About The Book
Find the college that’s best for you and your future.
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Much attention has been paid to helping students get into elite schools. Advice on how to ace those SATs and write a killer college application essay all aim to get students into the most prestigious university possible. It’s time to look beyond brand and focus on finding the school that is right for each individual instead.
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In Make College Your Superpower: It’s Not Where You Go, It’s What You Know, Anna Esaki-Smith advocates on behalf of students and offers them a guide to getting the most value out of their education. Using the latest data, personal anecdotes, and inspiration, Esaki-Smith shows students how to make informed decisions about where to apply to college, taking into consideration areas of job growth, personal finances, skill sets, potential salaries, geography, and more. In addition, Esaki-Smith explores the connection between majors and jobs and how, rather than relying on a university’s ranking, selecting the right program can more directly result in employability for graduates.
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With the mental health of students declining, the time is right for a book that encourages students to be resourceful, independent, and energized. Stories of those who found different paths to success provide students from a wider range of backgrounds and abilities incentive to feel optimistic about their futures, as well. With helpful insight and practical advice, Make College Your Superpower aims to get readers excited—rather than stressed—about the college admissions process.
Knockout kudos for Make College Your Superpower
My Story
My parents moved to New York from Japan, so I spent my childhood doing all I could to blend in. I turned cartwheels as a high school cheerleader, joined a wholesome sorority in college and thought I'd live in a suburban house with a picket fence when I "grew up."
Instead, I spent most of my adult life living in Hong Kong (both when it was a British colony and after it was returned to China), Shanghai's gritty and historic French Concession, the bougie 16th arrondisement of Paris, deep in the Gourmet Ghetto of North Berkeley, California and finally, uh, that suburban New York house (sans picket fence.)
Along the way, I learned about cultures, languages and students, both as a journalist and, currently, as an education researcher. And what I love most about education is how it encapsulates not only demographic and socio-economic factors, but the aspirations and goals of young people.
In my book, Make College Your Superpower: It's Not Where You Go, It's What You Know, I provide a new way to approach the college application process so students can better control the process. Data and strategy help empower students, as does an economy that values skills, knowledge and creativity over a pedigree'd degree. Applying to colleges is stressful, but make it less so by reading my book.
The world is your oyster - so, go for it!
More praise
Make College Your Superpower upends conventional beliefs about the entire college decision process. For students, parents and anyone who feels daunted by what can be a complicated and costly process, Anna Esaki-Smith provides inspiring insights, hope and a roadmap.
Meredith Artley, former Editor-in-Chief
CNN Digital
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Meeting Luciano: A Novel
I also wrote a novel, some years ago, loosely based on my mother. It's about Hanako Shimoda, recently divorced, who believes Luciano Pavarotti is a god. To her daughter, Emily, this fixation on Pavarotti is a harmless fantasy, the byproduct of loneliness. Meeting Luciano is the story of what happens when Hanako acts on her fantasy and invites opera star Pavarotti to dinner in their Westchester County home.