Tackling College Admissions

Every year millions of parents shepherd their teens through the arduous college admissions process. They are bombarded with too much information and with destructive and pervasive college admissions myths. Tackling College Admissions: Sanity + Strategy = Success by Cheryl Paradis and Faren R. Siminoff provides just what the college admissions doctor needs: sanity, perspective, and common sense. The racecourse to college admissions is littered with obstacles—some anticipated, some unexpected. However, with knowledge and a little humor, virtually all teens can cross the finish line into that good-fit college.

Paradis and Siminoff offer a simple, two-part approach to college admissions. Part I shows parents how to become effective coaches through employing self and teen assessment and discarding the college myths. Part II takes parents through the ins-and-outs of the college admissions process, alerting them to potential hurdles and teaching them effective, easy-to-implement strategies to overcome these.

Author Biography

Cheryl Paradis, Psy.D. has over twenty years of experience as a clinical psychologist working with a variety of populations, including teens and their families. She has counseled teens and their parents for psychological and academic problems, family and school issues. Dr. Paradis also specializes in treating anxiety disorders and spent fifteen years on-staff at the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn’s Anxiety Disorder Clinic. Her extensive research and clinical work has also included African American and Caribbean American populations. Dr. Paradis is currently an associate professor of psychology at Marymount Manhattan College and teaches courses in child development and abnormal psychology. She recently completed the second of two successful college application processes with her children.

Faren R. Siminoff, J.D., Ph.D., is an attorney and historian. Currently she serves as associate professor of American history at Nassau Community College, where she regularly counsels and assists students and their parents about college transfer options and the college admissions process. In addition, many of her students are first-generation college attendees, children of immigrants as well as students with learning disabilities. Most importantly, she is the mother of a teen who is attending the college of his choice.