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 mad race to grab the Ivy ring. Based on experience in admissions with the Ivy League and other highly competitive universities, emerging scientific evidence on the impact of emotional intelligence and mindfulness, and discussions with admissions officers, students, families, and high school counselors, this book is a guide on how to go through the existing, however brutish, college applications process with less stress and anxiety, and more joy and mindfulness. Equipped with the powerful tools of emotional intelligence and mindfulness, this work acknowledges the reality of what the process is, and challenges young people to reach for a more meaningful ideal for themselves. This book shares a look at the holistic admissions process and offers an alternative one to the current climate of untenable stress. This updated model aims to shift mindsets from treating the admissions process as a ruthless competition with one externally-prescribed definition of success, to a step in a lifelong journey of curiosity and wonder. By building self-awareness, compassion, resilience, it's possible to navigate the process with greater authenticity, balance, and 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.