Someone emailed me today and asked when my book was going to be available.
Even though my marketing skills are sadly inadequate, even I realized that the question provided me with a way to plug my book. Actually, it’s a timely question since I received two cartons of review copies of my book via Fed Ex this week. I’ve been carrying around a copy of my book wherever I go.
The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right Price has been posted on Amazon.com for preorders, but the book won’t be released to the public until June 22 or thereabouts.
Here are some of the things you will learn in the book:
1. A ridiculous number of books on college are dedicated to cracking the Ivy League even though the only ivy that most kids are going to come into contact with will itch and require calamine lotion. A mere .2% of college freshmen each year attend Ivy League schools. My book is dedicated to helping the remaining 99.8% of students.
2. Few parents realize that bachelor degrees are being priced like airline tickets — different families are paying wildly different prices. The average tuition discount at private schools today is 33.5% and the discount is nearly 15% at public schools.
Yes, there are definitely ways for parents to take advantage of this discounting phenomenon. I provide real examples of pricing discounts from schools around the country and I share how even “B” students can capture some of this money.
3. Families can obtain a huge amount of information on how individual schools dole out their merit money and financial aid if they look at each school’s Common Data Set. I share how students, using this data, can increase their chances of receiving money. You can commonly find an individual school’s Common Data Set by Googling the term and the name of an individual school.
4. I explain how students can research academic majors ahead of time and evaluate whether a particular department within a college or university would provide a first-rate education. There is no reason to embrace U.S. News & World Report’s flawed college rankings when families can do a far better job of sizing up schools.
5. A chapter entitled, Learning in a Crowd, shares how students, who attend large universities, can make their educational experience more intimate. Students should look for such things as first-year learning communities, undergraduate research opportunities, excellent advising programs and innovative teaching techniques, particularly for those large introductory classes.
6. Recognizing that about 45% of all college students start off at community colleges, I provide ways to evaluate these schools in a meaningful way.
7. Do you have a son? Here is a bit of good news. Boys don’t always have to be as good academically as the girls to get money from schools. That’s because there aren’t as many of them attending colleges. Roughly 56% of undergraduates are girls and the percentage is expected to continue to climb.
In addition to the book, I should also mention that I will begin holding college seminars — for a fee — at parents’ homes for those who prefer to go that route.
In my next post, I’ll include an excerpt of the book.
Great quality stuff.