We said at the outset of this book that it represented the extension of a long-running conversation not only between the two of us but with people who have been in our professional and personal lives for decades.
The first person we approached with this idea was Kris Dahl of ICM Partners, who had represented Jacques on The Gatekeepers. We were grateful for her enthusiasm, as well as for her guidance in helping us imagine the book as the foundation for a running dialogue, particularly between parent and child. We thank, too, Kris’s ICM colleague Tamara Kawar for her logistical support, and for her warmth and good cheer. Kris shepherded our proposal to Rick Kot, the executive editor of Viking and the editor of The Gatekeepers, and before long we were off and running. Rick’s role as a sounding board early in our process was critical, as were his efforts to tighten the initial drafts of the manuscript and to sharpen and clarify what we most wanted to share with parents. Rick also exudes an ever-present sense of calm, which served to set the tone for the writing and editing process. At Penguin Random House, we also thank Brian Tart, the president and publisher of Viking; Andrea Schulz, the editor in chief of Viking; Camille LeBlanc, Rick’s assistant; Carolyn Coleburn, who was both head coach and quarterback for our publicity strategy, along with Sara Leonard; Molly Fessenden, marketing manager; Colin Webber, who designed the book’s cover, and Alexis Farabaugh, who designed the book itself; Tess Espinoza, who leads the production editorial department; Randee Marullo, our production editor; and Amy Ryan, our copy editor, who got us across the goal line with her relentless precision and exquisite care.
We wish to thank Tanya Abrams, a former New York City public school teacher and former New York Times education journalist, whose exhaustive research efforts added invaluable context and depth to the advice we have provided here. We are also appreciative of Tanya’s organizational and presentation skills, to say nothing of her ability to meet a tight deadline.
Throughout our reporting and writing, we were intentional about expanding The College Conversation to encompass a range of voices. At High Tech High in San Diego, we were grateful for the good counsel, born of experience, that we received from parents and their children. They included Matthew Boyd; Ariana Campos; Armando, Julianna, and Monica Mendez; Jack Montesano Acosta and Neyl Montesano; and Chloe Rodriguez. We thank Chris White, the school’s college counselor, for not only introducing us to these families but sharing with us his own extensive professional guidance, honed in a school setting. And we thank Jonathan Villafuerte, the school’s college readiness consultant, and Larry Rosenstock, the founder of High Tech High.
We also learned much from our extensive interviews with Harvey R. Fields Jr., Alfred Herrera, Charlie Javice, Omar Monteagudo, Mark Allen Poisel, Jenny Rickard, and Carol Sutton Lewis. Each was gracious with their time and eager to share their expertise and perspective. And we thank Amy and Putnam Coes, who provided us with an occasional retreat that afforded us the space and bandwidth to reflect and to think.
From Jacques: I thank my colleagues and partners at Say Yes to Education, especially George Weiss, the organization’s founder, for their inspiring efforts on behalf of students, families, and communities; my fellow board members at the National Association for College Admission Counseling, including the board presidents with whom I served—David Burge, Stefanie Niles, and Jayne Caflin Fonash; John Firestone, who is so much more than my lawyer, and whose friendship—and love of reading and books—have enhanced and enriched the range of my work; and my brother, AJ, and his wife, Allison, who are in the target audience for this book and who provided feedback on an early proposal.
For brainstorming and other support, I also thank Joseph Berger; Marie Bigham; Michael Dorsey; Lexa Edsall and Bob Victor; Leah Epstein; Ralph Figueroa; Raymond Hernandez; Jack Kadden; Kostya Kennedy; Stephanie Lewin; Janet Marling; Felice Nudelman; Ffiona Rees; and Elise Rodriguez.
I am grateful to have begun a conversation with Eric Furda more than a decade ago, and to have it hopscotch among various media platforms as well as across the country and around the world. I have long valued his knowledge and experience, and his passion for his work, and I have been buoyed by his energy. I have relished being his partner and coauthor.
I thank my wife, Sharon Weinstock, for her keen eye and ear, and her heart, and for always finding a way to say yes, even when my work takes me away from her and our family for extended stretches amid her intensely busy professional life. And, finally, I thank our children, Ali and Jordan, whose wisdom and insights are sprinkled liberally among these pages, always making them better, and whose good humor, encouragement, and love sustain me.
From Eric: Throughout this project I have been eternally grateful to my loving wife, Julie, who remained supportive and provided much-needed encouragement while she balanced her own career and home life, and to our son, Matt, and daughter, Liv, who shared their own excitement and pride about the writing of this book. Seeing them grow in their own lives, academically and socially, informs my ideas about and framing of life’s experiences each and every day.
I am most grateful to my big brother, Scott, who, in my estimation, is one of the deepest thinkers I have ever known and who always comes through when I bounce some of the bigger ideas of life off him.
I am also grateful, and indebted, to all those I have worked with at the University of Pennsylvania and at Columbia University in the City of New York, including the great university leaders and colleagues who allowed me to grow by instilling in me a passion for higher education, in particular University of Pennsylvania president Amy Gutmann and provost Wendell Pritchett; the talented team at SiriusXM led by Scott Greenstein, president and chief content officer, who gave me the chance to have a conversation with so many parents and students on my satellite radio show, The Process; my partner on the show, Eileen Cunningham Feikens, dean of college counseling at the Dwight-Englewood School, for taking the leap and agreeing to cohost a radio show with me; David Charlow, my longtime friend, who has always valued college affordability and applied a commonsense approach to a landscape filled with confusing professional jargon, as well as a demonstrated ability to decode that language; and to Mark Goodheart, a close friend who served as my legal counsel on this project and many others.
And finally, to Jacques Steinberg. Thank you for believing in this idea. As an already accomplished author you knew how steep the climb would be to reach the peak of our ideas and hopes for this book. As a first-time author, I benefited from a lack of awareness of just how big an undertaking this would be. You charted the course and set the pace on our shared journey.
We want to close with a word of thanks to you, our readers, not only for permitting us to accompany you on this important and dizzying journey, but also for your openness to educating yourself about the many steps on the path to higher education, so that you might serve as a reliable and reassuring resource to your child.