I am Jewish, so was somewhat of a minority in that sense in the prep school world, (and to my knowledge did not experience anti-semitism there - but maybe I was unaware, as I was of many things at that time) and the first in my family to have ever gone to boarding school. I arrived there as an upper mid from having been at the Dalton School from 3rd through 10th grade. I am a Taftie, class of ‘76, the fourth year in the school’s history that girls were part of the student body. With its combination of incisive social critique and uproarious depictions of elite nonsense, Admissions will resonate with anyone who has ever been The Only One in a room, dealt with racial microaggressions, or even just suffered from an extreme case of homesickness. Through these stories, some troubling, others hilarious, she deconstructs the lies and half truths she herself would later tell as an admissions professional, in addition to the myths about boarding schools perpetuated by popular culture. In Admissions, Kendra looks back at the three years she spent at Taft, chronicling clashes with her lily-White roommate, how she had to unlearn the respectability politics she'd been raised with, and the fallout from a horrifying article in the student newspaper that accused Black and Latinx students of being responsible for segregation of campus.

Her new job forced her to reflect on her own elite education experience and to realize how disillusioned she had become with America’s inequitable system. As an admissions officer specializing in diversity recruitment for independent prep schools, she persuaded students and families to embark on the same perilous journey she herself had made - to attend cutthroat and largely White schools similar to the Taft School, where she had been the first African American legacy student only a few years earlier. A sharp-witted and deeply insightful look into the storied world of elite prep schools from the first African American legacy student to graduate from the Taft School.Įarly on in Kendra James’ professional life, she began to feel like she was selling a lie.

Admissions kendra james