which was easier for you socially: high school or college?

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I'm in the "both were tough" camp, but neither was really hellish looked at as a whole. In high school, I did build up groups of friends over the years, some of whom I'd known since before that and others who were introduced to me. The bullying faded away over the years as people got more mature and most of the worse bullies left (obviously this depends on the local law and practice about whether people leave). In university, bullying was pretty rare, especially over things like looking different, having glasses or working too hard. I remember thinking it was actually different in that if I was looked a mess in high school I would get a bunch of abuse but in university I wouldn't even know it. But making friends isn't necessarily easy, and I would say I actually had fewer friends and had less to do with them in the long term. And now I'm more worried than ever that I can't mix with people.

I was bullied in high school, but I also had more friends (for lack of better word...closer than aquaintences, though none of the intimacies of true friendship). The first high school I went to was a small school for military brats so you get to know each other pretty well...no one bullied me, and the same people that had bullied me VICIOUSLY the year before in middle school were suddenly friendly and hung out with me (albeit rarely) in high school. Then I moved to the states and I was bullied in 11th grade (moved to an area populated by right wing rednecks), although I was pretty popular by halfway through the year (because I was "off the wall" and pretty much did whatever I want...I frequently told my teachers I was going to the bathroom and never came back, and I'd just wander the halls putting up signs of things I thought were funny). 12th grade I was voted Most Unique for class superlative. Also in high school everyone has SOME degree of social awkwardness so not as much was expected of you as in college.

College has been hard because I am in a total party school...it is like being surrounded by 40,000 of the same blonde girl and the same dumb frat boy. Also I am in an organization that seems to be mutually exclusive to everything I am. (Female, liberal, eccentric...). I find myself reminiscing over my high school days a LOT because I had more fun, there was a LOT less pressure, and I had all my friends back home (although I didn't really hang out with people from school). I wish I could go back and do it all over again.

I wouldn't have thought it beforehand, but in my first year of college I've become on friendly terms with more people than in high school, even though I don't have too many true friends. I think it's because I'm more mature and because there is a tiny bit more variety here. (Not as many people are either preps or ghetto gangster wannabes. In high school almost everyone was one or the other.)

*poooke*

i can see that college might be a little easier for me. i feel more free and don't have to be there all day, every day. people are a little nicer, too(though some of them are little aloof and out of it).

today was my third day in college and ,though i haven't made any friends, i feel more comfortable. more freedom is pretty nice

High school was hell on earth for me. I was pretty much an outsider the day I walked in the door because I hadn't been going to the same schools and/or churches as everyone else. The fact I refused to go through "freshman hell week" in which seniors get to degrade and humiliate freshmen for a week didn't help my status much, it just sent me further down the drain. Seniors hated me, freshman hated me, and students in the other grades as well since I was the freshman who wouldn't do anything.

College was easier because there was more freedom. Basically, no forced socialization, no judgeing me for socializing the "wrong" way or having the "wrong" interests or the "wrong" activities. Nobody knew or as far as I could tell, even card if I had ever had a girlfriend or gone out on a date. I was free to for the most part, be me. The only problems I had related to my sister, who was going to leave home but didn't, but that's another post.

hmmm, this is a tough one...

high school - made some friends and had some fun my first two years. but i was the most bullied/picked on person, by far. i then changed high school and made literally NO friends and barely talked at all, but wasnt picked on much, at this new school

college - a few friends, none of them close. no more bullying. but far more isolating and lonely. still very shy and unconfident. greater sense of shame, as i'm older, yet still cant make friends and still lack confidence and social skills.

Defiently college. I had such a hard time making friends in high school. People werehave much more snobby and cliqueish. I think highschool partially messed up my social skills and gave me the wrong idea about many things which I had to fix those misconceptions once I reached college. In highschool, everything is soo superficial to the extreme and you people could much more easily put on a fasade. In college I got to know people a lot better, I didnt any close friends till college . People who dont know me that well will still invite me to events whereas in highschool I had the hardest time just getting invited to anything by even people who knew me better. And my social skills have improved in general so yeah college is way easier but its still hard either way to make friends.

College was much better than high school for me, but only after I stopped trying to be cool and focused on academics. I remember my first semester in a co-ed dorm. I wanted to make up for all the partying and girls I missed out on in High School. For every good experience, I had at least one bad one and it got so miserable that I switched schools and became a commuter the next year. I prefer studying to partying and I should have started off that way. Luckily, in the end everything worked out.

I recently started college but I say college....

more freedom, less control, more class options, and there's more clubs...

College was easier, because by then I was more sure of myself and not so hung up on who did and did not like me, or how wierd I behaved, or whether or not I would ever have a girlfriend. Besides, I was motivated to make it through college, since I was paying for it myself (whatever the grants wouldn't cover, I worked for or took out a loan). Study, study, study...

College, for a few reasons. First off was I lost a crapload of weight over the summer between (around 50lbs), which definitely increased my self esteem. Second was because I went into a Chemistry/Chemical Engineering degree, with a minor in Japanese, plenty of nerds and other odd folks with whom I could easily make friends in those classes.

People didn't try to torment me in college... but I was crazy enough to take care of that myself by the time undergrad started.



I only had friends my first and second years of high school (though it was only one person who I rarely saw in the second year), and none in undergrad.


I had some 'friends' in undergrad, but they were almost all "too busy for you or anyone else unless it's at a Jesus meeting"-type people.

I had one real friend friend in my last semester of grad school... and now we live over a thousand miles away, (and he's overseas starting last month) so I barely ever get to talk to him.

Socializing was easier in college, just because I didn't have my parents to restrict my social outings, and I could come and go as I pleased. Public transportation is better out where I went to school.
Now I have a car, but since I'm living at home again, my parents always want to know where I am and who I'm with. I've got about $300 saved up for my own place, though. So long as I'm not tempted to spend it on unnecessary things, I hope to be out of here by the end of this month, or next month, so long as I keep saving.

I never went to high school. I decided not to go. I never even completed grade eight. Instead I had life experiences. College was great though, and university was better.

when it comes to a person with AS in school, it's ret*d, college i reckon would be better because people are less insecure and more mature,

what college though, cheap or pricey???

i believe cheap to middle would be the best, the rich would be a**holes trying to act cool and act less spiolt

College was a whole lot easier for me socially. My classmates were mature and nice and didn't bully me, make fun of me or alienate me. They accepted me the way I was and didn't think it was a big deal that I was different from the rest of them. They saw the good things in me.

High school was terrible socially. I had one friend. A lot of my classmates alienated me, teased me, made fun of me or ignored me. They were immature and practically nobody wanted to be seen hanging out with or talking to the weird kid.