Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be

An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania

By: Frank Bruni

Narrated by: Frank Bruni

Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

Over the last few decades, Americans have turned college admissions into a terrifying and occasionally devastating process, preceded by test prep, tutors, all sorts of stratagems, all kinds of rankings, and a conviction among too many young people that their futures will be determined and their worth established by which schools say yes and which say no.

That belief is wrong. It's cruel. And in Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be, Frank Bruni explains why, giving students and their parents a new perspective on this brutal, deeply flawed competition and a path out of the anxiety it provokes.

Bruni, a best-selling author and a columnist for the New York Times, shows that the Ivy League has no monopoly on corner offices, governors' mansions, or the most prestigious academic and scientific grants. Through statistics, surveys, and the stories of hugely successful people who didn't attend the most exclusive schools, he demonstrates that many kinds of colleges - large public universities, tiny hideaways in the hinterlands - serve as ideal springboards. And he illuminates how to make the most of them. What matters in the end are a student's efforts in and out of the classroom, not the gleam of his or her diploma.

Where you go isn't who you'll be. Americans need to hear that - and this indispensable manifesto says it with eloquence and respect for the real promise of higher education.

©2015 Frank Bruni (P)2014 Hachette Audio

A True Antidote

I was rejected from Harvard, Princeton and Duke. This book really helped me that my life didn’t end with those rejections–it has simply begun with them.

Eye-opening, profound

This book has helped me so much! I was already leaning toward the conclusions Bruni draws, but his extensive data collection and reporting has helped me be at peace with recognizing the near-scam higher education has become, and will, in turn, help me let my children become the happy people I want them to be. I’ve recommended this to so many people!

THIS

Exactly my sentiments, exactly my experience. Many roads lead to Rome, but regardless of the road, hard work is the yeast that raises the dough.

Terrific

This should be a mandatory read for parents and their kids anticipating college. Frank Bruni delivers again.

Excellent read

Anyone with kids should read this especially if they are in high school and planning to apply to colleges.

Excellent!

This should be required reading for anyone beginning the college application process! Absolutely essential listening/reading!

Excellent advice and grounding

Thank you, Mr. Bruni. We appreciate all your work for this most valuable book. So does our rising high school senior.

Every parent should read this book.

Every parent should read this book. It is geared for families with means but there is a lot to learn in here for everyone.

Required Reading for Parents!

This is a book about why running around trying to mold your child into the perfect college candidate is absolutely the wrong way to parent. About why luck and intuition and, yes, trusting your child are so much more important.

Look at the idiots who have landed themselves in prison for cheating on applications. How different, really, is the mad chase for the “perfect” college. I went to a college I learned about from a brochure they sent me after the SAT. It was perfect, though few have ever heard of it. I still managed to get into a very nice law school. 🤣. Trying to avoid rankings is almost impossible! This is exactly the problem.

Read the book. Your children will thank you.

Very insightful and informative in multiple areas

Really enjoyed it and have shared with others. This is a must read for the college search for students of all ages.