We Regret To Inform You, by Ariel Kaplan

Mischa's mother has sacrificed everything to get her daughter into Blanchard Academy.  And Mischa has done what she could to honor that sacrifice -- good grades, AP classes, plenty of extracurriculars, and stellar test scores.  So she's pretty confident that she has a good shot at a good college.

When she starts getting rejects, she's surprised. At first, it's just early decisions at top schools, so she figures that the competition must have been stiff.  But when she is eventually turned down by every school to which she has applied (including her safeties), she is shocked.  Depressed and afraid to confess to her mother what has happened, she instead endures her mother's ecstatic preparations for the college odyssey which will never happen.  But the mystery of why she got turned down remains and deepens as Mischa and her friends discover that there's been foul play.

An interesting mystery that plays on the omnipresent threat of college rejections.  The actual story is entirely too drawn out for me (so many plot developments that could have been resolved with ease and alacrity).  And Mischa, while she grows in the story, didn't grow enough for my tastes.  In sum, a promising idea, but not delivered well.