20 Times Yara Shahidi Cared More About High School than Hollywood

Look out class of 2022, you’ve got some serious competition. 

Just before she posted the cutest Boomerang vid celebrating her high school graduation, Yara Shahidi confirmed the college she’ll be attending this fall. 

It’s official: she’s heading to Harvard University, which means the 18-year-old Black-ish star will soon hit the books with another high-profile classmate, Malia Obama. 

Earlier this year we found out that in addition to a recommendation from her A.P. calc teacher, Shahidi also included a recommendation letter from none other than Michelle Obama in her college applications. “How did you get that?” Jimmy Kimmel asked her, during a taping of his show.

“Um, hard work,” she replied, in the ultimate mic-drop moment.

In the months that followed, Shahidi confirmed she got into every college she applied to, but hadn’t made a final decision yet. We finally got an answer this week, in a perfectly captioned Instagram. Full of #CrimsonPride and sporting a new college sweatshirt, Shahidi posted a quote from novelist and playwright James Baldwin: “The paradox of education is precisely this — that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated,” she shared.

This isn’t the first time Shahidi shared a Baldwin quote or showed her school spirit on Instagram. Here, a collection of our favourite moments from the star’s study breaks—plus, a few times when she was just way too cool for school.

When she low-key admitted she’s dating AP Calculus

When she used ALL the Post-its

When her highlighter was the highlight of all our Insta feeds

When she got measured for her cap and gown

When her high school spirit was way better than ours

When dropped another James Baldwin reference

When she shared this stylish studying selfie

When she got super excited about National College Signing Day

When she made the White House Science Fair the chicest place to be 

When she prayed for the college app process to fly by

When she spent her school vacay with Vonnegut

When her uniform was #goals

When she was relieved AP exams were almost over

When she took a little study break—but not really

When she turned Beyoncé into a verb

When she casually dropped Camus in conversation

When she gave STEM a shout-out

When she was a model student at the UN

When she gave us a peek at the best possible future #YARA2035

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