Quickly, tell me, when was the last time you have heard of deaf or hard-of-hearing students attending top tier universities and thriving there? 

Not much? None? I am not quite surprised if you've only heard of one or none. From my personal experience and hearsay, it is quite rare to meet deaf or hard-of-hearing students at top tier universities. 

When I mention "top tier," "elite," "prestigious," or other similar adjectives, those universities are usually found dominating the U.S. and World News Report rankings of universities around the world for many years. Those universities tend to have the most wealth, resources, and connections. Examples include Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and Oxford University (UK). Also, I use the term "deaf" as an umbrella term for the diversity of hearing status in people with a degree of hearing loss for brevity's sake. That can include the oral deaf, hard-of-hearing, signing deaf, or a combination of those. 

Admissions into those universities are extremely competitive and intense. It is common to hear news about the percentage of admits dropping to single digits and lower with each admissions cycle! However, it is usually attributed to those applicants increasing the number of schools they apply to, most likely due to the acceptance of the Common Application across more universities. Nonetheless, it does not negate the fact competition is keen for limited spots at those universities. Students with seemingly perfect "stats", such as having perfect SAT score, winning numerous awards, being a president of the student body, etc are rejected in droves without a seemingly good reason for their rejection. If the majority of the admitted applicants are hearing, then the number of the deaf admits are even much smaller, perhaps less than 1% of the total student population. One would think admissions to those universities is a game of chance and luck. 

However, I want to draw on from my personal experiences as well as from others about becoming a high-achiever deaf or hard of hearing student competitive enough for admissions into those elite universities or their dream college. While I was an undergraduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), I have fielded numerous questions about my background and "What did you do to get into MIT?" So I decided to write this book in hopes to answer those questions, so perhaps parents of deaf children, deaf educators, and deaf students themselves can use my own insights and experience to craft a better educational background that could lead to a more promising future for the deaf students. This book will try to take into account of the different roles parents, educators, or other adults can play in the deaf students' lives, and at the same time, how the K-12 deaf students can take initative of their future. 

Expectations are very important, especially of deaf students.