Open the Gates to the Ivy League: A Plan B for Getting into the Top Colleges

by C. W. Henderson

Overview

Ivy League schools on average reject some 90 percent of applicants. But there is another way to get into the top colleges in the United States—the back gate—that will still see motivated students come out the front gate with an Ivy League diploma.

This book is the plan B that offers you an alternative set of keys to seven of the Ivy League universities: Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Pennsylvania (Penn), and Brown. Also covered are the so-called second tier of elite universities, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Duke, Northwestern, and University of Virginia, among others, which have highly selective admission requirements and confer social and economic benefits on par with the traditional Ivy Leagues.

From extension schools to special programs for working students to online studies, the range of back gateways is remarkable for leveling the field for students of all stripes. This book provides the little-known strategies to help you succeed in enrolling in the school of your dreams.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399164309
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/06/2013
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Award-winning publisher and journalist C. W. Henderson is executive editor of Ivy League Week at VerticalNews.com and executive editor of Education Letter at the Wall Street Journal Professional Edition. He founded and manages the professional publishers NewsRx, VerticalNews, ScholarlyNews, and ScholarlyEditions. USA Today named him one of “Six Who Made a Difference.” He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

Table of Contents

Sign Up for Updates on College Admissions vii

Introduction: What This Is and Why I Wrote It ix

1 Welcome to Plan B 1

2 Hello, Harvard 9

3 Welcome to Penn 23

4 Ivy in the Apple: Columbia University 33

5 Cornell University: "Any Person … Any Study" 47

6 A Tradition of Excellence: Yale University 55

7 Climbing College Hill: Brown University 69

8 A Dual-Degree Alternative from Dartmouth College 75

9 Ivy on the Thames: Getting into Oxford 85

10 School of Kings: The University of Cambridge 95

11 Grabbing the Brass Rat at MIT 103

12 New Ivy Among the Magnolias: Emory University 113

13 Regional Presence, National Reputation: Washington University in St. Louis 123

14 In the Research Triangle: Duke University 131

15 Engineering Genius: Caltech 145

16 Elite Bargain: Northwestern University 155

17 Public Ivy: The University of Virginia 165

18 Liberal Studies at Georgetown University 175

19 Inland Flagship: University of Wisconsin-Madison 185

20 A Metropolitan Education: New York University 195

21 Engineering Your Entrance into the University of Southern California 207

22 Campus on a Hill: Boston College 215

23 Cutting-Edge Colonial: The College of William & Mary 225

24 Finding Your Future at Georgia Institute of Technology 235

25 "City of Learning": University of California, Berkeley 247

26 Dream Bigger: University of Notre Dame 259

Index 272

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Praise for Open the Gates to the Ivy League:

"In Open the Gates to the Ivy League: A Plan B for Getting into the Top Colleges, author C.W. Henderson exposes 'back gateways' for getting into 25 prestigious schools, seven of which are hallowed-hall Ivies. Henderson also cites back entrances to elite universities through transfer programs with less-elite universities, such as transferring to the University of Virginia from any one of the state's community colleges.—University of Virginia UVA Today

“A few days ago I picked up an interesting book, Open the Gates to the Ivy League, A Plan B for Getting into the Top Colleges. It provides alternative entries, aka 'Back Doors' for entering Ivy League or similar schools…One of the most intriguing back doors, legitimate for a traditional student, is at Emory University’s Oxford College.”—Educated Quest

"Henderson's audience is Jager-Hyman's 'brand-name shoppers,' who would find stock in Henderson's assertion that the name recognition and well-connected alumni networks of elite universities give students 'a significant, sometimes even a dramatic, edge over everyone who earns a diploma elsewhere.' So, if students fail to get into a top 40 school, Henderson says try and try again—and shows applicants how to do so, sometimes for less than they would pay otherwise.”—Education Week BookMarks

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Open the Gates to the Ivy League:

"In Open the Gates to the Ivy League: A Plan B for Getting into the Top Colleges, author C.W. Henderson exposes 'back gateways' for getting into 25 prestigious schools, seven of which are hallowed-hall Ivies. Henderson also cites back entrances to elite universities through transfer programs with less-elite universities, such as transferring to the University of Virginia from any one of the state's community colleges.—University of Virginia UVA Today

“A few days ago I picked up an interesting book, Open the Gates to the Ivy League, A Plan B for Getting into the Top Colleges. It provides alternative entries, aka 'Back Doors' for entering Ivy League or similar schools…One of the most intriguing back doors, legitimate for a traditional student, is at Emory University’s Oxford College.”—Educated Quest

"Henderson's audience is Jager-Hyman's 'brand-name shoppers,' who would find stock in Henderson's assertion that the name recognition and well-connected alumni networks of elite universities give students 'a significant, sometimes even a dramatic, edge over everyone who earns a diploma elsewhere.' So, if students fail to get into a top 40 school, Henderson says try and try again—and shows applicants how to do so, sometimes for less than they would pay otherwise.”—Education Week BookMarks

From the Publisher