<p>DISCLAIMER: I hated high school, so if you don't want to hear me rant, than save your time and don't read/respond.</p>
<p>Ok, so for whatever reason, I recently have began to discover that some of the schools I have applied to (and am VERY interested in attending) are the same schools that upwards of 20, 30, 40, or MORE of my high school classmates are interested in, as well. (This is a pure coincidence, by the way.)</p>
<p>Now, I applied to large schools (I'm talking 20,000+ undergrads for each), so I know that finding new people to hang out with won't be a problem. But I want to completely DISTANCE myself from these people I go to school with currently, and I don't want to go to college only for it to be a repeat of my miserable high school years, if that makes any sense.</p>
<p>Basically, what I want to do is find my niche in college without being challenged by the omnipresence of high school classmates. Will this be possible? Any answers would be much appreciated.</p>
<p>With 20,000+ undergrads in your school it will be easy to distance yourself from your high school classmates. There’s people I know that attend the same school as me and I’ve never run into them at school. It will probably be the same for you. I wouldn’t worry about it too much. You’re going to have much more fun in college.</p>
<p>I was in a similar situation when I was a HS senior last year. First, let me say that you should select your college based on the environment and academics – don’t let other students that you may know who select the same college keep you from attending. That being said, there were 800 students in my graduating class, and about 70 elected to attend the same university as me. There are over 5,000 students in the freshman class. That being said, I see HS people all the time. I figured this really wouldn’t be the case with the 70/20000 ratio, but remember that many upperclassmen don’t live on campus so it’s much more concentrated towards freshman.</p>
<p>Right now I just walk by most of them without speaking, even though we’ve been in classes together in HS. At first we’d talk a bit, but like you, I really didn’t click with most of my HS class and originally I was disappointed that I couldn’t completely “start over” like I could at a different university further away from my HS. So I guess that is something to consider. But also consider WHY you want to “start over”. If you want to completely reinvent yourself as a person, that’s much easier said than done, and would probably be equally as easy/difficult whether or not there are former HS classmates at your college. If it’s really going to bother you in a psychological way, then by all means attend a different university because to some extent you probably will be bothered by it like I was — but make sure you like that different university/college more for OTHER reasons as well… ie, location and academics. Good luck!</p>
<p>Its possible to distance yourself from your high school friends, especially if you’re going to a 20000+ college. There’s going to be a ton of opportunities for you to find your niche on campus, through clubs and organizations and possibly even sports. Chances are you might not see any of them but you might pass by them randomly. As long as you don’t have the same major as any of them, you’ll be fine. I drifted away from my high school friends here (except for a couple) and I have found my niche of friends.</p>
<p>Absolutely. There are 3 people who go to my college that went to my high school…myself, my roommate and a guy who graduated a year before us. My school is pretty small (about 2700 undergrads), and of course I see my roommate a lot, but the guy, I’ve seen like 5 times all semester, and we’ve only talked once.</p>
<p>About 15 students from one of my high schools and ~30 from the other go to my university of about 30,000 undergrads. I run into at least one of those 45 people per day, not including the three classes I have with people from my high schools. Maybe I’m just the only one…</p>
<p>Haha, I was in the same situation in my junior year. Solution? Apply to top 10 schools. As you can see, there is an inverse relationship between the ranking of the school and the number of your fellow classmates attending it. Good luck.</p>
<p>I go to Rutgers and we have about 30,000 kids.
About 350+ kids from my graduating HS class of 700 go to Rutgers too.
I rarely see them, unless I go visit them in their dorms.</p>
<p>If you’re at a 20k person school you’ll have no trouble avoiding them. You might end up having a few classes with a couple of them, but you don’t have to sit next to them or talk to them. Honestly you’re better off NOT wanting to hang out exclusively with your highschool friends than people who do want to, since you’ll be motivated to make new friends.</p>