Acceptance

An engrossing profile of an extraordinary guidance counselor who helps kids get into the right colleges through focusing on self- awareness

Gwyeth Smith, known as Smitty, is a nationally renowned guidance counselor who believes that getting into college should be a kid's first great moment of self-discovery. In Acceptance, David L. Marcus, Pulitzer Prize-winning former education writer for U.S. News & World Report, spins an absorbing narrative of a year in the lives of Smitty and "his" kids.

At a diverse public school in Long Island, New York, Smitty works his unique magic on students' applications and their lives, helping them find the right college by figuring out who they are, rather than focusing on what their test scores, grades, and finances reflect. Loaded with advice that readers can apply to their own college searches, Acceptance is a book that thousands of students and their parents will find indispensable.David L. Marcus is the author of What It Takes to Pull Me Through, a look at the secret lives of teenagers. He has been an education writer and foreign correspondent at U.S. News & World Report, The Boston Globe, the Miami Herald, and The Dallas Morning News, where he was the co-winner of a Pulitzer Prize. After a stint as a high school teacher, he returned to journalism as a writer for Newsday. A graduate of Brown University, Marcus was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard. He frequently speaks to schools, churches, and community groups about adolescence, education, and college admissions.