I found it actually much harder to get in contact with people when I started college, and felt more as an outsider, well maybe not so much feeling as an "outsider" as the lack of any groups I could be part of in the first place. And when I made friends it often wasn't really through college, but they just happened to be also in college but we met in another context.
I mean, my high school was pretty small, maybe around 700 people or so, and since my year didn't have many people to begin with, and more than a third left high school early or changed schools, so that in the last two years it was only about 35 people in my year, and after all those years together you couldn't help but to know them pretty well.
Also because in German schools you're taught in class units that don't change with the subjects, there's solidarity formed within that class unit as opposed to the other class units in a high school. Contact to students in other years is the exception rather than the rule, and also the class units form distinct groups within the same year, and even later when the class units are put together in one year and taught in courses each student chooses (to some degree), the connection to the people from your class opposed to those from the other classes in your year won't go away completely. In a way, in German schools the social groups students form aren't that open to choice as the US equivalents seem to be. For example, that students across years would form groups just because they're all geeks didn't happen, nor could any other subgroups really, because at least during school hours students from different years wouldn't mingle. I mean, I'm not saying it never happened, and there was some contact with years directly above or below in extra activities, but not a lot, like I can't remember a single name from high school from anybody who's not either a teacher or was in my year at one point. Maybe sometimes when a student was put back a year, which is a fairly common occurrence in German schools as sanction for failing grades, but even then it's more common that the student will have to integrate with the younger kids, at least all people I knew who got into our year from the year above me lost most of their connections to the older students over a year or so and made friends in ours. And in a way forming these "artificial" groups of about 25-30 people helped, at least in my school, to prevent the most extreme forms of exclusion, because no matter what, all were still in the same class unit, and if in doubt would side against people from other class units and years to some extent -- obviously it also has all the negative sides of this kind of group solidarity, like it will be sanctioned by all in a class if it's perceived as if someone has "betrayed" the class unit to teachers or the like, indicated by the German term "Klassenkeile" which refers to that everybody in a class (as a group) will beat up the "traitor" to the class (typically for example for ratting to a teacher and the like) after school by mutual agreement (and it will have negative consequences for you as well if you refuse to participate in such a sanction procedure); however it's more threat than actual occurrence, but it's highly effective as enforcement threat, so that you'll cover even the more idiotic exploits of your classmates (within some reason of course).
no subject
I mean, my high school was pretty small, maybe around 700 people or so, and since my year didn't have many people to begin with, and more than a third left high school early or changed schools, so that in the last two years it was only about 35 people in my year, and after all those years together you couldn't help but to know them pretty well.
Also because in German schools you're taught in class units that don't change with the subjects, there's solidarity formed within that class unit as opposed to the other class units in a high school. Contact to students in other years is the exception rather than the rule, and also the class units form distinct groups within the same year, and even later when the class units are put together in one year and taught in courses each student chooses (to some degree), the connection to the people from your class opposed to those from the other classes in your year won't go away completely. In a way, in German schools the social groups students form aren't that open to choice as the US equivalents seem to be. For example, that students across years would form groups just because they're all geeks didn't happen, nor could any other subgroups really, because at least during school hours students from different years wouldn't mingle. I mean, I'm not saying it never happened, and there was some contact with years directly above or below in extra activities, but not a lot, like I can't remember a single name from high school from anybody who's not either a teacher or was in my year at one point. Maybe sometimes when a student was put back a year, which is a fairly common occurrence in German schools as sanction for failing grades, but even then it's more common that the student will have to integrate with the younger kids, at least all people I knew who got into our year from the year above me lost most of their connections to the older students over a year or so and made friends in ours. And in a way forming these "artificial" groups of about 25-30 people helped, at least in my school, to prevent the most extreme forms of exclusion, because no matter what, all were still in the same class unit, and if in doubt would side against people from other class units and years to some extent -- obviously it also has all the negative sides of this kind of group solidarity, like it will be sanctioned by all in a class if it's perceived as if someone has "betrayed" the class unit to teachers or the like, indicated by the German term "Klassenkeile" which refers to that everybody in a class (as a group) will beat up the "traitor" to the class (typically for example for ratting to a teacher and the like) after school by mutual agreement (and it will have negative consequences for you as well if you refuse to participate in such a sanction procedure); however it's more threat than actual occurrence, but it's highly effective as enforcement threat, so that you'll cover even the more idiotic exploits of your classmates (within some reason of course).
(lengthy rambling continued in pt.2)