I first reviewed The New Rules of College Admissions when I was working as a high school counselor. At the time, I was looking for helpful college planning resources for students and parents. I have often referred to this resource. Over the years, it has become one of my favorite books on preparing for college admissions.

When I first read this book I was skeptical because a private educational consulting firm called, College Coach, developed it. My fear was that the book would end up being an advertisement for the firm. To my delight, I was wrong. The book provides a wealth of useful information for prospective college students and their parents.

The book is written in a straightforward, easy-to-read manner. It is also divided into chapters that focus on specific aspects of the application process. This allows readers to easily locate relevant information as they move through college application process.

Each chapter is written by an expert coach from College Coach who was a former educational professional at prestigious college. The writing flows together in a cohesive manner despite being authored by different writers.

The titles of the chapters are as follows:

Chapter One: The High School Experience
Chapter Two: Standardized Tests
Chapter Three: College Selection
Chapter Four: The Application
Chapter Five: The Application Theme
Chapter Six: Essays and Personal Statements
Chapter Seven: Activities
Chapter Eight: Letters of Recommendation
Chapter Nine: Interviews
Chapter Ten: Paying for College
Conclusion: What Next?


This book is targeted to parents of traditional-aged, college-bound students applying to competitive colleges. Although the authors are speaking to their parents, high school students can also easily glean helpful information from reading this book. However, this book is not written for nontraditional students or transfer students. Although students in these groups will still be able to gain useful information from reading this book they may wish to find a source written specifically for them.

Although I was initially skeptical of The New Rules of College Admissions because it was written by an educational consulting firm, I now see the advantage of having a book such as this being written by various coaches from an educational consulting firm: The experts bring their varied backgrounds from working at colleges throughout the country together for a perspective that would be applicable to seeking admission at any college.

The book is well written and packed with helpful information for prospective college students and their parents. I recommend this book fir college-bound high school students and their parents who would like help with the college application process.



This book was purchased by the author of this review using her own funds.