Where You Should've Gone to High School

It is not just a St. Louis thing. They do the same where'd you go to HS thing in Hawaii too and they think it is a Hawaii thing.  It happens in places with a small town feel.  Bet none you haole's been asked that in HI cause you look like tourists. 

If the question has to do with location wouldn't it make more sense to ask which Walmart you grew up next to, then everyone in the world can play.  Mine is the sh*tty on Florissant road where people get knifed all the time.  Now thankfully I live by the one on Laclede Station Rd. ...where people get knifed all the time.  Just kidding people don't get knifed in St. Louis, just shot.

From a  CBC grad...nailed it.

 BADA BiNG

It took me to my school Webster Groves !!!

Nerinx Hall!

If I ask someone that question I must be an anti=Obama racist and a homophobe as well as not smart enough to read crap like RFT.

That's odd my high school wasn't on the chart. I wonder why. By the way it was Ritenour in Overland.

They forgot about St. Elizabeth :'-(

Rich kids go to oversea boarding schools while sporting custom baby seal designer jackets - not Ladue HS. Lacue Yacht Club http://www.facebook.com/laduey...

This is sooooo St. Louis - be sure and look at the chart -

I love this conversation, I just can't help but wonder... Has anyone here done anything SINCE high school?

I too live in Chicago and that IS not a question asked. The Chicagoans don't get why we ask that question.

I know why St Elizabeth Academy isn't on the chart; it's because it's so far down the list that to most people it doesn't count. And I say this as an SEA grad. When I went to college in another state, I was introduced to another student from the St Louis area-Clayton HS. When she asked me "the question" and I answered honestly, she quietly replied, "ohhh." And that was that, not another word was spoken. I didn't make the cut, as it were. My roommate later remarked "Wtf was that about?" Poor girl didn't understand the St. Louis way of putting you in your place.

A "real" Hoosier asks "where'd you go to school at?" With a preposition at the end.

LOVE this. Thank you....I now can back up my "Hoosier" references to my husband with this article. Actually, he's probably better off not knowing how mean that is...nevermind!

They've got it ALL WRONG. I don't know who the interviewer is talking to but, once again, let's go to the REAL source. This question started by being asked by Afro-Americans to one another. Many, as recently as 4 generations ago, were 1st generation graduates of high school. At a time when struggles just to get your child INTO school for a high school education, the proud parents and students used this question 2-fold. One to identify school "family" ties with pride and common-ness and two, to connect the individual with neighborhood and other blood relatives since many were decendants of recent slaves it was a way to find relatives ( by who knew who.)

WHO CARES!!!!

I can't believe that Sarah VanSlette is getting a grant to study this. It's a shame how easy it is to get grant money for things that are so unimportant in our society.

Where is Trinity on the flow chart? It was the merger of Aquinas-Mercy and Rosary. Guess you didn't want to touch the "white flight" issue with a ten foot nun-wielding ruler?

Hey where is Ritenour?

Bayless. Many more Bosnians there.

Apparently if you live in IL you aren't part of "St. Louis"

I always took the question "Where did you go to high school?" as a way to see what part of the city the person lived in. I grew up here before all the bussing begain. Most people went to the public schools closest to thier homes then and from there to the closest high school.

Too damned funny. I grew up in STL. I now live in the DC 'burbs now. The day my husband and I moved into our new home in the 'burbs we noticed that our neighbors had a "west-end wax" bumper sticker on their Volvo. I introduced myself and asked, are you by chance from St. Louis? After receiving an affirmative response the next words out of both our mouths, in unison, were, "what high school did you go to." Answers: Lutheran South (me); Cor Jesu (neighbor). Despite the high school rivalry, we are great neighbors and share gooey butter cake and Gus' pretzels whenever we go home for visits.

Living in NJ now but will always answer Ursuline. My sister told me to look at this and I have promptly laughed my ass off for 10 minutes straight. Well done!!

Funny there are so many schools missing. I also find it odd that the woman who put this together never included her own High School. Love the whole concept, to bad it is not complete.

SusieQ....perhaps over the last couple of decades the question has been shortened to just "school" but in over 50 plus years I have never asked (or heard it asked) as just where did you go to school. It was always specific, "So, where did you go to High School?"

Everyone keeps posting this on Facebook, and I'm dying to put a big circle around these flow charts and write - oh well, you'll all end up at Mizzou just like the rest of us. My high school is supposed to have no money and have parties in houses in the woods? And the school my brothers go to means our family has a maid and butler?? Sorry, I'm not bitter or anything... but maybe I am a little bit. Seriously, its time for St. Louis to grow up!In light of this article, I'm proud to say I'm a graduate of Marquette High School, class of 2006, and the University of Notre Dame, class of 2010.

It's centered mainly on white people, though there are lots of black people at many of the Catholic, non-Catholic private and public schools listed. But when U City is linked by "your parents are interested in historic preservation" etc. it's clear it's not black folks the chart was thinking about.

Lighten up. It's funny, and spot-on. No one's using it for a dissertation or anything. Sheesh.

Burroughs has the highest ACT scores in St. Louis. Don't believe me, believe Saint Louis Magazine (it's quoted on Wikipedia too). Let's just say MICDS isn't second (Priory and SLUH come next...)

Villa was on there, as was Visitation, Nerinx, and Rosati-Cain. But yes, a lot of the girls' Catholic schools were left off. Also no Chaminade.

They should have added for the Catholic girls: Do you live in the suburbs - yes --> Are you very athletic? - Cor Jesu ; Are you rich - yes: Villa & Viz; sorta - St. Joe's; Depends on how you define sorta - Ursuline; No - Incarnate word.

For the boys' Catholic schools, to include Chaminade, it should have said - Does your family have a personal staff - no: SLUH; yes --> Will you score at least 1400 on your SATs - yes: Saint Louis Priory; no: Chaminade. That would have put Chaminade, SLUH and Priory all in the same cluster where they belong.

Yes, where were Chaminade, Ursuline, St. Joe's, Incarnate Word, Kennedy, Trinity, etc.? A lot of Catholic schools were left off that first chart. Why?

When I ask the question, it is only to find out if there is common link between the person and myself. It has nothing to do with stereotypes.

I can't believe that a grant was issued for such an inane topic. Why is this research important? No wonder the country is broke.

What about "Bell Vegas" ? Who knows what that means? Might as well be from Nebraska. And if your parents paid for Althoff still no prestige.. "bell Vegas" for you too!

This is a common question heard in places that don't experience much population in-flux from other parts of the country. You never hear this question in big cities.

With an attitude and cynical mind like you have, I'm not surprised no one likes you. Take your east coast attitude and shove it. This town is amazing.

U. City High School, of course!

While amused by the chart and agree we're all drinking a bit of the STL cool aid how on earth does a social scientist (oxymoron) get tax dollars (IUS is a federally funded operation) to find out if people or happy or sad to be asked about what school they attended? Makes me want to work harder and earn more so I can give it away to wonderfully insightful studies such as these!

I grew up in Des Moines. NO ONE cares where you went to high school.

Incarnate Word is missing as well

And Chaminade for boys...

Flow chart was fairly accurate, except missing major schools on it. I'm just confused on why Lutheran South and North are in the same slot. they are polar opposites!

St. Louisans are not the only askers of this question. This question is also asked in Cincinnati. Therefore, when asked in St. Louis I answer "Walnut Hills" and get odd looks in return.

If you read the article in the paper and not online the cover is a picture of a dozen or so hs rings on display. When you open to the article there is an image of one ring enlarged. A SLUH ring. Interesting choice. The boys/men who attend the U High are taught from the moment they step foot on campus where they go to school and whether they are 15 or 85 the answer to the "question" will be "I went to 'the High School'".