Bold statement: We adored high school. (Seriously.) But you know what would have made it even better? A sun-drenched veranda. Or a panoramic view of the mountains. Or a humongous pool. Behold, the nine prettiest high schools in the entire country. Don’t get too jealous.
The 9 Most Beautiful High Schools in America
Can we please be 17 again?
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Published Sep 8, 2016
Stadium High School (tacoma, Wa)
Oh, just the school where 10 Things I Hate About You was filmed, NBD. It also wins our award for Most Instagrammable Stadium, mostly because of the incredible views of Commencement Bay.
Santa Barbara High School
Santa Barbara High School (santa Barbara, Ca)
This pristine 40-acre campus is just a short stroll to the beach, but for local students it’s same-old, same-old—check out the incredibly gorgeous junior high school they attended.
Tmad Taylor & Gaines
Ramón C. Cortines School Of Visual And Performing Arts (los Angeles, Ca)
OK, this school kinda looks like it might be inhabited by robot students from the future, but we swear, this is an actual magnet high school in Downtown L.A. It’s in great company with its space-age neighbor, the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Pacific Ridge High School
Pacific Ridge High School (san Diego, Ca)
Nope, this veranda isn’t in the backyard of a four-star hotel. It’s where the students of this picturesque private school eat lunch, hang out between classes and work on their tans.
Monument Mountain Regional High School (great Barrington, Ma)
Nestled up in the Berkshires, this public school has, hands down, the best view of any high school in history. Good luck trying to concentrate on that pop quiz.
Little Rock Central High School (little Rock, Ar)
When it was built in 1927, this school became the largest and most expensive high school in the U.S. And remember reading about “The Little Rock Nine” integration crisis in social studies class? Yep, this was the school that made history.
American Canyon High School (american Canyon, Ca)
This California school (notice a trend, here?) opened in 2010, and it was designed with a bunch of awesome green features. There are enough windows in each classroom to provide only natural light during the day (bye, fluorescents), and the sports fields are all irrigated with reclaimed water.
EPSH Alumni
El Paso High School (el Paso, Tx)
Nope, that’s not an ancient Greek theater, that’s the home of the El Paso High Tigers. If you need us, we’ll be watching a game and wondering why our boxy brick high school had to be so boring.
Phillips Exeter Academy (exeter, Nh)
This highly selective boarding school was the inspiration for A Separate Peace (you know, the intense page-turner about Finny and Gene you had to read in high school). Established in 1871, it’s pretty much the quintessential New England school—complete with a 200,000-book library.
