The times may not be changin'
Multi-Level

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Band kids are their own society in my school at least (our band is like 300 strong). Also, there are different levels of jocks. There are the jocks that are good at sports, the jocks that stick around by the people that are good at sports even though they’re garbage, and the jocks that are good and also nice to people. (zbuck0237)
Role Reversal

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Nerds have seemingly almost been phased out. Our generation seems to be more focused on succeeding throughout high school, as shown by the increasing difficulty to get into college as compared to the past. So being smart and getting good grades isn’t nearly as cliquey as before, though there are kids who don’t have any social life outside of their school work.
The movie 21 Jump Street depicts the whole situation pretty well. There’s the same cliques but the roles have kind of been reversed. The class clown slacker used to be popular in the past, but now they’re seen as rebellious idiots. Nerdy hipsters are seen as cool for excelling in multiple things and being expressive. (bambruh)
By Country

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I went to a private high school that was extremely cliquey, only it wasn’t nerds, jocks, stoners, etcetera. Far from it, actually. It was “American kids,” “Chinese kids,” “Japanese kids,” and other countries, because we had foreign exchange students. Every “country” group was comprised of friend groups, separated by gender. So say you were an Asian girl. You would have to become friends with other Asian girls.
For the “American kids” clique, there are sub-groups: friend groups that originate beginning in middle school and continue throughout high school. In other words: make a friend group in middle school, and it better stay with you throughout high school or else you’re out of luck. Like with the other “country” groups, they are also separated by gender. God forbid if you are a female with a guy friend. (ByeByeFlutterPie)