Virtual Author Talk with Irena Smith, Ph.D.

The Golden Ticket to College Admissions Is Not What You Think: Redefining Success for Parents of Teens with Irena Smith, PhD

Another college application season is around the corner, and you’re invited to join us for this must-watch talk by Irena Smith, Ph.D. She will reveal constructive and healthy ways to approach the college application process, preserve your relationship with your teen, and help them define success on their own terms instead of chasing the elusive “golden ticket.”

Irena is a former Stanford Admissions Officer who spent 18 years advising accomplished, tightly-wound students in Palo Alto and around the world. She saw firsthand the extreme measures parents took to help their children gain admission to highly selective colleges and the toll it took on prospective students and their parents.

At the same time, Irena’s own children struggled with developmental delays, learning differences, depression, and anxiety. She kept her double life—successful college counselor at work, anxious mom at home—tightly under wraps for years until a stunning realization: she was exactly like the anxious parents of the students she worked with, all of whom were equally terrified about their children's future. Irena’s memoir, The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays, which candidly explores her personal as well as professional life, was published in 2023, and she has since devoted her time to speaking out about hard things: the heavy burden of generational expectations, teen and young adult mental health, and the importance of embracing a broader, more generous vision of what it means to succeed. Learn more about Irena’s personal experience as a parent, professional experience as a college admissions officer, and her tips on how to help your child approach the application process in practical, healthy ways.

Click here to register for this event.

Can’t make it? A recording of this program will be available here.

About the Author: Irena Smith is an author, former Stanford admissions officer, independent college counselor, and mother of three extraordinary children. She emigrated from the former Soviet Union with her parents when she was nine years old. In spite of her fierce insistence that she would never, not ever, learn English, she went on to earn a BA in English and then a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature (both from UCLA, where she received a Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award and Dissertation Year Fellowship). Irena taught literature and composition at UCLA and Stanford before transitioning to college admissions, college advising, and writing. Her recently published memoir, The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays is the winner of the Story Circle Network's Gilda Award, named in honor of comedian Gilda Radner.

Check out The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays in our collection here.

This event will be conducted online and is free of charge. Registration and internet access are required to attend. Register at the link above. Virtual access link will be emailed prior the presentation.

Permission to present a program on behalf of the Virtual Library or in Library facilities is not an endorsement by the Library. This program is protected by copyright law; recording in any manner, without written agreement from the presenter, is strictly prohibited.