Acceptance: A Legendary Guidance Counselor Helps Seven Kids Find the Right Colleges -- and Find Themselves

Publishers Weekly

The college application process is a time of major anxiety for high school seniors and their parents. Fortunately for all concerned (including administrators, teachers, and private coaches), Marcus, the Pulitzer Prize-winning education writer for U.S. News and World Report, has documented the year he spent at suburban Long Island's Oyster Bay High School closely observing the rather unorthodox college counselor Gwyeth Smith and seven college-bound seniors. In this insider's look at the college application process, Marcus reveals the personal realities the kids and their parents face, the way college decisions are made and how and why Smith manages to ease the powder keg of worry and emotions with good advice, eventually helping make the "right match" for each student. Readers meet all kinds-the kid who doesn't test well; the one who is depressed after an early admission rejection; the high-achieving Asian-American at odds with his parents; the good girl looking for something "different"; the athlete with mediocre grades. In sometimes the most counterintuitive ways, Smith helps them by demonstrating how each has the ability to write good application essays, find their true "passion" and represent themselves as people colleges will want to accept. A wonderfully enjoyable antidote to the spate of books focused on the college admissions "game" of "getting in." (Aug.)

Library Journal

In this aptly titled book, award-winning journalist Marcus (What It Takes To Pull Me Through) chronicles the efforts of acclaimed guidance counselor Gweyth (pronounced to rhyme with Faith) "Smitty" Smith and seven students to find the best colleges for them. Marcus's revealing group portrait aims to drive home the point that a college's reputation matters less than students' ability to "fit" successfully into its social and academic culture. While Marcus writes that his purpose for profiling Smith was to see how one man teaches students to play the "admissions game" in "the way that charts the best course for their lives," it also appears to be a testament to the therapeutic qualities of writing, highlighting the self-discovery students find through a college essay-writing course. This refreshing look at the college admissions process reads like a novel and is likely to shock parents and overachievers who cling to the notion that admittance is dependent only upon class rank and test scores. VERDICT Marcus's poignant book will have readers wishing that they too had had Smitty as a guidance counselor and rooting for the students profiled. Highly recommended for parents and college-bound students as a good alternative to the standard college admission guides.—Tamela Chambers, Chicago P.L.

Kirkus Reviews