Early decision

Working one-on-one with Tiger-mothered, burned-out kids, Anne "the application whisperer" can make Harvard a reality. Early Decision follows five students over one autumn as Anne helps them craft their college essays, cram for the SATs, and perfect the Common Application. It seems their entire future is on the line and it is. Though not because of Princeton and Yale. It's because the process, warped as it is by money, connections, competition, and parental mania, threatens to crush their independence just as adulthood begins.