Book Review

Soundbite: the Admission Secret that Gets You into College and Beyond by Sara Harberson

Years of working in college admissions led Sara Harberson to an important insight: students applying to college should figure out a single sentence that sums up who they are and then direct their application toward supporting that sentence.  She is absolutely right that if a student doesn’t do this, the admissions officers will do it for them, and in a way that the student might not like.

Harberson calls this single sentence concept a ‘soundbite’ and describes what she means by it in the first chapter.  Subsequent chapters include many, many examples of students who made good and not-so-good choices of their soundbites, and advice that can mostly be summed up as ‘play to your strengths.’  

Haberson’s book falls into the same trap as many others in this genre.  Most of the people who buy How to Get into College books are high school seniors and/or their parents.  However, much of her advice is really directed at middle schoolers and their parents, most of whom aren’t remotely thinking about college.  Start compiling a list of colleges in ninth grade, she suggests, figure out your passion early on so that you can have years of extracurricular activities that support it.  I don’t blame Haberson (or anyone else) for this disconnect.  It’s just a fact that most middle schoolers and/or their parents are worrying about high school not college and so wouldn’t pick up a book like this.

Although the first half of the book feels like she’s pounding the same point over and over again, she presents some really good ideas in the second half.  Her point about ‘describe yourself with nouns not adjectives’ is very smart.  Nouns tend to be more descriptive and specific than adjectives.  Just compare ‘rock-climbing champion’ to ‘bold’ or ‘hospice volunteer’ to ‘helpful.’  Her entire chapter on the Homegrown Idea, suggesting that rather than signing up for already established activities students start their own, is well worth reading.  

The takeaway from this book – the soundbite of Soundbite, you might say – that students applying to college should be able to describe themselves in a single sentence that they can center their application around, is an essential one.  Is it essential to read this book?  For students struggling with understanding or developing that sentence for themselves, I would say yes.  The many examples the author gives might well help spark ideas on this point.  Otherwise, it’s probably not necessary.  The soundbite is enough.