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my High School had 2,000+ students. I feel I missed the regular HS experience
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:11 PM Author: Adventurous House We had all the cliques but there were so many kids no one actually knew everyone. It was more like college where you just fall in with a group. It seems the standard HS experience requires no more that 400 kids per class. The ideal number is probably dunbars 150 per grade.
I've always felt I missed out on this quintessential american experience. Anyone else go to a large school? |
Date: January 26th, 2026 1:19 PM Author: fuchsia awkward school rigor I went to a high school with 50 kids in my class. I would have traded with you in a second. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620534) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:23 PM Author: Spruce titillating messiness My school had like 600 iirc and even then i feel like there were encounters with random kids I never saw before all the time. School sizes should be capped around 150, Dunbar's number, which is the theoretical cognitive limit of how many stable social relationships a human can maintain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620548) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:26 PM Author: fuchsia awkward school rigor 150 for the whole 9-12th grade? if so that is what I had and it sucked. 150 per grade would be ok. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620560) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:31 PM Author: Spruce titillating messiness Depends how siloed everyone is I guess, but you wouldn't have the bullying and alienation problems. I wasn't ever bullied but I was mean to some kids and I regret some of it but some of the kids did deserve to be put in line it's just hard to tell (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620579) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:32 PM Author: Metal hell people who are hurt My high school was prob almost 3000 kids. I just assume big public high schools are the norm in Southern California. I never felt like I missed out. In my class knew like the 100 people or so who took AP and honors class. The other 700 jocks and idiots we didn’t know them at all, didn’t care. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620585) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:37 PM Author: Adventurous House the most popular kids were like urban legends. there was like 3 dudes everyone knew their names but I dont think I ever actually saw any of them in school. It was bizarre. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620593) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:38 PM Author: Mahogany up-to-no-good circlehead (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620599) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:37 PM Author: Mahogany up-to-no-good circlehead what? My school had the same amount. Everyone knew everyone. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620592) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:40 PM Author: sooty cuckoldry chapel (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620612) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:48 PM Author: Mahogany up-to-no-good circlehead it was especially true senior year. the barriers between specific cliques went away and everyone was kind of just nice to each other. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620659) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:50 PM Author: frum supple menage pocket flask I heard they made you show 2 forms of ID at your reunion (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620666) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:51 PM Author: Mahogany up-to-no-good circlehead lmao. it's embarrassing but my looks probably deteriorated more than anyone else's in my graduating class. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620673) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:40 PM Author: Appetizing Scarlet Den Alpha the american "regular HS experience" is shit for 99% of the kids who have to go through it.
everyone -- particularly the types of misanthropes who poast on xo -- is far better at a big HS where everyone doesnt know everyone and just knows the kids in the honors/ap classes. |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:42 PM Author: Snowy wonderful sandwich (Loser) (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620620) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:40 PM Author: hyperactive sneaky criminal hall My graduating class was close to 700 kids because it was a HS for the entire large county. My bus ride used to be in excess of 90 minutes. Hard to have integrated friend groups when people could live an hour apart on opposite sides of a rural divide.
The clique divides in such a large settings were Grand Canyon sized. You functionally went to one of several separate schools that happened to be in the same building. |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:40 PM Author: Snowy wonderful sandwich Do Jocks just end up being like 2% of the population? Is everyone just Normal and cool with everyone? lol. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620608) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:46 PM Author: Adventurous House the jocks/popular kids seemed to be in there own world but there was fewer of them (kinda like the top 1% or hollywood celebs in the US). then there was a robust middle class of "normies" that had its own clique system. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620649) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:49 PM Author: Snowy wonderful sandwich This is dangerous. How can you be like “I suck at sports but I’m Cool and Normal” in good faith? (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620665) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 2:37 PM Author: silver floppy blood rage In a larger public, you don’t have to draft every scrap of athletic talent to field teams. So there are categories like “I play basketball with my bros but I like to get high after school rather than get screamed at by a closeted gay who teaches algebra and coaches sports for children as if it is the most important thing in the world.” (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620800) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 2:41 PM Author: Spruce titillating messiness Lol loser (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620807) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 3:58 PM Author: Snowy wonderful sandwich But you’ll never get Scouted (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49621041) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 4:05 PM Author: Contagious Principal's Office CYO hs basketball obviously (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49621056) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:40 PM Author: sooty cuckoldry chapel Went to a hs with 2500 kids. Everyone knew everyone that mattered. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620610) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:43 PM Author: hyperactive sneaky criminal hall Found the popularcliquemo (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620629) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:47 PM Author: Adventurous House how? were you just like a crazy extrovert? (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620656) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:54 PM Author: sooty cuckoldry chapel Just how it naturally shakes out. You come from a couple of middle schools and you know everyone from your middle school. Then in high school all the popular people from each school kind of come together. Only unknown people were the ones from the other middle school who weren’t cool or didn’t stand out.
I was a star basketball player, so was mostly around the jock clique. |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:44 PM Author: Spruce titillating messiness Btw if your school has a lot of mexicans, like most do now, the class proportions will be like 300 freshmen, 250 sophomores, 150 juniors and 100 seniors, cause beaners drop out because Geometry too spicy or they get pregnant at 16 (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620634) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:50 PM Author: Snowy wonderful sandwich This happens with Scum too kinda (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620670) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 2:05 PM Author: Cream mexican I went to a high school with about 150 kids per class before leaving for boarding school like a strivermo. OP, I'm sorry to tell you, you're exactly right. Those kids had the quintessential American high school experience, straight out of The Breakfast Club, Dazed and Confused, or American Pie. There was a core group of about 40 kids that I was with from a feeder elementary school, to middle school, to this high school. It was exactly the right size to have some variety of social interactions and clique stratification, but also cohesion.
I came back to visit when I could, but it was obvious to me that I was missing out on something big. Years later, after all that striving has brought me, I still feel a little tinge of sadness when I think about it. |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 2:30 PM Author: Adventurous House yes this is what I'm talking about. I had friends, went to parties, played sports until 10th grade (then the real jocks took over ljl), but the sense of community you see in HS movies was not there. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620780) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 2:45 PM Author: hyperactive sneaky criminal hall The professionalization of kids sports in giant school and extracurricular sports ecosystems can’t be overstated. There’s no place left to teach kids that they should be active at athletic pursuits that bring them joy, even if they’re mediocre at them because of either innate talent or just a tertiary interest.
My oldest expressed some interest in learning soccer when he was about 12 or 13. He just thought it seemed fun and wanted to be able to kick a ball around with some friends. It was basically impossible to find some pure rec league kids shit team to put him on to get some basic instruction. Instead we started playing in an adult beer league and some kindly people taught him enough to make him happy. He got by on young legs and good lungs from his primary interest in cycling. |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 2:51 PM Author: Spruce titillating messiness You failed him, you should have had him practicing 3 hours per day since age 4 (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620825) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 2:59 PM Author: hyperactive sneaky criminal hall Each of my kids has a sport that they’re quite good at. But they’re all outdoors oriented non-team sports. We resisted getting sucked into the accretion disk of fancy suburban sports parenting, but (now mostly in hindsight) I wish there had been more room for less intensive team activities. The oldest two did Scouts but it’s now hopelessly pozzed. The youngest is big into his climbing gym. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620840) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 4:03 PM Author: bearded maroon pistol (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49621053) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 2:08 PM Author: clear gunner My HS graduating class was about 980. The graduation ceremony took like 3 hours. 2 hours of just calling names. The school was split up between two campuses. And the campuses were not particularly close--it was a 15 minute drive. Also, when I was in 9th grade, the split was such that I did 9th grade with 8th graders, and 10th grade with the same group (as 9th graders). Then 11th grade was the only year where there were "upperclassmen" so to speak. |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 2:53 PM Author: Racy Cruise Ship my school had around 250-300 students per grade and that was the perfect size imo. it shakes out to be about 150 when you consider the bottom half of the class was functionally retarded, although i guess this wouldn't be the case in nice suburbs and such (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620830) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 3:13 PM Author: laughsome heaven cr even massive high schools like Carmel IN have a core group of 50-150 pneumatics (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620882) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 3:19 PM Author: hilarious naked abode stock car I was home schooled. I think I had a much worse situation. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49620907) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 4:18 PM Author: bonkers translucent marketing idea knife Wow, so your teachers were just openly fucking each other? (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49621104) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 4:25 PM Author: hilarious naked abode stock car Yes, but bottom dad was the much better instructor. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49621125) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 4:28 PM Author: cerebral mood think I was 225 or so. I knew or knew the name of almost everyone in my class, save 1-2 Losers and an asian dude or two that never talked to anyone. Probably drank a beer with right under of quarter of my class at some point or another
I could never imagine going to one of those schools with like 4000 kids |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 9:41 PM Author: bright maniacal locale It's always interesting to see posters on here talk about how they played varsity basketball or whatever and anyone who didn't was a loser.
Effectively at my school, playing varsity basketball meant you were like in the top 0.6% of athletes?
It's interesting how that perspective shapes you. I probably objectively was an 80-90 percentile athlete, which at a decent high school athlete means you're not an athlete at all (I lettered in an obscure sport but that just meant real athletes thought i was a fucking loser). Meanwhile these posters were like on some no-cut basketball team and have grown up thinking they were one bounce away from the NBA. |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 9:43 PM Author: hilarious naked abode stock car We have a couple of former Olympians that post. We even have a guy that was a D1 Hockey enforcer. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49622231) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 9:43 PM Author: Appetizing Scarlet Den Alpha i was #1 singles on the v tennis team since soph year, and #2 as a frosh. where does that put me?
i was also the #2 guy on the math team |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 9:52 PM Author: bright maniacal locale Probably the best of the 4-5 kids who had access to similar training opportunities?
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Date: January 26th, 2026 9:56 PM Author: Appetizing Scarlet Den Alpha and what do we do with that info? (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49622285) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 9:44 PM Author: cerebral mood I was all state IIRC (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49622235) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 9:55 PM Author: bright maniacal locale I was all-conference in my shit sport. But no one at my high school was ever like "Oh wow - X is such a jock! He's one of the best kids on the wrestling/track/swimming/soccer team!"
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Date: January 26th, 2026 9:44 PM Author: Fear-inspiring boltzmann How many are dead and what cliques are more dead than others (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49622238) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 9:52 PM Author: hyperactive sneaky criminal hall First round of deaths went to jocks who volunteered for the GWoT
Second round went to scumbags who succumbed to addictions |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 9:55 PM Author: flesh twinkling uncleanness clown A few jocks died in accidents and there was at least one suicide. A girl who sat next to me in AP English died of cancer. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49622283) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 10:03 PM Author: bright maniacal locale My high school has a Facebook group that I found a few years ago, and it was surreal joining it late because it was just like finding out 10 people died all within a couple of minutes.
Basically the only use for the gorup is occassionally someone will post "Jim Black IS DEAD." |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 10:37 PM Author: bonkers translucent marketing idea knife The FB group for my class hasn't had a poast in 5 years.
I suspect the group admin is checked out and isn't approving poasts. Is that how FB groups work? I haven't submitted anything so I don't know for sure if poasts are being held up, but I find it weird that nobody is saying anything at all.
There's been a lot of deaths that I suspect the class largely doesn't know about unless they regularly read the obituaries |
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Date: January 27th, 2026 11:23 AM Author: Contagious Principal's Office out of the dead kids I know:
3 jocks (secondary cliques: one scumbag, one loser, one doesn't fall into any)
1 scumbag (secondary jock but scumbag definitely took over)
2 losers (wigger hippie types) |
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Date: January 27th, 2026 11:20 AM Author: Contagious Principal's Office if you're smart you wind having all your classes with the same 50-60 kids anyways. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2...id.#49623206) |
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Date: January 27th, 2026 11:26 AM Author: grizzly greedy police squad turdskin i went to an innercity high school with 800 kids per class only 200 kids total showed up on any given day, though |