Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Getting In

Rate this book
A very funny novel about four quirky high school seniors & their three chaperones as they drive an oversized Winnebago to interviews at prestigious New England colleges.

352 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1998

1 person is currently reading
240 people want to read

About the author

Jennifer Finney Boylan

31 books1,536 followers
Jennifer Finney Boylan is a widely praised author and professor.

Edward Albee summed up her oeuvre in 1988: -- "Boylan observes carefully, and with love. [Her] levitating wit is wisely tethered to a humane concern…. I often broke into laughter, and was now and again, struck with wonder."

Jenny's memoir, She's Not There, published by Broadway Books in 2003, was one of the first bestselling works by a transgendered American; until 2001 she published under the name James Boylan. She's Not There, currently in its eighth printing, is popular both as a textbook in high schools and colleges as well as with readers's groups. The paperback edition contains a "readers guide" in addition to the main text, which consists not only of Jenny's insights on "a life in two genders" but also includes an afterword by Pultizer Prize winner Richard Russo, whose friendship with James, and later with Jennifer, provides part of the books narrative.

She's Not There won an award from the Lambda LIterary Foundation in 2004, the year after its initial publication. The book has since been published in many foreign editions, and was an alternate selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club. Anna Quindlen called it “a very funny memoir of growing up confused, and a very smart consideration of what it means to be a woman.”

Her 2008 memoir, I'm Looking Through You, is about growing up in a haunted house. While trans issues form part of the exposition of the book, the primary focus of I'm Looking Through You is on what it means to be "haunted," and how we all seek to find peace with our various ghosts, both the supernatural and the all-too-human.

Jenny has been a frequent guest on a number of national television and radio programs, including three visits to the Oprah Winfrey Show. She has also appeared on the Larry King Show, The Today Show and been the subject of a documentary on CBS News’ 48 Hours. She has also appeared on a wide range of local and syndicated television shows, as well as NPR's Marketplace and the Diane Rehm show. In 2007 she played herself on two episodes of ABC's "All My Children." She has spoken widely around the country on gender and imagination, at venues including the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. and the New Jersey State Theatre. She has given plenary and keynote speeches at conferences on diversity and scholarship around the country, and at colleges and universities including Amherst, Wesleyan, Dartmouth, Columbia, Vanderbilt, Duke, Bucknell, Dickinson, Bates, Ohio State, Middlebury, Gettysburg, Georgia State, the University of Puget Sound, and Westminster College in Salt Lake City. She has spoken at law firms, at corporate events, and at bookstores from Seattle to Vermont.

Her nonfiction has appeared on the op/ed pages of the New York Times, in GQ magazine, Allure, and Glamour. She is also an ongoing contributor to Conde Nast Traveler magazine; her most recent work there was on Easter Island, published in the January 2007 issue.

Boylan's first book, a collection of stories entitled Remind Me To Murder You Later, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 1988. Her first novel, The Planets, was published in 1991 by Poseidon Press. (Simon and Schuster). Loosely based upon the classical piece of music by Gustav Holst, The Planets followed the lives of several fictional characters in the real town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, which has been afflicted by an underground coal fire since the early 1960s.

Her second novel, The Constellations follows the lives of several of the characters from The Planets, some of whom flee from angry cows, discover a latex brain, and begin a life of dognapping.

Her 1997 novel, Getting In, published by Warner Books, focused on four high school students who go on quests to get into college. The novel was optioned for film by Renny Harlin and Geena Davis, and Jenny was tapped to write the initial screenplay for New Line Cinema.

Born in 1958 in Valley Forge, Boylan

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
10 (8%)
4 stars
43 (34%)
3 stars
47 (37%)
2 stars
17 (13%)
1 star
7 (5%)
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Profile Image for Amanda.
252 reviews6 followers
July 24, 2007
I loved Jennifer Finney Boyland's She's Not There (it's the same author) so I thought I'd pick this up. It was quick read and mildly entertaining. The story telling wasn't as good as She's Not There and I wasn't hugely impressed with the characters. Overall, not wonderful, not terrible.
Profile Image for Abigail.
1,142 reviews
July 7, 2012
Quite peculiar. It tried to be a lot of things at once, and in that regard it failed. Veered WAY too far away from the amusing concept of the colleges, which it should have stuck to. However, there were a few genuinely very funny moments.
197 reviews
August 14, 2023
I enjoyed Boylan's autobiographical works, including her sense of humor and her keen depictions of real people, with all their foibles and inconsistencies. This work of fiction, while entertaining enough to finish, was a bit of a disappointment. My biggest criticism is its unevenness of tone. It starts out as such a parody that all the characters seem like caricatures and all the situations mere farce. As it progresses, it becomes more serious, even somber at times, adding complex backstories and real human angst. But it was too late for me to feel invested in whether anyone actually got into college, found true love, or recouped their family or fortune. I would have preferred if this had been written from the outset as a solid human tale, with the humor less ludicrous and more wry. Despite the fact that I have two teens the age of the college-seeking kids in this story -- and perhaps likely to apply to some of the colleges that those characters visit -- I didn't find this novel particularly relatable.
Profile Image for Paula Weisberger.
646 reviews1 follower
July 18, 2019
2.5 stars
Picked this up for $1 at the local library store. The story tells about 3 families setting out in a Winnebago to do elite college visits for a week, traveling throughout New England. There are a lot of funny moments with the admissions process, but the rest of the family dynamics were really ridiculous! The book cover said the author is James, but in Goodreads it is listed as Jennifer ( a local Maine celebrity) so I thought that would be interesting.
911 reviews39 followers
October 22, 2016
I read this book several times when I was in high school, preparing for my own college admissions adventure. I hadn't thought about it in years. Then by sheer coincidence I discovered it at the library...and it wasn't until AFTER I had grabbed it and taken it home with me that I realized that the author is Jennifer Finney Boylan -- whose memoirs I've been devouring in the last few months! -- under her former name. It was great to revisit this story at a completely different time in my life, and with a deeper appreciation for the author. I have to say, it probably isn't a story I would have especially enjoyed if I had picked the book up for the first time today with no connection as to who the author is -- but I loved reading it nonetheless.
Profile Image for Arthur Kyriazis.
96 reviews3 followers
May 10, 2014
Written by then James Finney Boylan, Getting In is a love letter to Dad of sorts. It's a memoir of their college trips to New England & other parts unknown to see colleges as the end of then Jim's prep school tenure is approaching. Dad is a wonderful old fashioned sort, in real life a banker who grew tulips, and in this memoir just as loving.

The college trip is, one supposes, dreaded by all kids & parents, but Getting In is a joyful wonderful & splendid retelling of that time in our lives when our futures seemed so linked inextricably to where we got into college.

Anyhow, that's the fiction. Highly recommend. Especially for 9th & 10th graders.
Profile Image for Kevin Tole.
676 reviews38 followers
August 12, 2011
Again another contemporary American writer that doesn't get much notice this side of the pond. After reading The Planets I had to get hold of this and it certainly builds on what I know of Mr. Boylan's writing - his ability to keenly observe people - to parody and to personify at the same time. I don't know how true to American society this is but that's not really the point. It is the wonderful observation of the transactions within this family group that provide the humour and the pathos and the tension of this book. Excellently written and full of wit - you have to read it in a oner.
Profile Image for Barbara.
143 reviews1 follower
August 10, 2014
My brother-in-law loaned this to my husband and me because we're in the midst of college tours with our senior high school son (he and his wife have long since finished the process with their three kids; we did this 20 years ago with my husband's daughter). I read it in less than a day. It's funny and poignant and is a gentle reminder to me that our son will get into some college somewhere in spite of his parents' best intentions. The book is somewhat dated, written in 1998, but people are still people and their actions transcend time.
Profile Image for Artemis.
75 reviews19 followers
August 3, 2016
I truly, couldn't handle how basic and "heteronormative" this novel is.
Working at a bookstore industry I must read everything... even if i hate it, I'm forced to at least try to understand it.
This novel is like... a chick lit but for young adults? But felt more like for people who like to eat fast food, aka trash. This novel is trash.
OKAY okay...! It was funny at times but, the conversations in the novel really irritated me.
But from this novel I found out that by reading I can get a headache?! Who knew?! Now I do, thanks to this....book
Profile Image for Ted.
48 reviews6 followers
August 5, 2016
This book is about high school juniors/seniors and their families touring Bowdoin, Middlebury, Colby, Amherst, etc. Bowdoin people, you remember Dick Steele, the old admissions guy? He's in this book, very thinly disguised. So is the author. Lots of sex too. Very funny stuff from the future Jennifer Finney Boyland, head of the Colby English Dept. and a great, humorous writer (She's Not There is also quite good).
Profile Image for Charlie.
93 reviews2 followers
April 19, 2011
An interesting story but it did not have a very cohesive ending. The ending did not tie up the plot very well. The characters were very good. The book also had a very large number of humorous scenes. I have trouble deciding whether to shelf this as "young adults" or "adults only" because I usually shelf books with fairly graphic sex scenes (like this) as "adults only," but this book was clearly intended for a young adult audience.
114 reviews7 followers
May 21, 2008
I was very suprised by this book. It's very funny, and sly. Knowing a little about Jenny by way of her memoirs, it's kind of funny to see her express personal quirks in her storytelling. I would recommend this to any bright, young person who is college bound.
Profile Image for Charity.
632 reviews542 followers
June 13, 2007
High school seniors make a road trip through New England to interview at elite colleges. Great characters. Quick read.
Profile Image for Lisa Wright.
622 reviews20 followers
February 27, 2008
Take one confused and apprehensive young man, one muscle-bound idiot, and one pompous twit and send them on a tour of colleges in the Northeast. Then prepare to laugh and cringe and laugh some more.
Profile Image for Vikki.
825 reviews53 followers
April 30, 2010
Actually Jennifer was James when she wrote this book. Wonderful writer!
The family goes around and looks at colleges in New England. Great book.
Profile Image for Jess.
859 reviews1 follower
June 11, 2012
A funny look at college admissions and high expectations, this book comes across as simple but brings a lot of the plot and story.
Profile Image for Melina.
238 reviews1 follower
April 23, 2012
Needs proof reading.
Dated compared to present.
Nice concept.
Profile Image for Caroline Bartels.
630 reviews6 followers
September 19, 2012
I give this to so many teenagers, especially seniors or juniors who are about to embark on their east coast college visiting trips over spring break. So funny, so bittersweet!
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.