Imagine a high school full of students with big hair, neon clothes, leg-warmers and not a single iPhone in sight. No, it’s not 80s spirit day. It’s Whitman 30 years ago, and for many parents, it’s where they went to high school.

Today’s Whitman is different in a variety of ways, including the actual building.

“The biggest difference is the physical building itself,” parent Jennifer Snow (‘85) said. “We had an awesome field house called the Dome where we had the best pep rallies.”

The new school building, which was built in 1992, was just one step in the process of becoming the school we know today. Originally, Whitman didn’t include a ninth grade class. When the extra grade was added, high school felt a lot bigger and less personal, parent Margaret Warker (‘82) said.

Along with these changes, the existence of cell phones, the internet and other technology make today’s high school experience dramatically different from the Whitman of the past.

“I think it’s neat that my mom went here, and knowing that some of the teachers that she had are still here is cool,” senior Elliot Snow said. “Other than that, I don’t think there is any real benefit to [having an alumni parent]. The school has changed so much since my mom attended that her Whitman experience will have been profoundly different from mine.”

But for all that’s changed, there’s a lot that’s stayed the same. The high-stress environment and excellent faculty that many characterize Whitman today have been a constant over the years.

“It was a stress factory back then, and obviously that hasn’t changed much,” Jennifer Snow said. “The teachers and administrators are just as intelligent and driven as they were when I was there.”

Students today relate to that struggle, with similar worries about classes and colleges. The general consensus among students is that sleep is often a lower priority than homework or grades, junior Julia Warker said.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, Jennifer Snow said, adding that when she left Whitman, she was well prepared for college. She said the advanced level of writing taught in Whitman English classes helped them tackle college assignments more easily than their non-Whitman peers.

“My freshman seminar class at Wooster had about 10 kids in it and our first paper that was assigned had to be 20 pages,” Jennifer Snow said. “They all freaked out, but I was already used to writing like that.”

Snow added that she ended up majoring in and teaching English, in part due to some of the influential teachers she had at Whitman.

Many students with parent alums said they appreciate having a parent who can provide perspective, not just on high school, but specifically on the Whitman high school experience.

“Because my dad went to Whitman, it gives me an interesting perspective as to how Whitman was many years ago,” junior Jamie Skilling said. “It’s really cool to hear about all of the changes and similarities from when my dad went here.”