A game...Size of your HS graduating class?

CalMum_Momma · February 2011

Mine was 27 and we were big for our school at the time. I went to a central school in Schroon Lake, NY. It's a tiny little mountain town in the heart of the Adirondak Mountains. 5 towns went to my school. There were 294 students K-12th grade the year I graduated. I'm glad I went ot such a small school. I really feel like it gave me the opportunity to have a greater variety of experiences. Because the school was so small, all students were encouraged to participate in as much as they could. I was in drama club and all the school plays, marching band, chorus, editor or the yearbook, class secretary, played softball, basketball and soccer...the list goes on.

How big were your schools, and what do you think were the advantages, or disadvantages?

miranda040 · February 2011

There were 99 in my HS graduating class. I went to a small private school. Most schools around here have much bigger classes...or at least they did when I was in high school.

mindurnanners · February 2011

I believe there was 200-300 in my grad class. I lived in a pretty big city and most schools in my area were that way. I didn't even reconize everyone while their names were being called. The huge disadvantage was that it was the longest graduation ceremony ever!!! lol

PiRSquared330 · February 2011

61. I went to a private school. the school I was zoned for started with about 600 in each class, but only graduated about 250-300.

advantages: everyone knew everyone really well. And we were too small for cliques. Almost everyone was friendly with everyone else. There were one or two who pulled. We also had small classes (I think my biggest ever was 20, but I had some that had 6 people in them)

disadvantages: its hard to change who you are when everyone knows you so well. It doesn't give you much room to grow.

Even though we were small, we still had a ton of APs (over 20, I think) and a ton of extracurriculars. But I think it being private had something to do with that.

sleepingbeauty825 · February 2011

I think about 430-450

MrsBalletStar05 · February 2011

Approx. 250. We were the smallest of the public high schools in the area, but we were in a very, very diverse area.

On one hand it was good because I learned to be understanding of the differences in people. Everyone was friends with all types, colors, religions, ect.

On the other hand, once I went out into the world, I had no idea that there were so many people that are NOT accepting of those differences. I was kinda floored.

Then again, we all have different discoveries when we were turn 18 and leave mom and dad and become an adult :-)

lindsleek · February 2011

109... I was from a small town. I too, was glad to have a lot of opportunities that I wouldn't have otherwise had. I was very involved in sports and I think that kept me out of trouble.

onislandtime · February 2011

about 300. I lived in a small town, but all of the kids from the neighboring 4 towns went to our HS. The school was way too small to cram all of us in there, so space was really lacking to do a lot of activities.

hilwithonelary · February 2011

289. It was the biggest graduating class ever at the time. I think it was a nice size. Our school was big enough that we had plenty of honors and AP classes available and opportunities for extracurriculars, but not so big that you got lost in the shuffle.

MNgirl326 · February 2011

653

My brother who is 3 years younger then me had about 986 in his class. His class is the biggest class in my high schools history.

FemmeNat01 · February 2011

There was about 300-350. I went to a Catholic high school and it was the only one in the area. The grad ceremony took forever and especially since my last name starts with a B. It was fun to graduate with the people I did; a lot of us were friends.

DrinknDerive · February 2011

575. There a lot of opportunities in such a large and well-funded school.

CalMum_Momma · February 2011

DrinknDerive:
575. There a lot of opportunities in such a large and well-funded school.

I've only attended and worked in small rural schools, who depend on a lot of grants, and some of which have been on austerity budgets, but I've always felt like we still had lots of opportunities, but maybe I just don't know what we were missing! What sort of opportunities do you mean?

ABColeslaw · February 2011

62. We were supposed to have 70, but a bunch of tools thought it was no big deal to fail senior religion, until they found out they wouldn't be able to graduate.

KRMac · February 2011

630. I went to a private grade school (class of 30) and then a public high school. It was a large adjustment, but I really liked being exposed to so many new things in high school - classes, clubs, new people...that my grade school didn't provide.

Of course there were lots of people that I didn't know in my class though.

mrsj-dub · February 2011

I had one of the largest graduating classes in my school - 35 students. It was a central school also we had about 500 students K-12 in the same building. I loved it. There was always an opportunity to play in which ever sport you want and rarely sat the bench, the same went with any activity you wanted. The teachers knew us very well and knew how to modivate us.

DrinknDerive · February 2011

CalMum_Momma:
DrinknDerive:
575. There a lot of opportunities in such a large and well-funded school.

I've only attended and worked in small rural schools, who depend on a lot of grants, and some of which have been on austerity budgets, but I've always felt like we still had lots of opportunities, but maybe I just don't know what we were missing! What sort of opportunities do you mean?

Maybe it's not a class-size thing. I just know that our sports teams and marching band never really wanted for anything and got to travel the nation in competitions. They also had some of the best coaches because of competitive salary. Academically speaking, our district had the best teacher pay in the area, and that brought in some great talent. Most of my AP teachers had graduate degrees. Oh, and my math classes provided really great calculators. I actually don't think the district was great because of its size. I think the district got this big because it is so great.

RedWildIcing · February 2011

We had 474 graduates from our class. Our class size was almost 500. That many people didnt graduate.

DaisyFull · February 2011

My graduating class was over just over 1,100.

Sounds crazy compared to the other numbers you guys are posting; but it was a good school. Lots of programs, and even though there were a lot of students, we still had small class sizes. Nothing over 20 or 22.

norman25 · February 2011

53

Advantages: I easily ended up 3rd in the class, everyone knew everyone else, small class sizes, anyone could play sports

Disadvantages: Everyone knew everyone else, not very well funded, we were horrible in sports, Students thought that since they 'knew' the teachers we could run around calling them Frank and sit at their desks, horrible teachers (we regularly colored in our english class)

I like it so much that I opted to go PSEO my 11th and 12th years. That was the best thing I had ever done.

numeria11 · February 2011

HS. 104, that took three former school districts to get to that size. I grew up out in a farming community and my JR class and grade school class was like 18 people total.

Downside: As someone else said I think the hard thing was since everyone knew everybody it was hard to grow and change as a person. And your major courses (math, science, and english) tended to be filled to the max 30-32 kids because they just couldnt justify the budget for more teachers. Also there were only 3 AP classes and no Honors courses, again because there just wasn't a budget for it. Our equipment for the sciences also tended to be pretty out of date or not in working order all the time.

Upside: At the same time I love that I went to such a small school because I realize how many crappy things went on at other schools that just didnt really happen at ours (drugs, gangs, violence etc) plus I feel like I got a lot more individual attention from my teachers in some classes (history, languages, and electives in general) because you might have the same teacher 2 or 3 years in a row. Plus the chances of having your friends in your class was pretty good when they only taught two or three sessions of core classes.

Mama_SAS · February 2011

Do you still live near Schroon Lake? I don't live too far south of there and I graduated with 43.

KellyAnne&CHris · February 2011

There were 400 in my graudating class. It was good I felt bc there were many different circles of friends and not just one clique like in some small schools. Don't get me wrong there were clicks but there were many different groups of people.

valetdecoeur · February 2011

I think it was 78. We were a small class that had started out freshman year with about 96. It was a parochial school. I feel like I may have missed out on some opportunities that larger schools had. Definitely talented people like my husband missed out. He has always been really good at basketball, and had he gone to a larger school that had scouts come, he may have been able to play ball in college. For me, I think that I wouldn't be the person I am today if I had gone to a larger public school. I stayed out of trouble all four years. But I think the peer pressure would have been different elsewhere, and who knows. I hated high school while I was there. In retrospect, I had a good time, and thankful that I went to the school I did. I will likely send DS to a private school as well, when the time comes.

NastyAnnie · February 2011

81.

While not particularly well funded, the community had (and still has) a lot of pride in the school system, and that goes a long way. We didn't have the best of anything, but we were the best at a lot of things. My marching band took runner up in the Texas UIL State marching competition (which is a huge deal among state competitions, especially for a 31 piece band). In football we regularly played up until the semi finals. In UIL Academics (which is a series of academic competitions that include reading, writing, math, journalism, theater, science, and history) we regularly took our district and I went to State twice. We always got a ton of support, and everyone in the community knew the students of our high school.

The disadvantage? To really break out of that mold, you have to quite literally escape. I went all the way to Chicago, and still, I'm back here, 15 miles from home. I run into my high school classmates and teachers constantly, and they still call me by my first name, and friend request me on Facebook, thinking I'm the same person I was 6 years ago. It can be very socially frustrating.

Shortcake2675 · February 2011

41. 29 of us had been in the same class since kindergarten, and there were only a couple that joined us in high school. We were a pretty tight knit class and the biggest in the school.

It was a very small school (K-12 less than 400 kids) and you knew everyone. But I had some great teachers, some not so great, the opportunity to be involved in everything (Band, Academic Bowl, Sports, FFA, the school play, etc), and yet I haven't hardly spoken to my classmates since we graduated (1999). But when I was home last I talked to my closest friends from hs and it wasn't so bad. I'm still glad I live 1700 miles from home.

sdtchica13 · February 2011

I had 300 in my graduating class, with about 275 graduating. My HS was one of three in the district, and we had the biggest of the graduating classes, there were probably about 750 total between the three schools. We had all of the sports except gymnastics (way too much liability insurance; even higher than football), and probably every extracarricular that you would think of. The advantage was that each school had about 90% of the same extracarriculars, and if your school didn't you could pop over to one of the other two schools to pick it up (about a 10 minute drive to any of the three schools from each other).

The only disadvantage I can think of is that the class sizes were fairly large (like 22+ in each class at any given time, but since my elementary school and middle school had 25 per class, I was used to it.

tusshie2004 · February 2011

I believe my graduating class was between 350-400 students.

CalMum_Momma · February 2011

Mama_SAS:

Do you still live near Schroon Lake? I don't live too far south of there and I graduated with 43.

No, we're near Rochester now, but I still have friends up there, and my mom and siblings now live in the Glens Falls area, so we visit that way a lot. Where are you?

Lolabug86 · February 2011

36.....I liked the fact that I knew everyone, but you couldn't really choose your friends. You either hung out with everyone or you were a loner. Once I got to college I was baffled by the number of people I had to choose from to be friends with. I am therefore much better friends with my college buddies than with anyone I went to HS with (besides DH of course). There are definitely pros and cons to each side.

emiliemadison · February 2011

It was about 500. It was a large public hs with lots of funding for tons of activities, organizations, groups, events, activities, etc. I can see the advantages of a small school, and the disadvantages of a big one. But I'm glad I went to a large school. The benefits IMO far outweighed the drawbacks.

emiliemadison · February 2011

abartow:
653
My brother who is 3 years younger then me had about 986 in his class. His class is the biggest class in my high schools history.

Were you in EP, by any chance?

Danikat15 · February 2011

I think my DH wins for smallest class. He had 7, including him. There were 14 in his high school altogether and only 1 of them was a junior. It was a very small Christian school that closed it's doors last year.

I, on the other hand, graduated with 300. I liked it. Enough to get good extra-curricular stuff (which DH obviously didn't have a whole lot of), but still small enough that I knew everyone.

Some of the local schools graduated classes in the thousands.

Mama_SAS · February 2011

CalMum_Momma:
Mama_SAS:

Do you still live near Schroon Lake? I don't live too far south of there and I graduated with 43.
No, we're near Rochester now, but I still have friends up there, and my mom and siblings now live in the Glens Falls area, so we visit that way a lot. Where are you?

I'm in the Glens Falls area too.

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