Admissions decisions went out to the Class of 2017 over the past 2 weeks, causing me to have flashbacks to the torturous process of applying to college. But if you want a peek behind the scenes of the adults that decided our collegiate admissions fates, mixed in with a mediocre romantic comedy, look no further than “Admission.” The movie follows Portia Nathan (Tina Fey), an admissions counselor at Princeton University whose boss is retiring at the end of the admissions period. The stakes are raised for her to bring in the best Princeton class ever, but her quest is derailed by John Pressman (Paul Rudd), a man who runs an alternative school. One of the students at that school, Jeremiah (Nat Wolff), might even be connected to Portia’s past.

The film is adapted from a novel of the same name by Jean Hanff Korelitz by screenwriter Karen Croner whose only previous feature credit was the little seen Meryl Streep film “One True Thing.” Much like “Date Night” before it, the problem seems to be with the script. While it wasn’t a paint-by-numbers rom-com, it wasn’t as uproariously funny as a movie starring Tina Fey and Paul Rudd should be. The moments in the film that seem to be genuinely improvised are the best ones. Flirting while washing off the placenta of a freshly born calf sounds preposterous, but it makes for one of the better scenes in the movie.

Thankfully, “Admission” has two magnetic and popular leads in Fey and Rudd. Fey is as good as she ever is playing the uptight, straitlaced career woman, and the scenes where she starts to feel those maternal urges are both touching and hilarious. Rudd, meanwhile, demonstrates how charming he is, even with both of his hands inside a very pregnant cow. And former Nickelodeon star Nat Wolff, in his first major film role, is more than capable of holding his own with both actors.

Recognizable actors pop up in almost every role, like Gloria Reuben (“Lincoln”) as Portia’s coworker nemesis and Michael Sheen (“Frost/Nixon”) as Portia’s long-term boyfriend. It was a delight to see Fey and Rudd work alongside comedic legends Wallace Shawn and Lily Tomlin as well. Tomlin, as Portia’s fiery feminist mother, threatened to steal the whole movie.

Unfortunately, everything else about the movie is formulaic. The cinematography is glossy but uninteresting; the score tinkles along and is as vanilla as a Princeton legacy student. Paul Weitz is by no means a bad director, but he’s capable of so much more, given that he had a hand in “About a Boy” and “American Pie.”

“Admission” was filmed on Princeton’s campus, which at times looked nearly identical to Washington University’s, making the film’s brief look at college visits all too real for me. Whenever it does take on the admissions process, whether through Jonah’s unconventional school background or showing the desperation of high-school students trying to learn the “secret” to get into Princeton, a more brutal, unflinchingly honest film emerges—one that is far more interesting than “Admission.” In one of the climactic scenes, each counselor is forced to fight for his or her prospective students by region, and the film does not gloss over how ruthless a college can be in choosing its newest class of students. As the admissions office eliminates students, Portia sees a vision of them in the room, falling through trap doors. If not for Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, I might have wished a trap door had opened in the theater. They saved the movie from what might otherwise have been a failing grade.

“Admission” opens Friday, March 22.