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I had an overall good experience, but I had my problems. I was a really good kid and in a ton of extra-curriculars. I danced on the pom team with the cool kids. They were nice to me and I think they liked me, but I didn't go (or get invited) to the cool parties after school.

I had a good group of friends. Not too much drama. I didn't have a boyfriend until college so that's where I felt a little like an outsider.

I went to a small Catholic school and then public high school - so it was a huge change and shocker to me.

I will say though that it was pretty stereo-typical although at the time I thought it was awful!

Ummmm sort of? I mean high school is definitely all about cliques. There are the cool kids and the jocks and the band geeks and the drama kids. My school was no exception on that front, people definitely had their "place."

But I do feel my school was a little different in that it wasn't very "mean." Like I don't really remember anyone ever getting bullied or harassed in school. And there were a lot of friendships between groups. Also I think in somewhat atypical fashion the "cool kids" were basically the ones that were really smart + attractive. The jocks were not the kings of the school like I think is true in a lot of places.

I didn't really fit in a group very well, I never belonged to a single clique but I had friends in multiple cliques and even though I was far from "cool" I don't think there was anyone in my class I couldn't have sat down next to at lunch and that wouldn't have been okay. So I think in that way our school was nicer than most.

No, I wouldn't say my experience was typical. I came from a tiny town and a tiny school where everyone knew everyone. I met some of my best friends there and I fondly look back on my high school experience. Sure, sometimes there was drama but it's unavoidable because teenagers are dramatic.

I think grad school was more akin to what is considered "high school" in terms of drama and cliques. That was surprising to me because I thought drama peters out the older you get.

I had a pretty good experience. That's not to say there weren't some bully's and some challenges and I started at a junior high in 9th grade and they were truly brutal! I was the new kid. But then we moved and I went to a high school and whilst I hated going and there were definitely cliques and popularity contests I also made so many amazing friends. I was one of the punk kids and in many schools that might mean not fitting in but my high school was diverse in that arena. I am still friends with a lot of those people today even though its mostly on Facebook that we see each other. There are some people who were nasty but no one really dominated. I was pretty well known in high school with a diverse group of friends, not at all popular but also not an outcast. Overall I feel like I lucked out.

It was typical to me. Had to deal my own self esteem issues. Bullying was more elementary and middle school. High school, I just got by. I had my friends and falling out of friends, which caused drama, but I think it was normal.

My crowd was the nerdy, preppy band geeks. Did I stand out in HS? Nope! I didn't want to stand out either.

Eh, maybe somewhat. There were definitely popular kids and unpopular ones. The popular boys tended to be sporty while the popular girls tended to wear expensive clothing.

I was somewhere in between. I wasn't popular, but I wasn't bullied or teased much. I was a weird kid and I always dressed strangely, so I got some comments for that. Honestly I never cared what people thought about my clothes. I would have been much more hurt if they insulted my actual appearance or intelligence, but no one ever did really.

Overall I don't think people were that nasty. We were a pretty small school, and in general nothing that bad happened.

I had a great high school experience. Everyone just knew each other from all grades. I went to an all girls Catholic school. I had a solid group of friends and knew others from other groups of sorts, but we got along, no Mean Girls stuff here. I'll never forget the outpouring of love and support when we lost a classmate to a terminal illness in my class senior year.

Last week, a classmate and her husband were killed in a car crash leaving behind two young children. Over the past few days, I've watched my high school and their college alma mater mobilize support in so many ways. Seeing this makes me happy for the wonderful high school I attended and how they support everyone in tangible and intangible ways.

I went to a pretty friendly, small Catholic high school and I really enjoyed it! There will still cliques, but said cliques tended to be pretty friendly with each other - and I managed to get along with most everyone. I actually miss those days sometimes.

I loved my high school experience. We didn't have any sports teams (only gym & intramurals) so there were no jocks, no mean girls, no cheer leaders, etc. Of course we had lots of cliques, but there were so many and they overlapped with others. Our HS was like college in that we could pick classes, we had open periods where kids would just be sitting in the halls chillaxing. There was so much diversity (even though it still could be somewhat segregated) but it was pretty cool. I love my high school. And my school was on an episode of Seinfeld

I didn't enjoy my HS experience. Mostly because I was the new kid, extremely shy, and my awkward phase lasted a lot longer than most. There were cliques and I was an outsider. Looking back and attending the reunions, I'm glad that I wasn't a part of the cool group, because they really did end up "messed up"

The beginning of HS was definitely a popularity contest. But it wasn't as bad at Jr. High. That was like an after school special filled with all the cliche cliques and stereotypes! My parents moved in the middle of the school year, so I was the "new kid". Somehow I ended up living next to the "cool girls" and looking back, my middle school years was dominated by different hairstyles and pictures where I'm wearing way too much make-up for my age!

By the end of high school, I couldn't care less about popularity and just wanted to get it over with. I saw one of my good friends become addicted to drugs (which she only started to keep her already skinny figure)! Yeh, that sucked. But other people around us didn't know what was going on.

Jr. High School was fun. High school, I didn't care much about, unfortunately.

I graduated from a private Christian high school & my graduated class was like 54 people, so everyone was pretty nice to each other. There were definitely groups of friends, but everyone got along. It was really nice, and the main reason I want Sadie in private school.

I had a very atypical high school experience, at least to me anyway. I went to small (my graduating class was 30 people), private all-girls school that has/had a high population of well off students, including children of celebrities. Actually the show Gossip Girl was based on my school. Gossip Girl is completely over the top, but for some people partially accurate. It wasn't that way for me at all since I was the working class minority kid from the outer boroughs with a strict mother. I didn't enjoy my experience socially even though I did well and was heavily involved with extracurricular activities. There were no groups based on what you did or liked, just groups of friends. These groups weren't always nice to each other though.

I'm always fascinated by the portrayals of high school on TV, especially with cheerleaders, football players and kids who drove cars to school.

@swurlygurl: Yeah..totally over the top, but to some degree some people really did have that kind of life. I think there is always some degree of freedom that city kids have because they are not dependent on parents/older people to get you where you need to go. I was very focused, straight-laced and my mother was not having it, so I was not into running all over the city doing who knows what. I did have my fun though.

It was typical but atypical at the same time. I lived in a pretty wealthy town but we were solidly middle class. There were 4 elementary schools that fed into a middle school and 2 other towns middle schools that fed into our HS. Cliques were more based on the school you came from (and how wealthy your family was) and what sports you played. I had a great core of friends, lots of kids i was friendly with and I was friends with a lot of guys, but i never dated guys from my HS.

I was a freshman when colombine happened and our school was featured on an episode of 20/20 because a kid a few years older then me felt he was being bullied and actually wrote out a "plan". The whole story was edited in such a way that they framed a guy i was friends with as the "bully" when he wasnt at all.

@LuLu Mom: Haha, that sounds like my little IA experience, too. All sorts of cliques, and school was so small (I graduated in a class of 34) that you were in lots of groups and activities and your clique was really more of who was your friends group.

All the cheerleaders didn't hang out and drama kids weren't in their own little gang because it was likely that the cheerleader was in drama, speech, played the drums in the pep band, and was on homecoming court. There was still slight bullying, but in a school so small, it rarely escalated. It was awesome for some, meh for others, and I'm sure it was hell for a few folks, but I don't think it was TV-style typical HS.

@indi: @LuLu Mom: My HS experience was very similar! Except in a teensy, tiny, dusty west Texas town. haha.

Overall, HS was good to me, if a little bit boring. Small school, so the friend groups couldn't really be categorized at the "jocks" or "band nerds", because a lot of kids were in ALL the electives.

I was in band, and theater, and on the tennis team so I had several friend groups--but my bestiest were the smart kids.

I felt like my time there was transitory. Meaning, even then, I knew I wasn't the type to live there forever--and I was right! I moved when I started college and never lived there again. But still, it was nice and safe and uneventful which kind of good for a kid. I was exposed to too much, too soon.

It was definitely clique-y, but I don't remember there being the stereotypical 'jocks/nerds/popular' group, it was pretty mixed. I also don't remember there being any 'mean girls,' maybe I just didn't care?