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  • 21 Aug, 2019

  • By, Wikipedia

University High School (Tucson)
University High School (UHS) is an accelerated public high school located in Tucson, Arizona. Originally known as Special Projects High School (SPHS), University High School is in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). The mission statement of UHS identifies it as "a special function high school which serves students who are academically focused and intellectually gifted and provides curriculum and social support not offered in the comprehensive high school." Since 1985, it has shared a campus with Rincon High School, a separate high school. Courses from each school can be combined, and athletics and fine arts are combined under the Rincon/University (RUHS) name.

Ranking and recognition

U.S. News & World Report has included UHS in their list of "America's Best High Schools" out of nearly 18,000 schools in the US:

Year Rank
2024 Ranked #81
2023 Ranked #25
2022 Ranked #28
2021 Ranked #17
2020 Ranked #22
2019 Ranked #40
2018 Ranked #27
2017 Ranked #15
2016 Ranked #24
2015 Ranked #8
2014 Ranked #7
2013 Ranked #28
2012 Ranked #4


In 2014, the Washington Post listed UHS at No. 28 in its review of "America's Most Challenging High Schools," which ranked the 1,900 highest-performing high schools nationally.

In 2013, the Daily Beast listed UHS at No. 19 in its annual list of the "Best 2,000 High Schools in the Nation.

In May 2006, Newsweek named UHS as one of "The Public Elites," schools that, "NEWSWEEK excluded...from the list of Best High Schools because so many of their students score well above average on the SAT and ACT."

In 2005 and 2016, it was honored as a Blue Ribbon school.

Notable alumni