Having worked with high school students for over twenty years in the field of motivation and goal setting, I can overwhelmingly recommend Taming the Paper Monster for students and their parents. Many students are great dreamers, but not all of them have the tools to work toward their goals. This guide gives them a start to finish the road map in charting their own path. Bravo!

Traditionally the most daunting and frustrating activity a student and family sets out to accomplish is the college search. Anything that can minimize this anxious time is appreciated. Having a carefully planned guide is a tremendous asset. VonGruben’s Taming the Paper Monster accomplishes this on many levels. It’s a must for parents!

Taming the Paper Monster should be on the night table of every parent who is helping their adolescent get through the college admissions process. It is one of the most user friendly resource guides for families I have ever seen in 25 years as a counselor/guidance supervisor. Jill VonGruben has chosen a format that is concise, easy to access, yet the book is comprehensive in scope.

Taming the Paper Monster walks us through the eighth grade to post high school with checklists, sample resumes, and therapeutic tips on dealing with the emotional roller coaster from late in the junior year through May of the senior year.

Clearly, this is a new approach to helping parents and students deal with the anxiety of college admission issues. It is a most refreshing effort.

During my thirty-five years in education, the past twenty-one as a high school principal, I have reviewed materials designed to help parents cope with the college application process. I believe that VonGruben’s Taming the Paper Monster will take the stress out of that process. The format is interesting, easy to follow and very user friendly. The book belongs in every school library and guidance office reference section.

VonGruben’s Taming the Paper Monster helps students and parents prepare for college, meet deadlines and avoid the pitfalls and problems along the way and complete a successful first year of study.

Within a few days of receiving a copy of Taming the Paper Monster, we were conducting a series of meetings for school counselors. We put the copy on a table of items to share. We were asked by many of those in attendance how they could obtain a copy of this publication. We know many of those who attended were going to purchase copies of their own.

Many parents could find this information useful as they plan to send their son/daughter to post secondary education.

We have used Taming the Paper Monster as a resource with parents, students, and teachers at the intermediate, middle school, and high school grade levels. The book provides practical and very helpful information for parents who want to make the right decisions and do the correct things in order to get their child into the best college possible. I would highly recommend it to anyone with a student or child approaching the college years!

The search for the right college or university, the program that best meets the student’s needs, the application process and the search for scholarships are just a few of the traumatic issues facing parents and students. Schools provide assistance but much of the burden is on the family, the parent and student.

Taming the Paper Monster is a practical guide for parents and students to help prepare them for these challenges. It is a practical step-by-step approach that takes the family through the planning process for high school, the search for colleges, scholarships and through all the other potential roadblocks that one might face leading up to this important decision. It is certainly a book that I wish I had had in planning for my children as they entered high school and they began their search for colleges. Not only is it an excellent guide for parents and students, it provides valuable information and guidance for educators as well.

If preparing for college is a maze of confusing forms and procedures, Jill VonGruben’s book, Taming the Paper Monster, will help you cut through red tape like a hot knife glides through butter. Unlike other books of this type, Taming will benefit both adolescents and their parents. Filled with anecdotes, forms, dates and reminders of "what’s due when", this book offers realistic advice for playing the college game with gusto! Buy it for your college-bound teen...and for yourself!