<p>I get the feeling that skylarsky is from McKinney...</p>
<p>Our school district has a rather unique setup. Our graduating classes are huge (mine is 1316 this year...one of the biggest in the nation). However, we manage to keep the schools to a somewhat normal size by splitting 9-10 and 11-12. So in our city there are technically 8 high schools, but 5 of those are for freshman and sophomores, and 3 of them are "senior highs" which house the juniors and seniors. This is cool because when I got to junior year, I had a whole high school's worth of new kids to meet in my classes. I think the district adopted this plan for the sake of varsity athletics (more seniors to choose from). It's good in a way because everyone at the senior high knows what they're doing. Our band definitely has a more mature sound than others in the area, for instance. However, we do miss the depth of talent that we would have in a 4-year school. Plus, we're all jaded by the time we get to the senior high...we lack a certain bright-eyed view of everything that comes from having underclassmen around. I suppose the other issue with our school system is the bizarre way in which you're treated as you go through HS: underclassman, upperclassman, underclassman, upperclassman. It makes you feel really super cool as a sophomore, but it definitely hurts when you're a junior. Either way, I can say I've had a good experience in high school. While I might have had to go to a 5,000+ school, I am instead at a school of about 2,500 with a beautiful, large campus and fantastic facilities. I couldn't have asked for better.</p>
<p>My high school holds about 3000 kids, and, because we're suburban, we have a nice mix of students. Sure, the halls are a bit crowded sometimes, but you get used to it. Athletics and school spirit are really big here, but, because I personally am not into that stuff, I see that as neither a pro nor a con. However, we do have a lot of different activities [other than athletics], such as some really awesome dance teams. Unfortunately, it's difficult to get heavily involved in these activities, especially in the form of leadership positions because you're competing against so many people. Really, unless you're pretty popular, it can be difficult to get an officer position, and the only I hold I got because the faculty selected me. :) As for the performing groups, especially the dance teams, competition is fierce due to the limited amount of spots. We have a pretty good theatre program, though. It's open to everybody, but there's a lot of politics that controls the department. Band and orchestra are also excellent and easy to get involved with.
The only experience I've had with academics is the AP program, which is very good. Most classes cap out at about 30, so that's nice and, by participating in the program, it makes the school feel a bit smaller as probably only about 150 students in each grade participate in it. Thus, I don't know most of the kids in my grade or my school, which I'm fine with. However, big schools aren't only for the outgoing kids--I'm pretty quiet and reserved and I'm just fine. The key is finding your niche.</p>
<p>My highschool has 3,000 students. It's the only high school in the city, even though my city is weatlthy, and has a wealthy population. We don't plan on having a 2nd high school until 2015.
I hate it.</p>
<p>I go to a high school of 2200 students and I don't mind it at all. The sports here are great, and the APs I have to choose from is huge. The classes aren't big, esp when you take all honors classes. The (AP) teachers are very smart people, and willing to help. The social life is great, plenty to do. The negatives is that it's harder to make varsity here then say some small school, and running for an office of some sort is also hard. Overall I love being in a big school, and don't mind it at all.</p>
<p>My old school had nearly 3000 students (9th-12th), and I totally didn't realize how many people there were until my Japanese II class. I mean, I knew the numbers, and classes were usually about thirty per class, but it always seemed normal to me (my first elementary school was in a highly urban area next to a military base, and classes of left than thirty-five seemed tiny to me).</p>
<p>But my Japanese II class had nearly fifty kids in it. It was so large, we had to move to another classroom for that period, and borrow about ten desks every single day. I (and at least five of my friends) dropped the class at semester because we weren't learning anything. But that was really the only downside to the school other than things like long lunch lines - which wasn't so bad thanks to the open campus policy.</p>
<p>It was also fun to have lots of very active student organizations, because even if you weren't in them you heard about the rivalries. Especially during Spirit Week, when DECA, FBLA, and FCLA started recruiting in the activities hall. The lengths they went to were hilarious.</p>
<p>My school has 2000 people, and it is the SMALL one of the county. Here, we have 2 high schools w/ 3000+ students, and the average size is about 2400-2800 (there are 15 high schools in all). The district itself is large, encompassing 110,000 students.</p>
<p>Leevee, I know what you mean. My Spanish class in sophmore year had, no joking, 140 students. We were in the auditorium. Reason being was that many people failed the class or hadn't taken it at all (mostly seniors) and needed it to graduate. It was like this in 4 blocks.</p>
<p>Whoa, 140 students? Crazy. We didn't have anything quite that bad, although my Spanish class did have about five or six kids who had taken all four of the other foreign languages the school offered and had gotten kicked out/failed out of them all. It was kind of pathetic.</p>
<p>My high schools slightly over 2200. I have about 550 in my class and my high school rather sucks. I mean, my school doesn't offer much in terms of AP and the restrictive trimester system only allows one to take up to 5 APs a year. Extracurriculars, our school is rather underdeveloped since no one takes advantage of anything. I mean our math team/club consists of 5 people (3 in Algebra I). We simply have so many music and arts courses, too many. We have 5 bands and like 3 orchestras. There isn't too much opportunity at my school other than in music, which I am not really a big fan of.</p>
<p>i can bet 100000$ that no school in america has 2000 kids in every class, it might have 2000 in one and 1000 in another, but not 2000 kids in 9, 2000 in 10, 2000 in 11, and 2000 in 12, that is ludicris.</p>
<p>Other data on the net (the SARC School Accountability Report Card) indicates that Roosevelt is a grade 9-12 high school with 1,933 students in 10th grade.</p>
<p>There are 5 high schools in my city and all of them have 2,000+ students. I go to the biggest high school in my city (2,500 students) and i love it!</p>
<p>Just to give the opposite end of the spectrum...</p>
<p>my school has 250 kids, my class is the second largest with 70. It's a competitive private school where about half of the kids are super rich and the other half are on (merit and need based) scholarship.</p>
<p>Pros:
- the faculty is amazing, with only a few exceptions. if a teacher likes you, doors open everywhere - for example, if an english teacher likes you, publication awaits. if the drama teacher likes you, you're into college. if a science teacher likes you, there are numerous research opportunities that suddenly pop up on the radar.
- i suppose individualized attention although that really doesn't matter to me, so...
- small class sizes promote discussion (in theory) and make sure you're on the ball instead of sleeping
- we have surprisingly strong facilities for a small school. darkroom, dance studio, black box, 400 seat proscenium theatre with intelligent lighting and good sound, donated science wing with tons of lab space, donated library with a huge media center/AV thing, indoor ice rink, football field, 3 gyms, etc. the only facility that a public highschool has that we don't (that I can think of) is a set shop.</p>
<p>Cons
- grade issues. a 3.0 at our school is roughly equal to a 4.0 anywhere else.
- ridiculous workload even for kids who aren't in honors or AP.
- the drama is great, but dance, music, and sports suck bad.
- sports especially, suck REALLY bad, except tennis, golf and soccer
- seeing the same people everyday gets a little boring.</p>
<p>^ my school is very similar to renindetroit's, except we don't give scholarships, we have some relatively good sports teams (especially tennis, lacrosse, swimming, soccer), and my school is a bit smaller with about 50 girls per grade 9-12, and 30 altogether in the 7th&8th grades. i love it, i can't imagine going to a school with 1000+ kids per grade... i feel like i would just fade into the backround.</p>