Admission

Jean Hanff Korelitz reads a passage from Admission, the story of an admissions officer at Princeton University. (Running Time: 32:40)

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Today's college admissions office is a complex cultural "hot spot" where many American themes converge: aspiration, immigration, tradition. To be an admissions officer is to be disliked and suspected by more or less everyone you meet. In Admission, Jean Hanff Korelitz explores the life of 38-year-old Portia Nathan, an admissions officer at Princeton University with a settled domestic life. For years, Portia has avoided the past, hiding behind her busy (and sometimes punishing) career. 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 a decision regarding their academic admission, so too must Portia decide whether to make her own ultimate admission.

About the Author:

Jean Hanff Korelitz: Jean Hanff Korelitz was born and raised in New York and graduated from Dartmouth College and Clare College, Cambridge. She lives in Princeton, NJ with her husband and two children.