(Originally published 2011, hardcover edition 226 pages)
Mr. Ferguson's memoir of negotiating the odd world of college admissions is simply an informative, laugh-out-loud adventure. This upper-middle-class dad's sarcasm keeps percolating to the surface due to his anxieties and frustrations of dealing with getting his first kid into a college. The author verbalizes what many parents are feeling about this whole experience. My wife and I have two, middle-school sons who intend on attending college and many, many moons have passed since both of us went through the ordeal of college admissions for ourselves.
Much has changed. I had never even heard of the profession of absurdly pricey, independent college admissions counselors. That alone tells you that the college nonsense has risen into the Bizarro world comparable to needing a tax preparer every April. Mr. Ferguson also covers areas such as the U.S. News & World Report College Ranking Book which involves its own level of administrators BSing to move up in the standings; the insane inflation of college tuition; the evolution and controversy involving the SATs; how students are selected; the silly touchy-feely essay applications demanded by most colleges; and, finally, the horror of horrors - struggling through the whole financial aid charade. Part memoir and part quasi-instruction manual, Mr. Ferguson gets to the nitty-gritty about the great motivator for colleges; money. The noble cause of the G.I. Bill and educating the masses for a better society is loooong gone.
As a nation, we seriously have gone over the deep end when it comes to attaining a higher education. Some of the facts the author dug up truly took my breath away and left a nervous lump in my stomach. Is paying such outrageous amounts of money and driving your family to the edge of penury worth it will not be answered, but the information between the pages of Mr. Ferguson's book are well worth your time. It can't hurt to be better informed and, heck, there are oodles of laughs to be had by the author's wonderful writing.
(Meyers - A
few years ago, I started writing, under the pseudonym Franklin the
Mouse, short reviews at Amazon's web site. This is my most recent
review #295)
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