The 7 Social Cliques In High School And Their Standings In Teen Hierarchy
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The 7 Social Cliques In High School And Their Standings In Teen Hierarchy

There are social tiers in high school, whether you like it or not. Everyone's part of something, and high school is where they figure it out.

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The 7 Social Cliques In High School And Their Standings In Teen Hierarchy
YouTube / High School Musical Movie

You get to school and immediately walk to the place where you and your friends usually hang out. On the way there, you notice in the halls how there are so many people — some who you are acquainted with and just nod to, some who don't even glance at you, and some that you don't glance at either. Everyone has their home turf, so you might be in the 'popular' group, the 'nerdy' group or the 'hardcore gaming' group. Everyone has different reputations with the other people in the school, and you are usually judged by not what type of person you are, but who you hang out with. These are just a few of the different types of people and groups that may exist at your school.


1. The Social Butterflies

I'll admit it - I'm pretty envious of this group of people. They all hang out with each other, have a good time and can somehow talk to pretty much anyone that comes their way. It always seems like they're having a great time and have way too many friends and are always posting on their social media about themselves and all the places they've been to. Of course, there are a lot of classes of these people — some of them are nice, and some of them are the types of people that you definitely don't want to get involved with. Nevertheless, you'll always find them at the movies or at the mall or just getting some ice-cream every single weekend.

This is one of the groups that easily overlaps with several others — but it really depends which social butterfly group you're in, right?

2. The Divas and Prom Queens

Here are those girls (and occasionally boys) who have grown up way too quickly. For them, looks and confidence is everything. They wear the most glamorous brands to school everyday and it's very rare to see them without makeup on. They radiate confidence all around them and it's very easy to be intimidated. This is the most common stereotype in movies, but not all of these people are the mean girls who don't care about anything or anyone but themselves. This group can overlap very easily with the social butterflies. If you ever need fashion advice, these people will always be wearing the latest trends to school and walking through the halls as if they own them.

3. The Sports Club

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This group usually is the one that overlaps with the social butterflies — people who play team sports are very socially oriented and know several other people who do the same things as them. My experience with the sporty crowd at school hasn't been the best though... they seem to be interested in talking to just other people who play hardcore sports and their own progress within their activities. Of course, this doesn't apply to every single person I know who plays sports. Some of them save their sports talk for the field or court and are amazing people. You'd better expect them to be very busy though!

4. The Academic Team

Here's my home turf — the academically oriented people. These days at least, they actually mix pretty well with social groups outside of their books (yes, the stereotypes aren't completely accurate), but there are some of those people who are very caught up in what they do and think that everything's a waste of time other than studying more and more and doing everything beforehand. I used to be one of those people, and it's not fun. You're constantly under pressure to be the smartest one in the class and know everything before everyone else in the class. People turn to you when they have questions, and it doesn't look good on your reputation when you don't have any answers. You're constantly working for them, not for you.

It's important to have a social life with your academic life, and you'll still be classified as the person you want to be — the one with all the answers.

5. The Artists

This is definitely one of the groups that are quickly emerging. These artistically gifted people have their own sense of style and enjoy being with their pencils, pens and paints rather than academics or sports. Most of these people have their own special sense of style made out of different types of clothes that they put together, and it doesn't always look good. But art's not supposed to always look good; it's supposed to make you feel something. This group probably has the most effective way of getting their feelings to the world.

This group is actually more isolated than the others — they tend to have their own interests and work on projects together instead of mixing with other people. They are more admired than like friends, and they are the future artists of the world.

6. The Theater Group

These are the singers and dancers putting their talents to use by showing them off in plays in theater. To me, it seems like there are a lot of people involved in this in middle school, and in high school, everyone finds out what their true aspirations are. People in theater now are extremely serious about putting on the best show instead of just having fun, but they find a way to do both. They are most associated with the artists and have their own sense of style as well. I'm not too familiar with these groups...they're very different from what I am. But I am always amazed by their capacity and what they could possibly do.

7. The Gamers

This is a real and legitimate group — every school has the people who bring Nintendo Wii Emulators to school and have every gaming app imaginable installed on their devices. They usually hang together and have virtual battles to see who can get the most wins in the least amount of time. My school even has an E-sports club, where gamers actually compete to win money prizes.

These people are definitely not that socially oriented and will pull out their devices any chance they get. They just talk with each other about their virtual standings, but nothing else. As a result, they don't have much status on the social pyramid and are usually the kids sitting in the corner that not many people notice or pay attention to. I don't really have much experience as a gamer, but I believe that these are the future tech fanatics in the world.


Everyone in school wants to have a place. Everyone wants to fit in. This is how they do it, and this is what you can see from the moment you step into high school.



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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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