Chabon and me. Best friends.

I actually really like this book so far, although I’m not entirely sure why yet. I think the style is a lot more appealing because there is just an overall lack of convention, which fits very well with the subject matter of the novel as well. When I started reading the section about the man from Naples who was arrested for illegally planting a vegetable garden on the Pitt baseball field, I had actually just picked up the book again after a few hours of not reading it, and I suddenly realized (about a page into the section) that I had no idea who this vegetable-growing man was and what on earth he had to do with any of the book or where Tripp could possibly be going with that story… but it also seemed completely natural for Tripp to be so completely off-the-wall random that I was content to just keep reading and see where it would lead, instead of trying to guess or expecting what would happen.


I also happen to love the way Chabon writes sometimes; he can describe something in such an obscure way that you know exactly, vividly what he is talking about, but at the same time could not actually picture what he described or you’re not quite sure how to take it. His descriptions of Crabtree were my first hint at this. “I knew the expression in Crabtree’s eye all too well. He was looking at me as though I were a monster he’d created with his own brain and hands, and he were about to throw the switch that would send me reeling spasmodically across the countryside, laying waste to rude farmsteads and despoiling the rural maidenry” (8). Of course you can picture Frankenstein going totally nuts while romping destructively around the countryside, but how could a person ever convey that in a facial expression?? It’s all just so bizarre. I think Tripp has a rather wild imagination that he sometimes, or maybe more often than not, mistakes for reality. But I really think that’s what adds so much to the style and I just really like it so far.

Jimmy James

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Tripp

So far I still do not like the main character Tripp. I think he is very much like Portia who shows little emotion towards almost everything. In the opening of the novel, Tripp says easily and without showing much emotion that his wife, Emily, has left him in the morning. He told Cabtree that she has left him because she found out about his affair with Sara. Tripp shows no sign of trying to fix his relationship with Emily. Although he mentions to readers that he loves her deeply and loves everything about her, he does not seem to make effort of saving his marriage. He then attends the party at Sara’s house and tells Sara, again without showing much emotion that Emily has left him. I think the novel suggests that Tripp does not care about his marriage or the idea of marriage. The fact that he has gone through three marriages might suggests this. His three marriages might also hints that Tripp is a character who gives up his passion or his love easily. When he finds out that Sara is pregnant also reveals that Tripp shows little emotion and place little weight on marriage. He is neither thrilled nor shocked when he finds out the news about her pregnancy. When Sara says that they should divorce their spouses and marry each other, Tripp simply says yes without giving any thoughts to his response. When Sara cries in bed, Tripp also shows little emotion. He does not comfort her or think about the pregnancy situation. He simply says that he cannot move. He wants Sara to move other than wants to cuddle her and makes her feel better. He therefore is a very self absorbed, emotionless character. I think Tripp is then very much like Portia who easily gives up her baby after she gives birth to him. Tripp could easily give up his marriage to Emily. If the story develops in to him marrying Sara, I think he would very easily give up his marriage to her as well. I think his friendship with Cabtree also shows his lack of emotion. He mentions that he met Cabtree his junior year in college and he did not intended to make any friends in college. Since he lacked the intention to make friends, this shows that Tripp is a character who keeps to himself, or a loner I should say. He is then very much opposite of Amory. Amory is afraid to be alone and friendless. For him to make friends only with Cabtree suggests that he rarely makes effort to show his emotion for someone else.

Tripp the Player

So far, I like the way the book is written and the way the characters and events are portrayed. However, I do not like any of the characters’ personalities. The character I like most thus far in the book is Doctor Dee. Grady Tripp reminds me of a cross between an older, more modern version of Amory Blaine from This Side of Paradise and a male, more unfaithful version of Portia from Admission. Like Amory, Tripp’s ego is clearly written throughout the book, and like Portia, he is also weirdly fascinated with his job and his admissions. Tripp’s numerous infidelities really bother me. The way he describes himself and his affairs make him seem so pompous and masochistic. I hate that he thinks that he is “a man who falls in love so easily, and with such a reckless lack of consideration for the consequences of [his] actions, that from the very first instant of entering into a marriage [he] become[s], almost by definition, an adulterer” (33). It seems like Tripp is trying to convince the reader that his problem with infidelities are in fact a good thing. He is trying to convince us that love is non-committal and short-lived. He mentions his relationship with Sarah’s husband, Walter Gaskell, a respected colleague, which makes me dislike him even more. He did not want either his spouse nor Sarah’s to find out about the affair, yet Tripp still drove off his wife, Emily, who “morally opposed” (30) to divorce. In spite of my dislike of Tripp and his betrayals, I think that his relationship with Sarah is fascinating. I originally assumed that it was a recent and purely physical affair. However, after learning the relationship is five years long, and after he discusses her appearance, and describes “undressing her” to be “like releasing a zoo full of animals, or blowing up a dam” (34), it was hard to see the relationship to be purely based on her physical attributes. Although it seems like Tripp and Sarah’s relationship may be deeper than expected, Tripp continues to treat her and her husband with little respect. When Sarah tells him, crying, that she is pregnant, all he is able to focus on is her weight on his arm. In his situation, one would assume that her pregnancy would evoke some sort of strong emotion, but he brushes it off and asks her to move instead. I like Doctor Dee, the dog, because he is the only “character” intelligent and moral enough to recognize and respond to Tripp and Sarah’s transgressions. I am finding that it is my dislike for the characters that is making the novel so interesting.

Grady and Sara's Relationship

The beginning of a novel sets up the framework for the entirety of the novel. It gives the reader a taste of what the novel is going to be about and usually major themes are introduced in the pages. I already do not like the main character in the book and believe that he has no depth to him. Similar to Portia, he does not find any problem cheating on someone he cares for. However, unlike Portia, he is very content with his cheating on his wife. The fact that he was willing to admit to being happy with cheating on his wife and other wives means speaks great measures about the type of person he is. Perhaps he will change as the novel progresses, which I personally hope, but I am not sure that a person like this can change so drastically without outside aid.

I think that it is very interesting to look at the relationship between Grady and Sara. They both are fine with cheating on their spouses, even though they both have attractive spouses. I find it interesting that both describe their spouses and very physically attractive, but they describe each other as somewhat the opposite. Grady gives the readers a full description of Sara that does not sound attractive whatsoever. Perhaps they feel more comfortable with each other than with their beautiful spouses, I am not sure. I also find it interesting how they act in front of each other during the get together at Sara’s house. Usually when people are having secret relations, they avoid one another at all costs. However, they interact with each other and even act somewhat like they are back in high school. They play little games that are so obviously flirting that it makes me upset just to read about. I feel like Walter is so oblivious to his relationship with his wife and his wife’s relationship with Grady. Either that or he, too, does not care enough about his marriage to discuss it with her.

Lastly, I thought that Grady’s reaction to Sara’s pregnancy was disgusting. The fact that he can hear that he impregnated a married woman and not feel any sense of remorse is fascinating. Also, how he can just simply say that she should divorce Walter and marry him is insane, especially because he does not place any weight on marriage. On top of all this, I think it is crazy that he does not think anything of it and he actually is thinking more about his arm falling asleep than the baby growing inside Sara. She is lying next to him and crying, while he asks her to move due to his arm. It personally made me very happy that she gave him some attitude when he decided to be a jerk and ask her to move. I think that this short conversation is very revealing about the type of relationship that Grady and Sara share and I am interested to see how this relationship develops throughout the entire novel.

Another one

So . . . another character that doesn’t quite have his life together.

Grady Tripp is a character all right. He is a faithful marijuana smoker, an unfaithful husband with a mistress and three failed marriages, and he is very nonchalant about his faults. In the section when he talks about how he and Crabtree plagiarized their stories for class, he doesn’t have any regrets about plagiarizing really and doesn’t seem to register that it’s a serious offense. He didn’t get caught so he doesn’t give it a second thought. The only thing he really says about it is that he doesn’t care that the class didn’t receive the story well because he didn’t write it.

He admits that he falls into love super easily and says he has probably fallen in love 17 times, which is reminiscent of Amory Blaine and his tendency to fall madly, deeply, and quickly. He is a writer, which is also reminiscent of Amory Blaine’s character. Unlike Amory though, Grady doesn’t seem to have a moral conscience. Amory was haunted by the devil when he went astray, but Grady just lands on his feet and keeps on running. His faults are almost charming on him, and I’m guessing my classmates will greatly prefer Grady to Amory and Portia.

Speaking of Portia, Grady shares some similarities with her also. Like Portia, Grady was in a relationship with a woman(well, Portia was in a relationship with a man but you catch my drift!) he sort of or half-heartedly loved, and he didn’t really feel bad about cheating on her. Portia only cheated on Mark with John once, but Grady had been sleeping with Sara for five years before his wife, Emily, left him. Portia freaked out when she thought Mark somehow knew that she had slept with John, but the thought that Emily had found out that he was sleeping with Sara didn’t really seem to bother Grady. Also, the whole Grady getting Sara pregnant thing is reminiscent of the Mark and Helen relationship in Admission.

I find myself unable to separate the characters of the three novels we have read so far. I keep finding connections involuntarily. However, Grady is different from Amory and Portia in a very stand out way. Grady seems to be satisfied with himself. He doesn’t blame his faults on other people, and he doesn’t really dwell on his problems and his past. He casually mentions that he knows he’s the reason all three of his marriages failed. Again, he's very nonchalant. It's like "Hey, she left me, " "Hey, I'm stoned," "Hey, I ran away from my grandmother and only left her a note and she died when I was gone," "Hey, I'm cheating on my wife," and so on.

And I guess this makes him more likable (well I don’t really like him but I’m guessing others will). He has so many faults and issues but he isn’t blaming anybody for them. His mom died in his infancy and his father committed suicide, but he isn’t blaming his issues on his parents or lack of parents. If this was Portia, she would have blamed this stuff on her mother faster than we could sing “Oh Susannah, oh don’t you cry for me . . .” : )

Pleased as Punch

I like Grady Tripp so far. I'm not sure that I'd want to hang out with him, or even be his student, but to read about in a book? I like him. Out of all the characters we've encountered thus far in our reading, I think he's actually the most realistic. A little sad, and we happen to be catching him during a particularly crazy weekend, but I buy it.

I think a lot of the sense of reality I'm getting from the novel is the dialogue. Chabon has really nailed the way people talk, and not just Grady. Though I could take or leave Hannah, I find her to be totally believable, if a bit forgettable, and I love that Sarah is big. The characters all have their quirks, but there's something about the writing that makes me belief in a baseball fanatic department chair, a blind spaz of dog, the antics of WordFest, etc. I totally, totally buy it, even if I can't picture my professors popping pills (separate issue).

I'm also finding I have a lot of empathy for these far-from-perfect charters, that, if not concerned, I am a least interested in seeing how Grady maneuvers Emily leaving him and Sarah's pregnancy, what happens with Jame Leer (he's a strange one, alright), what the heck is going on with Crabtree, etc. Even if these characters aren't my friends, I want to know what is to become of them. And for the first time in this class, I have the great feeling of wanting to know what happens next and not knowing what will. Some stuff I see: James's lying, Grady going to Passover, etc, but there's a lot I really don't. It doesn't feel like a book sometimes because there isn't the same sense of inevitability that we saw in the other books.

Weirdly, I am picturing the same physical character for Grady as I did for John. Problematic, since Grady is supposed to be taller, a little overweight, and not nearly as clean cut. Maybe that's why I like him better.

I'm also loving the Pittsburgh references. Often so cheesy, in the book, they're working for me.

Whatever it is exactly, I can't put it down.

Making the wrong seem somewhat right, and being liked despite all wrongs

I have yet to feel a sense of full understanding of Grady Tripp, but as of now I see many parallels between Tripp and Amory Blaine. The absence of a parental figure in their lives seems to have affected them in some shape or form. This is apparent in some of the reckless decisions they make, with Tripp running away from his grandmother and succumbing to drugs, and Blaine failing school and quitting his job. Tripp for some reason passes over as a much more likeable character. Perhaps this is partly due to the first person narrative that gives us an insight into his emotions, making him seem more human than the emotion deficient Blaine. Tripp also seems to have a better sense of direction that Blaine, maybe in part due to their difference in maturity with Blaine almost half the age of Tripp. Nonetheless, I get the sense that Tripp has meaning to his life, that the process of writing his fourth book Wonder Boys forms an important aspect of his life. Tripp has a true passion for writing, he has too many ideas than the pages of a book can hold and this passion for something in life is what I always felt was lacking in Blaine.

I find it interesting that I disliked Portia from Admissions for having an affair with John during her commitment to Mark, but I do not feel the same hostility towards Tripp despite the fact that he is adulterer and breaks Emily’s heart. I definitely feel sorry for Emily, taking into consideration the fact that she fought so hard to mend their marriage but I speculate that their relationship could still continue. I believe it is the way in which Tripp presents his flaws to us to explain his wrongdoings that make us forgive him for his actions. When he admits he’s a man “who falls in love so easily” and “with such a reckless lack of consideration for the consequences” of his actions, though we may not approve of his actions we understand why he did so and hence do not feel infuriated towards him. Portia never explains to us the reasons for her affair, so we view her as selfish and dishonest.

Sara and Tripp have an interesting relationship, though I feel much of which is built on lies, primarily on Tripp’s part. I’m rather surprised that Tripp does not reveal the details of the dog or the stolen jacket as I thought their relationship was stronger. It is evident that Sara is foolish in believing Tripp when he says he wants to be with her, that he loves her, that he will tell Emily he is having a baby with Sara. Tripp himself admits being “appalled” that despite Tripp for five years and seeing his loose ways she has so much trust in him. As Tripp reveals to us that deep down inside he wants to tell her to get an abortion, I predict that the story of Sara and Tripp is a disaster waiting to happen. Tripp still retains love for Emily, and the roses hint towards the fact that he will try reconcile with her possibly.

Miss Sloviak

Miss Antonia appears early in the novel and manages to capture my attention. When she (I will refer to Sloviak as “she” when dressed as a woman and as “he” when dressed as a man). When Tripp first sees Miss Antonia Sloviak with Crabtree in the beginning of the novel he refers to her as an attractive “person” and notes that he does not think that the she is a woman. I like how her scarf and the fact that it might be tied around her Adam’s apple is the give-away for her being a transvestite without it being said so explicitly. But when she goes into the ladies room it keeps the reading wondering about her gender but also keeps the interest. She is a transvestite or just an Amazon?

At the party, Miss Sloviak seems to be the one that is always asking simple and to the point question like “So is she pretty?” (referring to Sara) and “Why doesn’t he like you?” (referring to Doctor Dee’s barking at Tripp) that the reader is curious about. For me, it was like I did not realize that I wanted to know the answer to those questions until after they were asked. It’s not very elaborate technique and I do not even know if the author knew the great effect that it had on the reader but I think that it worked very well.

When Miss Sloviak came downstairs with Crabtree after they had just been fooling, I really felt bad for her. Tripp describes her as wobbling in her high heels and he just feels sorry for her stating that it must be hard being a drunken transvestite, which is something that I will tend to agree with (but not from personal experience).
The changing of Miss Sloviak from a woman back into her male self was done almost in a sensual manner. The author carefully describes the progresses, starting from him using the cold cream to wipe off the make-up to removing his brassiere and putting on male clothing to finally putting his supplies into his bag. He changes quickly and it’s done with the precision of something that happens repeatedly. Tony must have come from a religious family because there was a Virgin Mary statue in the front lawn of his house. This is probably a main reason why Tony feels that he need to “hide” his sexuality from his family and he finds it necessary to change out of his outfit before he returns home. Even though I can not identify with his struggles to hide a vital part of himself from his loved ones, I can definitely sympathize with him. It seems that he is not comfortable enough yet to reveal himself to his family or for that matter other people in the novel (other than Crabtree). And what good is Crabtree if after they two of them get “frisky” upstairs at the party, he abandons her to pursue Leer? No one wants to be regarded at a novelty and especially not someone who is not fully comfortable in the part that he/she is playing

Bittersweet compromise, albeit comes with recklessness and irrationality

Portia’s decision to admit Jeremiah Balakian and reject Jesse Bolton falls far from heroic in my opinion, to sum it in one word, bittersweet. Her ability to see through a student who is your atypical Princeton student in the sense that Jeremiah’s transcript is sub-par and his extra-curricular activities literally non-existent is somewhat moving. However, she does so at the expense of another student, which is where I come into disagreement with her decision. Jesse Bolton deserved his spot at Princeton, and despite the fact that he was going to go to Yale, he at least deserved recognition as a fantastic candidate, acknowledgement towards his life’s worth of hard work and well-earned achievements. Jesse Bolton would have undoubtedly felt somewhat disappointed, maybe even confused by his denial from Princeton and probably would have been discouraged to apply to Princeton University in the future should he ever choose to go to graduate school. Portia’s knowledge of Jesse Bolton’s choice to go to Yale did not come from Jesse Bolton himself, it came from an outside source. High school seniors are clueless when it comes down to life-changing decisions such as choosing which university offer to accept and which to decline. For all we know, he could have been persuaded to attend Princeton had he been given the opportunity to do so.

I never shared the same vision as Portia when it came to Jeremiah Balakian. Impressive at it was that he managed to take numerous AP exams without the educational privileges others had, as a whole I did not see the potential in him that made him exceptional in relation to the pool of well-rounded, deserving candidates. It never really occurred to me that Jeremiah would contribute to the Princeton community, that his life at Princeton would constitute isolating himself from his peers and dedicating his time to the academics solely. I stand firm to Clarence’s reaction towards Portia’s foolish actions. Clarence demonstrated professionalism and made Portia well aware of her misdemeanour, and her punishment was rightly justified. The decision was reckless though, and detrimental to her future which considering her age was not in her best interest. Portia forced herself into a brick wall – she can no longer make a future as an admissions officer and as Portia herself said, when she came out of college she had no idea where she wanted to head with her life and I have the feeling that she still retains that sense of unknowingness.

Portia’s encounters with Mark and John at the end of the book are surprising to me. Personally, I feel like she should have made amends with John more than Mark considering Mark’s infidelity and the fact that Portia walked out on John despite him causing her no harm. John was too lenient to Portia, given their circumstances and the history of their previous meeting. That carelessness to matters which should have been taken more seriously gives a negative undertone to the nature of their relationship, that I feel their relationship thrives purely on each other’s physical needs rather than emotional. I have no doubts that Portia and John will continue seeing each other but their relationship feels shallow and transient.

denial happens to good students

Considering Portia's culminating act as an admissions officer leads us to question all of the assertions that she has made about the admissions process throughout the book. I think that her decision to change Jeremiah's admissions decision is not only hypocritical of her, but in line with the behavior of some of the other parents that we have met in the book. All throughout her discussion of the process Portia has claimed that the disappointed parents were one of the worse aspects of her job. Now she has become one of those millennial parents, and it is perhaps this act of finally claiming her child that allows her to experience the closure that she needs so that she can move on with her life.

Her decision to make sure that Jeremiah gets admitted over the thousands and thousands of other students that have come through her office is an instinct that stems from her feelings as his mother. This unethical act of redemption is sort of a paradox. On the one hand, I can see why Portia feels like she has to do this. This kid is her son and she wants him to succeed. Also, I think that in some way Portia feels like the admissions process owes her something; she has spent about twenty years of her life in admissions and admissions has been her life. On the other hand I was angry at the fact that Portia took away the chance of some other teenager that could have taken the Yale boy's spot. She robbed some other bright young person on Princeton's wait list of a chance at an Ivy League education, and all of the recognition and opportunities that come along with that. Her decision might have been personally justifiable, but what she did was unforgivable and unethical. Although, we must ask ourselves, how is this denial any different from the tens of thousands of other denials? Is it because we believe that since Jeremiah didn't make it through the admissions process on his own that he is somehow unworthy of a chance to study at Princeton? I think these questions raise a multitude of other doubts about what a decision to admit really means. It is not a judgment purely of worth, and a denial is not an indication of failure. I think that Portia's reversal is not only indicative of what she owes Jeremiah, but also symbolic of what she feels she owes to all of the amazing kids that she has been forced to turn away over the years. This catharsis is a start of a new life for Portia, and it allows her to experience some closure. She is able to resolve things with Mark, reconcile in her relationship with her mother, and potentially start a new life with John. Catherine, another part of Portia's new life, functions as a kind of foil for what Portia's life could have been like if she had decided to raise her child. I think that this emphasizes the impact that this one decision has made on her life, and kind of takes a position for single parent households, which is unrelated and strange.

A for Jeremiah.

What Portia does for Jeremiah is arguably immoral. She denies, or rather, crushes an applicant’s hope of getting into Princeton. Although Jesse Bolton is determined to go to Yale, an admission to Princeton is not simply a chance to attend, but a symbol of capability. Getting into Princeton proves the applicants to be more capable than majority of high school grads that year. But Portia admits Jeremiah because not only that she believes he is capable but because she is repaying him for what she has owed for the past eighteen years. I think what Portia does for Jeremiah is giving back what he deserves. Portia owns Jeremiah the opportunity he always has been lacking. In many ways, Portia’s purpose for her action is to find relief. She wants to find relief to what she has owed Jeremiah. She wants relief from what has been hunting her for the past eighteen years. She wants relief from what have kept her the way she is. She wants relief from her job-addicted lifestyle. She does find that relief. She leaves Princeton. She releases herself from reading thousands of application letters each year. She releases herself from the pain that she kept inside of her for eighteen years. She is free from the past and her job, an occupation that had kept her in her past. She is free because of A she gives Jeremiah for Princeton admission. But what does admission really mean in this case? Jeremiah gain admission to Princeton, what does that mean to him? What does Jeremiah’s admission mean to Portia? Is the admission for Jeremiah or is it for Portia? Is Jeremiah’s admission an admission for Portia to herself? I feel like Portia has gained admission to herself. Hitting that A allows her to do something that she would never have done. I feel that Portia is obsess with her job and takes pride in her job that she would never transfer Jeremiah from denied to admitted pile if she has not been admitted to her inner self, to her past. She has finally willing to face her past and her inner self that she is willing to sacrifice her job for that admission. As for Jeremiah, I think he is admitted to not only Princeton but is also admitted to Portia’s world. She will be leaving Princeton, but he is to enter.

No more respect for Portia

I am personally astonished at the ending of this novel. I was somewhat indifferent towards the character of Portia but now I cannot stand her. The fact that she can morally change someone’s future without thinking twice about it is not something that I could even imagine doing. I think that this twist that concludes the novel leaves the readers with a bad taste in their mouths. I also believe that this event says a lot about the kind of person Portia turns out to be. The readers see her gradual improvement from a career obsessed admissions officer to more or a well rounded person. However, Jean Hanff Korelitz concludes the novel making Portia out to be a morally incorrect person. The decisions that she has made in the beginning and middle of the novel are all overridden by this one epic decision. Although I think that it may be unfair to judge someone by one incident, I think that the switching of acceptances on Portia’s behalf was big enough to judge her character. Even if the novel had more after this incident, I don’t think that any reader could look past this and have any respect for her as a character. I personally know that I could not relate to any character that could take part in this behavior without feeling any kind of remorse. If anything, this only makes me somewhat critical of the past decisions she has made even more than I did in the first place. Although I am not happy with the ending, I am happy that this novel ended at this point in Portia’s life because I don’t think that I could tolerate any of her other shenanigans.

If I had to say anything about the validity of this novel, I would say that I do not believe that it should something taught in a college course. I believe that it does have interesting points about the college acceptance process but I do not think that it has the makings that a college level novel should. In comparison to This Side of Paradise, I do not see the literary workings of Admission. I think that the topic is too closely related to our generation for it to be regarded as a classic. I think that This Side of Paradise has the time aspect in that it is a foreign time to the readers today. However, the college admissions process is one that college students have too recently taken part in and therefore do not appreciate. I personally can also see the “classic” aspect of This Side of Paradise rather than that of Admission because generally the language is harder to understand. As sad as it sounds, I feel like I have been taught in my years of schooling that a “classic” novel is often times labeled partly due to the difficult language that the author writes it in, therefore making only elites or people of higher education able to fully understand the meaning. I do not think that Admission possesses the ability to become a classic novel anytime soon.

Generation Gaps and the College Application Process

February 17th

So I never knew this, but that's what they're calling us “the Millennials”. The generation after Generation X who has are coming of age in 2000 and later. People who are born between 1977 and 1998, which I'm pretty confident includes most of our class and the real-life applicants that are depicted in the book. Between Admission and This Side of Paradise, our class has focused a lot on generations, and in that vein, generation gaps. Needless to say, our college application expereince is diffrerent from that of our parents. In the scene in Admission when Portia visits John's family and talks to his sister, Deborah, they have what we are lead to believe is a typically aggressive conversation about the college admissions process. Deborah talks about her husband going to Cornell as back up school, saying that he was “supposed to go to Yale”. Porita wonders cynically what that is even supposed to mean. But despite this comment, Deborah does have a point; the very idea of college is different from how it was when some of our parents were applying to college, and so clearly our applications are different.

This got me thinking about my parents' role in my college application process. I was blessed to not end up with helicopter parents, but my parents, my mother in particular, were really involved in the process. The nagging that got me to finish up applications over Christmas break, the support system that pulled me back into the fray when I faced repeated rejections. I'm the oldest of my siblings, so this was a whole new territory for my family. Although all my parents when to college (I say 'all' because both my biological parents are remarried, so there's four of them in total), but no one had an experience like me. While I love and respect my parents, I'm smarter than they were. None of them even thought of applying to the big shot Ivies I applied to. My step-mom went to the art school down the street, and my step-dad had to go part time to help support the family. But its more than the actual colleges they ended up at. I didn't get the sense that my parents had to jump through the same contrived hoops that I, that we, that this generation did. My step-mom worked the animal shelter because she liked animals, that's it. My mom was captain of the field hockey team, but only because she really liked field hockey and played seventh grade through her senior year. My dad put in long hours at his job because it was a family business; the whole family put in long hours at the business. And my step-dad certainly didn't use his application to explain why this smart kid was coming off two years of part-time community college, because it was none of the admission officers business. When I had him read one of my essay drafts about our some what unexpected relationship, how blood relations have never really defined family for me, he was plenty touched, but also a little confused. Why would the college admissions officers care what I thought about family beyond financial aid questions?

I think that the application process has certainly changed from one generation to the next. The question that remains to be seen, it what kind of grown-ups we end up being because of it.

PS, This is a kind of cool article I found about marketing to our demographic. Not sure if I totally agree with it, but interesting anyway. http://www.abanet.org/lpm/lpt/articles/mgt08044.html

Trust and Admission

I have extremely mixed feelings about what Portia does for Jeremiah. On a personal level, Portia makes an admirable sacrifice when she decides to give the opportunity to Jeremiah and lose her job. However, on a professional level, it is completely out of line and inappropriate. The committee had voted on the decision and it is absolutely wrong for her to take the decision in to her own hands. Her decision and the thought process she went through to make this decision resonates with my opinion that Portia takes her job too personally and assumes that she has more power and influence then she actually has. However, in this specific case, it also settles well with me that Jesse Bolton was planning on attending Yale anyways and only his pride was hurt while Jeremiah now has the opportunity to attend Princeton. I am interested in the application of the “admission” theme to this section of the reading as well. I like the idea that different people see different people as worthy of admission based on different aspects of their personalities and credentials. Portia sees Jeremiah worthy of admission while most of the others do not. In Portia’s view, his grades do not make up his potential, rather his reasons for the grades and his story are what makes him a viable candidate. However, according to the others involved in the decision, his grades define his potential. This also applies to Mark’s decision to marry Helen. Although Portia is not able to see what makes Helen worthy of “admission to marriage” over herself, Mark clearly places higher value on Helen rather than Portia. This novel also spoke to me on a personal level. When I first received my acceptance in to Carnegie Mellon, I could not understand why. I had already been rejected from USC and Occidental College after putting in countless hours in to the applications for both. Up until reading this novel, I had never really thought about the different people that would be reading my applications. For some reason, I have always thought about the school as a whole accepting or rejecting me, not so much an individual person deciding my fate. It is interesting to think about the people who read each of my applications; who decided what made me worthy or not to attend their university, what their basis for judging me was, what aspects of my personality and credentials they placed the most value on. This also leads me to think about what I judge other people based on. What aspects of their personalities and credentials do I most value? What do I require of other people that want to gain admission in to my thoughts? The meaning of “admission” is becoming more tied to the idea of trust. College admission is a sign that the college trusts that the applicant will bring honor to the school. Personal admissions are a sign of given trust and a tool to gain trust. Admission fees are required to create a bond of trust between the giver and the receiver. Can admission mean to trust?

Portia and the ending

So about that end……yea, I don’t think that I got it. There must be another chapter or at least a passage that is missing from my book. …No? Really? Well, then I just hate the ending.

I found it very “soap opera”y the whole side story about how Jeremiah, the kid that Portia found brilliant in the beginning of the novel, just happens to be the son that she gave up for adoption many years ago and now she is fighting to get him into Princeton. I think that the author wanted us to root for Jeremiah and for us to want him to be accepted to Princeton because he had a brilliant mind and he was disadvantaged in life because he was adopted and his parents were not learned people. However, he was not a responsible individual; he did not do his homework or sit in for tests, and he was the person that Princeton was supposed to accept over all the other applicants? I do not think so. It is not just about being intelligent, it is important to use that intelligence for something.

What Portia did was so unethical that it blew my mind. First she “arranged” folders for the committee review in an order that was favorable to Jeremiah. Even while he was being presented to the committee, I knew right away that he was not going to be accepted. He could not compete against the other applicants. And on top of that, I was so bitter that “the odds were stacked in his favor” that I just wanted someone to take his application and throw it out the window. Then after Jeremiah was rejected, Portia had the audacity to switch his rejection with that of Jesse just because Jesse was going to Yale. The whole time that I was reading that passage I had a look of horror on my face that such an act was being committed before me.
Portia loses her job over this. I found it strange how she took being fired so nonchalantly, like she had a back-up plan or something (which she did not seem to have). She just drives away and decides to help her mother raise the new baby in Vermont. However there is no mention or how Portia is going to support herself now. She just leaves and does not take into account that she does not really have any employable skills since she can not work in any other college’s admission office. It just does not seem very realistic to me.

In the last chapter of the novel, Portia just happens to arrive at the Quest school during its high school graduation. John greets her and basically implies that they will be dating in the near future and gives the impression that he is offering her a job as a college admissions advisor at the school. That just seemed too perfect to me to be realistic in the slightest. Then Portia declines to speak with Jeremiah which I did not understand. If I was in her situation, I would have at least wanted to give the kid a hug; after all he is her long-lost son but she instead she was just content to look at him. Who is this woman??!?!?! If I had any good feelings towards initially they were all gone by the end.

In my opinion, the worst part of the novel was the ending.

Admission

In this section of Admission I very interested in Portia's reaction to seeing students in person. While reading the book, I felt as if Portia feels uncomfortable being around students. Maybe she has grown so accustomed to being introduced to students through paperwork that she now feels uncomfortable meeting students in person. When Portia met Simone, a prospective college student, I also found that whole interaction to be so forced and awkward. First of all, Simone went to go and visit Bryn Mawr earlier in the day, and she would not even get out of the car and explore the University. She judged the school purely based upon initial reaction and how it looked. How come someone who probably writes about how deserving she is to go to a University would write off an entire school based upon initial reaction. It was so strange in my mind. I felt as if Simone was someone who was not ready for middle school, let alone college. Another student that Portia met was Nelson, someone who was so infatuated with his video game that he would barely even acknowledge people who are in his vicinity. I was hoping to see more of a reaction from Portia to this interaction. I am very interested in seeing the Admission's officers faces when they admit purely brilliant and technologically advanced students in their schools but these same students are so ill prepared for life as they are missing any semblance of “people skills” or any type of decent human interaction.

I guess I wouldn't blame Portia for her poor interactions with college age student's, as questions about her career as an Admission's officer will almost undoubtedly come up, and it must be kind of repetitive. Also, when she meets someone who is about to apply to college, (like John's niece) she must feel used when she gives free college counseling. Portia's job really defines her whole life, almost everything she says, or does is somewhat involved with her job as an Admission's officer. She gets this overly judgmental personality that comes with the job, and in my opinion makes her resent the students aged 17-19. Whether the resentment comes from her paradox of being in power over the student and yet feel inferior to the same student's achievements, or maybe in the simple fact that she doesn't like to judge students, Portia lets her career define her entire character. For most, the college application process is a painful, one time occurrence. For Portia, it seems like the college application business is a painful career long process. I have always felt that the whole college experience is overrated, and that the way Portia described the application was the perfect analogy. She described the application as an iceberg, where only the best, most interesting facts are visible, however, there still is a lot of stuff that never comes up from under the water in an application. I feel the same way as how the system has been studied, and people who do well with this process are either very persuasive, or would do very well as con-artists.

Application Process & Expectations

I never really thought about the college admission process as much as I have now that I’m reading this book. The extent of my understanding was that I had to have certain things (essays, letters of recommendation, transcripts…) by certain due dates. All of which was very time consuming, very taxing, and very annoying to have to deal with. It was like taking another class on top of my already busy schedule. There were way too many things to keep track of for the different schools I applied to. But I never really gave any thought to what happened to those papers and forms once I sent them in (mere moments before the deadlines, of course).

The beginning of the second section of the book is all about Portia in “reading season.” It’s so bizarre to think of these people whose job it is to basically dig a hole in the ground and (instead of hibernating) read through all of these folders filled with dozens of papers summing up numerous kids’ lives. I started thinking about my own essays and (from what I remember) they just seem so lame. I hardly gave any thought at all to them; I was so completely overwhelmed at the time. I guess it all just seemed so remote—what college I would go to, to study what subject, and do what for the rest of my life… I was (am still, actually) so completely uncertain about my future that the whole thing seemed absurd.

Portia is very perceptive when she says that these kids are just teenagers feigning certainty in themselves and of their aspirations and goals (of something to that effect). The college applicant is practically required to lie a little because they feel they are expected to have their lives planned out already. Which really isn’t far from the truth. Just like Portia, I am a middle-of-the-road kid. I dabbled in everything and did well in everything but I don’t have an area of expertise. I thought college was going to be about taking whatever classes I wanted to, just to learn as much as I possibly could about all the things that interest me. what I found, thought, is that it is much more about figuring out what you’re going to do (or at least what area of study) and become as much of an expert as quickly as possible. I didn’t expect college to be this way and I certainly didn’t want it to be this way.

Mamas and Papas

One running theme that I have noticed in the book is an examination of the relationship between mother and child. The most obvious representation of this is Portia's relationship with her mom, which is discussed at great length through her inner dialogue. Portia seems to think of herself as her mother's failed experiment, an attitude that I think reflects the fact that Portia doesn't really have her own identity but lives vicariously through the applicants and, in the beginning of the book, Mark. Portia feels like she is a failure because she didn't turn out like her mom wanted her to turn out. This disappointment seems to be a real thread when it comes to motherhood. Rachel seems to be a normal, functioning mom, but she's the only one. Portia herself has grappled with motherhood, a struggle that appears to have scarred her for life. Her decision not to become a mother, to have an abortion, is an underlying theme of inner dissent for Portia, and perhaps her ultimate failing as her mother's project. Her decision not to be a mom haunts her especially now in her later life. Catherine forces Portia to confront her earlier decision to forgo motherhood. Catherine's situation is middling, as she has become somewhat of a foster child to Helen, while carrying a child that could wind up being Helen's. Catherine doesn't seem to have any reservations about having a baby, but at the same time she doesn't seem to have any intentions to raise one. She is sort of detached from the idea of motherhood, as if she still cannot believe that she will be a mother. Helen seems to really love Portia, but she has trouble showing it. Helen also has an odd relationship with Catherine, and a duplicitous one, as she does not believe that she will wind up taking care of Catherine's baby. Deborah and Simone are yet another mother-daughter pair. They could almost be an echo of Helen and Portia, with Simone as Deborah's project of parenthood, although perhaps a more successful one.

We are only introduced to one father-son pair in the novel so far, Nelson and John. They are a functional pair, and although there is some tension on the subject of video games, it doesn't appear to be a deep tension, just a sort of general annoyance. They are not biologically related, but appear to have a deep personal connection, and their relationship is simpler and more elegant than those of their mother-daughter counterparts. Mark is a father without a daughter, something that greatly troubles him, but his efforts to keep in touch with his daughter seem to show the power of a father's bond. John says that Nelson became his son because the priest simply told him that the baby was his son, and so he was. This kind of clear relationship is again, not present elsewhere. Parenthood takes many forms in this novel, and produces many different types of children.­ It will be interesting to watch these relationships develop further.

What are we doing here?

If I have learned anything from this book so far, it is probably how insignificant my story seems in comparison with everyone else who was applying to college at the same time as me. There are so many times Portia seems to lump all the students in the same general categories, from this type of "I have good scores but no remarkable feats" to the kids who wrote the "I traveled far and learned x, ,y and z" essay. While Portia's role in the story may be serving to try and personify the college-application process, if anything, this just discourages my opinion of the whole thing. Everything is so stereotypical, and no matter how hard you try to present yourself as the exception to the rules, you're still perpetuating the archetypal "look at me, I'm different" student. You fill out the little boxes and basically give the admissions counselors your entire life story in a couple pages and less than 500 words or so, only to lump yourself into a category. I know she tries to explain that this process is flawed in that certain kids do not come across well on their applications or in person, but this does not remedy the situation.

She even remarks upon how it is almost a gamble on who to pick for the next incoming freshman class, with her metaphor of the "seemingly identical sheep who cram themselves into a building...[and] only a thin lie of sheep trickled out into bountiful sheep" (212). It seems like in terms of college admissions, we're all the same. It doesn't matter about us as individuals, but rather just as numbers. If you pick enough high SAT scores, enough international students and diverse students, enough strong writers, enough talented athletes and musicians and debaters, you will formulaically compose a strong class. It does not matter who these people are, just what numbers they compose after everything is said and done. I mean, this isn't a shocker or revelation; college is pretty much a game of chance to begin with, as I am not really anymore qualified to be here than another student with similar scores and similar activities. We all think we have a hook, an edge or something that sets us apart, but we fail to remember that everyone has something that makes them ideal for acceptance. While the book is trying to point out that there is some degree of thought behind admissions, I can't really take it seriously by the constant references to the lack of difference from one accepted student to the other.

Millennial parents and the unforgiving nature of human fallibility

An interesting issue Portia brings up is the role of “millennial parents”, parents who breed their children into Ivy League material from birth so that by the time they apply to college they have transformed into well-rounded applicants. I think that this issue is particularly relevant to our generation, and reflects the competition that exists nowadays in order to get into the top colleges in the nation. Portia’s commentary brings into question the following; to what degree does parental influence in their child’s nurturing affect the applicant’s success in getting into college, and to what degree is parental influence too much?

There are definitely advantages to parents who push their children into enrolling in extracurricular activities and prestigious schools from a very young age. My parents had me participating in ballet classes and private piano lessons from the age of four. Although my parents had no intention at the time of grooming me into the perfect applicant for a top college in America (simply because they assumed I would remain in New Zealand where college admission is uncompetitive), that early advantage did pull me further ahead than others who did not have that opportunity. With college admissions getting tougher each year with increased number of applicants, parents realise that well-roundedness must be started from an early age. Yes, SAT prep classes may strengthen the applicant but that alone is not sufficient. For those who do not have the advantages of SAT prep and prestigious prep schools, are they at a disadvantage? Perhaps, but I believe that truly deserving applicants who are driven purely by personal motives will still shine through over well-groomed, parental controlled applicants as natural talent is stronger than nurtured talent. And Portia’s point that children whose parents influence their upbringing too much lack personal drive is a valid point. Perhaps it is wise that colleges monitor parental contact in assessing an applicant, as Portia mentions how two other Ivies have done so.

Portia’s insight into the application process is less daunting than we make it to be. It is comforting to know that admission officers such as herself do not immediately dismiss students with low SAT scores because they are aware that numerical figures are not directly correlated with ability to write. What is worrying however is the consequence of making a clumsy error in an essay, such as misspelling a book title as Portia mentions. Portia seems to make it clear that when there are such limited places, such errors are so costly to an applicant especially when the pool of applicant grows stronger each year. We are fallible human beings, but the admissions office gives little leeway to our innate clumsiness. It sounds harsh, and is in a way, but at the same time I am in agreement with the process. Yes, little errors show little care and dedication towards applying to a college as prestigious as Princeton, and when you are fighting with twenty thousand others for admission it only seems logical that an admissions officer such as Portia would ultimately choose to decline admission. In essence, the stakes are high, and mistakes are unforgiving.

 

feelings on Portia and some on death

I had trouble relating to Portia after Mark left her for Helen. I understand that it must have been a shock for her to learn that after sixteen years with Mark, he could cheat on her with another woman. And on top of that, he even got the other woman pregnant, not very classy of him. But I found it very strange that she was so hurt by his actions when just a few days prior she had cheated on Mark with John. Therefore, it was really hard to sympathize with her pain and confusion about the situation because SHE HAD ALSO CHEATED.

I think that it is hard for me to empathize with Portia when she “fell apart” after Mark suddenly and without any previous warning moved out of the house that they shared. Couples I have known have split up but never have I even actually heard of anyone acting in the same way as Portia did. She did not shower, shop for groceries, do laundry, or even do basic chores around the house. I was appalled when I read that passage about John coming to her house and the state that everything was in. Forgetting to turn off lights happens occasionally to everyone, but to not even remember the last time that you were in the same room as the lamp is ridiculous. She did not even realize that the heat in the house was not turned on until John mentioned that her “heat may be out.” Other incidents that I found outrageous included the mail overflowing from the mailbox, stacking piles of student admissions on the side of the bed where Marks used to sleep, and having a hard time finding clean underwear to wear.

However, this passage made me think about how I treat death (Mark leaving Portia can be viewed as a kind of death, at least the unexpected death of a loved one). Only three people who have been close to my family have died. My great aunt, who lived in Poland, died when I was twelve and that was the first person who was close to me to die. I remember that I had seen her only a few months before during the summer and I should have been more upset when she I learned that she had died from a stroke. I remember thinking that at least she was with God since she had always been very religious and that was really it. Both my grandfathers died when I was eighteen and within a year of each other. I remember that I was very shocked and I cried maybe a minute or two but I think that was from the shock more than anything else. I quickly made my peace and moved on. I think that a large portion of why death does not seem to affect me that much is because in my family you do not dwell on the negative parts of death. Instead both my grandfathers are remembered fondly and we sometimes even go as far as to laugh at their expense. We know that they are gone but you need to live your life because the past is in the past.

You can't run away from your life

Everything Portia’s been running away from is catching up with her.

Portia was reading applications when she realized that almost all of the applicants were born in the same year she had her baby. She had a hard time grasping the idea that she could possibly be the mother of one of the Princeton applicants she reviews and makes decisions about. This section ends with this line, “So it’s here she thought. As if she hadn’t been waiting, and for years, for just this moment” (141). Why was she waiting for this moment—the moment when the child she had was old enough to apply to colleges? Is she hoping that by chance one of the applicants she comes to know and grows close to by reading their applications and essays is her own child? Is she hoping for some link to the child she gave up?

Another thing that Portia was running away from was the acknowledgement of her deteriorating relationship with Mark. She was consciously settling in her relationship with Mark,and she was choosing being comfortable over being happy. On their drive to Vermont, Mark told Portia that he and Helen were pregnant together and that he was leaving Portia to be with her. What an admission huh? (I must say this book is very predictable—I saw this coming when Helen was being such a jerk to Portia at the dinner). A sixteen year relationship is over just like that. However, Portia had just had a conversation with her friend Rachel that same day about her relationship with Mark. Rachel told Portia that she wanted her to be happy, and if her relationship with Mark made her happy then great, but if it didn’t that she should find a relationship that did. The timing was perfect. David’s infidelity gave Portia the freedom that may allow her to find a relationship that truly makes her happy.

Portia had to go straight from this disaster into the one waiting for her at her mom’s house in Vermont. The pregnant teenager that her mom took in is causing Portia to remember her own secret pregnancy. When she takes Caitlin, the pregnant teenager, to the midwife’s office, she has an anxiety attack. Caitlin’s situation is hitting Portia too close to home. Portia admits for the first time, to Caitlin after her appointment, that she was pregnant once. Maybe Caitlin’s presence will help Portia finally come to terms with her past actions and move on once and for all. Maybe this lost seventeen-year-old girl will help Portia find herself.

You can’t run away from yourself or your past. Portia is beginning to realize this. All of the things she thought she was hiding so well are coming to the surface, and she is not ready to deal with them all. Portia’s carefully arranged world is crumbling down around her. How many more admissions will she make, and to whom?

We shall see.

Re: The Relationship Between 'Smarts' and Maturity (for Applicants Especially)

As Portia looks over the college applications in the novel, she is trying to put together a picture of students on the whole, not just their grades, but their encapsulated life stories. Which got me thinking about the relationship between different kinds of “smarts” and maturity. We-- or at least I-- sort of have this internalized connection between being smart and being mature. I think its more than a superiority complex, I do think generally smart people have a greater a appreciation for...I don't know, more complicated jokes or something. So there does appear to be some connection. I think in order to discuss this any further, I need to do some defining.
First off, smarts (I'm aware that that isn't really a word, but I'm trying not to use something I may want to define later). There are different kinds of and ways to be smart. Memorizing tons of information from books, and knowing lots of facts is one, and being able to interpret information is another; the ability to create something someone else will understand is another kind of smartness, and so forth. These all generally fall into the category of academic or school smarts. There is, of course, a lot of overlap, but people have their strengths and weaknesses within the category. Separate from that is what is commonly referred to as “street smarts” which again, I think has many facets. Whilst I wouldn't last a day on the streets in the city, I know my way around my familiar environments pretty well. Adjusting you society may seem kind of obvious, and not a kind of intelligence, but I really think it is. If I was suddenly a migrant farmer, I wouldn't know what to do, how to get my food, where to go to sleep. If I was suddenly thrown into a wealthy fancy environment, I don't think I would know how to react. In either of these situations, I'm confident I'd be able to figure it out. But I don't have that knowledge now. I also think that that adaptability is a skill, or maybe a personality trait, the way some kids take to college really easily and some struggle to get themselves together a little bit; its like grown-up sleep-away camp; some kids get homesick and cry a lot, and some kids jump right in to the canoeing and arts and crafts. Most, I think, float somewhere in between.
Which leads to my discussion on maturity. I consider myself a mature person, but I think that a big part of that is recognizing elements of my own maturity. A three year old can cry, “Myself! Myself!” all they want, and they are not more mature than the kid who asks for help. When I say “maturity” I don't mean just taking care of yourself, although I think that's part of it. To me, maturity also includes security, a certain amount of self-confidence tempered by the humbleness to ask for help. And all of this is blanketed with a huge “I am not sure” because I am not.
Now to reconcile the two. I don't think they are unrelated, but I also don't think there is any notable causation. Being smart does not make you mature and lots of mature people are not that smart, particularly “book smart”.

While Portia's impression of the students whose applications she reads is generally positive, she finally expresses some sort of disdain towards them in the second passage of the reading. On page 82, her observations depict the averageness of these students, despite their place in such a top tier school. She remarks upo n their “identical Stabucks containers and identical backpacks…disappearing into orange anonymity” (Korelitz 82). On paper, students are able to hide their unoriginality beneath awards and recognitions and scores and extracurricular activities, making them appear remarkable and above and beyond their peers. However, in person, you cannot distinguish the extraordinary from the average; a person cannot be their resume one-hundred percent of the time.

I thought this idea was interesting, in that, on some level, all students at this age are relatively the same. While we might vary on levels of intelligence or ambition or drive, to some extent, we all have the same natural tendency to fit the social norms around us. It is hard, sometimes, to remember that as college kids, we are still that – kids. The college application process wreaks such havoc over our lives from the minute we step in the door on the first day of freshman year that it is hard to remember that we still are very young and inexperienced. In this way, we are encouraged as freshmen in high school to consider high school and consequently college as the ultimate path to adult success, as good college educations are equated with highly-demanded jobs.

However, to what extent should this pressure be a burden on students? Is it necessarily a bad thing that Portia perceives the students as ordinary, even though they are obviously not? I think there is something refreshing about being similar to one’s peers, as it is part of growing up: learning where you fit among the social scene that surrounds you. Especially at a place like Carnegie Mellon, where we are stereotypically socially awkward, it might not be such a bad thing if we take a break from being the extraordinary, bright young adults that we are and remember that we can take the time and relax and enjoy being young and ordinary, as well.

The details of Portia's job as an admissions officer at Princeton really intrigued me. When I wrote my college application, I never gave much thought to the massive task it is to read through all those applications and find out who most deserved entrance into the University. The details about the parents gathering during a college tour, and then wondering what the student tour guide did to deserve the elusive spot at Princeton, vs. what their own children have done was really funny to me. When I was a prospective student, I remember attending the campus tours with the Carnegie Mellon student tour guides. I also remember thinking that these tour guides were so lucky to have gotten into CMU, and that I would have no chance. It definitely feels better now, as a current CMU student to walk past a tour group and seeing the situation from the other side. When reading Portia's description of the prospective student's applications, I felt sick to my stomach about what competition there is out there. It definitely makes me think of how unhappy I would have been had I been rejected from CMU. Portia has a lot of power over prospective students, college is the number one priority for many of these kids and its the ultimate culmination of everything they have ever done up to that point. I was extremely appalled by the tactics legacies will play to help their chances. Especially when Portia rejected that student who made a point of his double legacy during the tour. I also felt sorry for many people who work in admissions for universities. I remember when I first found out that one of Carnegie Mellon's admissions representatives did not go to Carnegie Mellon, it made me think twice about whether I should listen to her. I feel foolish for even judging her over it, and she did an excellent job selling Carnegie Mellon to me, so I am now fully convinced that one should not judge a college representative if that representative did not go to the school he/she represents. I found it hilarious though when Portia mentions that the director of admissions at MIT did not even have a college degree!

Another thing I took for granted about being a college representative was how much travel the job requires. I felt so sorry for whoever had to make the west coast trips for the Princeton office, as that travel schedule looked like hell. Also, the way that Portia shakes off the disappointment for each individual student is really impressive. From the very beginning of the book she mentions how each rejection breaks her heart, and she knows how disappointing it must be for the students. I feel like the college application process has definitely been more humanized since I started reading this book. I definitely feel really lucky to have gotten into my top college choice, and I feel really badly for those who had to face such disappointing news.

essays and apathy

Portia's job is selling the college, but I don't think that she works in admissions because she believes in the college experience. Portia works in admissions because she is addicted to the folders with their “perfect paper people.” She can't keep herself from getting attached to the people whose applications she reads. Also, I think that Portia sees some of herself in the applicants, and this is another huge draw for her. She is still at a stage in her life where she isn't sure of her own achievements and commitments, just like the applicants. Portia has many astute observations about college students that I think are very reflective of having been on both sides of the process. These observations are sort of where the great literature happens in the book, when Portia talks about the difference between the confident applications that she receives and the students that then materialize, the students who never believe that they are good enough. These observations are profound and revealing, both about Portia's character and, probably, what her college experience was like. She also talks about the college experience as being part of a tradition, which is an aspect of the college experience that ties in with This Side of Paradise.

I enjoy the excerpts from college essays that come at the beginning of the chapters, I don't know if you guys have been reading those, but you probably should. The excerpts really frame the story, and I think some of them give us more insight into what Portia has to deal with on a daily basis. Many of them are heart wrenching, and I find myself wondering how she can stand carrying those secrets along with her in her daily life. Other essay excerpts are generic and tedious, even in short form, and these remind us that, although Portia does read many stories that are deep and terrible and secret, this is her job. The fact that Portia returns to her folders when her world is shattered by the loss of her partner is interesting. Throughout the novel Portia seems to prefer the people as they appear on applications to actual flesh and blood people. She even thinks of the people she meets sort of in terms of the kind of information that they would put on their application, or the kind of applicant that they would be.

Portia is not necessarily satisfied with her work in the admissions office, but she doesn't know what else she could be doing. She is sort of bereft of her own life. She has been going along with her relationship with Mark and her job in admissions because it was fine, and she didn't see any need to change it, even though she was no longer passionate about her relationship with Mark and she feels like she doesn't have much to show for her years of work. Portia's apathy about her life is sort of scary because it isn't obviously a bad thing, but at the same time it is fundamentally disturbing.

Questioning Education

As Portia heads home from the Office of Admission, she observes the students on the campus grounds and wonders to herself if she could match the admission files to the students. Princeton is a highly selective school, and these students were admitted because they conveyed in their application that they had something worth contributing to the university. But Portia muses that when they arrived on campus they each seemed like any other student from any other university: "They were good kids, ambitious kids. But they were so ordinary, too."

I feel like this reflects how college applications are becoming "a game." I wonder if the college application process can really measure things like creativity, earnestness, integrity, intelligence, passion. Is there a way of determining who deserves or does not deserve to attend college? Decide between these: someone who has an impressive resume, and someone who is committed to the pursuit of knowledge. The first is able to display something concrete: here's a list of all my activities and accomplishments. The second person? Maybe not. I am suggesting that there are so many talented and intellectual people out there who slip through the fine cracks of college application simply because they did not have anything concrete to show for their interests, or because they were never given the opportunity to further these interests. And I think this is a great pity.

It seems as though the selection process is to pick out those who are already outstanding, to make them even more so. Maybe this makes sense, but I feel sympathetic towards the case of those who do not gain college admission. I was very intrigued by the students at Quest School: their education system is so extraordinary and different from that which I have been accustomed to, and yet it is capable of producing intellectual students. But the school is unknown, and has never sent anyone off to college. Portia's visit to the school throws light on the fact that there are so many people who "deserve" to go to college but, for various reasons, don't or can't.

At the same time, I am both amused and saddened by how the world works today. At least in the society I am acquainted with back in Malaysia, we all go through the same stages in life: kindergarten, primary school, secondary school, college, work. In some ways you could say that I didn't actually have an undying desire to go to college; I'm here at Carnegie Mellon because going to college is what people do after secondary/high school. Also, in a broader sense, the general perception is that college is part of the pathway to getting a successful job or even to changing the world. And it's true -- college can help us do all that. But it's become an unspoken rule thatnot going to college makes you a relative failure. That's not true at all. We can change the world in huge ways without attending college (like Bill Gates), and we can change the world in small ways that go unseen and unrecognized (also without attending college) -- I think both are equally laudable.



"And what, as whole people, do you intend to do with your lives?" Portia said testily.

"Live them," said a boy on another couch. "Live them well, tread lightly on the earth. Leave the planet better than we found it."

-- Admission, pg. 37

Judgment

The college admissions process is based primarily on judgment. Colleges judge the students on every front possible, from their personal triumphs, to their academic success, to even their athletic achievements, all the while without truly knowing any of the applicants. Seniors in high school judge the colleges based on each of the colleges’ reputations. Pictures, numbers and various admissions officers define each college before the students are able to go and define it for themselves. As an admission’s officer for Princeton, Portia is required to judge each applicant’s character and credibility without ever meeting them. It is her job to decide which individuals deserve the privilege of attending her university. Furthermore, it is her duty to make sure that Princeton receives applications from the most sought after students. She gives a face to the school. However, because of her intense involvement in both the recruitment and selection of students, Portia translates the skills her job requires in to her every day life. Portia judges every person she meets before she knows them because that is entirely what her job is based on.

As an admissions officer, Portia believes that it is her duty to impress the students and parents that she talks to. While she was working on the west coast, she could do this while wearing casual clothing. However, once working in New England, she knows that she is being judged based on her clothing, and immediately takes action by spending “nearly a thousand dollars at an Ann Taylor outlet” (9). Although she herself did not go to Princeton, she knows that people will still judge the school based on their judgment of her.

During her visits to various New England high schools, Portia first judges the students as a whole, based on the reputation of each school, and then judges individual students based on their interactions with her and each other. At Deerfield, a prestigious New England prep school, she already knows what to expect from both the college counselor and the students. They look, sound and act as she had expected. Then, as she begins speaking to individual students, she begins forming what almost seems to be a college admissions “file” for each of them, gauging whether or not they have what it takes to get in to Princeton. She then goes to Quest School, a new high school with an alternative way of teaching students. Although she does not know what to expect, she immediately begins the same process of judgment. Although she is taken aback by the way one student challenges her, she also tags her as one who could potentially belong at Princeton.

Portia brings her work home and continues to judge even those who are not supposed to impress her. During the dinner party with Mark, David, Rachel and Helen, Portia scrutinizes each of Helen’s actions throughout the entire night. Beginning with Helen’s address to the amount of Mark’s work, Portia continues to tear in everything that Helen does. Even Portia’s husband, Mark, recognizes this transgression.

Unnatural and Contrived

So, I don’t like the book very much so far. It’s alright, but I don’t think it’s very good. Korelitz uses some nice descriptions and generally appropriate word choice with a large vocabulary… but other than that I don’t think the novel is written very well. Everything—Portia, her emotions, thoughts, the situations she finds herself in—all seem so artificial and contrived. For instance, the frequent, vague references to some part of Portia’s past that she is trying to suppress or ignore or forget is a blatant attempt to pull the reader into the book with suggestions of some ominous plot twist, or some irrelevant secret of Portia’s past. Most likely she got pregnant at some point.

Also, the author has a tendency to write in a conspicuous and unnatural way: the “awkwardness” described between Portia and John when they first meet, and how he just so happens to have been madly in love with her since way back when, even though she has no idea who he is. And they way Portia ‘didn’t allow herself to think about what she intended or wanted to happen that night with John’ sounds more like Korelitz trying to surprise the reader and not Portia being completely unconscious to her own thoughts.

The references made to pop culture are almost painful and seems so deliberately placed into the scenery/environment of the novel. Starbucks, Harry Potter, Facebook… the references feel too out of place to be natural. It’s almost as if Korelitz googled “teenage interests” and tried—rather unsuccessfully—to seem savy about pop culture. In this way I think Korelitz is too blatantly trying to appeal to teenagers while the book itself seems written more for middle-aged adults.

I also dislike the overly omniscient feel Portia exudes as the main character, like she can sometimes read people’s thoughts. It goes beyond being able to read people well; she extracts or infers information about potential applicants and those whose actual applications she reads that she could not possibly know or come up with simply given the information at hand. Making assumptions or guessing about other people is fine, but Portia is so definite in her conclusions, she does not portray them as inferences, but as facts.

This blog ended up sounding pretty hateful, but I actually don’t despise the book. It reads much more easily than This Side of Paradise, but that’s probably just because Admission is a more modern novel. Overall, the book just seems a little empty. I believe that for a novel, it’s pretty okay, but the book is definitely not literature.

Respectability towards reputation and ranking? Definitely

The topic of college rankings and college reputation discussed at Portia’s dinner gathering upon her return from New England brings into question to what extent to these numerical figures impact our decisions to apply to particular universities? Having gone through the experience of applying, it is such irony that Portia brings up the subject of U.S News and World Report’s national college rankings because that source became a major figure in my application process as a senior in high school. My selection of universities was determined primarily by rankings. I selected only private institutions and ones only within the top 25, the reason being that anything lower and my parents made the justification that anything below that standard and I would be receiving an education of a similar standard elsewhere but at a significantly reduced price.

Furthermore, as an international student who lived over 9,500 miles away from the United States I never had the luxury of visiting the colleges I was accepted into, so naturally my source of eliminating the weaker options was through these statistical figures. Portia’s discussion of how these rankings affect the yield and the applicant pool of a college is hence so relevant to my own experience. For me, I was torn between Middlebury College and Carnegie Mellon. Middlebury was the fourth ranked liberal arts school, had a yield rate twice that of Carnegie Mellon’s and had accepted under 20% of its applicants. Carnegie Mellon on the other hand was only ranked 22^nd under the national college rankings and its acceptance rate was shockingly high. The reason why I ultimately chose Carnegie Mellon over Middlebury was reputation. No one from my region of the world had the remotest idea of what Middlebury was, but for the most part, they had heard of Carnegie Mellon. The moral of my story? Rankings are everything.

I disagree however with Portia’s view that the role of admission is reversed once a student is admitted into a college. Portia seems to infer that colleges have to fight to lure students to actually enrol. I can understand that colleges may offer students merit scholarships or athletic scholarships to entice the strongest admitted students to enrol but I know for a fact that financial awards of any form are not offered to international students so there is no mechanism drawing us in. In addition, Carnegie Mellon in my opinion had the most unwelcoming admission process of any other college I applied to. The way in which the school informed its applicants of admission was a small word in a box that you would only notice if you checked your application status page on a regular basis, no notification of when decisions were released and no formal acceptance letter until many weeks later via the slowest form of air mail. Every other college that admitted me sent me a FedEx package. Those small gestures made me feel wanted by those schools even if they weren’t as well recognised for their academics. I know that Princeton University’s admission process is in no way unique because my sister enrolled there as an undergraduate, coincidentally during the same time in which the author was working as an admissions staff so it would be interesting to investigate her reasoning for this idea of reversed roles.   

Portia's Dedication to her Job

Jean Hanff Korelitz finally depicts Portia as an actual human rather than an object. In these few chapters, Portia makes mistakes and finds herself in a morally dangerous situation. On her trip to the Quest school, she finds herself actively thinking of engaging in sexual relations with an old classmate from Princeton. Upon her return home, she finds herself feeling guilty for her previous actions. However, during the beginning of the dinner date with her old classmate, Korelitz does not describe Portia as thinking about the consequences of her actions. It is not until she returns that she is depicted to show any sort of remorse for having relations. This speaks to her personality that she can have sexual relations with any man, when she is already in a relationship with another man. These emotions point to two different situations concerning her relationships. Either she does not feel something real for the man in which she is engaging in a relationship with or she does not put as much value on these feelings. Both ways indicate that she is not fully dedicated to the relationship as a whole. Although she may be dedicated to her career, these actions show that she is not dedicated to her man.

Furthermore, after arriving back from her school visits she was hosting a dinner party. Colleagues of Mark, her significant other, came over to visit with both of them. A colleague of his from Oxford also joined their dinner party. Throughout the dinner, Portia felt personally attacked by Corinne, the woman from Oxford. However, at the end of the dinner party, Portia had a discussion with Mark in regards to Corinne’s behavior. Mark immediately took the side of Corinne and grew very angry with Portia. She hastily came to the conclusion that he knew about her affair. This is the first instance that the audience is shown any regret on Portia’s end. On top of that, it is also interesting that she does not think of anyone else in her thoughts of Corinne. Portia, very selfishly, began the night dreading the dinner party. She did not go into it with an open mind and was not acting as a hostess like she should have been doing for Mark’s sake. Mark went through the trouble of cooking and cleaning everything and yet she could not take a few hours out of her day to support him. Even after a night of losing her manners, she once again did not feel bad for the awkwardness. Usually, being the host implies that you are to keep the air clean, not dirty. She constantly was promoting the school, just as if she were still at her job. The fact of the matter is that she spends more mental time on her job than any other part of her life. This can lead to a lack of enjoyment in life and therefore I believe that this was a big part of her decision to have an affair and feel no remorse.