Valedictorians at the Gate: Standing Out, Getting In, and Staying Sane While Applying to College

Named one of Grown & Flown's “Best Book on College Admissions and Paying for College”

“The most honest, most helpful book I’ve ever read on applying to college” (New York Times bestselling author Adam Grant), Valedictorians at the Gate offers empowering advice and humorous asides that demystifies the college application process and encourages students to select a school that best reflects their personal values, academic pursuits, and potential career goals.

After spending years as a college admissions director at Dartmouth, Becky Munsterer Sabky had seen it all. The perfect grades, the perfect scores, and the perfect extracurriculars. Valedictorians were knocking at the gate, but Becky realized that in their quest for admission many of these students were missing something. Their transcripts were golden, their interviews polished, but they weren’t applying for college, they were competing for it―and in the end they didn’t know what prize they were really striving for.

In Valedictorians at the Gate, Sabky looks beyond the smoke and mirrors of the intimidating admissions gauntlet and places the power firmly where it should be: in the hands of the students themselves. Offering prescriptive, actionable advice for students and their (hopefully not helicoptering) parents, Sabky illuminates the pathway to finding the school that is the ideal match.

Witty and warm, informative and inspiring, Valedictorians at the Gate is the needed tonic for overstressed, overworked, and overwhelmed students on their way to the perfect college for them.