College Book 'Guides' Hutchin to Publication

Author: Meghan Keenan

Junior Megan Hutchin recently reached the first milestone of a writer's career - publication. After initial rejection by several magazines, three promotions and a crashed computer, Hutchin accomplished her goal by co-authoring the college guidebook "Choose the Right College and Get Accepted!" by Natavi Guides.

Having dreamt of being a writer from a very young age, Hutchin previously made several attempts at publication. She sent in poetry and short stories to various magazines, only to receive the all too familiar rejection letter. Her luck changed her first year at Middlebury College when she noticed an advertisement in the McCullough mailroom from a new company looking to publish a "for-students-by-students" guidebook. "It's not that I was really incredibly interested in writing guidebooks, but I thought it was a good chance to get published," Hutchin said. Contrary to her previous experiences, Hutchin immediately sent off a cover letter, resume and application, and Natavi Guides soon accepted her as a reviewer.

After sending in a number of reviews, Natavi Guides was impressed with Hutchin enough to ask her to increase her responsibilities and join them as a collaborator. Her duties then included collecting interviews from students, college counselors and admissions counselors to pass on to the guide's main author. This part of the writing process became rather tedious. "I put out hundreds of e-mails, did hundreds of hours of research and got few responses. For about three months I did nothing but hunt down and corner college admissions officers and students, demanding responses and helpful quotes to put in this book," Hutchin recalls. Using all connections possible, Hutchin contacted students from her high school, looked through old guidebooks for contact information and became entirely frustrated when colleges ignored her as an unknown writer.

Hutchin persisted in her efforts and continued to impress Natavi Guides, in spite of her trouble juggling all this research with her normal college workload. Before long, Natavi promoted her to co-author of the book. As Hutchin began to wrap up all the research she had accumulated over the previous four months in preparation for the final writing stage, the inevitable happened - her computer crashed. This left Megan not only without any of her research, but also without any of the contact information to reobtain the information.

Receiving a gracious extension, Hutchin somehow managed to quickly reassemble all the information she had lost and by December sent the first draft off to the publishers. Along with contributions from two other writers, the book was published in September. Beginning with a section on choosing the right college, Hutchin's section focuses on creating a great application, from writing the essay to receiving great recommendations to acing the interview.

Although Hutchin had not originally shown great interest in writing guidebooks, the final product represented work of which she felt extremely proud. "This book is different because it's not trying to sell anything else. The philosophy is that you, the reader, are smart enough to amply read this information we have gathered from real people and do what you will with it," Hutchin said.

The book does not stress the need for Standard Aptitutude Test (SAT) tutors, college tutors or professional college essay editors to get into the college of one's choice, but allows the reader access to actual commentary from college administrators and students themselves and make decisions from these examples.

Hutchin recognizes that by writing this book she becomes part of the so-called "college as a commodity" industry, but hopes that she was able to offer her own opinion on the actual admissions process. "If there are all these people out there trying to sell kids things they don't need to get into college, I can humbly tell them what I know and experienced, which is that they don't need all those other things," she claims. The book does not pretend to be expert advice, but rather focuses on the reader as a smart, capable person who should focus on his or her strengths and not the strengths of a professional's influence.

"Choose the Right College & Get Accepted!" has already earned positive reviews since it hit bookstores. Hutchin, however, cannot personally watch the immediate progress of her book sales, as she is spending her junior year abroad in Florence, Italy.

Yet through the internet, Hutchin can track the reaction to her views of the college application process. On Amazon.com, one customer review states, "The advice is realistic, dead-on and concise. You could buy three separate books, like my friends did, or you could buy this one!"

Congratulations to Middlebury College's newest author.