Being from Carmel High School doesn’t make you a snob

Carmel High School of Carmel, Indiana is home to nearly 5,000 students with varied talents, backgrounds, and goals. While many Carmel High School alumni go on to attend Purdue, many of their Purdue peers still hold negative attitudes about the school and the people who come from it.

“People have negative opinions about Carmel High School because it is made up of mostly privileged, white, upper class people. Plus the huge population of the school allows it to do well in any competition,” said Shreeya Raman a senior in Biochemistry.

One of the many negative stereotypes of Carmel is that it is full of pretentious snobs

“There’s a reputation Carmel has built up over the years and that reputation tends to be one of being upper class and snobbish,” said Divya Sarda a sophomore in Chemical Engineering. “A lot of Carmel is middle class but it does range depending on where in Carmel you are. The snobbish thing only applies to certain people.”

Students get wrongly judged once people learn they’re from Carmel. Sheyenne Fishero, a sophomore studying linguistics, psychology, and french, believes that while most of these opinions come in the form of jokes, people shouldn’t make assumptions about someone based on where they are from.

“They make assumptions about the financial status of my family, and they are surprised I’ve had a job,” said Sheyenne. “Sometimes they think I will be mean or pretentious, and they make comments or jokes about it. Stereotypes have never solved anything in this world, and Carmel is not a personality trait. It is simply where I am from.”

Some students even feel the need to hide that they are from Carmel High School out of fear of being unfairly judged

“I love my hometown and have never been afraid to say I come from Carmel,” said Mridula Raghuraman a sophomore studying industrial engineering. “I know a lot of people who do hide the fact that they’re from Carmel though. They’ve told me that they just don’t want people to judge them and attach all the stereotypes of being from Carmel to them.”

Despite the negative opinions of their school, many students are proud of the opportunities and experiences they had at Carmel High School.

“Because Carmel offers so many AP classes and ACP classes, I was able to come into college with sophomore standing,” said Sheyenne. “I am in the College of Liberal Arts, and these classes allowed me to be done with half of my core requirements before I even came to Purdue. This gave me earlier registration for classes, more opportunities to take classes for fun, and the ability finish in four years as a triple major.”

Carmel isn’t only a city, but a tight-knit community

The people in Carmel are all really nice, I had a great upbringing there,” said Raghuraman. “The city is very family-oriented and there are always activities going on where you can meet new people. Even though the city is really big, I feel like I know almost everyone.”

Students from Carmel are more than a stereotype and wish to be treated like the multifaceted human beings they are.

“Carmel is filled with all kinds of people — jocks, orchestra geeks, band geeks, student geniuses, rich families, families struggling to manage it all, parents paying mortgages, single moms with two jobs, and more,” said Anatoly Morozov, a sophomore in Mechanical Engineering.

“Carmel residents are human too. Not every person in Carmel has five banks managing all the money they have. The reason for Carmel’s success has to be how much growth the town is going through, especially in the past few decades. It’s become a very popular place for many families to live and thrive, and this is why Carmel has developed such an elite status. Carmel is not rich with money. Carmel is rich with people.”