This book is written to help high school students prepare for becoming successful college applicants. It is also written to help high school seniors and entering college students prepare for ongoing success once they arrive on campus. The book is written by Dr. Louis Hempel, who has practiced general pediatrics in Metro Atlanta for over 30 years. During his long career, he has interacted with thousands of high school and college students whose families come from all over the world.

The foundation of success for both high school and college students is based on teaching them to learn strong communication skills, and to take care of their mental and physical health. Students with ineffective communication skills; poorly managed mental health disorders such as ADHD, anxiety, or depression; alcohol or substance abuse problems; or poor dietary, exercise, and sleep habits will have huge barriers to future success. Once a strong foundation has been established by addressing those potential barriers, the book will delve into suggestions for extracurricular involvement outside of the classroom. There is one chapter dedicated to those students who would like to consider becoming college athletes. It is the combination of academic achievement and involvement in extracurricular activities that will help create a high school resume that will provide meaningful content to be used on college and university applications and essays. With the help of this guidebook, the author hopes that those applications and essays will have a better chance to stand out amongst those submitted by thousands of other students.

There are several chapters for high school juniors and seniors in the later part of the book. Those chapters will help students learn to research which colleges and universities they should target for consideration, based on their academic abilities and career ambitions. There will be suggestions on how to plan campus visits, how to look realistically at the economic realities of various career paths, and suggestions on how to approach financial planning for college. For those students who are entering college there is a chapter devoted to establishing a disciplined approach to academic study, which includes avoiding many common pitfalls.

The final chapter is devoted to the author telling about his journey through college to his admission into medical school. The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate to students that their path to success will often require navigating around many obstacles along the way.