How to Get Your Daughter into College (for Smart Moms)

(Originally posted on We're Going to College!. Reposted here for you Dreamers who also happen to be--or want to be--Smart Moms!)


1. Are you a Mom?

2. Do you have a daughter?

3. Do you want her to go to college?


Then we need to talk.

If you’re a mother or an auntie or a grandma or a tia or an abuelita raising a young lady who wants to go to college, you are in the right place.

If you’re wondering, “What’s the secret to getting into college?”, you’re in the right place.

I’m going to tell you the Secret to Getting into College.

Are you ready?

How to Get Anything You Want: the Be Specific edition

"We did it (despite the patriarchy excoriating our every move)!"

How do you get anything you want?

Put it on your Dream Board.

"But I did that already, Mahlena." 

 Has it worked?

"Not yet."

Then let's do something different.

Who's in Your Head?

Is it Rose's grandmother?

I recently watched Get Out, the best motion picture of 2017 until I see The Fate of the Furious.

Since the release of the movie's trailer in 2016, countless (meaning I don't want to Google them and count) thinkpieces and pontifications have been written, recorded, and distributed about multifaceted meaning of Jordan Peele's masterpiece.

Now you get to read my take, specifically as Get Out relates to Dream Boards.

"Oh, I see what you're doing."

If you haven't seen Get Out, please schedule a time to see the movie, purchase your ticket, then continue reading my post.

If you have seen Get Out, let's talk about it! Tell me your thoughts in the comments!

Back to you and your Dream Board and how it relates to the movie.

 "This better be good."

Why I don't use magazines to make Dream Boards

To build their Dream Boards, many people use magazines to cut and paste pictures and bring their visions to life.

I no longer do that.

Here's why:

1. Magazine pages are mostly ads.

2. Most magazine ads feature women who are "young, thin, white, beautiful, carefully groomed, and polished."

3. I am not a young, thin, white woman.


"But, Mahlena; what if I am a young, thin, white woman?"

Build a bridge, and get over yourself (i.e. myself).

"You have not truthed with yourselves." - Shazza Zulu

How am I qualified to tell anyone what to do?