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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: SkaddenArse 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: Bogart 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",#49620534) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:23 PM Author: goy orbison 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",#49620548) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:26 PM Author: Bogart 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",#49620560) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:31 PM Author: goy orbison 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",#49620579) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:32 PM Author: Fyre festival founder 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",#49620585) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:37 PM Author: SkaddenArse 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",#49620593) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:38 PM Author: dupa (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2",#49620599) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:37 PM Author: dupa what? My school had the same amount. Everyone knew everyone. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2",#49620592) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:40 PM (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2",#49620612) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:48 PM Author: dupa 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",#49620659) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:50 PM Author: Metal Up Your Ass 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",#49620666) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:51 PM Author: dupa 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",#49620673) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:40 PM Author: ...,,..;...,,..,..,...,,,;.., 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: cowgod (Loser) (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2",#49620620) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:40 PM Author: Emperor CRISPR Chad von Neumann III 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: cowgod 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",#49620608) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:46 PM Author: SkaddenArse 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",#49620649) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:49 PM Author: cowgod 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",#49620665) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 2:37 PM Author: ,..,,,,,,....,,,..., 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",#49620800) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 2:41 PM Author: goy orbison Lol loser (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2",#49620807) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 3:58 PM Author: cowgod But you’ll never get Scouted (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2",#49621041) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 4:05 PM Author: .,.,...,.,.;,.,,,:,.,.,::,.,..,:,.;,.., CYO hs basketball obviously (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2",#49621056) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:40 PM Went to a hs with 2500 kids. Everyone knew everyone that mattered. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2",#49620610) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:43 PM Author: Emperor CRISPR Chad von Neumann III Found the popularcliquemo (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2",#49620629) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:47 PM Author: SkaddenArse how? were you just like a crazy extrovert? (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2",#49620656) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:54 PM 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: goy orbison 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",#49620634) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 1:50 PM Author: cowgod This happens with Scum too kinda (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2",#49620670) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 2:05 PM Author: Buy your next house instantly with Zellow! 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: SkaddenArse 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",#49620780) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 2:45 PM Author: Emperor CRISPR Chad von Neumann III 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: goy orbison 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",#49620825) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 2:59 PM Author: Emperor CRISPR Chad von Neumann III 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",#49620840) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 4:03 PM Author: Matthias of Redwall Did Nothing Wrong #Cornflower (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2",#49621053) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 2:08 PM Author: black abyss (definite and ineradicable gauge of its upward moving) 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: Talk to your kids about time dilation. (🧐) 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",#49620830) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 3:13 PM Author: FizzKidd (Chinese Becky) 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",#49620882) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 3:19 PM Author: Tenterhooks I was home schooled. I think I had a much worse situation. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2",#49620907) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 4:18 PM Author: ban spaceporn Wow, so your teachers were just openly fucking each other? (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2",#49621104) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 4:25 PM Author: Tenterhooks Yes, but bottom dad was the much better instructor. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5826922&forum_id=2",#49621125) |
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Date: January 26th, 2026 4:28 PM Author: michael doodikoff 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 |