency of Conant's successor Nathan Marsh Pusey, Harvard raised the money, recruited the faculty, and attracted the students that made it a great meritocratic institution: America's university. The authors provide the fullest account yet of this transformation, and of the wrenching campus crisis of the late 'sixties. During the last thirty years of the twentieth century, a new academic culture arose: meritocratic Harvard morphed into worldly Harvard. During the presidencies of Derek Bok and Neil Rudenstine the university opened its doors to growing numbers of foreign students, women, African- and Asian-Americans, and Hispanics. Its administration, faculty, and students became more deeply engaged in social issues; its scientists and professional schools were more ready to enter into shared commercial ventures. But worldliness brought its own conflicts: over affirmative action and political correctness, over commercialization, over the ever higher costs of higher education. This fascinating account, the first comprehensive history of a modern American university, is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the present state and future course of higher education.

Race, class, and hormones combine and combust when a Harvard freshman and his two friends attempt to join the staff of the Harpoon, the school's iconic humor magazine. Around Harvard Square is the winner of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work (Youth/Teens)! Around Harvard Square has been named a 2020 Honor Book by the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People "A smart, satirical novel about surviving the racial and cultural tensions ratcheted up in the elite Harvard hothouse. Farley has created a marvelously engaging and diverse set of characters, at the center of which is a nerdy Jamaican American with a philosophical bent and his cohort of oddballs struggling to win a spot on Harvard's brainy humor magazine, which provides a springboard for Farley to dive into the ethics of comedy, among other subjects." --National Book Review, included in Monday's 5 Hot Books "For anyone who likes satire, this quick-witted tale...catches a bundle of truths about a very particular and powerful corner of our world." --New West Indian Guide "Around Harvard Square [is] C.J. Farley's fun novel about an exceptional Jamaican student-athlete facing class and race issues to get a spot on an elite Harvard University humor magazine." --New York Daily News, included in CaribBeat column "C.J. Farley's Around Harvard Square is a witty and artful narrative of a society on the crossroads of change...A must read." --The Gleaner (Jamaica) Included in the American Booksellers Association's ABC Best Books for Young Adult Readers 2019! Included in Publishers Weekly's Spring 2019 Children's Announcements Included in Rich in Color's Six Books to Kickstart April "In his new novel, Around Harvard Square, Farley writes about a scandal strikingly similar to how Singer helped parents and coaches allegedly exploit athletic programs of schools like Yale, Georgetown, and USC." --Fox 5 (New York) "This former Lampoon editor, journalist, and now satirical novelist, has lots of insight into the discrepancies around race and gender that remain present in the comedy industry." --CityLine (WCVB-TV Boston) "Around Harvard Square brings social commentary to college life, approaching the issues in a humorous attitude...Farley makes the injustices more tangible to a younger audience who may be future students at such institutions, and he shows how little progression has been made in the educational system regarding institutional racism." --Prism Review Tosh Livingston, superstar student-athlete from small-town USA, thinks he's made it big as a rising freshman at Harvard University. Not so fast! Once on campus, he's ensnared in a frenzied competition to win a spot on Harvard's legendary humor magazine, the Harpoon. Tosh soon finds that joining the Harpoon is a weird and surprisingly dangerous pursuit. He faces off against a secret society of super-rich kids, gets schooled by a philosophy professor who loves flunking everyone, and teams up with a genius student-cartoonist with an agenda of her own. Along the way, Tosh and his band of misfit freshman friends unearth long-buried mysteries about the Ivy League that will rock the Ivory Tower and change their lives forever...if they can survive the semester. With its whip-smart humor and fast-paced narrative, Around Harvard Square will appeal to readers of all ages interested in exploring the complicated roles that race and class play in higher education.