As someone who has come from two very different schools, I can compare them respectively with my experiences. Mckinney North is a very large school in Mckinney, Texas which is located in the North of Texas. There are five lunches, one having 800 freshmen alone. There are around 2000 students at Mckinney North. It also has a much larger building in general. There were many classes, a large open lunch room, a huge auditorium, two gymnasiums, and a multipurpose room. There are also many options when it comes to sports and clubs. There is volleyball, tennis, STUCO , HOSA (Health Occupations Student Association), the Starlettes (dance group), the North Stars (dance group), and swimming and diving. There are many class options like aviation, german, french, principles of health science, and CNA. There are many amenities like tennis courts, a football field, a baseball and softball field, and the multi purpose room which is an indoor football field. There was a football stadium for games that are shared between Mckinney North, Boyd, and Mckinney High. There is also a lot of diversity at North, with many racial, religious, and ethnic backgrounds. As well as many different cliques.
Pine Grove Area High School is a very small school, with only three lunches and around 500 students. Pine Grove’s building isn’t all that big due to there not being many students. It had a relatively small auditorium, very small cafeteria, and a decent sized gym. Some classes that Pine Grove has are drivers ed, culinary arts, JROTC, and digital painting. It has the typical sports and clubs like footballs, cheerleading, soccer, band, and baseball. Its amenities are the football field and the baseball field. Due to the Pine Grove’s small nature, all of the students know each other. Making it harder for a new student to fit in, although the students all seem nice.
With my experience, it is quite a culture shock coming from such a large and diverse school to a tinier, well knitted one. At North, the hallways during passing period were full to the brim, and it was often hard to find open seating during lunch. At Pine Grove, that problem does not exist. There is also an early work release. At North, we were able to work with the nearby college, Collin College, who were able to give us a head start with our college path, like CNA, and college electives and core classes.