Chloe Berringer, the privileged daughter of a B-list actress, has lived a life of wealth, comfort and ease. Now that she is in her senior year of high school, the expectations for her to continue her education at a prestigious school are high. Chloe, however, wants to kick back and enjoy her senior year, plus there is also the fact that she really doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. After odd comments from her parents that do not really register, a meeting with a new "college advisor," and getting a fake ADHD diagnosis so that she can be allowed extra time on the SAT, Chloe realizes something is up, but chooses to stay behind the shield of ambivalence and the power her parents' wealth and notoriety bring and enjoy that she was finally admitted to the school of her dreams. Then the FBI arrived to arrest her mother.

This book is a fictional account of "Operation Varsity Blues," the recent college admissions scandal. The story seems modeled on Lori Loughlin's family and closely follows events that really happened.

What I liked best about this book is Chloe's growth and realization that she is very sheltered and life has not been hard on her. She also begins to realize how much she has taken her lifestyle for granted. Several times she stated that she never really had an event in her life that was difficult or had an experience in which she had to overcome adversity. Chloe further begins to understand how far reaching the affects of her privileged advantages are on others when her best friend, Shola, a financial aid student at their elite private school, is wait-listed for schools she should clearly have received early admission for based on her scholarship and extra-curricular activities. Her spot conceivably went to Chloe or other privileged kids, who cheated their way into being admitted to the schools.

At first, Chloe and her family do not understand how their actions were wrong, not just morally and ethically, but also legally. They couldn't figure out how it was ok for families to "buy a building" or bestow a hefty endowment to a school to secure admission for a child was any different than fudging test scores, sports achievements or other accomplishments that would place them at the top of the admission stack. The validity of this defense is easy to agree with, and it is unfortunate that our legal system has many open loopholes. This book also makes very clear that in America, the expectation for the children of wealthy, privileged families is that they continue their wealthy, privileged lives simply because of wealth and privilege while the ones who have to work harder for success also need a bit of plain and simple luck to get ahead. Sometimes it feels like the American way has become being born into your advantages and disadvantages and hard work no longer changes that. This book and the real college admission scandal underscores the unfairness of this reality.

I enjoyed this story and was intrigued as I have followed the real life ongoing of the college admissions scandal. Julie Buxbaum is a new author to me and I will be reading more from her. I thought the writing was well paced and kept me interested in the story. I thought the characters were unlikeable, but I expected that with this particular storyline. I just wanted a little more connection and emotion from the story. However, I loved the idea behind this story and I look forward to more from this author.

While "Admission" is a fictional story, as a reader I could not read this book without picturing some of the main players who inspired this tale through their real-life actions. Chloe Wynn Berringer is your average teenager, but in a town that breeds exceptional, average just won't do. Buxbaum does a great job helping the reader experience the stress of the culture-induced college admission process through the lens of both the student and the parents. If everyone is doing it, you should be too. And are you really a good parent if you're not? If you have the finances to do something for your child, should you? Even if it means cheating on top of the less fortunate to achieve it? It's a scandal you'll be familiar with, however "Admission" will make you think about what the true role of a parent is.

This book is about the college admissions scandal. Chloe’s got it all. She’s got rich parents, the boyfriend of her dreams, and she was admitted to the university of her choice.

As she answers the door one day, she’s greeted by the FBI who have come to arrest her mother for paying to get her into college.

Chloe is stunned. Didn’t know this was going on although she thought some of the things the college counselor her parents hired wanted were sort of “off”.

She loses her boyfriend and best friend and her life is turned upside down. Very good book!

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Admission was an interesting book. I wont lie to you at one point I was a bit bored with everything. Especially when it came to the little flashbacks because this point.. all of Chloe's "friends" ghosted the shit out of her or left her completely alone. So yeah, I didn't really care about her crush and how things were kind of going her way.. when they really weren't.

Other than that, Chloe was an okay character. Not the brightest person out there but it also didn't feel like she even tried at school. I get that studying is hard and not everyone can do it correctly but that's why the world has tutors and studying habits. Also her dream college where all she wanted to do was going to parties, meet people, and possibly lose her virginity aren't great reasons to go to any college.

At some point, Chloe started to think something was wrong. Especially when it came to her SAT scores. It also didn't help that her parents were acting weird and suspicious throughout most of the book. Heck, I even agreed with how Shola was feeling/acting when everyone was acting over-privileged. Yet, I don't agree with how Shola handled their friendship.

Again, here friends weren't the best because of how they handled things. Yeah, her parents screwed up - a lot of parents did. It sucks.. but they shouldn't place the blame on her. The whole thing was kind of sucky and I felt bad for Chloe.

In the end, it was an okay book with a bittersweet ending.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This one was interesting for me, being as though I've just recently gone through the college admissions process with my own daughter. Ms. Buxbaum obviously received inspiration from the recent admissions scandal that rocked the USA, and flipped it in a YA fiction that probably has more than a little basis in fact.

I don't normally do YA, I'm a pretty big fan of romance and this was definitely a different read for me. However, I enjoyed it all the same, the characters weren't all likeable and it felt more real for it. I was held in this interesting state of feeling sorry for the main character of Chloe, while trying to figure if she was complicit in her ordeal...or just privileged and entitled.

The author has a well-flowing nature to her writing style that enabled me to pretty much fly right through the book in an afternoon. Well done. 4 stars

I am really sad that the pub date for this book got pushed back because it so good and timely and juicy and perfect for summer reading! I am sure that it will also be great in December, and I am thrilled I got an early copy! Buxbaum took the story right out the headlines and added voice to the drama. College admission scandal dramatic writing at its very best! As soon as it's available, I am putting it on my shelf!

I became so invested in this smart drama filled family scandal. Admission follows high school senior Chloe as she starts the process of applying for colleges. With an amazing bestfriend, cute new boyfriend and a loving family it seems like Chloe has it all until the FBI show up on her front doorstep. Chloe’s mom, a B list actress has been arrested in her role in the College Admissions Scandal.

Admission is told in the present during the fallout from the scandal, and in the past as Chloe starts the application process for college. I started this the night before Lori Loughlin’s guilty plea. I was so engaged the entire way through. As a previous college athlete I was glued to news when the scandal broke. I loved getting a story based from the viewpoint of a kid of one of the parents who was charged. A gripping sad story filled with love and greed told from the other side of the public eye.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Admission by Julie Buxbaum was captivating and told a different story. We’d seen the headlines when the college admission scandal story broke, the parents being arrested out of their homes and their kids in the middle of it. Buxbaum brought this back to life in this upcoming YA novel through the voice of Chloe, seventeen year old in the middle, who lost her acceptance letter to her dream school because of this scandal. Incredibly well done, strong voice, and great details. Really enjoyed this story and enjoyed YA—which has become an ever changing book audience. Don’t miss this coming soon!

Rating: 4/5 Stars


Admission is a story of privilege, finding your place in the world, recognizing the lines you have crossed and the mistakes you have made, taking responsibility, and, most importantly, learning what it means to grow up. It was a beautiful book full of self-discovery, in characters both young and old, and discussed what it means to truly love someone more than anything.

I personally didn’t have a lot of experience or information on the college admission scandals that have gone on recently, but I loved learning about them through this book. The perspective that Julie Baxbaum chose to tell the story through was honestly amazing. It would have been really easy to write about how wrong everybody was, or even that they weren’t wrong at all. Baxbaum instead chose to take a stance in the middle: they were wrong, but here’s why you can sympathize. At no point was the story sugarcoated or made to seem undeserving of punishment. It was told through a lens of brutal honesty that I adored.

I think my favorite aspect of the book was the grappling all of the characters had to do with the harsh truth of what happened. In reality, it’s extremely hard to accept that you yourself or someone you love is capable of committing such a crime. This was a main topic of the book, and I loved getting to see how they all handled it in different and realistic ways.

I absolutely loved this book, I simply couldn’t put it down once I had started it. It was truly a story that I would describe as beautiful, both in writing and in message.

Special thank you to Netgalley and Random House Children's for the Advanced Readers Copy of this book!

Great story line! Perfect YA for summer. Super interesting read following the real life college admissions scandals!

Chloe is overwhelmed. As her senior year is underway, she is worried about getting into a great college. As the privileged daughter of a TV actress and invest banker, she is expected to go somewhere big in the fall. No state school for her. The problem is that Chloe needs a higher SAT score. Chloe is an average girl expected to get into an exceptional school. Enter mom, dad, their money, and an "admissions counselor", which when combined, makes up a recipe for disaster. Loosely based on recent events of the famous college admissions scandal of the rich and wealthy, Admission tells the story of what it's like to be that girl whose parents buy her way into a school. And the first she knows about it is when the FBI is knocking on their door at six in the morning.

I really enjoyed this book! It was easy to read and hard to put down. I loved the characters, especially Chloe, her sister, Isla, and Chloe's best friend Shola. Author Julie Buxbaum has a knack for writing characters that are smart, cool, and relatable. Admission examines the privilege that comes to the wealthy and powerful, and reminds us that oftentimes, privilege for some cheats others out of what they have earned.

I would recommend this book to any high school or college-aged girl, anyone who follows entertainment current events, and those interested in the legal system or court cases. Middle school girls may enjoy this as well, although there are a few references made to more mature content.

Thank you to Random House Children's for the advanced reader's copy of this book.

This book was compulsively readable. A (fictional) inside look at the college admissions scandal, Admission is a story that takes a close look at the themes of culpability, ignorance, and privilege. The story begins with the main character Chloe opening the door to the FBI, who have arrived to take her mother into custody for the crime of bribery regarding Chloe's college application process. What follows is an examination on Chloe's part of how much she really knew, how much she should have known, and how much she can blame on being "aggressively oblivious". The book rotates between "then" and "now", giving us a lens into Chloe's process of coming to new knowledge about her parents, her sister, and herself.

I really appreciated how this book treats the issue of taking responsibility, without coming to conclusions that feel too neat and tidy. I think this book is an important addition to the YA canon, and am glad to have had the opportunity to read it.

This book starts with the FBI storming Chloe's house to arrest her B-list-actress-mother for bribing her way into California State College and paying for a better SAT score than she could earn on her own. Chloe is startled and spends the story shifting between NOW and THEN trying to figure out what happened, what she knew, and where things went wrong in what she thought was a near-perfect life, suddenly gone awry. Not only is her mom in legal trouble, but there's a chance she could go to jail too.

Ripped from the headlines, Admission examines the college cheating scandal not from the perspective of the adults but from the kids who were helped into their "dream' schools and the nightmare that follows in the aftermath of being revealed to friends and classmates who lose all respect for them.

Julie Buxbaum is back with another great novel that while on the surface seems simple, but has a lot of underlying complexity. This book fictionalizes people involved in the college admissions scandal, and brings forth the underlying issues associated with priviledge. Jumping from present to past alternating chapters, we see the story unfold for Chloe Wynn Berringer and her family including her mom, a B-list actress. While the arrest of her mother is the main plot point, Buxbaum weaves intricate subplots and helps create an interesting family dynamic while progressing the main story. She also provides insight to the feelings of becoming "woke" and understanding new perspectives in life.

"Money makes you weak because it tricks you into thinking you're strong"

A BIG Thank You to Netgalley and Delacorte Press for providing me an advanced reader’s copy of “Admission” for my review.

I had mixed feelings about this story. The premise had me hooked, about how a rich family gets into trouble and their lives fall apart from cheating on the college admissions process. It is based off the recent 2019 college admission scandal and had the potential to be a great read. As much as I wanted to enjoy reading it, I just felt disappointed.

What I liked: I liked the overall plot of the story and the way it highlighted the scandal. It was nice to see the story told between alternating chapters of “Then” and “Now”. One chapter would focus on the past which leads to the events of the scandal. The following chapter would move to the present situation post the fallout. Moreover, I liked how it highlighted the impact on the mother and how she would be struggling. I also liked Shola as the supporting character. In fact I pretty much liked her and Iris more than anyone else. They are strong, dynamic characters and their interactions with Chloe was intense.

What I disliked: I really did not like Chloe as the main character. There was nothing really wrong with her. But she just felt like a weak, spoiled and dumb character. In fact, I really did not like many of the characters, like Levi, and Hudson. Also, the author tells the story from Chloe’s perspective, which made it bland and repetitive. It would have been better if we got a point of view perspective from all the other characters, like the mom, dad, Iris etc. Also, I felt like the author dragged the story with unnecessary details. For example, I did not see the point of Hudson’s scenes in the hospital. It felt like reading one of those books where the author adds random information to fill the pages. I would have liked if it focused on what happened to Wilson instead.

Overall, I thought this was a good concept. Unfortunately, it was not my cup of tea.

Sadly this one just hit differently for me. I absolutely love Julie’s writing and I loved “Tell Me Three Things” and “What To Say Next” , however this one just left me feeling.... meh. This is based on the college admissions scandal and I can say the only people I actually liked in this book were Isla and Shola. Claire, our protagonist, just infuriated me to no end. The story itself is interesting and a good take on the scandal. It’s a quick read and wraps up okay.

This is my record time of reading: My hands were glued to my e-reader and my mind is already conquered with the family scandal. I was truly book thirsty wild literature animal and I was invested from the beginning.

When I read the plot about: college admissions bribery scandal and B- lister Hollywood celebrity Joy Field’s arrestment: I think I’m reading a story about Lori Loughlin’s trial case. There are too many things in the book are similar with the actress’ real life story including being B minus Hollywood star but after her sitcom’s remaking on Netflix, she got a chance to be B plus lister. And just like Lori Loughlin: Joy gets sacked from Netflix and Hallmark. She has two daughters just like Lori and but is she going to plead not guilty and need to prepare for “trial of her life” as the news mentioned.

I’m not gonna tell you if Joy follow the same path: You gotta read this impressively intense, perfectly developed family drama going between now and then to tell how their life changed and how they face the consequences of the mistakes they’ve made.

First of all: this book is not written to judge a wealthy family who cheat their way to reach their goals and using their white privilege notoriously to get what they never deserve. I’m one of the people who got really mad after reading the stories about the real scandal, 33 parents’ accusation of paying more than $25 million between 2011 and 2018 to William Rick Singer.

As like the real scandal; our heroine Chloe Wynn Berringer’s college application essay was rewritten and her
photographs were photoshopped and doctored and of course her score was inflated. So many young people work too hard to reach their dreams to get a proper education at elite colleges with little financial resources and push too hard to get a scholarship including Chloe’s best friend Shola’s story who is coming from immigrated Nigerian middle class family.

The author chose a real provocative and thought-provoking subject. It’s so challenging to tell a story about one of the most unlikable family (when you consider there are so many similarities with the real life characters) but interestingly you find yourself root for the characters of the book and you start to see the events from their perspective.

Chloe is mediocre, privileged girl who still doesn’t find her passion or her goal for her life surrounded by A-grader, high achiever friend Shola, intelligent and ambitious, perfectionist sister Isla and golden boy of the school Levi. When everyone around her shines with their highly impressive achievements and big life purposes, detailed future plans, she starts getting more lost and insecure. And of course she doesn’t want her family to be embarrassed by her lack of competitive skills but even though she’s working harder and do everything to get a better SAT score, she gets more panicked and her score is getting lower at her each try.

When her mother finds a special consultant called himself: “doctor” and arranged some other place in West Hollywood for taking the test, she doesn’t question her motives. She knows her mother is competitive, ambitious and hard-worker women who wants best for her kid. And when the test result came showing 200 points higher than her last one she thought there might be some mistake and she tried to tell several people including school consultant but as she sees her mother’s hopeful face and listening to her friends’ motivational speeches, she stops questioning further. She suspects something fishy going around but it was too late to admit her doubts to someone when FBI bangs their door and handcuffs her mom in front of their neighbors and army of paparazzis.

Throughout my reading I mostly liked Isla: one year younger sister of Chloe: the smartest, most mature and practical member of the family even though she is the youngest one and the effects of scandal in her life. Her efforts to bring the family back to face the realities and her harsh but realistic methods to help her sister were well-written. I loved the sisters’ quirky ways of communication and of course I enjoyed the conclusion of the story.

Overall: I had amazing time and I enjoyed the well-developed characterization and intriguing, fast, remarkable pace of the story. I normally give four stars but I’m adding half more and rounding 4.5 to 5 because the brave subject choice and incredible story-telling skills of the author.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children’s/Delacorte Press for sharing this remarkable ARC with me in exchange my honest review.

I'm still shocked that this is YA--I absolutely devoured this book. I couldn't put it down! It does not read like YA, even though the main character is a senior in high school.

I enjoyed this take on Operation Varsity Blues. It was a nice spin, and there were a few well placed details that lead you to the real life versions of this story (i.e. a reference to the blonde Desperate Housewife married to the shaggy guy from Shameless--Felicity Huffman). I also felt a connection between the mom's character and Lori Loughlin from Full(er) House. Mom is a B list celebrity in Hallmark movies and a loved sit-com about to make a comeback on Netflix. Very well placed details by the author lead you to your connections while also maintaining differences between the characters and real life. Theres enough to make it known that this is not using the real life players, but also enough to connect the dots. A great balance. Well done!


I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

Since this book had a very relevant and controversial topic as its premise, I was worried about how the author would handle the situation.

I liked that the author didn’t villainize the protagonist but she also didn’t sugarcoat what she did and how she was complicit in the scandal. It was realistic in how Chloe’s sister and her friend handled the situation and Chloe’s involvement in it. Chloe’s sister, Isla, is a very smart and ambitious young woman who deserves getting into a great college but her chances are considerably lessened once the scandal hits. Chloe’s best friend, Shola, who is black and comes from a less privileged family, has to work harder than many of her peers. She is also heavily affected by Chloe’s actions.

What I loved most about this book was the author humanizing the protagonist. I feel like in our society, specifically in the United States, we are only ever given two options in regards to how we view people: to villainize or praise them. Stan and cancel culture, for example, both add to this dichotomy. We should be allowed to criticize someone without villainizing them. We should be able to praise people’s actions without viewing them as perfect and without flaws.

The main character is young and is still learning, that does not mean she shouldn’t be held responsible for her decisions leading up to the scandal, but it should be taken into consideration when judging her. It should be understood that people can grow and develop over time and our anger often keeps us from being objective when examining a situation. Chloe’s insecurities about her intelligence and the high expectations given by her parents definitely factored into her decision making leading up to and throughout the scandal.

In short, I did like this book but it didn’t really make a big impact on me. I believe the main purpose the author was trying to achieve did pull through in the end, but it is not a story that will ultimately stick with me.

3/5