Andrew Ferguson

Providence Journal: “A perfect book”

admin — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 15:39:01 +0000

Luther Spoehr of Brown University writes in the Providence Journal:

Journalist Andrew Ferguson, senior editor at the Weekly Standard and author of “Land of Lincoln,” has written a perfect book: it makes you laugh and makes you think. His two-year “crash course” ends with his son entering college, but getting there is both all and none of the fun.

Ferguson’s tale is a case study of “college mania,” an affliction of the upper-middle class that, he admits, is a ritual born of affluence that he and his family are lucky to have. At the same time, the frenzied scramble to get into a selective college seems utterly irrational, not to mention absurd, sadistic, masochistic, and exhausting. As an anthropological “participant/observer,” Ferguson strikes just the right wry, skeptical, often hilarious, notes.

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“Q and A” with Brian Lamb:

admin — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 21:01:19 +0000

Maclean’s Magazine: “If the purpose of art is to elicit an emotional response, then this is a book of intense artistry.”

admin — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:09:21 +0000

Peter Shawn Taylor in Macleans magazine:

“Regardless of cross-border differences, however, Ferguson is a witty writer worth reading for his talent alone. Describing the university brochures sent to his son, he says they “were printed on paper so thick and voluptuous they might have been mistaken for the leaves of a rubber plant—you didn’t know whether to read them or slurp them like a giraffe.” There’s plenty to slurp here.”

New York Times: A calm, amusing, low-key meditation on a subject that is anything but calm, amusing or low key

admin — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 15:11:22 +0000

From Dwight Garner, writing for the New York Times:

The admissions process, as Andrew Ferguson puts it in his new book, “Crazy U,” entangles not just our pocketbooks but everything else that, besides world peace and cocktail hour, matters to parents: “our vanities, our social ambitions and class insecurities, and most profoundly our love and hopes for our children.”

Mr. Ferguson is a senior editor at The Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine, and he’s a valiant guide through this emotional territory. He’s got a big, beating heart, but he tucks it behind a dry prose style that owes a little bit to Mark Twain and Tom Wolfe — to name the first two white-suited writers who come to mind — and also to Dave Barry (who I suspect wears Dockers).

Washington Post: Both a hilarious narrative and an incisive guide to the college admissions process

admin — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 15:10:23 +0000

From Steven Levingston writing for the Washington Post:

Ferguson cuts through the muddle to elevate the discussion and deliver some powerful big-picture analysis. We learn the tortured history of the SAT and how it has become “the most passionately controversial element in the world of college admissions.” We get a stark portrait of the one-way trend in college costs. Ferguson recalls that his annual tuition bill in 1978 at the small liberal-arts college he attended was $5,100. Adjusted for inflation, his price tag today would be $16,500 – far below the $40,000 his alma mater now charges. He combs over College Board handouts explaining how to pay for school and is repeatedly reminded that $143 billion in financial aid awaits students. He wonders for all of us: “Maybe it’s good news that $143 billion was available for aid. But isn’t it bad news that we need the $143 billion in the first place?”

It may seem strange to say that a book so full of heartache is a pleasure to read, but Ferguson’s storytelling is irresistible. You root for the obsessive, well-meaning dad and his lackadaisical son, and you laugh out loud over their college-app tug of war. There’s the son telling his high school counselor that in college he wants to major in beer and paint his chest in the school colors at football games, prompting Dad to snap later: “It’ll be a big help when he writes your recommendation.”

USA Today: “Funny and informative”

admin — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 14:08:14 +0000

“Parenting” columnist Kim Painter in USA Today:

“Parents who are most feverish about getting their kids into selective schools — the ones compiling resumes, hiring consultants and launching SAT game plans for eighth-graders — could use a chill pill. Ferguson’s funny and informative memoir, the story of a dad sucked in by the craziness even as he examines its origins, may help.”

Christina Hoff Sommers: “A hilarious chronicle and a devastating expose”

admin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 23:05:43 +0000

From National Review:

In Crazy U, Ferguson is at his dazzling best, using humor and narrative as portals to very serious subjects. The book is both a hilarious chronicle of his 18-month ordeal helping his not-always-cooperative son apply to college and a devastating exposé of the buying and selling of higher education in America.

More New York Times: “A much-needed manifesto”

admin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:43:39 +0000

From Jacques Steinberg in the New York Times:

Since its publication earlier this month, “Crazy U: One Dad’s Crash Course in Getting His Kid Into College,” has been the subject of much buzz within the admissions world — and outside it, too. Some parents have seized on the book, by Andrew Ferguson, a senior editor at The Weekly Standard, as a much-needed manifesto, one in which the author brings the perspective of a curious outsider to an oft-bewildering process.

CNN.com: “Sage advice”

admin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:37:46 +0000

From Stephen Walsh of CNN.com:

Andrew Ferguson makes the college admissions process feel a lot like an M. Night Shyamalan movie: Plenty of drama and tension. Maybe a little terror. And plot twists that will leave parents saying, “I did not see that coming.”

Ferguson’s new book, “Crazy U: One Dad’s Crash Course Into Getting His Kid Into College” is part comic memoir and part parental prep guide.

But with all the sage advice on navigating the potholes and mazes of college admissions, “Crazy U” also is a poignant read about parents helping their beloved son leave home and find success at a decent school.