Who deserves to get into the Ivy League? More importantly, how do you outsmart the Ivy League? In Hacking Harvard by Robin Wasserman, Eric Roth faces this ultimate moral dilemma as he attempts to beat the corrupt college admissions system by getting an unqualified slacker into the most prestigious university…Harvard.
Eric Roth and his best friends, Max Kim and Schwarz, have executed countless pranks and hacks at Wadsworth High School. Max is the leader; Schwarz the genius. Eric is the voice of reason. Together, they are legends. However, when Max comes up with the ultimate hack to fool college admissions, the stakes become higher than ever, and their true legacy is tested.
Eric seems hesitant toward the idea; however, the trio is convinced that universities only admit students that fit their specific mold. In high school, everyone is asked to do their homework and follow the rules. They are asked to exceed everyone’s expectations for a spot at the coveted Ivy League institutions…but many never achieve this. People lose themselves, Max says, because they try to be what others want them to be. To prove this theory, they transform their slacker classmate, Clay Porter, into the perfect ivy-league applicant in order to draw attention to the unfair admissions system.
What the boys do not expect is their rivals, the Bongo Bums, to challenge them. Pretty soon, the friends find themselves betting $25,000 that they can get Clay into Harvard. Max assures his friends that it will be a simple win. The Bums, however, have a few tricks up their sleeves.
The novel is very well-organized. The chapters reflect the steps of the college admission process, giving high school and college readers a familiar subject to relate to. From a bugged interview to cheating on the SATs, the tension consistently builds as the boys attempt to implement each portion of their master plan. By keeping the identity of the narrator a secret for most of the book, the author also adds a sense of mystery and creates even more tension as the story continues.
This novel does not, in any way, outline a method to cheating your way into college; it is unethical to do so, and Wasserman makes this very clear. Instead, this book can be seen as a drama, a comedy, a friend, and a book that each current college student can relate to.
Whether you applied to an Ivy League school or not, we all went through this critical phase of our lives. All the confusion, the stress, and the hours of sleep lost to writing admissions essays…we all wonder if it was worth it. In the end, everyone does the best with what they have, and Hacking Harvard truly gives a different perspective on the mindset of college-bound students.
