A lot of it is contingent on school size. If you're going to a rural high school with a student body of < 300-500 people, you're experiencing middle school agai

A lot of it is contingent on school size. If you're going to a rural high school with a student body of < 300-500 people, you're experiencing middle school again with older teens. Predictably, this has a high probability of sucking if you aren't high up in the social hierarchy. My high school had almost 5,000 students and many middle schools from around the area fed into that high school. This created a college-like environment where freshmen didn't know 80-90% of the other students on day 1. The size and novelty gave people the freedom to be themselves and find friends easily.