I Need Someone To Explain To Me How These 15 Teen Characters Got Into The Colleges They Did

Yes, Elle. It is hard to get into Harvard Law.

1. Troy Bolton from High School Musical got into...UC Berkeley?

Disney Channel

I understand that he's a talented bball player and moderate participant in musical theater, but I don't think that warrants his acceptance into one of the most prestigious colleges on the West Coast.

2. Serena van der Woodsen from Gossip Girl got into...Brown?

The CW

I've never seen this woman open a textbook, let alone earn the grades to get into the Ivy League. Not to mention, the girl barely went to class... You know what? The privilege of it all gives me a headache.

3. Peter Kavinsky from To All the Boys got into...Stanford?

Netflix

Sports-wise? Sure. Academics-wise? Not so much.

4. Noah Flynn from The Kissing Booth got into...Harvard?

Netflix

This man has been suspended so many times for fighting, I didn't know he could get into ANY college, let alone Harvard. Maybe they really believe in second chances. Or, like, eighth chances.

5. Summer Roberts from The O.C. got into...Brown?

Fox

Granted, Summer turned it around toward the end of high school, but that doesn't negate her GPA from the first few years of high school, which was piss-poor, to put it nicely.

6. Sara from Save the Last Dance got into...Juilliard?

Paramount Pictures

To include this pains me dearly, but she didn't go to a performing arts high school and stopped dancing ballet for most of her senior year. Anyone who's ever danced knows that taking a week off is hard to bounce back from, let alone a semester and some change.

7. Sam Montgomery from A Cinderella Story got into...Princeton?

Warner Bros.

Yes, she had amazing grades! BUT she had no extracurriculars (working at a diner, unfortunately, does not count). Also, the chances of two students getting into Princeton from a random school in the Valley are slim to none. At least Austin was student body president.

8. Daphne Reynolds from What a Girl Wants got into...Oxford?

Warner Bros.

Daphne starts the summer without any idea of where she's going — nor does she have any applications in — but by the end of the summer, she's accepted into Oxford. I don't wanna assume that nepotism had anything to do with it, BUT it probably helped that her dad was in Parliament.

9. Elle Woods from Legally Blonde got into...Harvard Law?

MGM

Contrary to popular belief, it is hard to get into Harvard Law. Now, I'm not saying that Elle Woods isn't an icon for getting in — she totally is — and in the film, she technically met all the requirements to get in: an exemplary LSAT score, a 4.0 GPA, and recommendations. But in real life, it takes more than a few weeks of studying to get a near-perfect score on the LSATs, and I'm not sure how much a 4.0 in fashion merchandising will aid in your law school apps. But still, a living, breathing icon, that Elle Woods.

10. Aaron Samuels from Mean Girls got into...Northwestern?

Paramount Pictures

This boy was failing calculus, and yet, there he went. Hopefully, he was a liberal arts major.

11. Zack Siler from She's All That got into...Dartmouth, Yale, and Harvard???

Miramax Films

For someone able to get into three Ivy Leagues, he's awfully dumb when it comes to matters of the heart/treating women appropriately.

12. Nora Clark from Step Up got into...Brown?

Touchstone Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

She's like the OPPOSITE of Sara from Save the Last Dance. Juilliard seems more likely than an Ivy League for someone who spent the past four years of high school training in ballet and modern dance.

13. Zack Morris from Saved by the Bell got into...Yale?

NBC

Even though the cast went to the fictional California University, the fact that this man got into Yale despite barely attending class and excelling only in white-privileged high jinks is an ~indictment against the whole institution~.

14. Derek from Life With Derek got into...Queen's University?

Family Channel

It makes sense that Casey got in. Perchance the admissions board thought they were twins and felt the need to accept them both.

15. And Harvey Kinkle from Sabrina, the Teenage Witch got into...Boston College?

ABC / The WB

I guess he could have gotten in on a hockey scholarship, since he plays on the BC hockey team...but, oh, wait, HE PLAYED FOOTBALL IN HIGH SCHOOL, WHERE HE DID NOT SUCCEED SCHOLASTICALLY.