Bishop Montgomery High School

I think it speaks volumes that graduates and attendees of this school are reviewing with their negative experiences.
To keep mine short and sweet the education is subpar. Their focus should be more on education and less on keeping kids «in line» based on the uniform they wear.
Bottom line is if you or your parents weren’t excessively involved in the school and its activities you probably didn’t receive much, if any, help with your education.

Ohhh how I’ve been waiting to write my review for this garbage school. They don’t give a f*ck about you here unless you’re rich, white, Asian or all the above. I left this school my junior year and on the day I left I literally checked myself out. No one ever contacted my parents to see if they were aware or okay with me leaving. I asked my academic counselor to send my transcripts to another school and her response was «Ugh I wish you told me earlier now I have to go through all this work”-but was then relieved when I told her I had already handled everything I just needed a copy sent to my school. The education is poor, you don’t have much of a selection at all for classes, teachers are stuck in 1960, the curriculum is out of date and redundant. Unless you are the teachers favorite and in all honors and AP classes don’t expect to get any bang for your buck education wise. The students are stuck up, snobby, druggy, party kids don’t let the catholic school bull fool you. I can’t count the amount of times the drug dogs came to school and busted someone. Racism is well and alive here from staff and students. I was appalled at how many students made racial slurs towards black and Hispanic students and thought that it was perfectly okay if they said they were joking afterwards. The biggest cheaters in the world attend this school, I’m talking about students getting on the Dean’s List with 4.0’s and cheated their entire way through school and had no shame about it. The deans are jokes and act like the school is a prison. Teachers do not and will not spend extra one on one time with students unless they’re their favorite. And don’t expect to know where your $ 900 a month goes because as far as I remember we still had to eat on the floor in the hallways when it rained. This school is an absolute piece of shit and a joke. If you want your kids around snobs and careless teachers send them here. Oh and my favorite experience was the bomb threat that was made to the school by a student. I only liked 2 teachers out of the 24 I encountered. I ended up going to Junipero Serra where I learned more in 3 months than I ever did at this crap school. And best part, most of these students end up going to a Junior college. Don’t waste your money on a school where the college acceptance rate is below 90%. So glad I never graduated with that class of 2013.

My experience was less than pleasurable. I came from another private school, not one of the feeder schools for Bishop and I can honestly say my first 3 years of high school were like a repeat of my last 2 years of middle school. I was even in honors classes and I was bored. I also had a teacher who lost it and ended up leaving the school (I believe involuntarily). Kids there are more stuck up than anything else, and yes… They do party and have sex and do all the things the school claims to deter. In spite of being on the cheer squad and in several clubs, I had few friends there and a couple I did have were «secret friends». The classes are so limited that I felt cheated… Especially when I learned that the religion classes I was required to take didn’t even count towards my grad credits… WHAT?! Back when I went there, there was only one place to sit and eat lunch, outside and it wasn’t big enough for everyone to eat… And when it rained we would have to stand in the hallways for lunch. Classy. To top it off, the things available for purchase for lunch rotated from overpriced pizza and nasty nachos with radioactive cheese to stale chick-​fila. Every year I begged my parents to let me go to public school…

If you are a C average student you will not be treated the same as an A student. They do not seem to care as much about educating each student as they do helping those with good grades. If they spent more time working with average students and less time worrying about keeping everyone in line it would be a better school. They expect students to be like robots and prevent kids from expressing themselves and stifling creativity. Discipline is one thing but they go too far. The Archdiocese should look into how they treat their students and run this school.
You are better off going to one of the other private schools, the extra cost would be worth it.

If you’re looking to put your children in a safe high school filled with amiable (at least most of them) teachers and a fairly rigorous academic program, Bishop Montgomery is the place you want.
Like all private schools, it will take a huge bite out of your wallet. All the books, uniforms, and even scantrons have to be bought. Uniforms, despite what teenagers may think, are actually very helpful to the school environment. Almost everyone will judge you based on what you’re wearing/​how you look and if everyone is wearing the same thing, that means it’s much easier to make friends.
My favorite part of this school is Drama Lab. I have had many profound memories in that club. Mr. Masters is truly an inspirational teacher who is very fun to work with and talk to.

Good Catholic school. They offer a great amount of curriculum but when I heard they completely took out the band that concerned me, the arts are still very important. Glad to hear they have it back.

‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’…probably something most people would say reflecting on their high school alma mater.
For me, BMHS was neither — it was just kind of a neutral, monotone 4-​year ride (the real fun and drama came in college)!
But having a ‘monotone’ experience in high school is pretty damn good, especially because you can focus your energy on studying, playing sports, and hanging out with family and friends without stupid bs getting in the way.
I have no idea what the school is like now, although I’m sure it hasn’t changed drastically in the little over a decade since I’ve been there.
I’m really happy that I went to BMHS because my public school choice would have been TERRIBLE.
I had some great teachers back in the day, most notably my favorite was Mrs. Lynch for Sophomore English Honors and Senior British Lit Honors.
If the tuition is still fairly reasonable and the public school option isn’t better in terms of academics offered (like I would rather go to Penninsula than BMHS for the science and math programs), I would gladly enroll my child here.
I really loved the ethnic diversity, how safe the school felt, and most of my classes were taught by good teachers (the weakness I say was once you got past geometry, the math teachers weren’t the best).
Oh, and the real sour note of the school is the so-​called college career counseling. My counseler, Mrs. Egan, tried to discourage me from applying to lot of great schools around the country because she didn’t think I would get in. This school definitely pushes only the UC, CAL State system (and EL CO, oh and USC, if you have $). So whether she was incompetent or too lazy to complete my 20+ applications I don’t know but in fact I got into the majority of schools I applied to (including Ivy Leagues, the top 2 liberal arts colleges in the nation, UCLA, etc.), which just tells me that they are so out of their element that parents better get some outside help on the college application experience.
The one thing I always tell people is I liked high school because there wasn’t any real bullying, fights, mean girl attitude… it was a good kind of boring.

When people ask me where I went to high school at I always reply with «Prison.» Their next question is always «WHAT!!!» And then i explain «Yes, Bishop Mont-​Prison-​ry.»
This school spends more time disciplining and reminding you tuck your shirt in, than teaching you. What did I learn at Bishop? How to copy people’s homework and not get caught, how to cheat on tests and not get caught, how to cheat wearing a uniform and not get caught. For a school that spends so much time trying to discipline their students and remind them of all the negative repercussions of their actions, they sure did a horrible job at catching not just me, but everyone. If they were to expose me for cheating, I could expose several accounts and picture proof of other students (including my class’s valedictorian) doing the same thing.
Several parents and oblivious staff members will comment on how well behaved the students are and how outside of the school they are completely straight edge and little angels Wow… How far from the truth. I can say with confidence that AT LEAST 70% of my senior class was either on drugs, smoking underage, drinking underage, not virgins, or a combination of all 4. While this is normal for most public high schools, people PROUDLY proclaim that the Bishop kids are supposedly different. Let me break this down for you in 2 simple words: They’re not.
If you’re not counting my personal opinion on the school, look at the course offerings. There is no math class higher than AP Calculus 1. (Compare that to South, Peninsula, West, North, Torrance who all offer AP Calc A, AP Calc B, and AP Calc BC) There are limited language courses. The arts classes are also limited in choices. Sciences also are few in choices.
Many who review Bishop are impressed by the high test scores and school averages. Again, another lie. Bishop expels the students who do not meet minimum academic requirements. Also, if one were to look at the AP scores from bishop students and compare them to another public school in the area (Peninsula, South, West), the public school would win.
The student body is not as friendly as many make them out to be. For those who comment about Bishop being a «big family» I strongly disagree. Many of the students who have been attending catholic school all their lives are very click-​ish. If they do not know you, it is hard to approach them. This school is more like a bunch of small families and a group of outsiders who never went to catholic school before this one.
I graduated in 2009. I was counting down the days at the beginning of Senior year just because I wanted to get out as fast as possible. I am so ashamed of attending this school, sometimes I lie to people and tell them I graduated from Palos Verdes Peninsula. People at Penn (including faculty) knew me better, and were more willing to help me than the people at my own high school.
The one and only reason this place has 2 stars and not 1 star, is because I had a few good teachers who actually did their job instead of just disciplining us.

I’m a proud Bishop Montgomery alum. Safe, diverse, competitive (academically & athletically), faith-​centered environment. Highly recommended.

am a current senior at this school nd have attended all four years.
i trully love this school. very safe and kind environment. although it is a small school nd the everyone will somewhat know of everyone else. the teachers are TRULLY unique and awesome. you learn many different things, life lessons, not just academic stuff. great basketball and volleyball team.

Nice Catholic high school in the heart of Torrance.
There is so much love and diversity on campus. They have caring teachers and a fair share of classes that are academically challenging and faith enhancing. Not only do students learn from the classes, they also learn from the people that surround them. The whole school is like one giant family that sticks together through the good times and the bad times.