The Admissions by Meg Mitchell Moore

by:  Meg Mitchell Moore
published by:  Doubleday
publish date:  August 18, 2015

The Hawthorne family has it all. Great jobs, a beautiful house in one of the most affluent areas of northern California, and three charming kids with perfectly straight teeth. And then comes their eldest daughter's senior year of high school . . .
     Firstborn Angela Hawthorne is a straight-A student and star athlete, with extracurricular activities coming out of her ears and a college application that's not going to write itself. She's set her sights on Harvard, her father's alma mater, and like a dog with a chew toy, Angela won't let up until she's basking in crimson-colored glory. Except her class rank as valedictorian is under attack, she's suddenly losing her edge at cross-country, and she can't help but daydream about the cute baseball player in English class. Of course Angela knows the time put into her schoolgirl crush would be better spent coming up with a subject for her term paper—which, along with her college essay and community service hours has a rapidly approaching deadline. 

This book was really good.  It probably shines a light on many middle/upper class families in the United States.

The Admissions is told from multiple viewpoints of all the Hawthorne family members.  Nora is a successful real estate agent, but she has just found out one of her deals could go into litigation and cost her everything.  Gabe, her husband, is a successful businessman and expects his daughter to go to Harvard because that's where he went.  However, he has a new intern that is threatening to bring down his entire world.  Angela is a type A student that has to win at everything.  Everything hinges on her getting in to Harvard.  Younger daughters Cecily and Maya are just trying to not get lost in the shuffle.

This is a book I'd definitely recommend.  Readers of contemporary fiction will definitely love this story.  Meg Mitchell Moore has a good understanding of what so many American families are going through.