Getting into a college is a tough job. Not only are grades important, but community service, entrance exams, extra-curricular activities, and the always-feared admission essays all play a part in getting into college.
The parents of these kids are all counting on them getting into Ivy-League schools. For a couple of them Harvard is the only school. But they can push their kids only so far. And the kids can push themselves to the brink. That does not mean they will get accepted.
Parental Pressure to Get Into an Ivy-League School
Taylor Rockefeller (Whitman), no relation to the famous Rockefellers, is under so much pressure that she starts doing things she shouldn’t, like stealing all the mail on her block. Her parents are separated and her frustration about that as well as the pressure her mother (Joan Cusack) is putting on her to go to a top Ivy-League school is getting to be too much for this very intelligent girl.
Her friend Maya (Deepti Daryanani) is of Indian heritage and her family won’t accept anything less than her admittance to an Ivy school. Maya confides in the English teacher who offers her a safe haven and an outlet for her creative side in the form of poetry. If her parents find out she is interested in poetry, they would almost disown her.
Another friend has lived his whole life with the goal of going to Harvard.
The Fall-Back School
Then, when a glitch in the college ratings puts Yates College in the top 50, the kids and parents take a tour of the nearby campus to find out what it is all about. None of the parents are happy about the school. They continue to push for their Ivy-League schools. But Taylor is intrigued by Yates. It is surrounded by woods and she feels comfortable there.
With all her stress, Taylor’s grades have been slipping, and when the entire class has to retake a big test due to a mishap, she just about freaks out.
Unbeknownst to her mother, Taylor only applies to Yates. Her mother agrees that Yates could be a “fall back” school, but Wellesley would be the top priority. After all, it was good enough for Hillary Clinton.
The College Application Essay Weaves through the Movie
The entrance essay is what drives this story and the movie unfolds almost entirely through the words of Taylor. Taylor is an exceptionally bright girl, and in her essays she is completely honest. She writes about stealing the mail, cutting herself, her father’s absence and her mother’s obsession with an Ivy school. Although her guidance counselor is intrigued by the essays, he continually sends her back to write something less quirky.
Olivia, The Dean of Yates (Brigid Brannagh), sees something in Taylor’s essay. While the others on the admissions committee think she is unstable, Olivia reads deeper and has a strong feeling that Taylor is a highly intelligent girl who could thrive at the school.
While this is definitely an eccentric cast of characters and the story is tense, there is a lot of underlying humor, making this a movie that should capture the attention of the viewers.
Acceptance premiers Saturday, August 22, at 9 PM ET/PT on Lifetime.
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