A photo from Ohio State’s 2022 Student Involvement Fair, where students gather to scope out all the organizations and social opportunities Ohio State has to offer. Credit: Zachary Rilley | Former Photo Editor
Nerds. Jocks. Theater kids. In high school, cliques seem inevitable. But college seemingly holds the promise of a fresh start, an opportunity to explore one’s identity without the consequences of a ruthless social hierarchy.
In his dissertation on how university students develop a sense of belonging within their schools, Ohio State graduate Erick Axxe said his research concluded there is no lack of cliques in the university setting when compared to high schools. But that doesn’t mean incoming students should fear for their social lives as they embark on their college journeys.
“When I think of a clique, I think of a group of individuals with a shared interest,” Axxe said. “And oftentimes in high school settings, we think of these as being status-oriented. So they perceive each other as a hierarchy against one another.”
Though Axxe earned his Ph.D. in sociology in 2023, he began his research study in 2018, where he and his team studied one cohort of students attending a “large, predominantly white institution in the Midwest.” The team conducted interviews and surveys over the course of the cohort’s four-year college careers and finished the final year of data collection two years ago.
Axxe said his dissertation revealed cliques are prevalent in both high school and college settings, though there is one primary distinction between cliques in the two environments: the exposure these groups have to one another.
“In high school, oftentimes, you’ll have people of different interests, or perhaps different identities, in close contact with one another,” Axxe said. “In higher education, that’s not quite the case. It’s quite easy for these groups to silo and not be exposed to one another as frequently. And then that way, the status hierarchies might not develop as or might not be as salient as they are in the high school setting.”
Axxe said cliques in the college setting are different due to the greater sense of separation the groups have from one another, despite existing within the same institution.
“We can think of a high school cafeteria as a great example. All of these different cliques, so to speak, are going to be sharing that same space and they have to negotiate that space with one another,” Axxe said. “Whereas when we think about a large university — maybe if we think about an athlete clique — athletes tend to have their own space on campus.”
Maria Antonius, a 2023 Ohio State graduate with degrees in biochemistry and Spanish, said her high school social life revolved largely around her swim team, as many friend groups within her school were divided based on the sport in which students were involved.
“I feel like at that point, it was very, those are the people that you hang out with all the time,” Antonius said. “You don’t really have individual friends or as many of them as much as like, groups of friends, and I do feel like it kind of limited, like, social interactions outside of your group a lot.”
Axxe said cliques can often serve a double function, with potentially both positive and detrimental effects. Although they often act to reinforce differences, Axxe said cliques may also help to protect the individuals who exist within them.
Upon acknowledging some of her own friend groups as cliques in their own right, Antonius agreed.
“I feel like the word clique in and of itself is stereotypically negative, it feels, like, gossipy almost,” Antonius said. “I feel like in college, it’s more I guess, in my experience, I surround myself with people who kind of uplift me in different ways. And I feel like it’s nice because everyone is kind of just rooting for you to be your best individual self in whatever way, shape and form that is.”
Antonius said she found friendship at Ohio State in a variety of ways: dorm room neighbors, coworkers at on-campus coffee shop Connecting Grounds and even undergraduate research peers. Though she said she values each of those friend groups, Antonius said she also encourages students to always be open to meeting new people.
“There’s so many other people out there, too,” Antonius said. “So the more that you try, the more people you meet, I feel like a lot of times you end up figuring out that you just want to be friends with the people that you aspire to be like and you want to surround yourself with those people.”
Axxe — and his research findings — agreed.
“While reading through the data, the people who tended to fare best were those who intentionally made an effort to try to develop new connections with people,” Axxe said. “Those students who tried to break out of their immediate circle and put themselves in situations where they had the opportunity to escape the clique that they might default to, they tended to fare better because they had more opportunity to meet others who might share new perspectives, or maybe, you know, introduce them to new opportunities.”
