Just months after battling Vecna on screen, Noah Schnapp has achieved a huge real-life victory that’s leaving fans stunned! 🎓✨ Less than five months after the explosive final chapter of Stranger Things took over the world, the young star quietly crossed another major milestone by graduating from college — proving he’s just as driven off-screen as he is in Hawkins. 😱 From balancing global fame and nonstop filming schedules to keeping up with classes behind the scenes, fans are calling his journey inspiring, emotional, and nearly impossible to pull off. ❤️

Noah Schnapp has had a very productive 2026.

The Stranger Things star graduated from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School over the weekend, five months after his character had a hand in ending Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) in the series finale.

Schnapp, 21, proudly shared the news with his 26 million Instagram followers. “What, like it’s hard,” he captioned a carousel of celebratory photos, quoting the famous Legally Blonde line (which is actually about Harvard Law, but who’s counting).

 

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In the fall of 2022, the actor enrolled at the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania to pursue a business degree, which he completed in between filming the fifth and final season of Stranger Things.

“I was thinking of going for acting,” he told Flaunt magazine. “[But] acting was just kind of repetitive, and I wanted to try something new… I thought it would make more sense to do something different. And business was a pretty clear next thing for me.”

At the time, Schnapp had launched TBH (to be honest), a sustainability-focused snacking company, which has since ended. But while at Wharton, he made plenty of connections that helped provide “feedback and insights” regarding his business.

Schnapp’s first week on the Philadelphia campus he spoke to Teen Vogue to give fans an update on his life as a college freshman.

“Oh my god, it’s been awesome,” raved the actor, whose twin sister Chloe also just graduated from Northeastern University in Boston. “I love it here and it’s great to be meeting new people, meeting new faces, and building a new network and becoming a part of a new community. It’s such a big transition, probably the biggest transition I’ll ever have to make in my life, but it’s very exciting.”

In search of “the real experience” in college, Schnapp elected to live in a dorm with other students.

“I’m just looking forward to learning a lot… [and] becoming more independent,” he admitted to Teen Vogue. “I feel that’s a huge part of college. Learning how to live separately from your parents and as your own person. I’m excited to become an adult a little bit.”

The same weekend he graduated, Schnapp, who minored in film, made his debut at the Cannes Film Festival in France. Decked out in a Karl Lagerfeld tuxedo, he walked the red carpet at the premiere of El Ser Querido (The Beloved) starring Javier Bardem.