Hacking Harvard, by Robin Wasserman

Hacking Harvard, by Robin Wasserman, is a story about four high school seniors who pull of "hacks," pranks meant to prove a point or send a political message. They decide to pull a hack on Harvard to prove how admissions systems for colleges are bogus and that brains aren't the number one requirement for colleges anymore...by getting an underachieving slacker admitted into Harvard, while dealing with sabotage, romance, friendship, parents, and college. Hacking Harvard is, while remaining a classic young adult novel, a satirical commentary on the workings of the modern college admissions system, and the pressures on students surround it. Showing examples of seemingly insane seniors doing anything and everything just to get into "the best" schools, Hacking Harvard is written in a way anyone who went to high school recently can imagine almost all of the examples occurring. Hacking Harvard is a lot like two stories at once, in the foreground the story of the "hackers," but constantly in the background is the ideals of the progatanist regarding college. Their ideas hit home to anyone in the modern school system who feel the pressures of college who wants to "be the best." Brilliantly written as a realistic commentary on modern education, Hacking Harvard is a great smart, political, and satirical read for anyone experiencing the effects of the modern college admision system, which is almost everyone in the modern education world.

Reviewed by Anonymous, grade 9.

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