Top 10 Things You Will Notice About Large High Schools

Previously I talked about weird things that are common in high school but large high schools can be quite the interesting ball game. Things are way different compared to a smaller school. I’m coming from a large high school perspective so this is just what I notice. Some are obviously different but for the most part larger high schools are different than a small town high school so here’s some things you may notice if you’re entering a large high school as a freshman or transferring from a small school.
The Top Ten
1 Parking lots are a nightmare

Seriously, going to or from school every day is a chaotic mess. If you happen to arrive late, finding a spot is like finding a needle in the haystack. On top of that, don't even get me started on high school drivers. They're awful, obviously because of a general lack of experience both in driving and parking. Parking lots are like rodeos, more than anything. So if you want to be on time anywhere, you better add an additional 5-10 minutes at least to your travel time.

Can't wait to see all this next year since I'm starting high school and schools should be able to reopen by then.

2 Your class is bigger than you think

To put things in perspective, consider that there's always at least 25 people who are injured and have a cast or brace of some kind. At graduation, you may barely recognize any of the people before or after you, and after graduation, you may end up crossing paths with someone you barely knew who just so happened to be in your graduation class. That's what happens when your graduation class is over 500 people. Which means yes, some graduation classes are larger than entire high school student populations at smaller schools.

3 More competition for sports teams

If you're interested in sports, then large high schools will definitely be a challenge since there's more students to pick from. They only take the best of the best. Most of the time, they don't cut you any slack. So you have to be good enough to be on the team. In a smaller setting, you're probably going to have less competition and you can pretty much get on varsity wherever you want without having to do anything. However, you may also have to play multiple sports just because they need to fill spots to have a team. This is where big schools have an advantage when you look at college. If you plan to play college athletics, you'll need actual talent to make the team. It's not impossible to go from small high school to college team, but it's easier from a larger school and more competitive playing level.

4 Lunch lines are the worst

So you've reached lunch. In other words your break time. Here's the thing, you're given about 20-30 minutes to eat and unless you bring your own, have fun spending 6 minutes waiting in line. Since the majority of people will eat school food, the lines are always ridiculous. By the time you sit down, there goes half your time given. And it's not like you have time to finish as there's usually a next lunch right after yours. Unless the teacher is generous and lets you go early. Those are the best teachers.

Oh Lord there are some days that I just hate lunch.

5 There’s likely over 100 clubs

Yeah, everything is bigger in larger high schools. Including the amount of clubs, ranging from gaming clubs, to drama clubs, and honestly everything in between. There's probably some clubs you have no idea about.

I'm not sure if mine has 100 clubs to be exact.

Oh gosh. My school only has like 10-20.

6 Large amount of diversity

One thing big high schools have a lot of is diversity. There's so many different people that no matter your race, religion, political beliefs, etc. there's bound to be people who agree and you'll also find those who directly oppose you. High school in that regard is like a melting pot with so many diverse students interacting with each other.

Definitely. I see a lot of unique people on my school. There's one who I don't know very much who seems to be a genius. Advanced specimen, to be exact.

I didn't go to a large high school but this was a factor at my school anyway.

7 You always see someone different in the halls

While there's a ton of different friend groups, chances are you'll see someone in the hall that you haven't seen before. In small high schools, this isn't the case since everyone typically knows everyone. This is either a good or bad thing, depending how you look at it.

Yup. Seeing lot of different faces of Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors. I'll be looking forward to it on Sophomore year.

I mean I see mostly the same people. There are some days where I haven't some people

8 Larger variety in classes

One advantage to a larger school is larger selection of classes compared to a smaller school. More teachers means more variety. So it's possible to go a bit more advanced in subjects versus a small school which may have very few options to pick. So for example, you want to go into Business or Medicine or something in between. You can do that and they may have Accounting 1, 2, and 3, whereas a different school may only have accounting 1 or 2. There's more freedom of choice which is nice to have.

Yeah this is something I wish my school had.

9 Lockers are pointless

Usually they're too small to actually be useful and on top of that, it's usually down some obscure hallway that you didn't even know existed. Overall, it's so much of a hassle just to get to your locker in the first place. It's just easier to carry your backpack around all day. Literally nobody at my school ever uses them which is why at my school they're actually taking them out.

Thankfully, we don't have to use lockers. Except I have to use the PE lockers in PE...

Joke's on you, my school doesn't even have lockers despite being small.

10 Campus is bigger than you realize

You don't realize how big your high school is, until you have to walk all the way across it in 5 minutes. Add in other people getting in your way, and you basically have to walk what feels like halfway across the United States just to make it to class on time. It's not fun at all. You want a bathroom break or want to talk with friends? Nope, sorry, that's too bad, can't do that because you have to make a marathon hike.

My high school has just less than 2000 students, but one of my friends lives outside of Tampa, Florida and her high school has well over 4000 students. Also, her school district is the 7th or 8th largest in the WHOLE country. And no, I'm not joking.

The Contenders
11 There's more than one floor

Only 3 buildings at my school have multiple floors. All the other buildings have only 1 floor.

12 Harder to make friends
13 The marching band takes up the whole field
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