List Price: $24.99 Details

Save: $9.50 (38%)

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

FREE delivery Thursday, February 9 if you spend $25 on items shipped by Amazon

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

[{"displayPrice":"$15.49","priceAmount":15.49,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"15","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"49","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"b%2B7BcoqHeLuS1gn2QTlvm%2FBfuKnW3YvOaJtlVxNY0boRQvIKIz31PTB2bPaXFb9st7%2Br8GIz%2B7xI0La2YhjsSQiX6g7T9AkXlopueXiyfmjt5nWFaO2OsDQKJsRecf2c0%2FuBbrNzx%2BwEVFaE2l6VAFJ73enc0eHPmsOZRgO%2BpvOQBDeb%2B53F3I7PXNei0orf","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW"},{"displayPrice":"$7.00","priceAmount":7.00,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"7","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"00","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"WvTchUs9pdDIYXqRq37QJ5WwrK150QxiYFToptV5i24IahR09bymEN%2F41urQSoXqkkI29DYeVdhUgSelLDFPFcqLYnTtS3YV%2BTxBveSWNSPEkFk7iAkzGWw%2FiXRl4AoUiBTET2UuT%2Bxt42nXbfNodHJrSI2fqp88OzyPmp4Jh0Pu4%2FQ%2FpdSKD%2F1OQh1QedV0","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED"}]

$$15.49 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Secure transaction

Ships from

Amazon

Sold by

VxSells

Details

Ships from

Amazon

Sold by

VxSells

Return policy: Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery Wednesday, February 8 if you spend $25 on items shipped by Amazon

Select delivery location

Used: Very Good | Details

Sold by PRY1 Group LLC

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Other Sellers on Amazon

Added

Not added

$18.50
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.

Sold by: should buy

Added

Not added

$19.19
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.

Sold by: namunyoska

Added

Not added

$21.90
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.

Sold by: Winters haven

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Author

Jean Hanff Korelitz

Admission Hardcover – April 13, 2009

by Jean Hanff Korelitz (Author)

521 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$5.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$15.49

$1.59

Paperback

"Please retry"

$13.49

$7.89

$1.61

Mass Market Paperback

"Please retry"

$6.56

$11.50

$1.54

Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$21.98

$4.23

Enhance your purchase

"Admissions. Admission. Aren't there two sides to the word? And two opposing sides...It's what we let in, but it's also what we let out."

For years, 38-year-old Portia Nathan has avoided the past, hiding behind her busy (and sometimes punishing) career as a Princeton University admissions officer and her dependable domestic life. Her reluctance to confront the truth is suddenly overwhelmed by the resurfacing of a life-altering decision, and Portia is faced with an extraordinary test. Just as thousands of the nation's brightest students await her decision regarding their academic admission, so too must Portia decide whether to make her own ultimate admission.

Admission is at once a fascinating look at the complex college admissions process and an emotional examination of what happens when the secrets of the past return and shake a woman's life to its core.

Print length

464 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Grand Central Publishing
Publication date

April 13, 2009
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.38 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

0446540706
ISBN-13

978-0446540704
See all details

Frequently bought together

+
+

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Some of these items ship sooner than the others.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

by Jean Hanff Korelitz Hardcover
$15.49
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by VxSells and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
Get it as soon as Thursday, Feb 9
by Jean Hanff Korelitz Hardcover
$15.94
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by JACARANDA TRADE and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
Get it as soon as Thursday, Feb 9
by Jean Hanff Korelitz Hardcover
$19.12
Only 7 left in stock - order soon.
Ships from and sold by LOGOFAT.
Get it Feb 8 - 14

Jean Hanff Korelitz
20,011
Paperback
98 offers from $5.22
Jean Hanff Korelitz
5,386
Hardcover
77 offers from $9.29
Jean Hanff Korelitz
251
Paperback
31 offers from $2.34
Jean Hanff Korelitz
393
Hardcover
19 offers from $3.91
Jean Hanff Korelitz
60
Hardcover
77 offers from $1.59
Jean Hanff Korelitz
5,499
Hardcover
76 offers from $1.59

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Portia Nathan, the overly dedicated 38-year-old Princeton admissions officer, narrator of Korelitz's overthought fourth novel, finds purpose in her gatekeeper role. But her career and conscience are challenged after she visits a down-at-the-heels New England town on a scouting trip and meets Jeremiah, a talented but rough-around-the-edges 17-year-old who maybe doesn't measure up as Princeton material. The real rub is how making his acquaintance forces Portia to confront a painful secret from her past that ties into some domestic discord with her professor friend, David, and may lead her into a career-endangering fracas with the admissions board. The narrative is slow out of the gate, though it gets some pep once the Jeremiah-Portia angle comes into focus. And even if Portia tends to ruminate in an precious way, Korelitz makes good use of the sociological issues tied up in elite university admissions. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The New Yorker

Portia Nathan is a thirty-eight-year-old admissions officer at Princeton University, a place so discriminating that it can afford to turn down applicants who are “excellent in all of the ordinary ways” in favor of the utterly extraordinary—“Olympic athletes, authors of legitimately published books, Siemens prize winners, working film or Broadway actors, International Tchaikovsky Competition violinists.” Portia compares her job to “building a better fruit basket” and achieves career success by helping her institution pluck the most exotic specimens, but her personal life is permanently on hold because of a traumatic incident from her own college years that she has never come to terms with. Although the reader may unravel the mystery of Portia’s past before the plot does, the novel gleams with acute insights into what most consider a deeply mysterious process.
Copyright ©2008 Click here to subscribe to The New Yorker

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grand Central Publishing; First Edition (April 13, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 464 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0446540706
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0446540704
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.5 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.38 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,168,584 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #14,569 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #53,108 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
521 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Jean Hanff Korelitz

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Jean Hanff Korelitz is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels THE PLOT (The 2021 Tonight Show Summer Reads pick), YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN (adapted for HBO as "The Undoing" by David E. Kelley, and starring Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant and Donald Sutherland), ADMISSION (adapted as the 2013 film starring Tina Fey), THE DEVIL AND WEBSTER, THE WHITE ROSE, THE SABBATHDAY RIVER and A JURY OF HER PEERS. A new novel, THE LATECOMER, will be published on May 31st, 2022. Her company BOOKTHEWRITER hosts "Pop-Up Book Groups" in person in NYC and online, where small groups of readers can discuss new books with their authors. www.bookthewriter.com

Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5

521 global ratings

5 star		35%
4 star		30%
3 star		22%
2 star		8%
1 star		5%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

paul Ustruck

Woman like to read mysteries

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 7, 2022

Great xamad gift !!!

Dragged out story, unsatisfying ending

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 12, 2022

Verified Purchase

I am quite the fan of Korelitz’ writing, but this book needed some serious editing. Her character development is excellent, and I loved the insider’s view of the college admissions process.

But the plot itself dragged a bit, and when I had a hunch of how the story would wrap up, poof, it just ended.
That all said, with Tina Fey in the lead role, the upcoming film version will be on my “must see” list

Helpful

sysedit212

Why did Jean Hanff Korelitz write this book? What did she think the book would do for its readers?

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 1, 2016

Verified Purchase

I bought the novel because I wanted to learn more about the college admissions process from an inside perspective and because I wanted to learn more about living in Princeton. I have the feeling that I learned a lot about the college admissions process although I might have learned the same amount or more by reading directly one of the sources cited by the author (Steinberg's "The Gatekeepers"). The author used books like this and her own, rather short experience as an outside reader of applications and interviews with admissions officials as a source for the passages of the book that deal with the college admissions process. I have the feeling that I learned a lot about this process and the way the author presented this material was thought provoking and engaging.
I found very little about living in Princeton and I am not sure that the author ever lived there for a longer period.
I have mixed feelings about the other parts of the book. The author is certainly very intelligent and the book is very well written. At the center of the book is a female protagonist who goes through life in an unfeeling, detached kind of way. Things are happening to her instead of her taking action, knowing what she wants, and creating her own life. The female protagonist, Portia doesn't seem to have any close relationships to other human beings she interacts with: co-workers, romantic partners, relatives, etc. Instead she seems to have intense attachments to the teenage applicants that she only gets to know through the materials in the application folders. This rather rare emotional state of the protagonist -not knowing her feelings, detachment, an absence of emotions and a great reluctance to communicate emotions- takes up most of the book. This condition seems to be very rare in diagnostic terms: isolated from human contact and human relationships, an absence of feelings, passivity, a great amount of emptiness combined with the detailed accounting of the smells, colors, textures of the circumstances of her life.
The question became for me why the author takes up great lengths to put the reader through this experience of her protagonist. Why is the author doing this to us, her readers? Does the author enjoy torturing the reader with the inner world of a female protagonist that is not aware of her feelings, hates the expression of feelings, and floats passively through life in a state of great inner emptiness? Does the author enjoy confronting thousands of readers with a psychological state that is rather rare and unusual? Does the author find it gratifying to confront the readers with the unemotional suffering of her protagonist in order to make them feel how she feels?
I felt the author makes me suffer because I suffered from this feeling that the protagonist led a miserable, empty life but couldn't be helped (and wasn't interest in being helped or didn't have a sense of something being wrong with her that might need help).
Why did the author write this book and what does the author think the text would do for her readers?

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Anne L. Treadwell

Such an interesting read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 25, 2022

Verified Purchase

Offering us a hard look at the world of college admissions, this story is also one of characters, well-written and fascinating. I didn’t want it to end.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 12, 2009

Verified Purchase

When I applied to college in the early nineties, I kept hearing how selective the admissions' process was and how a lot of over-qualified applicants would get rejected. Every few year since, I've seen stories like that, so by now, I probably couldn't even make it into my safety.

I mention this because the main character of "Admissions," Portia Nathan, feels similarly, and we are reminded of it again and again. That's one of the main things that I disliked about this book: the repetition. Other than that, I didn't really care for the main character or agree with her final decision. But at least she had the courage to do something; too many chick lit heroines are way too passive.

Portia is described as an "atheist Jew," and daughter of a feminist hippie mom who lives in Northampton with her partner. Her mom has taken in a pregnant teen and hopes to adopt the child. Portia's relationship with her own partner is breaking up, too; due to infidelity on both sides. Compounding the stress, is her job at Princeton traveling to secondary schools and processing the students' applications. Each chapter opens with a snippet from a sample essay, and I found these to be the wittiest part of the book. Reading the applications now reminds Portia of the child she had but gave away, who would be eighteen by now. There's also a character, who reminded me of Marcus Flutie in the Jessica Darling books (who also considers Princeton), whose unconventional background makes his possibility of a Princeton admission a problem.

The book is preachy. Characters treat each other to diatribes about the pros and cons of applying to a select school. This was amusing the first couple of times - after all, why wouldn't an admissions officer need to vent? After all, she's human. But after that, it grated. I got the impression that the author had bottled up a lot of resentment and was (perhaps unintentionally) pouring it out.

I did like many of the younger characters and less major ones. I thought the book made some valid points about helicopter parenting and the "Imposter Syndrome," many accomplished and gifted teens fall victim to. However, it would have been better with a tighter plot and less digression.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

A. Linton

Excellent novel - great value for money

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 8, 2022

Verified Purchase

I greatly enjoyed 'You should have known' and was delighted to find another book by the same author reduced to such a low price. I had been put off before by the picture from the film version which looks like something from a romantic comedy while the actual novel is somewhat dark and soul searching. (BTW if you are curious about the film version don't go to the IMDB page until you have read the book it gives away the novel's big secret). The writing is excellent, the characters utterly believable the pace is somewhat slow but overall it's worth the journey . If you are looking for a fast paced book full of twists this might not be for you but if you are looking for a beautifully written thought provoking novel I would highly recommend it.

One person found this helpful

Kindle Customer

I love jean korelitz, the first of her books i read was you should have known, which i strongly recommend, so no wonder i went f

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 20, 2016

Verified Purchase

I love the writing so precise and distinct, passionate but contained like her female characters. In admissions there is a lot to learn about american society and the pressure and definition of success. We should all carefully consider what we set out for our kids in terms of expectations and how realistic it is that all should depend on something that is decided at seventeen? The story is full and real and the emotions depicted good and bad the passion and the fear all of it rings true. I can empathise with it all, admission is a book about life, the risk of it, the fear of it, the Surprise that after all it can reserve. I strongly recommend it.

One person found this helpful

La lectrice

Very very boring

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 26, 2014

Verified Purchase

Having read and enjoyed 'You Should Have Known' by the same author I was disappointed with this novel: over-long rambling, full of unnecessary details about the American education, examination and admission to college system which made it extremely boring and confusing for someone from the UK. Occasionally there would be interesting passages but over all the characters were unlikeable and indistinguishable from one another. I gave up on it half way through when I just couldn't bear another long description from some candidate of their dull life. I thought 'Admission' might be a play on words but if it was, it was too long coming. Tedious.

4 people found this helpful

sandhuggies

Interesting

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 31, 2014

Verified Purchase

Enjoyed this and was rooting for the narrator. But a bit too much about how the American college admission system works and the pressure on the students as well as the admission officers. Interesting to read how different the system in the USA is from that in the UK.

One person found this helpful

Digger

Really enjoyed this read...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 11, 2014

Verified Purchase

Very interesting insight into American College systems, but also entertaining in content - her characters came to life, very vividly in some cases.

Would recommend it for an entertaining read and good story generally

One person found this helpful

See all reviews