in the book, all of a sudden, my son started getting solicitations in the mail, these big, fat, viewbooksare called. they are like brochures on these really thick papers. it was so tasty looking. very expensive packages they were sending him. when i thought back, nothing like that had happened to me when i was thinking about college in the mid-1970's. it dawned on me that this was a very different process than what it was. of course we have friends who were just starting to percolate with a little bit of anxiety about it themselves. i went looking for a book. there are tons of books on college admissions. i could not find any one that sort of satisfied what i was looking for. i did not want it to be morose and lugubrious, but on the other hand i wanted it to have a few tips that i could trust. so i thought, i would just write it. >> you went to occidental college in california. what year did you graduate? >> 1978. >> you say that $5,100 was the tuition then when you were in school. for a year? >> my last year, that was the total room and board and tuition. >> you said applied to inflation

. >> go back to your son, and he was how old when the first viewbook came in from college? >> i guess 16. >> how many did you get over a period of time? >> several hundred. i would say probably 200. >> how did they know he was about to graduate? >> this is a thing i found out that i don't think other parents know. when the kids take their practice sat test, the big aptitude test as they used to call it, they take the psat, which is like the practice of the s.a.t.. there is a questionnaire that goes with it. if i ever knew this, had forgotten it. it is rather detailed, and the kid discourses all kinds of information about himself, what his zip code is, so they can have a sense of how much money his family has, the kind of courses he is hoping to take, what region of the country he would like to live or go to school in. the college board amasses this huge data bank of information about each prospective college student in america. >> do they sell that to the colleges? >> they sell it for 30 cents a name. the colleges come to them and say we are a small baptist college in the s

in the book, all of a sudden, my son started getting solicitations in the mail, these big, fat, viewbookshey are called. they are like brochures on these really thick papers. it was so tasty looking. very expensive packages they were sending him. when i thought back, nothing like that had happened to me when i was thinking about college in the mid-1970's. it dawned on me that this was a very different process than what it was. of course we have friends who were just starting to percolate with a little bit of anxiety about it themselves. i went looking for a book. there are tons of books on college admissions. i could not find any one that sort of satisfied what i was looking for. i did not want it to be morose and lugubrious, but on the other hand i wanted it to have a few tips that i could trust. so i thought, i would just write it. >> you went to occidental college in california. what year did you graduate? >> 1978. >> you say that $5,100 was the tuition then when you were in school. for a year? >> my last year, that was the total room and board and tuition. >> you said applied to infla