Four Takeaways About College From the “Never Have I Ever” Cast

On season four of Netflix’s “Never Have I Ever,” … cue John McEnroe voice … our girl Devi Vishwakumar is conquering senior year, and with that comes the ups and downs of college applications, navigating friendships, and yes, dating boys — plural. 

The brainchild of Mindy Kaling has grown up — dare we say, matured — and in this final send-off, our favorite Indian American high schooler, portrayed by the bubbly Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, has her sights set on Princeton. As per usual, not all goes to plan, resulting in a playful and binge-able season. 

Mochi sat down with the cast … but for 20-something Mochi Mag journalist Giannina Ong, all did not go to plan when she was caught in a cafe with spotty Wi-Fi and barely able to ask the cast her questions. Warning: spoilers for season 4 ahead. 

Here are four things that this season of “Never Have I Ever” gets right about college admissions:

1. You should definitely not apply to only reach schools. 

During a flashback, we learn why Devi has set her sights on Princeton — her dad and her younger self share a special moment where they agree that Princeton, which sounds closest to “princess school,” is the right place for her. Sentimentality aside, Devi would be an excellent candidate for Princeton, or any Ivy League school, as the top of her class and a well-rounded individual. 

Yet, the show seems to say that placing all your eggs on the Ivys is not the smartest move, with Devi getting rejected from all schools with the exception of being waitlisted at Princeton.

When asked about the wisdom behind her character’s decision, Ramakrishnan reminds Mochi that she’s Canadian, and notes, “When I was in high school and I was planning on applying to post-secondary, I did apply to a lot of schools, and there was quite a variety. Also, in Canada, we don’t have Ivys, so I feel like my frame of reference is a little skewed.

“That being said, Asian kids have the pressure of going to a reputable school, maybe because their parents want them to. Thankfully, my parents were just more, like, ‘Go to the school that has the best program. I don’t care about the name. Just go to a good program. We’re paying tuition so it better be good.’ Which is so valid.”

Moreover, Ramakrishnan strongly shared that “there is no way in hell Devi didn’t get into any school” and that “it’s time to reevaluate the system of post-secondary education and realize that it is a private institution that holds no real value that can be seen outside of society’s expectations.”

When Mochi asked Poorna Jagannathan, who plays Devi’s mother, how she felt about Devi failing to get into any school, she admitted, “I actually think Nalini reacts so badly, like I do sometimes with my own son, because [as a parent] you see it as a reflection of what did I do wrong. I wasn’t on her. I wasn’t on top of stuff. I wasn’t strict enough. Nalini has loosened her rein on Devi over the seasons, and just expecting more adult behavior and more responsible behavior.” 

2. Predominantly white institutions will continue to be predominantly white, but things are starting to change.  

What does newly minted University of Southern California alum Jaren Lewison, who stars opposite Ramakrishnan as the white and always competitive Ben Gross, think about the turn of events in this season? To catch you up, Ben gets in early admission to his school of choice: Columbia. 

It would be safe to say that Ben, despite all the drama in his personal life, has a pretty easy go of it. “If you look historically, the population that got into Ivys were white men. Now with DEI programs and holistic application processes or blind application processes, it allows for people in underrepresented groups to be able to get into those schools as they should,” Lewison remarks. 

“[Colleges and universities] need a diverse student body,” he continues. “That’s how you learn. You learn about different cultures, you learn about different lifestyles, and you need that, especially at those schools. If they say that they want to be the smartest in the world, then those schools need different voices, they need different ways of thought, they need different backgrounds. Otherwise, you’re not the smartest place in the world.”

Lewison notes that these programs working to diversify student bodies don’t take anything away from students like Ben, who worked really hard and shares that he hopes “[Ben will] get the chance to meet some really cool people.”

3. College is not the end-all be-all — alternative options exist.

The show displays some alternative choices in education — with resident drama queen Eleanor Wong, played by Ramona Young, choosing to graduate early and kick off her acting career, and former high school hottie Paxton Hall-Yoshida, played by Darren Barnet, dropping out of Arizona State University to come home. 

For those with an artistic flair, Young shares that Eleanor’s leap into Hollywood is both realistic and timely: “What’s so cool about playing Eleanor and being a part of the Hollywood industry [during] this time is that things are changing. We just had Michelle Yeoh win an Oscar and it’s so amazing to see all these different examples of the Asian community, going into the arts, because I gotta say, we’re a creative bunch and we’re very artistic and we’re very poetic, and it’s just, like, we don’t get a lot of opportunities to showcase that.”

Barnet admits that although his character is multiracial and has a Japanese dad, his on-screen family is more than happy to have him home because they are an alternative bunch to begin with. 

“His dad’s advice is, like, ‘Just work at the store with me. We always sell somebody sports bras when it’s your shift.’,” Barnet jokes. “It’s something I couldn’t relate to, because for my mom, coming from a Japanese background, school was life, and it was all about getting into a good school. 

“I hope [Paxton’s journey] can inspire someone to realize — Asian American or not — that if you dropped out of college, it’s not the end of finding yourself on your journey. I certainly didn’t find myself in college. And I learned a lot of things that have been beneficial to me along the way. Now, I am well past college, and I’m still learning about myself. So it’s not the end-all be-all; the journey is just continuing or just beginning for you, and you’ll be just as uncertain in 10 years as you are now and that’s OK. Because that’s life. If you have it all figured out. It’s quite boring.”

4. Have a starting place to talk about important topics, like dating, college expectations, and more.

But enough school talk already, this final year holds the same hijinx and awww–inducing moments as every other season. College admissions might be the plot device this season, but the driving force of “Never Have I Ever” is and has always been family. What is one thing that the cast will take away from their experience of being on the show as they graduate from it? 

Richa Moorjani, who plays Devi’s cousin Kamala sums up what the show has meant for South Asian and Asian American representation: “The exciting and beautiful response we’ve received as the privileged actors on this show, is that this show has brought parents and children together. We’ve heard from young South Asian girls — and even not South Asian girls — about how they watched the show with their mom. We’ve heard from parents that they watch the show with their teenage son or daughter, and I think that’s just so beautiful. If I had a show like this, that I watched with my parents at that age, it would have opened up the possibilities of conversations about things that we just never talked about. Or even if we didn’t talk about it, just watching it and consuming that together, and, in some way, even on a subconscious level, those themes and those topics being normalized.”

I also didn’t grow up in an era where TV shows delved into serious and sometimes funny topics in a way that was digestible and realistic, and I am glad this generation has shows from creators like Kaling, who bring their culture to the work that they produce. Whether the conversation is about grief, friendship, dating, and, particularly this season, college admissions, “Never Have I Ever” — much like the party game — is a great place for parents and children to connect and discuss important topics that might be more difficult to bring up in day-to-day life. 

The final season of “Never Have I Ever” is streaming on Netflix. Photos by Lara Solanki, courtesy of Netflix.