Gatekeepers : Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College

In the fall of 1999, New York Timeseducation reporter Jacques Steinberg was given an unprecedented opportunity to observe the admissions process at prestigious Wesleyan University. Over the course of nearly a year, Steinberg accompanied admissions officer Ralph Figueroa on a tour to assess and recruit the most promising students in the country. The Gatekeepersfollows a diverse group of prospective students as they compete for places in the nation's most elite colleges. The first book to reveal the college admission process in such behind-the-scenes detail, The Gatekeeperswill be required reading for every parent of a high school-age child and for every student facing the arduous and anxious task of applying to college.

Jacques Steinberg has been a staff reporter for the New York Times for more than ten years and currently is a national education correspondent. In 1998 he was awarded the grand prize of the Education Writers Association for his nine-part series on a third-grade classroom on Manhattan's Upper West Side.