> The only thing I can think of that would have changed things for me is if the math club were the cool kids and the football team were the outcasts. For backg

> The only thing I can think of that would have changed things for me is if the math club were the cool kids and the football team were the outcasts. For background I grew up in the US, my wife grew up in China. And how she grew up (in a high tier Shanghai Highschool) she says that is kind of how it was. Top social order was basically Rich and politically connected (not different from anywhere I guess) but also really good students. Where the best students are looked up to. But also just everyone asks you how you do all in school all of the time. There are students who focus more on sports and go to sports schools, but unless they end up going to the Olympics or something, its really looked down upon compared to those who specialize in STEM or more difficult subjects. In my high school, honors/AP students weren't outcasts, we were kind of just a separate set mostly our own clique with some being popular and some not independently of being AP students. Like I happened to be Football Team Captain and in AP classes, 3 other Captains weren't in AP. Academic success was just a non factor.