Admissions: A Memoir of Surviving Boarding School

Three and a half stars. The blurb I read for this book was right! I'm so thrilled when that happens. James shares some indeed funny memories, and frames others in a humorous light for the first half of the book. I'm proud to announce I got ninety percent of her pop culture references, and I, too, read "Spying on Miss Muller" as a kid. I went back and read it as an adult a few years ago, and wow, my perception changed due to knowledge and life experience. It was -wonderful- to read someone so much like me: goth, scared of everything, we read many of the same books and watched many of the same TV shows, and had the same reasons for things, and friends online across the word when that wasn't cool. There are a few "blink and you miss it" show more references to "The Craft," even, which is probably always going to be my second-favorite movie of all time and favorite horror movie. It felt so good to laugh and go "Same here! I get the reference!"

James acknowledges she has rose-tinted lenses about Taft, her boarding/prep high school. She still manages to portray boarding school realistically, and in a way that you can sort of--I lack the vocabulary beyond "her writing is great and I appreciate this." That's the first half. The second half is when she goes on and ON about college admissions and her tone shifts completely. All these schools did was pressure kids about college and life timelines. Gap year? BAD. Deferment? DEATH SENTENCE. The racism and racist comment she had faced since day one skyrockets here, or it did to my notice. She addresses why she returned to help other students of color acclimate and her choices at every moment around that. It must have been exhausting, but at no point in the book does she seem exhausted. Grimly determined at most, but overall "I chose this and here's why." I'm so glad I got to read this, and I hope it's widely read. I learned a lot. show less

I very much enjoyed this memoir of the first African-American "legacy" student at a fancy boarding school. Written in a breezy and informal style, parts of it are fun and entertaining, especially the descriptions of being a total nerd interested in witchcraft who's surrounded by preppies--and the internet is cut off at 10pm! But mainly it's a harrowing description of the experience of being one of very few Black students in a fundamentally racist environment. The saddest part was when the author is accused at 15 years old of stealing a $20 bill, and confesses even though she didn't do it because she is so afraid. It reminded me of Towards Zero by Agatha Christie, except in that novel the girl's father is a police superintendent who can show more extract her from this situation. The memoir is also a kind of an advertisement for Oberlin college, as that is where the author ends up going to college and it's presented as so much better.

We also learn a little bit about the author's grown-up life as an admissions officer and how conflicted she felt between wanting to give children of color more opportunities and also wanting them to know the truth about how hard it will be to go to a white-dominated school. Overall, the story was very thought-provoking and brought up a lot of memories of my private high school, where in 9th grade we had only ten African-American students in the class and by the time I graduated, half of them had been kicked out, left back, or they decided to leave, including all the boys, while white students got an unending stream of "second chances."

For me, this book had a slow start. I felt I was seeing her first days at Taft boarding school in excruciating detail, with every single person she met there and what they were wearing. I was a bit apprehensive about the pace of this book and if anything would ever happen. But then it really got going, so my advice is that this book is really worth it and if you feel bogged down, just skim along for a bit and you will be rewarded. As soon as I was done, I immediately recommended this book to someone.

I gratefully received a digital copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. show less

I worked a number of years in independent school admissions, but the elite boarding school world is completely unfamiliar to me. The author’s experience as a Black young woman navigating it all was very compelling, and I loved the way she told her story (I also loved that she was immersed in fandoms and wrote fic too during some of the early years—she was there between 2003-2006).

I’d actually love to learn more about her own time working in admissions too; she gave brief snippets, but it was fascinating to me to hear her side of that world. I do hope that Taft and all of these schools really take in Kendra James’s story, take a good long look at themselves, and make a change.

This was great fun to read - Kendra James' narrative voice is so engaging, and I appreciated the humor and sarcasm she used liberally throughout. I did not find the content particularly surprising, but do think the racist foundations of schools like Taft are something that should be brought more to light. I will definitely look for more by this author.

A candid look at being Black at a New England board school that is at times funny and at time infuriating.

i thought this was fine. i really wanted to love it, but it ended up being just okay. the middle part was LOOOOOONG. it felt like Ted Mosby sharing every. little. detail. that is not relevant to the story in HIMYM. Kendra Jones was sharing things that i think didn't matter to her overall story of being Black at a boarding school so i got bored listening to just the daily experiences she had. the ending was strong though when she was talking about the microaggressions she delt with while at Taft. biggest issue was that this book was long and it lost it's way before a great ending - great meaning the writing, not all the BS James went through while at Taft and being an alumni

NOT the best book I ever read, but if you've ever spent time in a remotely elite independent school, you'll know it's real.