Game On

Veteran academic and journalist Susan F. Paterno guides you through the bewildering maze of college admissions, helping your family make the best decision possible.

How is it possible that Harvard is more affordable for most American families than their local state university? Or that up to half of eligible students receive no financial aid? Game On answers these questions and more, arming you with the knowledge you need to make the college admissions system work for you.

As the director of the Chapman journalism program and mother of four recent college graduates, Paterno has helped her kids navigate the application process to a wide range of colleges, paying for their four-year educations on a finite budget. In Game On, she decodes the college admission industry and provides invaluable insights, including:

· Why forty years of failed free-market policies have led to skyrocketing tuition and historic levels of student debt

· How to find your way through the bewildering maze of college applications to a successful result

· Strategies to negotiate the best financial package with the least debt

· The difference between family debt and student debt and how to split it

A playbook for the Hunger Games of higher education, Game On explains the anxiety, uncertainty, and chaos in college admission, exposes the myth of meritocracy, and provides strategies to beat—and reform—a broken system. This essential guide will help you and your family make informed decisions about the college admissions process.