The film stars Jason Lee and Tom Green with Leslie Mann, Dennis Farina, Richard Jenkins, John C. McGinley, Tammy Blanchard, and Megan Mullally.

[2] John Plummer is engaged to Elaine Warner and intends to use their life savings of $30,000 to put a down payment on a house.

Simultaneously, John's niece Noreen, daughter of sister Patty, is accepted to Harvard University, but needs an additional $30,000 on top of her grants and scholarships.

The pair set off to steal the cash, but Duff runs away when lights come on in the home, leaving John to get caught by Emmett Cook.

Further capers ensue as John and Duff try to rob a liquor store and later attempt to con a drug lord out of $30,000 by concocting a phony story about running an ecstasy ring.

Despite this, Warner finds a common ground with him as he is also widower though he doesn’t agree with Cook’s method of coping.

John is forced to confess everything to Elaine, who is not upset but admires the lengths he was willing to go to in order to please her and send his niece to Harvard.

It currently holds a 9% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 105 reviews with the consensus: "There are laughs Stealing Harvard, but they are few and far between.