A very timely book about the lengths parents will go to in order to insure their children get into what they see as the perfect college. I appreciated the sides it showed of other kids who truly worked hard and earned those spots and their reactions. It also made me realize that likely the kids had some idea that something was going on, even if they didn’t know the extremes. Very well written!

Once again Julie Buxbaum has a story with a believable story and this time right out of current headlines. It's senior year for Chloe and junior year for her sister, Isla. Told from the view of Now and Then, Chloe deals with her mom and dad who paid to have her SAT scores changed, her application faked to go to her dream school, SCC. While she legally innocent to the end, didn't she have to know something wasn't right? Why was her mom sure she would get in when the guidance councilor didn't see her having a chance? She loses her boyfriend and BFF when her mom is charged by the FBI. She puts herself in isolation from everyone. Mother clings to the thought "Wouldn't you do anything for your daughter?" Chloe deals with the thoughts of her parents thinking her incapable of getting into college. Great development of characters. You feel Chloe's betrayal and degradation. But pulling for Chloe to find herself is Isla, the strong, intellectual sister who Chloe felt ostracized from. Family relations are quite messy.

I enjoyed this fictional glimpse at the story behind the headlines. What if your parents broke the law to get you into college? A look at the life of a privileged girl who gets everything she wants, until she applies to college.

The novel opens with the FBI knocking on the door of a B-list celebrity and arresting her for taking part in a college admissions scandal. This fictional tale of "what if" takes a headline and gives readers a backstory into how such a thing could happen.

High school senior Chloe knows she's not the hardest working student, but she still wants to attend the college of her dreams, and her parents certainly want the "bragging rights" when they tell friends where their daughter is going to school. When celebrity Joy Fields hires a college counselor to help Chloe polish up her applications, Chole has no idea the lengths he will go to in order to do his job. Or does she?

This was such a fun read! When the admissions scandal broke in real life, I know I thought, "What the heck?! Why would these people need to resort to these measures?" This look at "what if" was a great imagining of such a situation. Julie Buxbaum did a great job of developing the characters of sisters Chole and Isla and their relationship. The family dynamic was an interesting "insider" look at how celebrity families might work. The novel goes back and forth between "then" and "now" adding suspense to the narrative; readers know what happened, but are intrigued by the how and the when.

Recommend to high school students who like some drama! It is also a good read for parents. This novel explores privilege and parental expectations among other topics.

Julie Buxbaum has given readers another great novel.

Chloe Berringer's life is great. Her family is basically perfect, she's going to her first-choice college, has an amazing best friend, and is going to prom with the boy she likes. She has it made--until, that is, she opens up the door to find a team of police officers there with a warrant for her mother's arrest. Her mother, who has, she finds out, illegally paid Chloe's way into the school of her dreams. And Chloe had no idea--or did she?

I loved Julie Buxbaum's exploration of privilege and Chloe's culpability. At what point, despite not really knowing what was going on (though she had a fairly good idea that something weird was happening), should Chloe have taken responsibility? Confronted her parents? Rescinded her application? Told her friends something strange was happening? She never did--until it was far too late, and she ended up paying the price for that, and it forever transformed her life and who she was as a person. There are some great side characters, especially Chloe's best friend Shola, and the story and all the characters felt incredibly realistic--and not just because the whole thing was based on a real-life scandal. This is absolutely a must read and a must purchase for most teen collections.

This book accomplished what I didn’t think it could: making me have a little sympathy for the people involved in the college admissions scandal. Don’t get me wrong, these people are still incredibly annoying at times. However, as any good book does, it presents the characters in a complex situation reacting in a very complex and human ways. It’s hard not to have sympathy.

However, that doesn’t mean that I loved the book. I felt like the supporting characters were very flat. Shola (the main character’s best friend), Levi (her boyfriend), Cesar (the boy she tutors): all of these people seem to highlight personality traits of the main character rather than having lives of their own. I also didn’t really like the narrative voice in the story. The main character is not super smart. She struggles on her SATs and can’t seem to get into any college. Therefore, the eloquence of the narrative is jarring since it doesn’t always seem to be authentic to the character. I also felt like the structure of the book got tedious. You could see where everything was headed. The alternating chapters between the past and the present, then, became very predictable. Finally, the epiphanies that some characters experienced seemed very sudden. Their realizations were spelled out in speeches that they gave, which seemed a bit heavy-handed, even for a YA book.

Still, this was an interesting look at the college admissions scandal. It made me see things from another perspective, which is some thing that I always appreciate in a book. I can see teenagers enjoying this book, especially since it’s told from a teenager’s point of view. Some of the themes are ones that teens could relate to: the fear of disappointing your parents, the importance of friends, finding yourself, and forging ahead into the future.

After reading and absolutely loving "Tell Me Three Things" I HAD to have an early review copy of this book. I couldn't believe that I was actually lucky enough to get one, so thank you, Netgalley, and Random House Children's!

Julie Buxbaum explains in the prologue how she was in the middle of writing a different novel when the college admissions scandal broke and Chloe Berringer, the fictional heroine, just called to her to be written about. Chloe is a senior at Wood Valley High School and by all accounts if you ask her, she's totally ordinary and uninteresting. Except her mother is a celebrity and her father is a venture capitalist, (I think, some kind of career that typically goes hand in hand with excessive amounts of while male privilege) and she and her sister Isla live in a palatial estate in LA.

This story follows Chloe through alternating chapters of Then/Now, before and after her parents are busted by the FBI for paying large sums of money to get her into the college of her (their) dreams, the fictional SCC, Go Trojans! Chloe is very easy to hate, especially when it comes to dialogue that she has with her best friend, Shola. who is incredibly talented and hard working and doesn't get everything handed to her on a silver platter. In the beginning Chloe is not very self aware, experiences massive amounts of self pity, and is kinda right in that she isn't very interesting. However, much like the beloved Alexis from Schitt's Creek, Chloe experiences a major personality glow up as she and her family hit rock bottom.

This was an enjoyable read that I didn't want to put down mostly because I couldn't wait to see what undercover reference to the actual college admissions scandal was made next. It was also surprisingly thought provoking on what exactly white privilege and well intentions can look like when you step back outside of your comfort zone and consider how your words and actions affect the lives of others.

The writing was good, but the concept got stale after awhile. I've already read up on the topic like a year ago, so seeing it rehashed in almost the exact same way with few changes lessened my enjoyment of it overall. Again, like in Buxbaum's other books, there was stellar writing. I wish the concept was a little more imaginable though.

I liked this book, particularly for the young adult audience it’s intended for, though it wasn’t my favorite Julie Buxbaum. I really appreciated the way she dove into the subject matter and slowly explored the ideas of entitlement, while privilege, accountability, and ownership, and I thought the alternating timelines really helped deepen that concept. I appreciated the political commentary and the discussion of undocumented immigrants and class/income divisions. And I related to the characters, who I found real and well-developed, and found myself rooting for them despite their flaws. One thing that frustrated was the way ADHD was handled - people kept saying Chloe couldn’t have ADHD because she could focus intently on something that interested her, which is actually a very common ADHD trait. Chloe actually sounded very much like a girl with ADHD - not hyperactive, but unable to finish or concentrate on most tasks, considered lazy, not living up to her potential, etc. Since the ADHD thing was a theme of the book, I really wish it had been better researched and more accurately presented. That said, this was a quick and interesting read with some decent meat behind it, and I enjoyed it and found it thought-provoking.

I always enjoy Julie's books. She writes with such a realness. Her stories will always make you think. Admission is a fictional story that is one of those "ripped from the headlines" like an old Law and Order. It is loosely based on the celebrity college scandal. What I loved most about the book was how it made me look at how the child , because they are children, felt and had to deal with it all. Chloe is so naive to it all and I really felt so sorry for her. I totally get why parents would do it, we all want better for our kids. I loved how the experience changed the family and brought them a closeness that was kind of there, but deepened. This is another solid outing from. Julie Buxbaum. I will sit patiently waiting for the next.

Thanks to Netgalley and Delacourte Press for an advance copy of this book.

This timely work addresses the college admission scandal that rocked headlines. You see what the scandal could have (or most likely) looked like from inside the homes of these Hollywood stars by alternating from past to present. This book further explores who is responsible and the divide between financial equality. Although this subject is interesting, it was hard to read because the characters were so unlikeable, which is the point. You do not want to justify this illegal behavior.

I realized too late that I am not the intended audience for this book. I wanted to read a fictionalized version of the college admission scandal, and am glad I did. YA audiences will love this. I loved the perspective of the student and her progression of noticing her role in this scandal. I also really enjoyed the wait the author chose to tell the story from before and after the scandal. Very enjoyable read!

This is a well written YA novel derived from a current Hollywood scandal. I didn’t really like any of the characters except for Isla, Chloes younger sister. She seemed to be the one family member with a clue and/or moral compass. The story flowed from page one and was an easy read.

I thoroughly enjoyed the scandal, and portrayal of Hollywood fame that Julie Buxbaum created in Admission. The characters showed tremendous growth, and the family dynamics were so fun to see develop over the course of the story. While I enjoyed the story, some it did feel too "ripped from the headlines," and the details seemed to closely connected to the real case of the college admissions scandal. That being said - what a great story that will hopefully be eye opening to a lot of teenagers about their own privilege.

I really loved this book! Usually I'm not a fan of the before/after way of storytelling, but this one really worked for me. This story hooked me from the opening through the end, and I love a page turner!

Admission is a ripped from he headlines story about a high school students who had a celebrity parent that hired a "consultant" to help the student get into a good college.
The book is split between two stories: then and now. These stories alternate by chapter and let the reader see the student's perspective as things were happening and the fallout. I really enjoyed the now chapters but felt the then chapters dragged a little. Towards the end, the then chapters meet up with the beginning's now chapters so it does come full circle.
Students in school would probably enjoy Admission because it gives a realistic view of the process and potential fallout of cheating. It also demonstrates how the student might react to the fallout, being blissfully unaware of what parents were doing behind the scenes.

What a thrilling topic and read. This was smartly written (loved the Then and Now perspectives) and hilarious in parts. I will be sure to read more books by her. The author did such a good job of portraying a girl who was not special by any means except that she had famous parents. I could feel her longing to be something more than her family. She also nailed the high school nothing relationship which is more of a relationship of convenience than anything.

Based on the college admissions scandal of 2019, Admission is split between two time periods: "Then" and "Now". "Then" is everything that happened up to the FBI ringing the doorbell before school one morning to arrest Chloe's mom, a B-list actress, for illegally helping her daughter gain acceptance to a prestigious California university. "Now" is how Chloe's family's lives have fallen apart in that aftermath. While Chloe wasn't clued in to the plan her mom and dad had, Chloe's moral compass was falling apart before, too. She slowly started to realize that things with her SCC application weren't kosher. Yet she never said anything. Does that mean she's guilty, too of trying to cheat the system? Does that make her a villain?

While Admission does a great job of exploring nuance in villains (shout-out to Crime and Punishment as an allegorical device for Chloe), I had a hard time sticking with this story. While I agree that we all try to dupe ourselves out of feeling guilty when we act immorally or unethically, I most identified with Isla, Chloe's younger sister. Maybe because my parents never put extreme pressure on me to do well at school (just the normal amount of pressure, I suppose; and I like(d) school, so learning was never something I despised like some struggling students do) or to go to a prestigious university. Or maybe because my privilege and my parents' money shattered barriers that I didn't even know were in place until I got my liberal arts education. (Ironic, no?) Additionally, this was the first Buxbaum novel I read and didn't listen to the audiobook of. Perhaps my inner voice isn't as enrapturing as the audiobook narrators' voices. lol

In all, I think some students will enjoy Admission because they understand the pressure to do well in school and to go to a good university. And others will be angry at the privilege and the no-fault attitude of Chloe and her parents, just as the fictional society is mad at them in the story.

I am a fan of Julie Buxbaum’s novels for both the young adult and women’s fiction market so I was looking forward to “Admissions.” Could the author take the recent college admissions scandal and turn it into something both character-driven and compelling without being predictable?

Chloe is a high school senior at a very competitive private school where her classmates are focused on getting into the best college. Chloe tries her best, but is not at the top of the class academically and worries about disappointing her parents who have bent over backgrounds with private tutors to allow Chloe to have every extra advantage. Meanwhile, Chloe’s close friend, Shola, is book-smart (and from the other side of the tracks) as is her younger sister, Isla. Whether Chloe actually has a learning disability is not made clear (though she is “tested” and diagnosed with ADHD so she could have “accommodations for SAT testing), but Chloe wonders if there is something wrong with her because she does not adore school the way Shola and Isla do, and instead would rather focus on her burgeoning romance with former guy friend, Levi.

Yet, when Chloe does better on the SATs than she thought possible and gets into a high-reach college, she does not realize that her parents, her mom in particular (who is a popular television actress), crossed the line into committing federal crimes. It isn’t until the FBI (with guns blazing) show up on Chloe’s doorstep that she realizes her parents were involved in bribing individuals to take Chloe’s SATs and create the fiction that Chloe was a champion pole vaulter to get their daughter into UCC (which is an obvious reference to USC down to the school colors).

The novel alternates between two timelines (post and pre-scandal). I appreciate the author’s choice as the reader is able to appreciate Chloe becoming aware that something isn't right with her admissions journey before the FBI shows up at her door. Julie Buxbaum does not offer any apologies for Chloe’s parents’ behavior. You feel for Chloe as she wonders why her parents think incapable of getting into college herself as well as deals with the backlash from both her peers and social media.

While this novel is heavy on plot, Julie Buxbaum does take time to develop Chloe’s relationship with various characters such as Shola, her sister, Isla, and Cesar, the younger boy she volunteers with. I actually thought it might have been interesting to have seen a portion of the novel from Isla’s point of view, simply because she was trying to do everything right to get into college and now because of what happened with her sister, her own record was “tainted.” My only complaint, and this is a minor one, is I wish the author has spent more time developing Chloe’s half-brother, Hudson (who suffers a drug-addicted and needs to be constantly bailed out of jail); instead, I wonder if he was merely created only to serve as a contrast to Chloe and Isla. Also, I thought Chloe being self-aware of her “white privilege” could have been subtler—especially in the way Julie Buxbaum constantly emphasizes the differences between Chloe’s life and opportunities versus those of Shola and Cesar.

Overall, while I did not enjoy the novel quite as much as “Hope and Other Punchlines,” it was a good read that managed to skirt the boundary of becoming too preachy. Four out of five stars.

I received a copy of this book through Netgalley. My thanks also to the publisher and the author.

Chloe Fields is the ordinary daughter of B list actress, Joy Fields. She's had a privileged life where she always wanted to live up to her brainy little sister and her glamorous mother. Her biggest problem is coming up with a challenge she has dealt with for her college application.

When she is face with a set of armed FBI agents who arrest her mom on charges of "college acceptance fraud," the whole family's life is shattered. Their friends abandon them, the media trashes them, and each person in the family is trying to cope with facing the punishment for a crime.

This novel addresses choices people make, why they do it, and how they justify behavior.