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Barque Alumni's Experiences in State and Overseas
The Barque has a long track record of sending its alums to prestigious universities, and last year’s class was no exception, with every graduating senior going on to college. Two of those graduates, however, took very different paths. Stella O’Connor chose to stay close to home and enroll in the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. At the same time, Yash Kothari crossed an ocean to study history at the University of Oxford in England. What does life look like for them in college now?
O’Connor chose the University of Washington for its highly ranked business school, where she is majoring in business administration. Even as an in-state student, she found the move bigger than she expected.
“I thought I was going to feel like I’m at home,” O’Connor said. “It feels so much different.”
One of the biggest changes has been her schedule. In high school, she had six- to seven-hour long school days. Now she usually has one or two two-hour classes a day allowing much more freedom in her schedule.
“Obviously everyone knows that you have more freedom in college,” O’Connor said, “but it’s more than I thought it would be.” The workload surprised her too. “In high school, everyone says that college is going to be super hard,” she said. “But it’s not that hard.”
Outside of class, O’Connor joined the sorority Kappa Alpha Theta. She says her favorite part of college so far has been building a new social circle and meeting new friends.
Overseas, Yash Kothari is in Oxfordshire, England, studying at the University of Oxford. Kothari has had an incredible time in England learning about the social norms, experiencing the culture and navigating academics at an ultra-prestigious university. The move has been extremely insightful for him and has pushed him to reflect on his time at Bellevue High School.
“I didn’t really notice what privilege I had until I graduated from Bellevue. There is so much opportunity and support within the community, and I fully believe it is one of the best academic ecosystems you can grow up in,” Kothari said.
Leaving home was more than just moving to college; it has helped put into perspective how fortunate he was to grow up with so much opportunity.
On campus, Kothari joined Oxford’s newspaper, the Oxford Student, and aims to compete on the university’s debate team.
Kothari is at a centuries-old university an ocean away, and O’Connor is just across Lake Washington. But both found that college was different from what they expected, and both are learning things that high school didn’t teach them. For the seniors in Bellevue’s halls now, their stories and experiences prove that the end of high school is the beginning of change.
