WBUR 3/18/14 The Dark Side Of Getting Into College. For high school seniors, April marks the conclusion of a different type of marathon — one of emotional highs and lows that strike a deep nerve in each student’s sense of self-worth and the validation sought by their invested parents and educators. The differentiation between the thin and fat envelopes of the past has given way to the opening sentence of an email that either ominously describes the highly competitive pool of outstanding students, or cheerily begins with an offer of congratulations. None of the rest of the email matters after that point.

Wayland author Lauren Stiller Rikleen’s newly released book is You Raised Us – Now Work With Us: Millennials, Career Success, and Building Strong Workplace Teams