Has anyone attended an all girls' school, religious or non, and how do you feel it impacted you?

I went to catholic school and it was hell, i had to deal with a priest who tried to exorsize me every chance he got.

I use to go to an all girls school and I really didn’t like it much it made me dislike girls because they are too much I know that sounds ridiculous because I am a girl but still also there were a lot of girls that pretended they were lesbians because they were bored and that REALLY bothered me so it wasn’t a good experience

I went to a small (900 students) co-ed C of E School. I loved it. Made some really lovely friends and had a lot of support from both peers and teachers. It gave me some great oppertunities, too.

I went to an all-girls school for 2 years, non-religious. I liked it okay at first, but after a while it got really old. I ended up hating it, but I don’t think that was necessarily because it was an all-girls school, more because everyone there was old-rich, kind of snobby, and already friends with each other, so I felt like there was no place for me. Also all the other girls were so desperate for male attention, that got really old really fast.

I didn’t like the atmosphere there, and now I find that I don’t like being in situations with only females, it makes me feel odd. And almost all of my friends are guys now. All my close friends are, but I don’t know if that’s because of middle school or that’s just how I am.

I attended private, Catholic schools for my entire life. For grade school, I attended a private, Catholic co-educational school. For high school, I attended a very prestigious, very selective, all-girls, private, Catholic school. It was phenomenal. I received such an excellent education there, and it prepared me for the rest of my life very well. I was much better prepared for college than most.

I really liked the all-girls part, as well. Our school’s motto was, “On the education of women largely depends the future of society.” My entire high school was filled with such incredibly smart teenage girls, and being in that environment gave us all the confidence that was necessary to succeed as a woman (rather than being influenced by the idea that boys are better at math and science). We have all gone on to become very successful women, and I am forever grateful for my absolutely fantastic high school education.

I wish!

I attended a public, suburban co-ed high school long enough ago to have gotten a wonderful education and to have had a lot of fun. (Mid-fifties) Then I went to an all-women’s college where I was not as happy.

I was surrounded by high-achievers (like Maddie Albright) and an excellent faculty. I didn’t appreciate it much then but it has held me in good stead always. (I still would use “impact” as a noun and “affect” as the verb, due to the rigorous training I received.

I seriously looked into an all all girl Catholic University in Indiana (St. Mary of the Woods). I toured the campus and interviews some profs, but in the end I went to it’s neighbor state university. It was a better and more affordable choice for studying education.

To this day, I wonder what it would have done for me, character building-wise. I’ve never had strong relationships with other woman, and thought that the move to an all girl school would help me.

Because I was a neighbor of the school I still spent a lot of time there and met some really nice people that made me have second thoughts.

Still, I got a good education to the college I went to, so I can’t regret that

I am currently in an all-girls Anglican school receiving the best education probably in the state, at least in Southern Tasmania. I am so lucky to go here, I have so many opportunities available to me, including taking classes at our brother school, Hutchins, which is an all boys school, but if you have a clash with your time-table we are able to attend classes at the other school. This makes the all-girls aspect slightly less wearing, and I think that my confidence levels have been boosted being one of two girls in a class of boys. I am lucky, however, in that my girlfriends don’t just sit around and bitch about everyone as so many other people in our grade do, but we have interesting and fun conversations.

There are some things, however, that are disagreeable. The uniform aspect, of course, being unable to show individuality. I guess that this can limit the amount of bullying and judgement based on appearance, but that’s always going to be in an all girls school anyway, regardless of uniform.

Chapel is compulsory but it’s not too often, once a fortnight, and since it is an Anglican school I can deal with that, and the big important Church services are relatively few compared to my old school.

For primary school I went to a Catholic school. Co-ed until grade 2, then the boys head off to the all-boys affiliated school which goes to grade 10, and then it is all-girls til grade 12. The primary school is one of the best in the state and I am grateful I went there instead of being at my current school my whole life, because I think I benefited greatly from being with boys up until grade 2.

The only thing with this school was that it was very sort of, brainwashing, I suppose. We had regular lessons with a nun from kindergarten onwards, filling in sheets about how “Jesus is your friend” and “We are all part of God’s family” and it never really occurred to me that there was anything else, even though I wasn’t actually catholic. I think that this impacted me to go completely the other way when I finally realised that I had a choice in the matter.

Really, though, I have been extremely lucky in my education and my friends as well, meaning a balanced and healthy school life, which has probably helped me to be a higher than average achiever, for which I am grateful to my parents and my teachers.

Thank-you shrubbery for an excellent answer. I was in a similar situation. The high school I attended is one of the best private schools in the state and very prestigious. We also had a brother school next door and were allowed to take classes at the other that weren’t offered at our school and if we had scheduling conflicts. The homework in my advanced study and honors classes was very intense and rigorous but challenging. Many of the lessons and the discipline I learned there allowed me to obtain 2 Bachelors Degrees in 4 yrs and a law degree in the next 3. I won’t ever wear plaid again but got a great education.

madsmom, i know what you mean about plaid. people will say, “ooh, do you still have that cute little skirt?”
i’m like, “no, i burned it. really.”

@madsmom1030: I bet you looked/look cute in that plaid skirt. You wouldn’t even consider wearing it for me? <wink>

I never attended an all-girls school. I had all girl classmates in my 7th grade science class. The whole chapter on sex was very…interesting. If I could have found a way to turn giggles into a reusable power source, I would still have some juice left (2 decades later).

Four years of very isolated girls’ boarding school. Non-denominational, but we had a succession of ministers (all Christian) of different denominations for obligatory Sunday talks. Yawn.

Challenging workload. Excellent academic experience. But the art teacher was both the only man we ever saw, and also the only adult who had time for serious conversations with us beyond subject matter: current events, philosophy, life outside the school. (The teachers didn’t live at the school and we never saw them outside of class.)
There were some nice but powerless old-lady dorm mothers. Dorm rules were upheld by the older girls. The responsibility was good for the girls who actually had it.

People talk a lot about protecting young women from the distraction of boys when their intellectual growth is vulnerable. Probably sensible or even ideal for some. Downside: boys and men, being mythical to us, acquired an unrealistic aura of wonderfulness. Lol.

I went to an all girls Catholic school in Chicago for high school. This was coming off of 9 years in a very diverse, language academy Chicago Public School (where I learned Russian). High school was strange at first because all of the students were girls (duh), middle class, and white (for the most part). I felt like we all looked the same. But, I soon got over that and had a wonderful time. It was expensive (paid more for a year of high school than I paid for a year of college), but I had really wonderful times and made a lot of really wonderful friends. Our school was weird in that all the girls talked to each other. That was really nice. The school was small (my class was about 175 students), but they had a lot. I was involved in theatre, and I think that shaped me more than the fact that I went to an all girls school.

So, all in all: I loved my experience.

I’d like to “attend” an all girls school :) .... (College though, I’m too old for high schoolers now, lol)

@adri027

That actually sounds like a great experience. ;) lol

Yeah, I went to a Catholic all girl’s school. Got sent there after insisting that I was a boy. Loved the uniforms, loved the rules, loved everything about it.

Three years after graduation, I came out again as transsexual, though, and this time it stuck. Wewt.

Single-sex schools are great, but not for everyone. I was just a really weird kid.