Remember to begin by figuring out your strengths and weaknesses, and be sure to use them to your advantage.

You’ve stated that you have problems speaking and feeling social, so what you have to do is start small. Find a group at your school that doesn’t require much verbal communication amongst one another, then begin to build confidence in yourself and increase your skills when talking to peers, one step at a time.

I can’t really go into detailed specifics at this time, as it will vary for every student, depending mostly on who you are and where you feel your current status is within the school.

While I do agree that confidence can play a big role in it the scheme of things, it’s not all that is necessary. Some can have all the confidence in the world, yet still only remain at a mediocre level on the popularity scale.

I do agree to about the “superficial ladder” part you mentioned. It doesn’t benefit you in the long run. And after you graduate, (which is only a few short years away), all that hard work is lost.

Interesting post you made. You’ve obviously thought it out. But therein lies the problem. If we become mechanical when trying to strengthen our popularity, we can lose ourselves.

The major part of establishing popularity, that most psychologists agree on, is confidence and self-esteem. More confidence equates to more interaction. More interaction can lead to a greater popular:unpopular ratio. Arguably, therefore, simply increasing your self-esteem (resulting in greater confidence) will likely result in greater popularity.

But at the end of the day we must ask ourselves, why try so hard when we will only be there for a fraction of our lives? Luckily, I have the confidence to maintain a good group of friends and get along generally with anyone and everyone. Some, I see, are not so fortunate. But if it boils down to it, I would sooner concentrate on my studies and future than getting atop of a superficial ladder that will only disappear when I leave the establishment.