The Prime 50 Most attention-grabbing Public Excessive Colleges in the US
2025-09-09T13:27:23Z
Fb
Electronic mail
X
Bluesky
Replica link
Impact Link
Put
Saved
Read in app
subscribers. Develop into an Insider
and begin reading now.
Beget an memoir? .
- Public high faculties can offer high quality education with out the tuition discover of personal faculties.
- Area of interest released its 2025 rating of the categorical public high faculties in the US.
- A quantity of the head faculties are in states deal with Illinois, Fresh Jersey, and Fresh York.
A resplendent high school education doesn’t need to fill the discover discover of faculty tuition.
A quantity of The United States’s greatest public high faculties offer high-level academics with out the five-figure tuition that non-public faculties present.
Area of interest, a firm that researches and compiles info on faculties, released its 2025 rating of the categorical public high faculties in the US.
It ranked the faculties’ academics on factors along with divulge review expertise, AP enrollment, commencement rate, and student and parent academic watch responses for 24,893 public high faculties across the US.
These are the head 50 public high faculties in the US.
50. Alexander W. Dreyfoos Jr. College of the Arts
Courtesy of Alexander W. Dreyfoos Jr. College of the Arts
Situation: West Palm Seaside, Florida
Average SAT rating: 1420
Average ACT rating: 33
“The humanities, custom, and spirit are alive on this college in huge quantities in each place,” one senior wrote. “Right here is by a long way one of the foremost various faculties, that affords every person equal alternatives to specific themselves and attain better heights of their chosen principal.”
49. OCVTS — Marine Academy of Technology & Environmental Science (MATES)
Daniel Dror/Shutterstock
Situation: Manahawkin, Fresh Jersey
Average SAT rating: 1420
Average ACT rating: 33
In accordance with one senior, “Any student who can invent it through four years at MATES will not be most attention-grabbing set for school, but probably for their life.”
“You’re surrounded by driven, radiant students who fill a stable passion for discovering out and performing exceptionally, as neatly as academics with years of expertise in the fields they advise that allow for a long way better in-depth search,” they added.
forty eight. Lane Tech College Prep Excessive College
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Situation: Chicago
Average SAT rating: 1290
Average ACT rating: 29
“Lane Tech College Prep has a various vary of students which wait on blueprint the cultural atmosphere of the high school,” one junior wrote. “Lane Tech has varied golf equipment and organizations lawful for somebody and every person. If there’s something that doesn’t exist at Lane, students fill the likelihood to trade that and introduce recent tips which will be heard and authorized.”
47. Adlai E. Stevenson Excessive College
Courtesy of Stevenson Excessive College
Situation: Lincolnshire, Illinois
Average SAT rating: 1360
Average ACT rating: 31
“Academically, in case you wait on Stevenson you are set for school,” wrote a sophomore. “The capabilities are intense, necessary, and require a ton of work to succeed.”
A Area of interest consumer wrote that “academics care loads about their students and would possibly additionally be working out about assorted classes students are taking.”
46. Jones College Prep Excessive College
Chicago Tribune/TNS
Situation: Chicago
Average SAT rating: 1320
Average ACT rating: 30
“Since the college is school preparatory, the advisors truly focal point on early capabilities to faculties and for scholarships,” wrote one Area of interest consumer. “The lecturers are very understandable and present a wonderful platform for upward mobility when it involves class selection.”
forty five. Troy Excessive College
Courtesy of Troy Excessive College
Situation: Fullerton, California
Average SAT rating: 1410
Average ACT rating: 32
In accordance with one student, Troy Excessive College “will not be your common American public high school.”
“Though the academic capabilities I took were very rigorous, I even fill never regretted taking them as a result of they gave me a stable work ethic and allowed me to construct a keenness for discovering out,” they talked about.
44. Ladies Tutorial Leadership Academy: Dr. Michelle King College for STEM
Al Seib/Los Angeles Events through Getty Images
Situation: Los Angeles
Average SAT rating: 1250
Average ACT rating: 30
“Going to an all-ladies high school became once a truly abnormal expertise and the college not most attention-grabbing serious about STEM, but it additionally values increasing a conclude-knit neighborhood for its students, ” one old student wrote.
43. Excessive Technology Excessive College
Courtesy of Monmouth County Vocational College District
Situation: Lincroft, Fresh Jersey
Average SAT rating: 1530
Average ACT rating: 34
“The college is abnormal in that starting up in freshman 300 and sixty five days and continuing onward students are required to rob school level capabilities in Engineering (through Project lead the Manner curriculum),” an HTHS senior wrote.
“This school will develop into nearly somebody into an overachiever. The air is a small of aggressive with high expectations,” every other talked about.
42. BASIS Ahwatukee
Courtesy of BASIS Ed
Situation: Phoenix
Average SAT rating: 1440
Average ACT rating: 32
“What I cherished most about BASIS Ahwatukee has nothing to enact with the division’s authorized academic rigor but moderately, the neighborhood the students constructed for themselves, ” one old student wrote. “From its very first established 300 and sixty five days in 2013, I’ve witnessed the Ahwatukee division build its sense of faculty pleasure during the increase of 1 every other and the college/workers that fight for the students of their care.”
41. BASIS Phoenix
Courtesy of BASIS Ed
Situation: Phoenix
Average SAT rating: 1430
Average ACT rating: 32
“Foundation Phoenix is an unlimited school for academically focused and has a various curriculum making ready youngsters for school capabilities,” one senior wrote.
40. The Early College at Guilford
Courtesy of Guilford County Colleges / Chris English / Tigermoth Ingenious
Situation: Greensboro, North Carolina
Average SAT rating: 1480
Average ACT rating: 34
“At the Early College at Guilford (ECG) we tempo up our curriculum so that you just would possibly entire two years of high school in a single 300 and sixty five days,” wrote a senior. Then, “after we fill carried out our high school curriculum in two years, we’re allowed to rob school classes on the affiliated school, Guilford College.”
39. A.D. Henderson College College & FAU Excessive College
Courtesy of Florida Atlantic College
Situation: Boca Raton, Florida
Average SAT rating: 1390
Average ACT rating: 31
“Very abnormal program for self motivated folk to excel in a precise authorized school curriculum with by a long way the top likely entry to review alternatives out of any high school in Florida for clear,” one senior wrote.
38. Raleigh Structure Excessive College
Courtesy of Raleigh Structure Excessive College
Situation: Raleigh, North Carolina
Average SAT rating: 1370
Average ACT rating: 31
“The classes that Raleigh Structure gives are very linked to every person’s profession paths and the academics advise comparatively to highschool professors,” wrote one junior.
37. Union County Magnet Excessive College
Oleh Korotkov/Shutterstock
Situation: Scotch Plains, Fresh Jersey
Average SAT rating: 1430
Average ACT rating: 33
College students applauded Union County Magnet Excessive College for its tight-knit neighborhood and selection.
“Union County Magnet Excessive College is a various but tight-knit neighborhood of fine school and students,” commented one student. “Class sizes are cramped, and you truly accumulate to perceive every person you meet.”
36. BASIS Tucson North
Courtesy of BASIS Ed
Situation: Tucson, Arizona
Average SAT rating: 1420
Average ACT rating: 32
“The lecturers are unbelievable,” commented a junior. “Every teacher desires every student to succeed and works their greatest to wait on them attain their success day after day.”
35. Excessive College of American Reports at Lehman College
Steve Sanchez Photos/Shutterstock
Situation: Bronx, Fresh York
Average SAT rating: 1430
Average ACT rating: 33
“The cramped school encourages a truly tight-knit neighborhood the set every person appears to be like to be so supportive and willing to wait on every assorted succeed. Practically every person participates in some club or sport which additionally encourages neighborhood. The lecturers and the curriculum are huge – I feel very ready for school,” one senior wrote.
34. Alabama College of Mathematics and Science
Carmen Okay. Sisson/Shutterstock
Situation: Mobile, Alabama
Average SAT rating: 1220
Average ACT rating: 28
“I even fill acquired this sort of supportive neighborhood and met these that in point of fact care about me and my future. This school is terribly academically affluent with highly lively and attention-grabbing academics. I like to recommend to somebody !” one junior wrote.
33. Stanton College Preparatory
Bilanol/Shutterstock
Situation: Jacksonville, Florida
Average SAT rating: 1410
Average ACT rating: 31
“I deal with how there’s repeatedly something for any individual right here it would not subject what you deal with or who you are. There’s so many folk and golf equipment and it’s truthfully a pretty fun atmosphere. They enact give out masses of work, but I feel deal with it’s truly atmosphere me up for school,” one freshman wrote.
32. Poolesville Excessive College
Courtesy of Bernard Law 1st viscount montgomery of alamein County Public Colleges
Situation: Poolesville, Maryland
Average SAT rating: 1410
Average ACT rating: 31
“All americans at Poolesville will get a rigorous and not easy education,” wrote a senior.
31. Arkansas College for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts
Courtesy of Arkansas College for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts
Situation: Hot Springs, Arkansas
Average SAT rating: 1330
Average ACT rating: 29
“The educational misfortune will not be any funny chronicle. This would possibly spoil you, but then you definately will grow wait on up and you would possibly maybe be stronger than you were sooner than, and infinitely extra ready for school than any assorted public school in the divulge can offer. Nothing is spoonfed to you, but in case you’re willing to work onerous, the alternatives are there for you so that you just would possibly pass a long way,” one senior wrote.
30. Signature College
Courtesy of Signature College
Situation: Evansville, Indiana
Average SAT rating: 1340
Average ACT rating: 31
“The right resolution of my life became once transferring to Signature College. I’ll be ready to attain all of my future targets as a result of this college. The education you receive is high-tier; you won’t gain better wherever else,” one senior wrote.
29. BASIS Mesa
Courtesy of BASIS Ed
Situation: Mesa, Arizona
Average SAT rating: 1400
Average ACT rating: 32
“The abundance of neat youngsters and the academic-focused curriculum right here invent a truly encouraging and studious atmosphere,” one senior wrote.
28. Scarsdale Senior Excessive College
Google Maps
Situation: Scarsdale, Fresh York
Average SAT rating: 1440
Average ACT rating: 32
“Scarsdale breeds driven students which is likely to be excited about their academic and extracurricular performance. The college is neatly maintained, the academics are extremely certified, I’ve never once felt unsafe,” one senior wrote.
27. Carnegie Forefront Excessive College
Courtesy of Carnegie Forefront Excessive College
Situation: Houston
Average SAT rating: 1380
Average ACT rating: 31
“In the event you deal with cramped faculties, Carnegie is an unlimited school to glimpse at,” wrote a senior. “No longer most attention-grabbing is it one of the foremost head faculties in the Houston Self sustaining College District, the custom that Carnegie has is totally abnormal.”
26. Townsend Harris Excessive College
Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images
Situation: Flushing, Fresh York
Average SAT rating: 1410
Average ACT rating: 32
“Though most continuously not easy to protect with the schoolwork, my expertise at Townsend Harris has been extra special,” wrote a senior. “The atmosphere total is terribly mellow, as academics misfortune students to mediate seriously and pursue their fill questions, all whereas taking the time to warmly direct about school events and getting taking into consideration student life.”
25. BASIS Scottsdale
Courtesy of BASIS Ed
Situation: Scottsdale, Arizona
Average SAT rating: 1480
Average ACT rating: 33
“The scholars who trot right here are largely highly self-motivated and neat. Most of them arrange on their fill,” wrote a Foundation senior.
According to every other senior, “many students attain a a lot better education than masses of their peers from assorted faculties,” thanks to a spacious selection of AP classes.
24. California Academy of Mathematics & Science
Courtesy of California Academy of Mathematics & Science
Situation: Carson, California
Average SAT rating: 1360
Average ACT rating: 31
“CAMS is a excellent school for overachievers. The educational rigor and never-ending school sources foster a sure and motivating atmosphere for students,” one parent wrote.
23. Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities
Courtesy of Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities
Situation: Muncie, Indiana
Average SAT rating: 1320
Average ACT rating: 29
“The Academy became once an unlimited expertise and I am overjoyed I got the chance to pass. It became once huge to are dwelling a long way from dwelling at this sort of younger age as a result of it taught you responsibilities you don’t repeatedly earn on whereas dwelling with of us. The lecturers were rough, but there were folk there to permit you succeed,” one old student wrote.
22. Liberal Arts & Science Academy (LASA)
Courtesy of Liberal Arts & Science Academy
Situation: Austin
Average SAT rating: 1420
Average ACT rating: 33
A few Area of interest commenters lauded LASA’s necessary curriculum. “It is a long way very tricky but rate it as a result of it ready me very neatly for school,” wrote one consumer.
“LASA’s principal draw is its academic depth. In the event you have to always be challenged, you are going to be,” added a junior.
21. The Academy for Mathematics, Science & Engineering
Courtesy of Morris County Vocational College District
Situation: Rockaway, Fresh Jersey
Average SAT rating: 1530
Average ACT rating: 35
“The Academy for Mathematics, Science & Engineering will fundamentally trade any high schooler. With necessary coursework, extraordinarily early mornings, and lengthy days as neatly as a aggressive atmosphere. But there are many rewards to be acquired,” one senior wrote.
20. Bergen County Academies
Courtesy of Bergen County Academies
Situation: Hackensack, Fresh Jersey
Average SAT rating: 1480
Average ACT rating: 34
Engaging academics define BCA, constant with commenters. The school is “rigorous and intellectually not easy,” wrote one Area of interest consumer. “Some classes will leave you drained but inundated with info, which is a lot, a lot extra rewarding than it sounds.”
19. Whitney M. Young Magnet Excessive College
E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/TNS
Situation: Chicago
Average SAT rating: 1350
Average ACT rating: 31
“Lecturers are held to an extremely high regular. … Relatively than making an strive to outsmart the student next to us, we work together to outperform assorted faculties,” wrote one Area of interest consumer.
18. College of Science & Engineering
travelview/Shutterstock
Situation: Dallas
Average SAT rating: 1360
Average ACT rating: 31
“Total, the academics are truly invested in the tuition of their students and truly care to witness their students succeed later in life,” wrote one Area of interest consumer.
17. Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Courtesy of Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Situation: Aurora, Illinois
Average SAT rating: 1440
Average ACT rating: 33
“The alternatives right here are never-ending, along with a excellent SIR (Student Inquiry Learn) program which permits the students to exhaust their Wednesdays researching,” wrote one senior.
16. Gwinnett College of Mathematics, Science & Technology (GSMST)
Courtesy of Gwinnett College of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Situation: Lawrenceville, Georgia
Average SAT rating: 1400
Average ACT rating: 31
GSMST has a STEM-focused curriculum that many commenters known as rigorous but high-notch.
“It be crucial to search, you would possibly maybe also simply fill gotten to rely on questions, you would possibly maybe also simply fill gotten to prepare for your classes,” wrote a Area of interest consumer. “GSMST challenges you, it challenges all forms of students whether or not you were a genius in heart school or not.”
15. Staten Island Technical Excessive College
Shulem Deen/Shutterstock
Situation: Staten Island, Fresh York
Average SAT rating: 1450
Average ACT rating: 33
“This high school has given me and so many varied students many alternatives to search out their enviornment of interest and excel in it, whether or not or not it’s in the academics, theatrical drama, or simply right the masses of competitions in regular,” commented one junior.
14. World Academy
Steve Lagreca/Shutterstock
Situation: Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Average SAT rating: 1410
Average ACT rating: 32
“The right fragment about my expertise on the World Academy is the academics. They’re repeatedly priceless and willing to enhance every student. The curriculum is additionally a high point in the college. It repeatedly pushes students to appear at out their greatest, and helps me prepare for school,” one senior wrote.
13. Bronx Excessive College of Science
Courtesy of Alexander Thorp / The Bronx Excessive College of Science
Situation: Bronx, Fresh York
Average SAT rating: 1460
Average ACT rating: 33
Whereas many students found the curriculum annoying, they additionally thought there were masses of alternatives and sources.
“It’s a misfortune however the neighborhood and academics wait on me at every turn!” wrote one student. “All americans right here has something about which they’re excited about, and you would possibly also simply fill gotten got so many alternatives to search out your fill passion.”
12. Thomas Jefferson Excessive College for Science & Technology
Courtesy of Thomas Jefferson Excessive College for Science & Technology
Situation: Alexandria, Virginia
Average SAT rating: 1510
AP test pass rate: 34
“Math, science, and tech labs are huge. The hardest classes are neatly into the college vary (…) Seniors accumulate to pursue subjects they’re genuinely drawn to, and stop projects by the stop of the 300 and sixty five days,” commented one senior.
11. Northside College Preparatory Excessive College
Chicago Tribune/TNS
Situation: Chicago
Average SAT rating: 1380
Average ACT rating: 32
Northside academics are “unbelievable,” constant with a junior. “I repeatedly feel challenged in my capabilities, but additionally feel assured that I’ll succeed. Northside makes it so that as lengthy as you are actively engaged to your discovering out you would possibly maybe also attain highly which I mediate is foremost,” they wrote.
10. Pine Peep College
Google Maps
Situation: Osprey, Florida
Average SAT rating: 1420
Average ACT rating: 32
“Pine Peep College has supplied me with a world class education in the time I even fill attended there,” one junior wrote.
9. College for the Proficient and Proficient
Courtesy of Dallas ISD
Situation: Dallas
Average SAT rating: 1400
Average ACT rating: 32
One Area of interest consumer praised TAG’s quality academic atmosphere.
“You put out of your mind how neat you are as a result of you’re in an atmosphere which is entirely made up of neat folk and is terribly aggressive,” the person wrote.
8. Governor’s College for Science & Mathematics
Courtesy of Governor’s College for Science & Mathematics
Situation: Hartsville, South Carolina
Average SAT rating: 1380
Average ACT rating: 31
College students agree academics offer masses of increase and guidance at Governor’s College for Science & Mathematics.
“The smaller class sizes at GSSM mean that every student will get extra person consideration from academics and the chance to be a lot extra engaged at school,” commented a senior.
“The workload is loopy, but academics are nearly repeatedly available in the market after hours for tutoring, and there are tutoring companies and products delivery from 8-10 every weeknight,” added a junior.
7. Oklahoma College of Science and Mathematics
Sean Pavone/Shutterstock
Situation: Oklahoma Metropolis
Average SAT rating: 1420
Average ACT rating: 31
“The lecturers are all consultants of their discipline and willing to wait on students, but their classes will be not easy. In the event you are a focused student that desires to rob their academic expertise to the subsequent level, OSSM is an unlimited school,” one junior wrote.
6. Walter Payton College Preparatory Excessive College
Barry Brecheisen/WireImage for The Recording Academy/Getty Images/Getty Images
Situation: Chicago
Average SAT rating: 1420
Average ACT rating: 32
“Lessons are attention-grabbing and stare-opening for the most fragment, though they’re indubitably annoying and exhaust a lot of a student’s free time,” wrote a junior. “College students near into Payton recognizing that they’d be working onerous for the subsequent four years, and right here’s indubitably no lie.”
5. Stuyvesant Excessive College
Fresh York Each day Files/NY Each day Files through Getty Images
Situation: Fresh York Metropolis
Average SAT rating: 1500
Average ACT rating: 33
“It’s an atmosphere full of so many unbelievable folk, every students and academics, that I’ve thought of as my second family,” wrote one senior. “It’s been an ravishing four years for me right here, and I truthfully can’t think about my life wherever else.”
“Stuyvesant Excessive College gives an spacious resolution of alternatives to explore a various vary of interests, from academics to athletics and the humanities,” added every other.
4. Rising Leaders Academy
Courtesy of Rising Leaders Academy
Situation: Panama Metropolis, Florida
Average SAT rating: N/A
Average ACT rating: N/A
“I’ve been to a couple faculties and this one became once the categorical. It’s cramped and the academics wait on students loads. I accumulate to rob school capabilities too,” one junior wrote.
3. Massachusetts Academy of Math & Science
Courtesy of Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science at WPI
Situation: Worcester, Massachusetts
Average SAT rating: 1500
Average ACT rating: 34
Nothing compares to Massachusetts Academy of Math & Science’s offerings, constant with one student. “The quality of the college and students and the sources available in the market … invent this college unparalleled in the huge alternatives it offers to these fortunate to wait on,” they wrote.
2. The Davidson Academy
Courtesy of The Davidson Academy
Situation: Reno, Nevada
Average SAT rating: 1530
Average ACT rating: 35
“I mediate somebody who goes right here will receive a unbelievable education that will rob them a long way in life,” wrote one old student.
1. North Carolina College of Science and Mathematics
Courtesy of North Carolina College of Science and Mathematics
Situation: Durham, North Carolina
Average SAT rating: 1450
Average ACT rating: 33
“Which that it’s likely you’ll maybe enact your fill study, invent your fill class to educate to assorted students, and loads extra. I got to the touch precise human bones and work with specimens I never knew existed. The folk you meet there are additionally no funny chronicle, you’ll gain the guests of your life there,” one senior wrote.
Source link