2018 Beyond the Classics discussion

I remember first entering the doors to the WESEF Science Competition last year. During this time, I became absolutely dumbfounded by the amount of dedication towards each project and area of the building. One of these sections, is where I encountered Dr. Deborah Bedor, an individual who I would eventually find out to be the author of “Getting IN by Standing OUT,” I had a chance to talk with her about the college process and what she would generally recommend in order to get into top colleges, as she was a major admissions counselor for the University at Pennsylvania. I chatted with her for approximately five minutes to help learn about what they tend to do at such a prestigious school. By the end of that time of discussion, I decided to purchase her book and went on my way. However, it wouldn’t be until much later when I decided to read it approximately a year later. This may seem counterintuitive, as by the time I did read it, I sent out all of my major applications. Despite that however, I still learned some very very valuable lessons through information of transferring and what to do when I’m finally at your favorite college. This book will be about “Getting IN by Standing OUT,” a book I like to call “A book read a little too late.”

“Getting IN by Standing OUT” is based on the principles of getting into the best college possible, so Dr. Bedor makes sure she is able to convey this message by attempting to guide the reader for what you should do in the four years within high school. As if you were to guess, she first reads about the activities that are essential every year in freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year. Additionally, she also lists some of the information of what each Ivy League school is looking for, for example, Yale tends to look for applicants with weird expanded interests. But the main interest of this book (at least for me) would be it’s discussion of importance of extracurriculars, which she emphasizes, tends to be the make or break when considering schools such as Harvard, Duke, or even Stanford.

However, this is where the book tends to fall a little bit flat, as she only tends to explain these ludicrously high expectation schools while leaving out virtually every school below it. She also fails to mention how many applicants are turned down due to limited space, as these schools only accept a small handful of individuals each year, which is another major factor for making or breaking it.

Despite that however, I absolutely fell in love with the writing style of the book. Rather than listing random tips she has learned over her 30 year experience, she lists multiple examples, and goes over what makes them special to show some of the work required when committing to an extracurricular. Additionally, this book sets apart from it’s typical clones of its nature by listing of what you should do the summer before you enter college. In the end, I just wished this book earlier. So...



Final Verdict?
Difficulty: 2/10
Personal Rating: 6/10 although.... I would bump it up to an 7/10 if I was still a freshman going into high school.

At heart, it’s almost impossible for me to review this book without having a chip on my shoulder. This book does contain a lot of useful tips, just tips that I couldn’t use very much in my situation. But despite that, I fell in love with the authors writing style discussing schools such as Brown, Cornell, and Dartmouth. I would definitely recommend this book to any students who wants to get into the school of there dreams, or hell, even transfer, as this book has some useful tips for admissions committee’s mindsets and thinking.