What was your high school clique? Berkeley students share
Jocks, STEM nerds, Mean Girls, band, debate team, (Harry) Potter heads, thespians, gangsta wannabes, Goths, stoners, fashionistas, goodie two-shoes, eco-warriors. You name it, there’s a high school clique dedicated to it. But what happens to these tribal affiliations when you go to college? We asked a diverse group of UC Berkeley students about which high school clique they belonged to, and where they fit in at UC Berkeley. Here's what they told us:
Jocks, STEM nerds, Mean Girls, band, debate team, (Harry) Potter heads, thespians, gangsta wannabes, Goths, stoners, fashionistas, goodie two-shoes, eco-warriors. You name it, there’s a high school clique dedicated to it. A UC Berkeley sociologist has even identified a high school subculture she calls the “getting-by girls.”
But what happens to these tribal affiliations when you go to college? We asked a diverse group of UC Berkeley students about which high school clique they belonged to, and where they fit in at UC Berkeley. Here are excerpts from what they told us (open to full screen to view entire caption):
At Glenelg High in rural Pennsylvania, he was heavily into music and theater. At Berkeley, he's seriously intellectual. "Berkeley has unleashed what I thought my potential could be. You realize you have the potential to change the world and that's something you don’t get in high school."
At John W. North High in Riverside, she was part of the AP and IB (international baccalaureate) crowd. "We didn't associate much with jocks, but lived in peaceful coexistence." At Berkeley, she just hit the sophomore slump. "I've become a bit of a slacker, but I'll get over it."
At Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland, he was a jock (star runner), and into arts and music, oh, and a goodie two-shoes. "That's just who I am ... At Berkeley, I’m open to a lot of different people. Berkeley has helped me with that."
At Petaluma High, she ran with the arts, theater and intellectual crowd, and that hasn't changed at Berkeley. "I’m still into all the same things, like hanging out with people and having intellectual conversations. Here, there's no segregating off. Everybody gets along."
At Granite Hills High and other schools in southern California, he went from theater kid to "goodie two-shoes Christian" to lost. " I was a burnout. I didn’t want to be at school. At Berkeley, though, "I'm definitely in the overachiever crowd. A lot of people come here to reinvent themselves."
At the Episcopal Academy in Maryland, she was a jock (track and field star) and, she jokes, a member of the "unfriendly black hotties." It's too soon to say where she fits at Berkeley, but she likes what she sees so far: "It’s beautiful, very relaxed, not manicured. It seems real."
At high school in Rome, Italy, he was a jock and an overachiever. At Berkeley, he sees himself as an "intellectual wannabe" (He lives in a co-op and has a 3.9 GPA). "Berkeley has made me more mindful about things, like environmentalism. It’s been really good. I love it here."
At Los Alamitos High in Orange County, she was an intellectual cool kid. At Berkeley, she runs with the "goofy" crowd. "It means you're just silly, goofy, willing to share your weirdness and you gravitate to people who are willing to share their weirdness and are not embarrassed about it"
