In addition to the moms I met at Starbucks, I would like to thank the Mamaroneck High School parents who allowed me to interview them in the design phase of Off to College. They largely framed the questions I attempt to answer in the book. These parents included Holly Brookstein, Bill Foster, Amy and Ed Merians, Ellen McEvily, Danielle Schantz, Diane Schreiber, Susan Smith, and Michelle Stacey. I would also like to thank Bob Sweeney, former director of counseling at Mamaroneck High School who not only introduced me to these parents but also gave me access to hundreds of juniors and seniors at the school who I have assisted in the college admissions process and who gave me deep insight into the aspirations and fears of aspiring college students.
Others who were helpful with producing this book are Rob Holyer, former vice president for Academic Affairs, and Craig Anderson, director of counseling services, both at Randolph-Macon College in Virginia, and Jody Alesandro, an editor on the Education Life section of the New York Times, who provided invaluable initial edits, and Meg Wallace, who did a marvelous job preparing the index.
The presidents of each of the colleges and universities I write about gave me unprecedented access to their campuses. They are (along with the people they assigned to work with me) Lawrence Bacow, president emeritus, and James Glaser, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, Tufts University; Catharine Bond Hill, president, and Chris Roellke, dean of the college, Vassar College; Baird Tipson, president emeritus, Washington College; John Reynders, president, and Bill Deeds, provost, Morningside College; and James Muyskins, president emeritus, Queens College of the City University of New York. Matthew Goldstein, former chancellor of the City University of New York, shared a speaking platform with me and opened the doors of Queens College for which I am deeply grateful.
I would like to thank Elizabeth Branch Dyson, acquisition editor for education at the University of Chicago Press, who saw promise in a book of this kind and whose patience and superb editing suggestions improved the original manuscript enormously. I would also like to thank Yvonne Zipter, manuscript editor, who cleaned up a few ponderous sentences and paragraphs making the manuscript far more readable, as well as Nora Devlin who kept the book on track and Lauren Salas whose promotional skills helped to deliver the book to a wider audience.
Finally, the support of Susan Martin, my wife, was incalculable. Without her encouragement this book would not have been possible.