by KYW's Dr. Marciene Mattleman

A former admissions counselor at Dartmouth College, Joie Jager-Hyman, has written a book reviewed in the Wall Street Journal in time for the mailing of letters of acceptance or rejection.

For those who have gone through the waiting game at the nation’s most selective colleges, Big Fat Envelope, will be familiar. For the rest of us, some passages startle.

Those colleges and universities accept only 10% or fewer applicants, while tens of thousands of others have been taking advanced placement courses, prepping for the SAT and getting involved in extra-curricular activities.

Examples of fictitious students are presented—a concert pianist, a math whiz, a tennis-playing valedictorian, and an internationally ranked gymnast, all in her words “perfect kids.”

A less than perfect student, the daughter of impoverished Dominican immigrants, would add diversity to a student body. Who will get into an Ivy League school?

A quote from a rejection letter states that experience shows that whichever college a student attends matters less than the strengths and talents he or she develops over the next four years.