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Bellarmine College Preparatory

Bellarmine College Preparatory

Reviews are needed for the educational institution known as Bellarmine College Preparatory, San Jose

How good a high school is Bellarmine College Preparatory?

Have you ever attended Bellarmine College Preparatory for any kind of academic studies? If so, please place a review and be sure to include: Fees, pros and cons, facilities, etc.

We want to know if it sucked badly or it was a great high school. Staff of Bellarmine College Preparatory are welcomed to give input here also?

Preparatory College Bellarmine

Name: Nick
Country:

Title: Bellarmine Prep (San Jose)

Comments: Academics:

Anything involving reading or writing (Like English, History, etc.) was top-notch. Nearly all teachers in those areas were very passionate and very knowledgeable about their subjects. I wrote term papers in high school there that I later used again at university, so I have to give Bellarmine high marks here.

Anything involving calculation (Like Math, Science, etc.) on the other hand, was not so hot. Honorable exemption to Mr. Mike Janda, whose Chemistry class was top notch. However, most math and science classes were no better than, and in some cases arguably inferior to, the better schools on the west end of Greater San Jose (An arc from Los Gatos to Palo Alto). I used to ask fellow students from those areas why they were stuck in "The Bell" and not out in "The World".

However those of us who would have otherwise gone to San Jose Unified and East Side Union high schools, which were often crime and gang infested, knew very well why we were Bells. Academics in those public schools were clearly crap.

Disclaimer: I did my time in "The Bell" a while back; and Bellarmine math and science teachers and classes may have dramatically improved in the last decade or two. Heck, maybe even San Jose Unified and East Side Union high schools have improved since then, although the odds of that are much less favorable.

Social:

To put it bluntly, the social situation at Bellarmine sucked. The big suck. Most of my peers were like characters out of the novels "Lord Of The Flies" and "The Chocolate War". Every high school has its cliques and its bullying, of course. But in "Bell Hell", thuggish behavior in the name of "school spirit" was at least condoned if not encouraged. Call it "School Sponsored Terrorism". I gladly lost contact with most of my peers from those days, although in fairness the few I do stay in contact with are and will remain lifelong friends.

Although again, in fairness, this might have been better than one of the San Jose Unified or East Side Union high schools, with their gang problems and whatnot.

Political:

This one is touch and go. As another reviewer noted with respect to Bernie Ward, certain Jesuit "teachers" have pretty warped political agendas, although in fairness most do not. But watch out for creeps pushing warped political agendas. You will get enough of that in universities later.

So for current and prospective students:
(1) Just focus on the academics.
(2) Don't do extracurricular activities (Unless you really *want* to do a particular one) and resist any social pressure to join; for college transcripts they are really overrated.
(3) If you still find yourself with spare time, get a job--no matter how menial, you will learn a lot for a teenager, relatively speaking.
(4) Meet girls on the internet--I wish I had it back in the day. School sponsored events in this realm are pathetic.
(5) Avoid the "teachers" pushing warped agendas as much as possible. You will recognize them easily.

Source: My own experience there.