Every year, Bishop’s graduates don maroon robes and caps, say their tearful goodbyes, and bid home farewell for their next adventure: college. As the distance between these students and Bishop’s grows larger, how does Bishop’s weigh in their minds?
For many recent grads, their recollections of Bishop’s are, as with most things, complicated. Alumni tend to be fond of their Bishop’s memories, but nevertheless remember the stress and constraints placed upon them.
Academics, more than anything, are the focus of this complex perspective. Niamh Malhotra (‘23), who attends Brown University and majors in Economics, said her academic stress level at Bishop’s was much higher than in college. “I feel like grades were one of the biggest reasons at Bishop’s that I was always so stressed because [the School] would pretend like it didn’t matter that much when like really it did,” Niamh explained.
Both Brown and Bishop’s are academically challenging environments — Niamh cared about her grades in high school and still does in college. However, she feels less academic stress at Brown because she finds the culture to be healthier. Since not everyone is striving to get into college or taking most of the same classes, “it doesn’t feel like you’re competing with people for grades,” she explained. Brown is also known as the Happy Ivy, and was ranked 7th by the Princeton Review in “Best Quality of Life,” in 2025 which could also contribute to Niamh’s experience.
Other graduates described their stress level as more or less comparable to Bishop’s, but specified that college generally has “more time to do more work” as Gerard Blake (‘24), who goes to the University of Chicago, put it. UChicago is “infamous” for its grade deflation, as their paper, the Chicago Maroon, mentioned. This means that less people get higher grades.
Both Mira Gowda (‘22), who goes to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), and Serena Zhang (‘24), who goes to Princeton University, agreed with Gerard’s assessment despite differing majors. Gerard is on the pre-med track, Mira is a Biology and Medical Anthropology major, and Serena is a Science and Engineering major.
While college is still stressful for these alumni, some found it harder to deal with in high school. Serena said that she “struggled to maintain a balance with work and personal health” at Bishop’s, and often found herself making sacrifices to get her work done. In college, she has been able to find a healthier balance, but she clarified that much of that is due to personal growth, not necessarily because she no longer goes to Bishop’s.
For Mira, the high-stress Bishop’s environment manifested itself in a slightly different way. “Bishop’s reinforced the idea that everything needed to have a purpose … [I] felt like my schedule needed to be really full,” she explained. “I came to college and I was excited for that to be different, but a lot of that mindset has still carried over for me, just because of how drilled in it was. And I think it’s become a lot of who I am,” she added. Mira specified that this ingrained mindset has led her to feel a pressure to join clubs just because they coincide with her major.
One of the negative effects of this overscheduled culture is that it leaves less room for exploration of unique topics and personal interests. As Niamh said, she understands more what she is interested in now because she can try things without the pressure of “fitting into a Bishop’s mold,” where she felt pressure to take classes and do activities because those around her were, or because it could help her get into college.
Still, the stress at Bishop’s can differ widely depending on the person. Millan Kumar (‘24), who goes to Purdue University and majors in Computer Science, said that his stress level is much higher in college than it was in high school. “When I was at Bishop’s, academics were kind of a happy-go-lucky thing. I showed up, maybe took some notes, mostly did the homework, didn’t study, did fine on the test, and enjoyed the class,” he explained. “Now, in college, I feel the pressure to do very good and try to stand out.”
But regardless of how stressed alumni felt in high school, most of them spoke appreciatively of how prepared Bishop’s made them for university. “I have already built the habits to be proactive and complete my work in a timely manner,” Serena explained. Gerard put it simply: “UChicago is a grind but Bishop’s was a real big help.”
Many alumni made a specific mention of the helpfulness of the Bishop’s English Department for writing and critical thinking. Naimh said her 11th grade American Literature class “completely transformed” her essay writing. Serena called the English at Bishop’s “phenomenal.” Millan, who is majoring in Computer Science, considered English to be one of his weakest subjects in high school, but at Purdue he feels like he is one of the best at it.
Part of the reason why the English department — and Bishop’s generally — was able to give students such a good education was due to the nature of the community. With small classes and grade-levels, there is lots of room for connection and close relationships. “I didn’t feel really prepared for a big [college]…because [Bishop’s] was a smaller school and I took it for granted how much teachers cared about you,” Mira explained.
The small community at Bishop’s also has positive social effects. “I think that Bishop’s almost forced friendships — in a good way — because it was so small,” Millan explained. Mira, Gerard, and Serena all also said that because Bishop’s has scheduled time to hang out with
people, it takes less conscious effort to make friends. In college, there are more people and more separate lives, so it takes initiative to see people.
However, the advantages of a tight-knit community like Bishop’s inevitably come with disadvantages. “Because Bishop’s was such a small community, my social experience was defined by who I was immediately surrounded by and my closest friends,” Serena explained. “It was not that easy to branch out socially.” Millan felt similarly to Serena. “Bishop’s is very friend-groupy, especially by senior year,” he said. “It’s not like you don’t talk to everyone, but everyone almost has a place everywhere. [In college], it is more like it was in 6th grade, everyone kinda talks to everyone.”
The vastness of college extends past just friend groups. Millan noticed significantly more diversity in the types of students at Purdue compared to Bishop’s which mentioned that he “was definitely not really prepared for.” “Bishop’s is definitely a big bubble,” Gerard said. “In college that bubble bursts and you meet people from all different walks of life.”
With the fundamental differences between college and high school — and the passage of time — it’s natural that some alumni feel that they’ve changed after graduating. For Serena, much of that change comes down to confidence. “The newfound independence has made me realize a lot of things I was afraid to do are not so out of reach; I’ve tried new things and put myself out there a lot,” she explained.
For Mira, college has made her more open and less tied to expectations. At college it feels a lot more acceptable to “just join something because it’s fun, or …fulfilling in that moment.” Similarly, college has made Niamh “a much more relaxed person.” As she explained it, “The community culture [at Bishop’s] was always kind of anxious and Brown is just so much more chill.”
College allows people to grow but that doesn’t stop Bishop’s alumni from feeling nostalgia and appreciation for all the amazing lessons Bishop’s taught them. Ultimately, change is inevitable. As Gerard put it, “That’s life, you know.”
