Chapter One

 Signaling, the Hunger Games and McHarvard

This chapter introduces you to the concept of ‘signaling’ - a phrase coined by Nobel Prize winning, human capital theorist, Gary Becker. The term refers to the power of a student’s education credentials to act as a signalling device to future employers or postgraduate admissions officers as to their superior innate abilities. The chapter outlines how your college degree can set up a reputational snowball that will impact every facet of your working life — and as such why you, as a young person or a parent, need to go into the college application process with eyes wide open….

Chapter Two

Class Spam: Deadly And Effective 

Chapter Two explores the power of class maximization: Everyone takes 4 AP classes, you take 8, everyone takes 3 A-Levels you take 10...  A university is trying to guess at who the most competent students are. When they read about your extracurriculars they may ask themselves, what does this mean? How legitimate is this group? How passionate is this student? (Not that extracurriculars are not crucially important to the college admissions process - they are.) But a strong academic profile that goes above and beyond that of your closest competitors is easily comparable and quantifiable…

Chapter Three

Early Decision and the Dating Game

Play the Early Action or Early Decision dating game. Applying EA or ED to a university tells them you like them. You want a relationship with them - long term. This changes the application dynamic and gives power back to the applicant. It shows the university that you want to commit - that you like them more than the others. Eg: the University of  Chicago (who use both EA and ED rounds), and the University of Pennsylvania’s highly sought-after Wharton School love to see this sort of singular devotion. What school you choose to apply to EA or ED matters, you need to play the numbers game…