Thelunarpotter asked Alexa Donne:

Where did you get the idea for The Ivies from?

Alexa Donne I've worked informally in college admissions consulting since 2014, primarily helping students with their admissions essays. When I get into something, I go deep, and college admissions (and specifically access to higher education for the less privileged) is a passion area for me. For a good chunk of the last decade, I spent a lot of time on places like College Confidential and /r/ApplyingToCollege while working with students every admissions cycle on their strategy, essays, and apps. I inhaled a TON of knowledge that lived in my brain for years, and it seemed bonkers to be so immersed in this specifically teen thing as a YA writer and not write about it. And we've all read/seen YA books that just... don't get college admissions right. I knew I wanted to write a book set in this world, but it wasn't until I had the wacky idea of "what if someone murdered for the Ivy League" that The Ivies came together.

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