Plot: Shaun Brumder, a high school senior in Orange County, had two life changing incidents one year ago, which made him focus less on his slacker surfer and beach partying lifestyle and more on his studies, in which he always did well despite placing little effort into it. First, his surfing friend, Lonny, died while trying to catch some extreme waves. And second, while sitting on the beach contemplating life in light of Lonny's death, he came upon a copy of Marcus Skinner's book "Straight Jacket" which was buried in the sand. Reading through that book multiple times was like a light turning on his his brain that he should become a writer. That turnaround in his life has led to him getting a 4.0 GPA in his senior year and being elected class president, which is all in an effort to get accepted into the English program at Stanford where Marcus Skinner is department head. He should be a shoo-in to be accepted there - according to his less than focused guidance counselor, Ms. Cobb - and as such it is the only school to which he applies. But the cosmos seem to be conspiring against him in being accepted. The primary people in his life seem to be working with the cosmos against him in getting into Stanford. Besides Ms. Cobb, they include: Lance Brumder, his constantly stoned older brother; Cindy Beugler, his constantly inebriated mom with who he lives, whose drinking is in an effort to deal with her less than satisfactory life, including marrying Bob Beugler who would not have been her first choice as husband number two if she was just considering herself; and Bud Brumder, his father whose sole foci seem to be his business and providing for his second family, which includes his younger vacuous trophy wife, Krista. Even Ashley, his animal activist girlfriend who will be attending Orange County University in the marine biology program in the fall, admits that she prayed that he wouldn't get accepted so that he wouldn't leave. As hard as Shaun tries to fight the cosmos, the harder the cosmos seems to fight back. In the process of Shaun trying to get accepted, he may come to some other realizations about his life concerning why he is so desperate to go to Stanford.
Alternative Plot: A smart high-school student with his heart set on going to Stanford is horrified when his guidance counselor accidentally sends the wrong transcript with his college application. He spends the rest of the film trying to prove that he's actually a good student with a terrific grade-point average.
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