This book offers detailed information on college admissions designed to demystify the process for student applicants. Part I opens by arguing that the college admissions process is a mystery to many applicants because in large part admissions officers would prefer to have it that way in order to retain greater control. Other chapters in this section cover many aspects of the process often from the admissions officer's point of view including: ranking colleges, the factors that influence the acceptance or rejection of an application (sample applications for readers to see and evaluate are included), different rules for certain categories of student, the wait-listing strategy, real life dialogue by admissions officers from two universities evaluating applications, and advice from students who made it through the process. Part II contains profiles of 150 selected colleges which include enrollment information, freshman class demographics, freshman class test scores, geographic distribution of students, other schools to which most students apply, costs and financial aid, retention rates, popular degrees, post-graduate destinations, and faculty information as well as self-evaluation information provided by the institutions themselves. Three appendixes contain an application timetable, an admission office phone directory, and an applicant rating sheet. (JB)