The Golden Ticket - by Irena Smith (Paperback)

About the Book

In this funny, heartbreaking, timely memoir--told in the form of college admission essays--Irena Smith illuminates the dissonance of working as a college consultant in Palo Alto, California, helping the best and brightest students in the country gain admission to highly selective schools, even as her own children are unraveling.

Book Synopsis

What do we, as parents, really mean when we say we want the best for our children?

Irena Smith tackles this question from a unique vantage point: as a former Stanford admissions officer, a private Palo Alto college counselor, and a mother of three children who struggle to find their place in the long shadow of Stanford University.

Written as a series of responses to actual college essay prompts, this witty, raw memoir takes the reader from the smoke-filled lobby of the Hebrew Aid Society in Rome, where Irena and her parents await asylum with other Soviet refugees in 1977, to the overpriced house she and her husband buy in Palo Alto in 1999, to the hushed inner sanctum of the Stanford admissions office. Irena grows a successful college counseling practice but struggles to reconcile the lofty aspirations of tightly wound, competitive high school seniors (and their anxious parents) with her own attempts to keep her family from unraveling as, one by one, her children are diagnosed with autism, learning differences, depression, and anxiety. And although she doesn't initially understand her children--or how to help them--she will not stop stumbling and learning until she figures it out.

The Golden Ticket opens a much-needed conversation about extreme parenting, the weight of generational expectations, and what happens when Gen-X dreams meet unexpected realities. It's a sharp-eyed depiction of hard-won triumphs and of the messy, challenging parts of parenting you won't see on Facebook or Instagram. Above all, it's an invitation to embrace a broader, more generous definition of success.

Review Quotes

2024 IPPY Awards Silver Winner in Essay
2023 Sarton Awards Gilda Prize Winner
2023 Best Book Awards Winner in Nonfiction: Creative
2023 Best Book Awards Finalist in Best New Nonfiction and Parenting & Family
2023 Literary Titan Book Award Gold Winner

"Irena Smith's captivating and smart memoir . . . can serve as a potential antidote to the fevered belief that being admitted to an elite college will spell the difference between a successful life vs. a doomed future. That's a fever that's hard to break for many families, but Smith's highly personal, literate, sometimes snarky account might just do the trick."
--Forbes

"Regardless of what stage you're at in your parenting experience, this book is the best book to read both about parenting and human-ing, and the more people who read it, the better our world will be."
--Kveller

"The Golden Ticket is a compelling memoir that unapologetically delves into Irena's journey. Her emotive storytelling and vivid descriptions forge a connection with readers. . . . an exceptional read for anyone seeking a glimpse into the world of a college admissions wizard. Delving into the intricacies of the application process, this engaging and informative book comes highly recommended for readers interested in both personal narratives and the college admissions landscape.
--Literary Titan

"Tackling childhood and parenting in a new way, The Golden Ticket shows that growing up in America is an increasingly difficult job. With humor and pathos, Irena Smith draws the reader behind the curtain of college admissions, where life is more complicated than any kid's file."
--Malcolm Harris, author of Kids These Days and Palo Alto

"At a time of an unprecedented youth mental health crisis, Irena Smith's addictively engaging, literary, witty, and heartrending memoir couldn't be more timely and important. Thank goodness she had the courage, smarts, and perfect perspective--at "the intersection of unbridled ambition and family dysfunction"--to create it."
--Katherine Ellison, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and author of books including Buzz: A Year of Paying Attention

"Irena Smith has crafted a brilliant, hilarious, and keenly perceptive memoir that should be required reading for any parent--especially those Type-A among us who know exactly what child we'd like to order from the menu. College application essays and parental aspirations part like curtains to reveal the ever-daunting challenge of raising humans into adulthood."
--Sonya Huber, author of Voice First: A Writer's Manifesto

"I started reading and couldn't stop. Irena Smith has written a remarkable memoir of her life--painfully honest, touching, and marvelously funny, mixing wisdom about the madness of college admission today and her own family story."
--Jon Reider, coauthor of Admission Matters, former Stanford admission officer, and cofounder of SLE, Stanford's freshman humanities program

". . . the writing throughout The Golden Ticket is remarkably strong and makes for a highly enjoyable read. The narration is erudite and entertaining; the author's skill and devotion to craft are apparent from the first page to the last."
--The BookLife Prize