Understanding Admissions:

Getting Into the Top Graduate Schools in Computer Science and Engineering

Ryan Lilien, Ramgopal Mettu (86 pages)

In many cases, graduate admissions committees are not looking for the specifics undergraduates think they are - in this book the authors use their experience in poring over hundreds of successful (and countless more unsuccessful) applications to provide a clear guide for what works and what doesn't. This book doesn't contain any sneaky "tricks", rather it discusses all of the basic elements of a graduate application and the role each plays in the review process. In eleven chapters, the authors cover everything an applicant needs to know to maximize their chance of admission.