Personal Statements
by Irena Smithin 🎭️ Culture
Personal Statements
About the Substack
Thinly substantiated, digressive weekly takes on writing, parents, children, writing *about* parents and children, ADHD, petty grudge-holding, and anxiety (but funny, sort of). Plus years of accumulated bitterness about the college application process!
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- Occasional public posts
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- Subscriber-only posts and full archive
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About Irena Smith
Soviet emigre->high school underachiever->comparative literature PhD-> Stanford admissions officer-> college counselor->writer. Author of THE GOLDEN TICKET: A LIFE IN COLLEGE ADMISSIONS ESSAYS (a memoir, not a how-to).
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Exploring what exists in the middle - of parenting, of health, of life. Fourteen years into raising a child with severe epilepsy, I am always looking for the both-ness: the many ways we end up a sum of our best luck and worst experiences.