# How far from your high school did you live? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 3, 2010, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472 "2010-09-03T08:04:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472/61 "2010-09-03T20:10:40Z")
I grew up in the suburbs. The distance between home and HS is 3.06 miles. More importantly, if I started Kashmir as soon as I got on the bus, it would finish right when the bus pulled up to school. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472/62 "2010-09-03T20:11:31Z")
According to Google Earth, 7.4 miles, and a 19 minute drive, but it sure took a lot longer on the days when I had to take the schoolbus–and no doubt seemed farther. I did actually think it was farther, like 10 miles or so. My school was just south of L.A.'s Brentwood district, and I grew up in Coldwater Canyon. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472/63 "2010-09-03T23:52:34Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > > [@Tengu](#): > > > > 9km and change (~4 miles) > > Actually, 9km is about 5.6 miles. Right you are. Compounding of a rounding error on my part. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472/64 "2010-09-04T01:28:13Z")
4 miles. I usually got a ride from my parents. I rode my bicycle back and forth the summer I took drivers ed. ---
**Author:** ![may\_be\_ignorant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c5a1d2/32.png) [@may\_be\_ignorant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/may_be_ignorant)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472/65 "2010-09-04T02:02:17Z")
Im a senior now, and I live less than a mile away 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472/66 "2010-09-04T02:25:28Z")
7.5 miles, though it was usually longer my senior year, as I drove a carpool of neighborhood friends. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472/67 "2010-09-04T02:37:35Z")
2 miles. Most of the time, I rode the city bus. Halfway through my senior year, I drove after I got a car. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472/68 "2010-09-04T02:43:22Z")
1.2 miles walking. Interestingly, I checked googleMaps for my elementary school in the opposite direction, and got 1.2 miles that way, too. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472/69 "2010-09-04T03:02:24Z")
I went to grades 8 and 9 in a school a half-hour bus ride away - about 10 kilometres. This was after they improved the route – before that (same school), I had had to ride 1 1/2 hours each way. After we moved to Montreal, I lived substantially closer to school. About 500 metres away, in fact. It was a bit of a relief. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472/70 "2010-09-04T04:17:32Z")
Something like 3/4 of a mile away. It seemed a very long way when you had to carry all your books, PE kit, etc - I longed for lockers like kids on American TV always seemed to have! ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472/71 "2010-09-04T07:02:28Z")
About 20km I think. I caught the train to and from school every day, and it was about a 40 minute trip. About an hour door to door when you added in the time walking to and from the stations. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472/72 "2010-09-04T07:10:12Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > I lived in a (then) small New England town with a regional school system - one jr high and one high school for three towns. Timberlane? My high school was three miles away. Until I was old enough to drive I took the bus. My bus stop was picked up first in the morning, and left off last in the afternoon, meaning I spent 1.5 hours a day on a bus. It was nice to drive to school in a third of the time! ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472/73 "2010-09-04T15:35:38Z")
Zero miles. I lived in a boarding school. Apparently unlike a couple of boarders posting above, I really thought of it as home, and in fact now almost 40 years later it’s the main place I get homesick for. There was a Main Building that included dorms, classrooms, dining room and kitchen, gym, library, and various other things. There were also bathrooms, though in wings separated by long open hallways, it having been a compromise when built so as to provide indoor access to the bathrooms - the custom until that time had been not to build bathrooms into buildings where people lived and ate (it was a pretty old building). Anyway, I remember noticing occasionally that I had not been outside the building for almost a week. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472/74 "2010-09-04T15:42:47Z")
About two blocks. Three if it was winter and I couldn’t cut through the snow covered football field and had to go around. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472/75 "2010-09-04T16:32:40Z")
Because of this thread, I just mapped all my walks to school in Google Maps. My walk to kindergarten and grades 1 and 2 was about 850 metres, none of it outside the subdivision. My walk to grades 3-6 was a little over 4 blocks or around 500 m. The walk to senior public school (grades 7 and 8) was around 1.2 km and I rode the bus. > [@Tengu](#): > > I moved several times while in HS, but stayed at the same school. Me too. My first walk to HS during grades 9 and 10 was around 900 metres. Sometime around this time I got a ten-speed. Later, we moved, and the walk/ride was increased to almost 2 km. Then we moved again, all the way across town, and the distance was over 4 km. I continued to the same school and rode my bike or got a ride. > [@gotpasswords](#): > > I think the designer was daft - the school was about two miles from O’Hare airport, so building a school that’s shaped like an airport terminal was only asking for someone to land on the football field. Did this ever happen? ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472/76 "2010-09-04T19:22:38Z")
According to Google, 0.2 to my elementary school, 7.9 miles to middle school and 1.3 to HS. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472/77 "2010-09-04T21:29:28Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > Zero miles. I lived in a boarding school. Apparently unlike a couple of boarders posting above, I really thought of it as home, and in fact now almost 40 years later it’s the main place I get homesick for. > > There was a Main Building that included dorms, classrooms, dining room and kitchen, gym, library, and various other things. There were also bathrooms, though in wings separated by long open hallways, it having been a compromise when built so as to provide indoor access to the bathrooms - the custom until that time had been not to build bathrooms into buildings where people lived and ate (it was a pretty old building). Anyway, I remember noticing occasionally that I had not been outside the building for almost a week. That sounds awesome. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472/78 "2010-09-04T21:59:46Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > That sounds awesome. Really? Not going outside for a week? Admittedly, i didn’t grow up in a place where cold winter temperatures were an issue, but even if i had, i think the idea of being indoors for a week at a time would have driven me crazy when i was a teenager. Hell, even now, at 40, i get a bit stir-crazy if i can’t get outside every now and then. My boarding school was an agricultural school, and had a total of about 300 acres of land, including three or four rugby/soccer/hockey fields, cricket nets, basketball courts, tennis courts, and a 25 meter swimming pool. When we weren’t in class or sleeping in our dorms, my friends and i spent most of our high school years playing one sport or another, or just hanging around outside. We can common rooms with televisions, but we never spent very much time in there, apart from a compulsory half-hour watching the news each weekday evening; i think i watch more TV as an adult than i did as a teenager. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472/79 "2010-09-04T22:06:25Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > > [@Cisco](#): > > > > That sounds awesome. > > Really? Not going outside for a week? No, no, not that part. Just going away to school as a teenager, having everything you need right there. Tasting a little bit of independence (in being away from your family), but still basically being provided for. And I imagine the camaraderie must’ve been very strong. I never went into the military and didn’t go to college until I was 26, so I never really experienced things like that, but got tastes of it here and there, and I think I would’ve liked it. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2010, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472/80 "2010-09-06T22:55:23Z")
No idea of the distance, but the time by short bus ride, change to the El, then change to the subway and get off and walk three blocks (or sometimes, take a trolley for the three blocks). Total trip was an hour. I went to the all-academic HS in Philly. It was a long schlep but when I got to college, it was easy while the transition was a shock to the people who had gone to regular HS. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-from-your-high-school-did-you-live/552472.md?page=5)