Many of us grew up dreaming to live the lives of Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez, spending high school falling in love, excelling within all passions, and breaking into flash mobs regularly. While some high schoolers may achieve a few of the things that Troy and Gabriella did, the fairytale is just too good to be true. Hollywood has presented an unrealistic version of high school that ignores real challenges that teenagers face.
Gabriella Montez was a very high achieving student and could be seen studying and doing schoolwork throughout the movie; until she was interrupted by a love song with Troy. Besides Gabriella, it is rare to see any characters working on homework. Real high school students spend hours on homework, stress about AP classes and exams, and are lucky to balance extracurriculars on top of that. With the precedent of Disney characters spending their time partying, singing, and shopping, students are hit hard with reality when they experience the academic burden of high school.
“Disney makes high school seem so fun and exciting,” senior Anna Ripley said, “When in reality, you just wake up, go to school, go to practice, do homework, and then do it all again.”
Despite her short-lived study sessions and hours spent on the musical, Gabriella gets into Stanford with ease and even begins college a semester early. Troy Bolton attends University of California Berkeley to play basketball and be in the theater program. With an 11% acceptance rate, it is hard to believe that Troy had what it takes to get into such a prestigious university. (and judging by his “Head in the Game” performance, he lacked the basketball skills too).
For today’s high schoolers, college acceptance and financing is a major burden, especially for reputable colleges like UC Berkeley and Stanford. Getting in to competitive colleges takes years of hard work, excellent test scores, and an impressive acceptance essay. It only takes one bad grade to tank a GPA and eliminate your chance of getting accepted into college or losing thousands of dollars in scholarships.
High School Musical 3 touches on Troy’s financial struggles for college. His father urges him to play basketball in-state on scholarship. In 2008, when the movie came out, Troy would have paid around $6,000 for tuition at University of Albuquerque and received scholarships to play basketball. Nevertheless, Troy decides to follow his heart and last minute commits to UC Berkeley that costs double what he would have paid at Albuquerque. While Troy may have gotten his happy ending, it is not realistic for a financially struggling family to make such sacrifices, especially without discussion. Students today spend months finding a financially realistic college, calculating tuition, searching and applying for scholarships, and working to pay for college. For students, college decisions are often based on what they can afford, not what their heart desires.
Despite what Hollywood suggests, high school is not a teen soap opera. There is not always a Sharpay Evans waiting to stab you in the back, an unsupervised raging party, or a dramatic love story. Students don’t have the time, or frankly the interest in the busy social agendas that Hollywood teens seem to have. But High school drama hasn’t disappeared–it just went digital.
Social media has taken over the social scene for high schoolers. Long-term breakups, cat fights, and gossip can happen over Snapchat or a shady sinsta post. While this may seem less extreme than a face-to face showdown, conflicts can quickly escalate with one screenshot or share. In a world where drama lives online, the cafeteria may be quieter, but the consequences are louder than ever.
High School Musical will always be a nostalgic watch, especially for high school seniors. But while it has meaningful themes of following your dreams, friendship, and staying true to yourself, it does not truly encapsulate the hardships and struggles that many high schoolers face.
