Hobart and William Smith Colleges

28 September 2010 HWS Called a Gem

Hobart and William Smith Colleges are noted among a list of gems in the book Acceptance: A Legendary Guidance Counselor Helps Seven Kids Find the Right Colleges-and Find Themselves, by David L. Marcus. Acceptance follows a year in the life of seven students and Gwyeth Smitty Smith who is a beloved guidance counselor at Oyster Bay High, a diverse public school in Long Island, N.Y. Smitty is a nationally-renowned guidance counselor who helps kids get into the right colleges by focusing on self-awareness rather than grades, test scores and other traditional tools of trade. Smitty shows the students and their parents that the best chance of getting into college is not to package themselves but to reveal themselves. Acceptance is a widely praised guide for college applicants that is full of helpful advice which readers can apply to their own college search.

Marcus provides in Acceptance a list of colleges, including Hobart and William Smith that Smitty believes from his experience should be at the forefront of consideration for students. HWS are included in a list of nine schools in the North/Northeast region featured in Smittys 40 Overlooked Gems.

Both Marcus and Smitty are famous for their knowledge of higher education. A Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Marcus is also the author of What it Takes to Pull Me Through: A Look at the Secret Lives of Teenagers. He has been an education writer and foreign correspondent at U.S. News and World Report, The Boston Globe, The Miami Herald and The Dallas Morning News. After a stint as a high school teacher, Marcus returned to journalism as a writer for Newsday. He frequently speaks to schools, churches, and community groups about adolescence, education, and college admissions. A graduate of Brown University, he was a Niemen Fellow at Harvard.