# Were you popular in high school **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 17, 2010, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295 "2010-02-17T04:32:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295/21 "2010-02-17T12:07:37Z")
I wasn’t popular, but I’m not aware of having been disliked by any particular group of people. At my high school, there were just different groups of friends. Each group seemed about the same size really, so it would be hard to say which was ‘the popular group’. ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295/22 "2010-02-17T12:08:53Z")
My father was the Deputy Principal in charge of discipline - that’s a No from me… ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295/23 "2010-02-17T12:11:24Z")
I was pretty popular. I was on the football, rugby, cricket and athletic teams, which helped. I knew nearly other lad in my year, and they knew me. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295/24 "2010-02-17T12:17:15Z")
I was shy, sickly, and withdrawn and just plain different. I was heavily bullied. Being taller than most didn’t help either because teachers saw me as the aggressor. ---
**Author:** ![RetroVertigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@RetroVertigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RetroVertigo)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295/25 "2010-02-17T14:21:07Z")
Yeah I was popular. I went to a private school (which in St. Louis is common), but was also friends with many people who went to public schools . I ran around in many circles, playing 3 sports, science clubs, and still finding the time to hangout with the partying stoners. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295/26 "2010-02-17T14:34:55Z")
I was definitely not what I would consider popular, but I like to think that I had friends among most of the groups in the school. I was in and out of honors classes, so I had my share of friends there. I ran track and golfed, and had several jock friends. Also spent plenty of time with the burnouts and the shop students. Come to think of it, probably the only people I WASN’T popular with were the “populars”! 😉 Oh yeah - my class had something like 1100 kids, so there was some inherent degree of anonymity. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295/27 "2010-02-17T14:37:29Z")
I wasn’t prom king, but I wasn’t a pariah. I was semi-jockish (Soccer (captain), skiing) so I had that going for me. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295/28 "2010-02-17T14:40:01Z")
I was well-known, being involved in theater, but not particularly well-liked. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295/29 "2010-02-17T15:04:53Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > On a sliding scale of popularity in high school, I was somewhere between leprosy and a sucking chest wound. Me too. I hung out with a tiny group of outcasts. We were the lowest humans on the totem pole at that place. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295/30 "2010-02-17T15:10:42Z")
I can’t answer the poll with only two choices. I was another “under the radar” kind of guy. I got along okay with my peers in general, so no one picked on me, but the popular kids probably don’t even remember that I ever existed. I was neither loved nor vilified, just “meh”. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Onimous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@Ann\_Onimous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Onimous)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295/31 "2010-02-17T15:32:36Z")
> [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#): > > I was another “under the radar” kind of guy. I got along okay with my peers in general, so no one picked on me, but the popular kids probably don’t even remember that I ever existed. I was neither loved nor vilified, just “meh”. Same here: just replace guy with gal. I wasn’t shy in the slightest: did a heck of a lot with the drama club, speech/debate and the newspaper: I just had very few friends. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295/32 "2010-02-17T15:46:13Z")
> [@NinetyWt](#): > > Me too. I hung out with a tiny group of outcasts. You had a group? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295/33 "2010-02-17T15:53:32Z")
Proud member of The Nameless Rabble. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295/34 "2010-02-17T15:58:12Z")
My senior superlative was “Biggest flirt.” ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295/35 "2010-02-17T16:03:12Z")
More-or-less. With the exception of a few hammerheads, I was on good terms with my classmates. I didn’t do parties and such, but that was a factor of having a very strict father rather than being excluded from them by my peers. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295/36 "2010-02-17T16:03:26Z")
I was another theater person who had her own group of friends, but was mainly a loner due to also being a fundamentalist Christian (at the time) and spending all my spare time on a hobby (softball) not school related. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295/37 "2010-02-17T16:20:37Z")
I voted No. While people might remember me because I was high profile in the music program, I didn’t really hang with the ‘most likely to succeed’ types. ---
**Author:** ![Umbriel2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/4af34b/32.png) [@Umbriel2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Umbriel2)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295/38 "2010-02-17T17:31:44Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > I was well-known, being involved in theater, but not particularly well-liked. I’d fall in the same category – well-known, but not “popular”. I was definitely nerdy, with a small circle of friends. I have an unusual first name, and that along with a fairly high profile in many classes made me known by a lot more people than _I_ knew. If I was occasionally picked on over the years, there were others much further down the food chain, and there were a number of kids in the bully/burnout/thug “community” who I think vouched for me as a funny and okay guy. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295/39 "2010-02-17T17:44:00Z")
> [@faithfool](#): > > :: chop for brevity :: > > and spending all my spare time on a hobby (softball) not school related. I think major non-school related activities play a big role in in-school popularity too. I was dedicated to outdoorsy sports for which there were no real school teams or anything, so if you’re spending tons of time training like crazy, you don’t hang out with your classmates much. I got along pretty well with almost everyone and hung out with a group of guys who were all similarly under-the-radar guys, but our group was too indistinct to merit our own identity, so no Nerds, Jocks, Geek kind of designation for us. We were like no-name Wonderbread. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295/40 "2010-02-17T18:05:03Z")
I was the opposite of popular. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t until my senior year (when I beefed up considerably) that getting my ass kicked on a daily basis stopped being a concern. Even then, I still didn’t fit in. My high school was a mix of two social classes: rich white kids from the lake/other expensive subdivisions, and black kids from the ghetto. I, however, was a white kid from the ghetto. So I fit in with neither the lake kids nor the ghetto kids. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-popular-in-high-school/529295.md?page=3)