Coming May 7th, 2024
The Journey: How to Prepare Kids for a Competitive and Changing World
Greg Kaplan’s The Journey reframes and reimagines the stressful college application process into a powerful journey of self-discovery, authenticity, and leadership development.
- Matthew Breitfelder, Partner and Global Head of Human Capital, Apollo Global Management
The Journey helps parents find the right choice between support and independence as their children apply to college and explore future career paths. The book provides excellent advice not only for the college application process but for the broader context of life.
- Barbara Hewitt, Executive Director, Career Services at the University of Pennsylvania
Young people face an increasing medley of challenges as they pursue higher education - rising tuition costs, daunting prospective student debt, and a talented and competitive applicant pool. After a decade of preparing students for the ever more difficult admissions process, college counselor Greg Kaplan wishes parents would stop thinking, “What should I do to get my kid into a good college?” and instead ask: “How can I best prepare my child for what comes next?” Having practiced law and worked in investment banking early in his career before pivoting to working with students, parents, and educators, Kaplan knows what the world - and its population of college admissions officers - is looking for in today’s youth and tomorrow’s leaders: Grit. Leadership. Passion.
Emphasizing these fundamental tenets of successful adulthood, The Journey paints a realistic picture of the lack of preparedness among today’s youth. Using stories of parents and students who have struggled and succeeded, Kaplan pushes students to consider: What do you want to get out of your college and work career? How can you jumpstart your journey into the real world? He asks parents: Are you preparing your children to attain a life of health, happiness, and financial independence?
Rooted in humorous stories sprinkled with bits of brutally honest advice, The Journey goes beyond the well-chronicled college admissions madness and cuts to the core of parental angst. This is the definitive guide to preparing children for a competitive and rapidly changing world.
Earning Admission: The Book
There is a crisis that millions of families face each fall: how to get their child into highly selective colleges in the United States. In 2016, the Ivy League received over 250,000 applications for 14,000 spots, while one of the top public universities in the country, UCLA, received over 100,000 applications for the 5,800 spots in its freshman class. This crisis spirals out of control as the number of applicants from the United States and abroad skyrockets.
Whether your child dreams of attending Harvard or Berkeley, this book empowers your child to use strategic planning years before submitting a college application and marketing in the applications to stand out and earn admission. This step-by-step guide to earning admission to highly selective colleges teaches:
• How your child can select and take classes in high school to stand out from other straight 'A' students.
• How your child can dramatically increase her odds of admission by strategically choosing a major.
• How your child can write a personal statement that sets her apart from other applicants by demonstrating perspective, passion, and maturity.
• How your child can build a slate of extracurricular activities that admissions officers find valuable.
• How your child can secure hundreds of thousands of dollars of merit scholarships and massive need-based grants even if your family earns over $100,000 per year.
Earning Admission: Real Strategies for Getting into Highly Selective Colleges analyzes every component of the college application process and what admissions officers look for in those components. This book teaches families how to use strategy and marketing in every application component to persuade an admissions officer to admit their child. Earning Admission is available in English and Chinese.
What people are saying about Earning Admission:
I will be facing this process within 3 years or so. Before the interview, I dreaded the process. Today I look forward to it. Greg makes you look at the process much differently. I highly recommend this book!
- Bob Brooks, Prudent Money Radio Show
The ultimate guide on how to help your child get into highly selective colleges. Everything you need to know to set your child up for success.
- Scila Colombo, The Serial Reader
The hallmark of a well-written advice book is that it leaves you inspired to move forward with a clear plan of action. Earning Admission: Real Strategies for Getting into Highly Selective Colleges, a new book by Greg Kaplan, investment banker turned college advisor, definitely fits the bill.
- Lori Dunlap, Gifted Homeschoolers' Forum
College admission has changed a lot since I went! This book is a great roadmap of things to consider and plan for during high school, so that your student is ready when applying to colleges. I learned things that I wish I'd known when I was in high school, but luckily things were not as competitive back then.
- Janette Forman, Educator at The Center For Gifted
Earning Admission taught us everything we needed to know about making our daughter a unique and competitive applicant. It helped us figure out how to help our daughter get into Yale.
- Jay C., parent of a Yale undergrad
This is a must-read for any parent with a child in high school or a child entering high school with an eye toward college. It is full of little tips and tricks that on one hand seem so obvious, but yet I didn't seem to think of them myself! It is well organized and an easy read. Also a great resource to refer back to during various stages in your child's life.
- Jared K., Penn and UCLA Law Alum