8Parents need to start thinking about their child's college education sooner than they think. The parents of your child's peers, who will complete for the limited admission positions at elite colleges, likely have already started. The intent of this book is to bring parents up to speed before they miss critical steps, to point them towards resources for getting information, to help them make a plan that they will follow through the years leading up to college applications, and to motivate them to start thinking about it now. We have been through the college application process several times. We wrote the one book we thought was missing. The one book that we would have wanted to read years before our first child began looking at colleges. That is why we entitled it Your First College Book.