Movies like The College Admissions Scandal (2019)
The best movies like The College Admissions Scandal (2019) are The Perfect Cheerleader (2019), Taken Back: Finding Haley (2012) and Girl in the Box (2016). If The College Admissions Scandal hooked you with its drama and tv movie, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- NewestMurder at the Lighthouse (2025)Released 2025
The Perfect Cheerleader (2019)
When college freshman Cassie earns a spot on the cheerleading squad, she is overjoyed about the new friendships, status, and access to social events that come along with being on the team. When she meets Terry, the charismatic President of the Alumni Association, at an event, Cassie finds herself falling for this older man despite their age difference. Terry even helps her out by paying part of her tuition when she falls on hard times. But all is not as it seems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTaken Back: Finding Haley (2012)
Unable to get over the abduction of her daughter, a mother is convinced she has finally found her, but is she simply a mother obsessed?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGirl in the Box (2016)
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTalhotBlond (2012)
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (1996)
A dramatization of the life of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (Don Cheadle), with a lot of factual based occurrences. A reformed junkie returns from prison to clean up his act and devote the rest of his life to the young kids of Harlem. 1996 was the 25th anniversary of the first tournament named after him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHello Sister, Goodbye Life (2006)
A college student must take care of her 7-year-old half sister after the death of their parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInherit the Wind (1999)
Two great lawyers argue the case for and against a science teacher accused of the crime of teaching evolution.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHarry and Meghan: Escaping the Palace (2021)
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are taking on the British monarchy in the third installment in Lifetime’s movie trilogy about the royal couple. The film explores what really happened inside the palace that drove Harry and Meghan to leave everything behind in order to make a future for themselves and their son Archie.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIron Jawed Angels (2004)
Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIntroducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999)
An acclaimed stage performer, Dorothy still struggled with the challenge of her color, in a time that wouldn't let some stars in by the front door. Yet against the odds she beat out many more famous rivals for the role of "Carmen Jones", becoming the first black woman ever nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award. Marriages and affairs would break her heart, but her heart was strong. Seductive and easily seduced, she was born to be a star - with all the glory and all the pain of being loved, abused, cheated, glorified, undermined and undefeated. Here was a woman who wouldn't wait in the wings. Halle Berry stars as Dorothy Dandrige.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Christmas Shoes (2002)
Two separate stories mesh - in the first, a young music teacher, Maggie Andrews, begins dying of a heart condition and her son Nathan tries to get a pair of Christmas shoes for her before she dies. In the second, lawyer Robert Layton and his wife Kate are slowly drifting apart and the matter comes to a head during Christmas when Kate takes over for Maggie for the school choir.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCheaters (2000)
In the fall of 1994, a teacher at Chicago's run-down Steinmetz High conspires with the school's academic decathlon team to cheat on an academic competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Bramble House Christmas (2017)
While settling his father’s estate, Finn Conrad becomes suspicious as to why the man left a nurse $100,000. His dad knew her for less than two months before he died. Just before Christmas, Finn wants what to reclaim what he considers his family’s money, going undercover to investigate the bed and breakfast the nurse has recently taken over. When Finn meets Willa, he discovers she’s not a conniving gold digger at all, but a woman in need who put the money to good use. When she discovers his true identity, will it keep Willa from ever trusting him again?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Dinner with Hervé (2018)
An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNormal (2003)
A Midwestern husband and father announces his plan to have a sex change operation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBurton and Taylor (2013)
Legendary acting duo and married couple Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor prepare for a 1983 theatrical production of the play "Private Lives."
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReturn to Zero (2014)
Based on the true story of a successful couple, Maggie and Aaron who are preparing for the arrival of their first child.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal (2008)
Based on a true story. Five high school cheerleaders, including the daughter of the school principal, run amok -- and teachers, parents and administrators allow them to get away with a wide range of scandalous behavior. Known as the "Fab Five," the girls disregard school rules, drink alcohol and post suggestive pictures on the Internet. But when the new cheerleading coach attempts to discipline them, her superiors ask her to resign.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisDolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors (2015)
"Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors" is based on the inspiring true story of living legend Dolly Parton's remarkable upbringing. This once-in-a-lifetime movie special takes place inside the tight-knit Parton family as they struggle to overcome devastating tragedy and discover the healing power of love, faith and a raggedy patchwork coat that helped make Parton who she is today. The film is set in the Tennessee Great Smoky Mountains in 1955. It is neither a biopic nor a musical about Dolly's whole life and performing career, but rather a family-oriented faith-based story about the incidents in her and her family's life around the time she was nine years old.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHomeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story (2003)
Based on a true story. Liz Murray is a young girl who is taken care of by her loving, but drug-addicted parents. Liz becomes homeless at 15 and after a tragedy comes upon her, she begins her work to finish high school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story (2014)
The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story delves into the experiences of six unknown young actors placed into the Hollywood spotlight, exposing the challenges of growing up under public scrutiny.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Lover in the Attic: A True Story (2018)
This is the lurid, true story about femme fatale Dolly, her murdered husband, and her lover, Otto -- the man in the attic. In the 1930s, Dolly met and seduced her repairman Otto... but she was already married to successful business man Fred.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Snap Decision (2001)
Inspired by a true story, a young widowed mother finds herself on trial for child pornography and abuse after allowing her best friend to photograph her daughters and friend.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Text to Kill (2015)
Teens band together to investigate the source of anonymous messages that threaten to expose their secrets.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisWatch Your Back (2015)
A woman and her husband become increasingly scared as an anonymous person begins stalking their family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Mother's Worst Fear (2018)
When her daughter is abducted with no demand for ransom, an ex-hostage negotiator will do anything to find her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
My Daughter's Deadly Roommates (2023)
New beginnings have disastrous consequences as a young woman starts college and quickly finds herself trapped inside a secret society that has sinister motives. As the society isolates her from her family with increasing intensity, she must decide whether to resign herself to their deadly manipulation, or if she will fight back to stop them once and for all. ~Courtesy of MyLifetime.com
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Stalked by My Ex (2017)
After learning that her abusive ex-husband is about to be released from prison, a woman flees with her teenage daughter back to her old hometown.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Escaping Dad (2017)
A woman goes on the run with her 2 children to escape an abusive husband, who is a very powerful and influential District Attorney.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Murder at the Lighthouse (2025)
Fleeing her abusive ex, a woman hires a fishing boat captain to escape to Canada, but after an accident leaves her stranded on Lake Superior's shore, she is taken in by a reclusive lighthouse keeper and discovers she may have fallen into another dangerous situation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The College Admissions Scandal?
The closest matches to The College Admissions Scandal are The Perfect Cheerleader (2019), Taken Back: Finding Haley (2012) and Girl in the Box (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The College Admissions Scandal?
Start with The Perfect Cheerleader (2019), the closest match to The College Admissions Scandal.
What is the newest movie like The College Admissions Scandal?
Murder at the Lighthouse (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The College Admissions Scandal?
Yes: The Perfect Cheerleader (2019), Taken Back: Finding Haley (2012) and Girl in the Box (2016).
How are movies similar to The College Admissions Scandal chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The College Admissions Scandal, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.