Are high schools in the USA anything like in the movies? What do they get right/wrong?

Superbad was closer to my experience than probably any other high school movie. My friends and I spent most of our time trying to be cool and extremely failing, not popular but just kinda getting along with most people, and somehow still having a lot of fun.
— omninode

Serious lack of coordinated dance sequences at your prom/homecoming
— totalimmoral

For the most part, the Cliques aren't nearly as cliquish. It's most like a bunch of friends who hang out with each other rather than the armed camps often portrayed in movies and shows. While there's plenty of drama going on in a high school, it rarely involves strangers.
— Astramancer_

Cliques generally get along with each other pretty well, and some are even good friends. It's pretty uncommon for someone to look like they're in their late 20s. One thing they absolutely do get right though is the craze with sports. My school cared more about sports than anything.
— Jay985

Working in a high school in NJ. many students do have nicer cars then the employees. Also some stoners happen to be really good athletes. Just the way the cookie crumbles.
— FaceTHEGEEB

With larger high schools (500+ students/grade), there isn't really the social hierarchy presented in most films, there's just too many kids for everyone to know each other like that. There aren't the "cool kids" and the "losers", there's just different groups - the football players, the anime nerds, the class government kids, etc. There's no pecking order or anything, most people just sort of keep to their groups. At my high school prom, the prom king (an athlete and class clown) and queen (class vice president and prom organizer) had literally never met before and had only a vague inkling of who the other was. EDIT: While I've been attributing this to class size, a lot of commenters are saying they had the same experience with much smaller classes, so it might just be Hollywood making stuff up, or maybe things have changed since our parents' generation.
— Notmiefault

There's a lot less division of class. Like, the nerds aren't so drastically separate from the jocks. All of those "types" of kids--the jocks, nerds, preps, emos, druggies, whatever--all intermingled and got along fairly well. Some people had enemies, and fights broke out, but there were no active rivalries. Lots of the stereotypes in the movie have reasons that they exist, of course, but they're a lot less pronounced in actual schools.
— mycatiswatchingyou

My name is Brad and not once in my 21 years of living have I met another Brad despite how popular it is as a name in high school movies
— Eruuma

THE SUN 👏🏻 HAS NOT YET RISEN 👏🏻 WHEN YOU ARRIVE 👏🏻 . For some reason tv and movies always show classes starting at like noon. My HS had an ungodly start time. The bus was scheduled to pick us up at like 5am.
— Mpfk

Depends where you live. If you're in a rich part of Houston those crazy pool parties are real af. People all over drinks, music, drugs etc. All of it. On the other hand if you're in SE Kentucky you meet by a creek or on a big hill, have a bonfire shooting guns drinking, fake pool in the pickup truck whole shebang. Lots of red solo cups everywhere.
— Codadd

Mine was nothing like the movies. - We didn't have huge parties like they do in the movies, that didn't start happening until college. - The girls in my High School were pretty, but they didn't look like the halfway point between porn stars and super models. - We didn't have any bullies. We had a handful of bad kids, but nobody took them seriously. They kept to themselves. - We didn't have any super popular boys or girls; no prom king or prom queen. There were a handful of cliques, obviously, but again -- they kept to themselves. - We didn't have any junky drug dealers. Never once in my HS career did I get haranged by a dude in a trenchcoat who was trying to give me free drugs.
— InternetKidsAreMean

Surprised nobody is mentioning how little freedom there is in school. You barely have enough time to get from one class to the other side of the building during class breaks. You can't wander around the halls until after all your classes (3 to 3:30pm). TV shows make it seem like everyone has a lot of freedom to do what they want during class hours. You have to have a hall pass. In colder climates, you cannot go outdoors unless there's a teacher allowing it.
— SettleDownButtercup

I can't speak for all schools but at my school things that are different from movies: - The popular kids were all relatively nice. You didn't become popular by making fun of the nerds or whatever other stereotype gets picked on in movies. - The football players and cheerleaders were by and large not dumb jocks or complete ditzy airheads. They weren't necessarily all top honors student material, but the majority of them did fairly well. - We had almost no lockers. You had to pay if you wanted one and they were tiny, not something you can get pushed inside and locked up in. - Cliques weren't really a thing. You hung out with people you enjoyed hanging out with regardless of interests. Some things that were somewhat accurate: - Prom and homecoming was a really big deal to a lot of people. Girls in particular would make plans for this month in advance. - Sports were likewise a big deal, especially football. - You generally did have to be attractive to be really popular. Playing on the football team helped as well. - Lots of silly relationship drama, though maybe not quite as much as is shown in movies.
— jurassicbond

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