History Film / Admission

* IvyLeagueForEveryone: Possibly inverted by the Princeton admissions board where they reject mountains of even the most qualified applicants which, unfortunately, can be TruthInTelevision.

* IvyLeagueForEveryone: Possibly inverted by the Princeton admissions board where they reject mountains of more-than-qualified applicants which, unfortunately, can be TruthInTelevision.

* TheFarmerAndTheViper: A small variation. [[spoiler: During the admissions process, Portia votes to accept a student vouched by a rival candidate up for the same promotion hoping she'll do the same for her and vote in Jeremiah. She doesn't.]]

* AmbiguousDisorder: Jeremiah's is never stated but it caused him a lot of problems in school before going to John's academy.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Portia sacrifices her job to get Jeremiah into Princeton; Jeremiah isn't actually Portia's son; Portia's real son declines to meet her for now.]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/admission.jpg]]
A Princeton admissions officer who is up for a major promotion takes a professional risk after she meets a college-bound alternative school kid who just might be the son she gave up years ago in a secret adoption. [[TheFilmOfTheBook Based on a novel]] by Jean Hanff Korelitz.

* WasItAllALie: [[spoiler: Jeremiah when he figures out that Portia thought that he was her son being the reason she was so interested in him. Which, of course, isn't the case.]]
* YourCheatingHeart: Portia's long-term boyfriend Mark [[spoiler: has been sleeping with a newly-hired Princeton professor, and in fact got her pregnant before the story even starts.]] In the book this is also true of Portia herself, as she hooks up with John while still with Mark, but not in the movie.

* {{Adorkable}}: This is a Tina Fey movie, after all.

* {{Irony}} (situational): Two for Portia: When she meets the alternative-school kids they grill her on why they even need to attend an expensive school like Princeton in order to "change the world" and she's almost at a loss for words [[spoiler: she's able to answer that things like law and biology degrees are necessary to start changing the world]]; the film ends with her [[spoiler: taking a nerve-wracking interview to see if she's eligible to meet her son, which she "fails" when he declines to meet her]].

* {{Revenge}}: One of the Princeton applicants wants to become a judge, [[YouKilledMyFather try her mother's murderer]], and hopefully ''[[PrepareToDie fry him]]''. This unnerves the dean but one person's "revenge fantasy" is another's "drive and passion"!
* RunningGag: Portia continuously running into Mark & Helen at inopportune times.

* SoapboxSadie: Portia's mom. In order: she doesn't feed her dogs because "they're too dependent on humans" and ought to be hunters; she was proud when Portia resigned her position as class president to protest to school regulations on girls' sports; she had a one-night stand on a train because she wanted a child but not a relationship [[spoiler: which turns out to be a lie she told herself after accidentally getting pregnant]].

* YourCheatingHeart: Portia's long-term boyfriend Mark [[spoiler: has been sleeping with a newly-hired Princeton professor, and in fact got her pregnant before the story even starts.]] (In the book this is also true of Portia herself, as she hooks up with John while still with Mark, but not in the movie.)

* WasItAllALie: [[spoiler: Jeremiah when he figures out that Portia thought that he was her son being the reason she was so interested in him. Which, of course, isn't the case.]]

A Princeton admissions officer who is up for a major promotion takes a professional risk after she meets a college-bound alternative school kid who just might be the son she gave up years ago in a secret adoption.

* GranolaGirl / SoapboxSadie / StrawFeminist: Portia's mom. In order: she doesn't feed her dogs because "they're too dependent on humans" and ought to be hunters; she was proud when Portia resigned her position as class president to protest to school regulations on girls' sports; she had a one-night stand on a train because she wanted a child but not a relationship [[spoiler: which turns out to be a lie she told herself after accidentally getting pregnant]].

** IJustWantToBeSpecial: John and Portia's mothers wish their kids felt like this, or in John's case the sort of "special" they'd approve of.

* Was It All A Lie? : [[spoiler: Jeremiah when he figures out that Portia thought that he was her son being the reason she was so interested in him. Which, of course, isn't the case.]]

* [[spoiler: BittersweetEnding: Portia sacrifices her job to get Jeremiah into Princeton; Jeremiah isn't actually Portia's son; Portia's real son declines to meet her for now.]]

* [[spoiler: ItBeganWithATwistOfFate: If Jeremiah had a cleaner copy of his birth certificate (or told John he had already met his real birth mother) John wouldn't have mistaken a 1 for an 11 and found Portia, who wouldn't have sacrificed her job or hooked her mom up with the philosophy prof to get his recommendation, and eventually find the nerve to connect with her real son.]]

* MeaningfulName: [[TheMerchantOfVenice Portia]] and [[NelsonMandela Nelson]] (maybe). I'm fairly certain that Portia's mom's dogs are named after feminists (the only one I can recall is Betty, probably after BettyFriedman).

* {{Was It All A Lie?}} : [[spoiler: Jeremiah when he figures out that Portia thought that he was her son being the reason she was so interested in him. Which, of course, isn't the case.]]

* Was It All A Lie? : [[spoiler: Jeremiah when he figures out that Portia thought that he was her son being the reason she was so interested in him. Which, of course, isn't the case.]]

* SirNotAppearingInThisTrailer: Jeremiah, the alternative school kid [[spoiler: who turns out not to be her son]]. Inverted with Nelson, who you'd think would be insufferable based on his scenes in the trailers but turns out to be a pretty mellow kid.

* MommyIssues: Portia's mom is fairly annoyed that her daughter didn't become exceptional and states that if she did a job like Portia's for so long she'd kill herself. She also prefers to be called by her first name and didn't think a little thing like a mastectomy was important enough to call her daughter about.

* SexforSolace: Portia with John right after she [[spoiler: lost her job]].

* Sex for Solace: Portia with John right after she [[spoiler: lost her job]].

* RunningGag: Portia continuously running into Mark & Helen at inopportune times.

A Princeton admissions officer who is up for a major promotion takes a professional risk after she meets a college-bound alternative school kid who just might be the son she gave up years ago in a secret adoption.