Crazy U: One Dad's Crash Course in Getting His Kid into College

As a professor working at my state's "Big State University" (BSU in Mr. Ferguson's parlance), I see the flip side of the story that Mr. Ferguson presents in this book. I can relate to the issues he discusses, and I feel for his family as they go through the hoops of getting their son into college. This is an outstanding read that hits a great many nails on the head. The writing style is easy, the book is incredibly informative, and it is a pleasure to read. I was struck with how thoughtful this book is. I was expecting it to be funny, and it is, but only because Mr. Ferguson himself is funny. This book never reads as an intentionally funny comedy. It is instead a very temperate and evenhanded discussion of the joys and pains his family encountered as they went through the inherently arduous process. Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect is his own introspection as he struggles between giving his son freedom/aid and realized he is behaving peevishly, stressed, or neurotic. I think that every father will be able to relate to all of the author's foibles and triumphs.Mr. Ferguson has organized his book chronologically from the beginning realization that his family needed to start thinking about college admissions through his son's orientation into his own BSU. In addition, each chapter contains a detailed and relatively scholarly consideration of the underlying issues and structures of the associated component of the admissions process, so the book is really structured as an annotated discussion of college admissions as opposed to a simple story of, "and then we mailed the applications."Chapter 1 focuses on Mr. Ferguson's efforts to come to grasp that getting into college, especially an elite institution, is more than just sending off a few applications. It is instead a detailed process of accumulating the right sorts of accolades in the right amount to present your student as "the right candidate." His discussion includes an entertaining account of his interactions with professionals who help draft the right application for a fee. He marvels at the existence and scope of this business, and arrives at the (correct) conclusion that the college application process for both the student and the university is fundamentally a market driven exercise focused on marketing. Only the right students get into certain school, and, for a fee, you can have a specialist help you (either directly or indirectly through a book) make your child "the right candidate." Of course, what makes on the right candidate seems to shift from expert to expert...Chapter 2 discusses Mr. Ferguson's son's effort to select his list of potential colleges. It includes a consideration of how an applicant's experiences feed into their potential colleges, including the downside of being a lifeguard as a summer job. It also has a WONDERFUL discussion of U.S. News and World Report's influence on colleges through their rankings, and how this competition has fundamentally changed the college framework. Frankly, Mr. Ferguson's discussion is spot-on from my experience. Few colleges will admit it, but the trends and ramifications he discusses are exactly right.Chapter 3 continues the story of the author's family seeking to evaluate the colleges in which his son was interested. In addition, it focuses on the structure of marketing in higher education, and the contradiction of colleges claiming they aren't big businesses attempting marketing campaigns when they clearly are. He also discusses the plethora of sources for advice available through books and the internet, all of which is contradictory on any given point. He humorously calls this the Principle of Constant Contradiction, which means that any bit of advice is certain to be contradicted, either within the same text or by other sources of advice.Chapter 4 is my favorite chapter. It presents Mr. Ferguson's worry about, and study of, the SAT. He discusses its importance to his son's application and their hope that his son does well. It also discusses his own evaluation of a sample test he took from one of the study aids his son used. The author's prose is great, and the absurdity of the situation is compelling. The author also presents a wonderful discussion of the history, significance, and controversy surrounding the SAT's role in college admissions. This chapter alone is worth the price of the book!Chapter 5 is a more detailed consideration of the way colleges market themselves and the process through which Mr. Ferguson's son evaluated the various "brands" he encountered. It recounts their visits to various colleges and information nights his family attended. Again, the humor and social commentary are excellent.Chapter 6 focuses on the actual application process, especially writing the application essays. The author perfectly identifies the contradiction within the exercise. Applicants are asked to write about themselves, but in a way that makes them sound simultaneously victorious and victimized. The most compelling essays are those that focus on failures, embarrassments, social ostracization, and other moments of weakness that the typical family seeks to avoid. Applicants write about experiences (real or imagined), but twist them to portray themselves in whatever light they think the college admission office wants. What comes out is consequently not a true reflection of either the student or the experience. This is especially true when applicants can hire a service to write the essay for them.Chapter 7 discusses the tribulations of applying for financial aid and why college is so doggone expensive. As Mr. Ferguson notes, tuition and other costs have risen much faster since 1970 than both the rate of inflation and the previous increases. I think there are a few additional factors that a complete, scholarly treatment should include, but I really, really liked Mr. Ferguson's discussion. I think that as a general discussion, it is right. I also agree that there is an "education" bubble that cannot last. Simply put, we are charging more for an increasingly inferior product that is increasingly less valuable. Fortunately my institution has not followed some of the foolish trends as many other institutions have...Chapter 8 turns more towards the personal narrative, although it does continue the larger consideration of the college admissions system. The most interesting point is that the author begins to hope that affirmative action focused on white males might benefit his son, given that admissions administrators are actively seeking to keep the number of males and females somewhat balanced. Mr. Ferguson notes the irony that while he hopes it helps his son, he is concerned it will hurt his daughter...Chapter 9 explores the joy and agony of the father taking his son to college orientation, where the boy leaves home both metaphorically and literally. It is humorous and poignant how Mr. Ferguson and his son seek to navigate their new relationship. On a broader context, Mr. Ferguson discusses the disconnect between the simultaneous treatment of his son as a man and a child by the University, as well as the trouble of getting meaningful classes in a curriculum that is no longer anchored to a rigorous framework that seeks to impart a core body of knowledge.Ultimately, Mr. Ferguson's social commentary reflects the reality I experience everyday, a reality where some students want the certification (the college degree) as opposed to the knowledge that is the true product of a good university. In Chapter 2 he likens this attitude to wanting to go to a restaurant to get the menu to prove you were there, as opposed to going for the meal. He is right. Still, this misguided perspective is reflected on every college campus I have attended/taught at. Fortunately, I also have outstanding students who make it all worthwhile. I think that anyone who has been to college and wants to understand how it has changed, is planning on sending kids to college, or works in the college system will get a kick out of this book. It is well worth the time to read!

Andrew Ferguson writes beautifully, and often funnily, as a semi-public intellectual, who has reported about important civic and cultural matters for a long time in many major publications, now confronting a family issue, and along the way is compelled competently to analyze the history of higher education in America and concomitant policy and program. A quick read that covers a lot of ground, incisive as to the university poobahs and their staffs and poignant about his own son and family.The book could have been harsher about how Ivy credentials do translate into career and financial success even as sons and daughters don't necessarily achieve happiness by that route. At the same time, the conservative critique -- Ferguson is generally identified as a conservative -- merges with one strand of Left critique that colleges are exerting effective monopoly power over the consumers to extort incredible sums of money for an increasingly shoddy educational product that may not even be of that much economic value when one factors in the opportunity cost. Of course Ferguson does not yet know where his son's college education will lead.Feguson's book is enjoyable while raising more questions than it answers, and is more memoir than guide about when kids are applying to colleges.

If you are parent of a high school student and you are starting to look at colleges - or if you are in the midst of it already - I would recommend this easy and informative read. I bought the Kindle version and have recently bought a few hard-cover copies as gifts for friends.Ferguson tells the story of his own experiences with his son as he (with little help from his son) tries to make sense of conflicting college ratings systems, out of control tuitions, legacy preferences, college tours and admissions offices, standardized tests, and for-hire admissions consultants which, taken together, make up today's college admissions industry. The book is well researched but not overly academic.Crazy U explains the history of standardized tests and their relative positives and negatives and how admissions offices really work. Ferguson researches how the college ratings system came to be, what the various ratings systems really measure (and do not measure), and how some colleges manipulate the ratings system. For example, Ferguson discusses how some college admissions offices have effectively become marketing arms of the institutions in an ever-escalating bid to increase the number of applications they receive. Why? So the the number of students actually accepted can be a lower percentage of the total number of applicants thereby enhancing the perceived selectivity of the college and, in turn, increasing its rating.Ferguson presents all of this information through the prism of his own one year journey to "help" his son get into college. He writes of his angst and frustration with the process and his son's apparent apathy about it all in a style that is amusing and familiar to any parent of a teenager. (My daughter has called me a "stalker" for simply following up with the individuals we've met on a few of our college tours.) Most importantly, Ferguson's own story and his research are presented in Crazy U in a way the will help parents put all of this craziness in some needed perspective. Crazy U helps to educate and remind parents that we should see the system for what it is and what it is not, that we should give our kids more credit than we sometimes afford them, and that the system is only as crazy as we allow it to affect or drive the decisions we as parents make concerning what is best for our kids.