Of all the books I've been buying so far to prepare my applications (it feels like ALL OF THEM, btw), this one has been my favorite so far. It seems pretty no-nonsense (which appeals to me) and gets to the point.
The only thing holding back from 5 stars is, as others have noted, the examples seem really dated....I think one of the sample essays was super long, and none of the top schools accept essays that long anymore. Plus I hate when the "sample" essays are of rock-star types ("the PhD with the Noble Prize who is also an Olympic athlete and whose dad was an alchoholic!") << NOT that this book has THAT, I'm just exaggerating, but....sometimes in these books the "examples" they use are of such rock stars (or people who have overcome crazy amounts of Stuff), that I feel like they probably would have gotten in anyway, even if their essays were terrible.
ANYWAY, back to the main point: I like this book the most -- I think it's no-nonsense, and it was also recommended to me by a former boss who went to a top school as helping him get in years ago (an earlier version, of course).....
...I just can't fathom why they would bother republishing a new edition but still have so much outdated stuff in there??? Oh well. Don't let that deter you. It's a pain, but it's not a deal-breaker.