One of the greatest trials that we had in [Crazy U] was writing the personal college essay. . . . It has to be revelatory, self-exposing, it has to say something profound. One of the questions my son had to answer was, ‘Tell us about a situation in which you refused to be embarrassed.' They were begging for epiphanies and psychological turning points.

Andrew Ferguson is a senior editor at The Weekly Standard and formerly a senior writer for The Washingtonian.

Previously a columnist for Fortune, Forbes FYI, and National Review, he was also a contributing editor to Time magazine, and has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The New Republic. An alumnus of the IU School of Journalism, he currently writes the Press Man column for Commentary magazine.

He has written Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America, named by the Chicago Tribune as a Favorite Book of the Year, and Crazy U: One Dad's Crash Course in Getting His Kid into College, which was optioned as a movie starring Will Ferrell.