Im from the Philippines and moved to New York and im gonna be entering school here soon

18 comments

  1. It varies wildly. But there are cliques and social affiliations. It’s basically chaos, the important thing to keep in mind is that a couple years after graduating none of that matters.

  4. Public highschool is a place where there’s lots of different social groups interacting and generally a group or category for everyone, even when most people fit in multiple categories.

    I played sports but also hung out with lots of nerds. Someone might be involved in the theater club and the student government, ect.

  6. Might help if you describe what your own school is like, then people can tell how a public school here is diferent.

  7. Every single one is different. Every few years they change based on who is there that year.

    If you’re looking for advice, be polite to everyone and do your schoolwork.

  8. Equal parts “Holes”, “The Lord the Flies”, “Tom Sawyer”, and “Less Than Zero”, with a dash of “Bless the Beasts and the Children” thrown in.

  9. There are thousands of high schools in the US and dozens in NYC alone. The experience in individual schools in NYC will vary and will vary per student.

    Are you outgoing and want to participate in extracurricular activities or are you insulated and prefer to keep to yourself? Or maybe you’ll play the trumpet in the band but not do any sports, all of this will color your experience.

    Do you have more specific questions? Even how classes are scheduled can vary wildly. We don’t have many national standards, just general commonalities.

  10. Honestly it varies a lot even in NYC. I went to an empowerment school which is basically just below the specialized high schools around here

    There are plenty of immigrants in every school so you won’t feel alone in that regard. Idk what specifically it is you think is different about high school here vs any place else.

    Sure we get a student metrocard to get from home to school instead of a school bus and some schools let you go out and buy whatever you want to eat in the city for lunch but I don’t think there are that many differences from going to high school here vs any other place in the county

  11. I am not sure why everyone is assuming you’ll be in NYC specifically? New York is a whole ass state lmao

    Each county has its own public school system so your experience will vary wildly. The things listed here are typical commonalities but may not be universal.

    * Start and end times to the school day, as well as class changes, stick heavily to a timetable, down to the minute. These times are usually marked by a sound that is played across the school’s sound system, colloquially it’s called a “bell” after traditional physical school bells but it’s a synthetic sound now, usually more like a long beep. If you arrive after the “bell” you’ll be considered late and potentially face a light consequence depending on the leniency of the instructor.

    * The school day is broken up into pre-defined chunks of time called “class periods.” Each school will have its own class period schedule; my high school had 8 short class periods per day with the same classes each day, whereas my brother’s had 4 long class periods per day and classes would alternate days. Classes will be a mix of required classes in core subjects (math, English, etc.) and opt-in classes called “electives.”

    * Electives (during the school day) and extracurricular activities (outside of school hours) are great ways to explore your interests. These can range from sports, arts/music/theatre, topical clubs, tutoring, and more. The school typically does not limit how many of these that you join, outside of headcount caps and time constraints. Don’t overwhelm yourself with these but do try a few; it’s often the last time you’ll get to do many of these activities for free, and is a great way to make friends with similar interests.

    * Lunch is provided by the school in the cafeteria, but many students also bring lunchboxes from home. Some older students can even leave campus to get lunch as long as they’re back by the next bell. Students can eat in the cafeteria but some schools allow students to eat in a courtyard or in classrooms. Depending on the volume of students, a school might have one centralized lunch period or several staggered lunch periods. The quality of a school-provided lunch varies wildly by school, but it’s common for schools to choose volume over quality out of necessity. I always brought my own lunch.

    * People like to say that high school doesn’t matter, and it’s true that the minutiae doesn’t, but most people find high school formative for building good study habits, developing their social skills, and getting to explore their interests through electives and extracurriculars. So don’t get hung up on day-to-day problems as the mountains will feel like molehills in hindsight, but also don’t downplay the opportunity to grow academically and personally.

  12. My kids are in public school in central NY. What it’s like depends on where you’ll be and what grade you’re going into.

  13. It varies. It can be very chaotic and there’s always something crazy going on. You’ll be fine, trust me.

  15. It was only ok education wise for me. I was never really challenged or pushed at all. Got good grades, but was bored. Four years of high school and certainly didn’t feel like I got four years of education. Learned so much more in my own reading and watching documentaries. Socially it was great. It wasn’t all that divided into cliques it seemed. Everyone pretty much hung with everyone. I played sports which was a blast. Graduated in 1978, San Francisco Bay Area.

  17. In my experience, not everyone is interested in learning. And I hated those people for constantly disrupting class.

    The clubs are cool. You’ll find your group and it’ll be a okay. Good luck!

  18. In the words of a former classmate who was also from the Philippines, “It’s SO easy! Back home, I was a below-average student, but here, I get all A’s without even trying!”

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