There’s a famous Spanish aphorism from 1647 by Baltasar Gracián that goes, “Lo bueno, si breve, dos veces bueno.”
It means, “Good stuff, if short, is twice as good,” and it explains why Stairway to College Heaven: The Most Readable College Guide on Earth, by Victoria Tillson Evans, Jonathan Perkins, and Phil Sung, is the first book you should read about the college planning process.
I had intended to recommend A is for Admission or Admission Matters this month but, at only 132 pages instead of the 300 pages typical of non-fiction books, Stairway to College Heaven is way more efficient.
The book is aimed at parents, not students, because even though it might be the student’s job to complete excellent applications to appropriate colleges in a timely manner, it’s the parents’ problem if the student doesn’t do it!
You won’t find Stairway to College Heaven classified as fiction or non-fiction because it presents a family’s college application path from 10th grade through 12th via a highly effective story involving a mother fainting on the stairs, three college application experts who went to fancy universities, a dragon, and Led Zeppelin lyrics.
I’m a half-Mexican college insider who used to help the children of Chinese and Indian immigrants get into Ivy League schools, Stanford, Caltech, and MIT, and I’m telling you that every parent should read Stairway to College Heaven. Every parent!
The best time to read it is before your kid signs up for classes in 9th grade, and the second-best time is now.