The Mindful College Applicant : Cultivating Emotional Intelligence for the Admissions Process

Based on almost two decades in Ivy League admissions, emerging scientific evidence on mindfulness, and interviews with admissions officers, students, families, and high school counselors, this book is a guide on how to go through the existing, however brutish, college application process with less stress and more joy.

In a time when crossing guards are posted to prevent high schoolers from jumping in front of trains and parents shelling out $100K for packaged college applications, education has become a pressure cooker to grab the Ivy ring. Based on almost two decades in Ivy League admissions, emerging scientific evidence on mindfulness, and interviews with admissions officers, students, families, and high school counselors, this book picks up where Frank Bruni left off with his 2016 bestseller, Where You Go is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania. Whereas Bruni makes a compelling case for a reframing of a flawed system, Taking the Stress Out of College Applications is a guide on how to go through the existing, however brutish, process with less stress and more joy. Equipped with the powerful tools of mental and emotional intelligence training, it acknowledges the reality of what is, and challenges young people to reach for a more meaningful ideal. For those who question the use of mindfulness in what may seem a selfish purpose, as the peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh says, “we need not fear that mindfulness might become only a means and not an end because in mindfulness the means and the end are the same things.” The current model to getting accepted into elite colleges, what we call ATLAS 1.0 (Academics-Testing-Leadership-Accolades-Service), was set up decades ago and has led to many lost happy childhoods. MAP shares an insider’s expertise on how ATLAS 1.0 really works inside admissions offices, and introduces an expanded model, ATLAS 2.0 (Awareness-Thinking-Listening-Alignment-Self-Compassion). This updated model shifts students’ mindsets from the admissions process as a ruthless competition with one externally-prescribed definition of success to one step in a lifelong journey of wonder and possibilities by discovering their own North Star, building self-awareness and resilience, and navigating with authenticity, balance, and joy. Recognizing that mindfulness practices can alleviate some of the points of pain that the competitive world of college admissions present, MAP attempts to equip young people on the edge of adulthood –and their loved ones – with an expanded model for greater mindfulness, self-awareness, and intention for a successful journey through the process and beyond.