How safe is the school, really — beyond what the marketing says?
Based on the school’s safety page and two news reports, we found one safety incident at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in the past year: on March 17, 2026 the Durham campus went into lockdown for about 40 minutes after an anonymous tip of a possible active shooter was relayed by Durham police. No weapon or threat was found, no injuries were reported and classes resumed. The school says “the 24/7 presence of staff security officers and off-duty police keep campus safe.”
| Item | What we found | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Lockdown, March 17, 2026 | Followed an anonymous tip relayed by Durham police; no weapon or threat found, no injuries; classes resumed | Hoodline; 9th Street Journal |
| Security staffing | Staff security officers and off-duty police, present 24 hours a day | NCSSM safety page |
| Health care | A Student Health Clinic on each campus, with residence life staff | NCSSM safety page |
| Counselling | Each student has an assigned counselor | NCSSM safety page |
| Residential supervision | Residence halls are supported by full-time Community Coordinators | NCSSM campus life page |
The Hoodline report is AI-assisted and draws on local television coverage, so we use only the facts the two reports share. A school spokesman is quoted as saying the school knew of nothing amiss. We found no published incident, discipline or survey counts, and no emergency plan, though the safety page links to emergency information for each campus.
What’s the graduation rate, and how college-ready are graduates?
Based on the school’s pages and its student newspaper, we found no graduation rate for the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. The student newspaper reported in May 2025 that 322 seniors shared their college plans, naming 47 colleges, and that 169 of them were going to UNC Chapel Hill. The school also guarantees admission to a UNC System campus for residential graduates with a weighted GPA of at least 3.5.
| Measure | What we found | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Graduation rate | Not found | No school or state figure located |
| Class of 2025 plans | 322 seniors shared plans; 47 colleges named; 169 to UNC Chapel Hill | Student newspaper, May 2025 |
| UNC System guaranteed admission | Residential graduates from the Class of 2022 on, with a weighted GPA of 3.5 or above; Online students are not eligible | NCSSM |
| College credit | Agreements with all 16 UNC campuses name eligible courses, which can earn credit without an exam | NCSSM |
The 322 figure counts the seniors who chose to share their plans, which may be fewer than the whole class. The guarantee covers admission to a campus, not to a particular programme, and the school gives no count of students who use it. We found no state report-card figure, no test-score average and no list of the colleges beyond the count.
What’s the true total cost — tuition plus fees, room/board if applicable — and how has it moved over the last 3–5 years?
There is no application fee or cost for tuition, meals, room and board, or textbooks for the Residential, Online and Summer Ventures programmes, according to the school’s admissions page. Applicants must be legal residents of North Carolina.
| Cost | What the school says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Application | No fee; one application covers all three programmes | Apply page |
| Tuition, meals, room and board, textbooks | No cost | Apply page |
| J-Term, January 6–28, 2027 | Not covered by financial assistance; the page gives no price | Financial assistance page |
| Financial assistance | Four tiers set from the family’s documents, which can include a stipend, a loaner computer, calculators and help with competition and conference costs | Financial assistance page |
Financial assistance is for enrolled Residential and Online students and is renewed each year, with a September 10 deadline for enrolled students. The school publishes no price history, so we cannot say how any cost has moved, and it names no costs for travel home, personal spending or supplies.
What’s the real acceptance rate and application timeline?
Based on the school’s admissions pages, the application for the Class of 2029 opens October 15, 2026 and closes on January 5, 2027 at 11:59 PM, and every applicant sits a math assessment on February 13 or February 20, 2027. The school publishes no applicant or offer counts; a 2015 EdNC article reported about 1,400 applicants and 24% accepted, which is too old to use as a current rate.
| Step | Date or rule | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Application opens | October 15, 2026, 4:00 PM | Through CFNC |
| Deadline | January 5, 2027, 11:59 PM | The page says no exceptions |
| Math assessment | February 13 or 20, 2027 | Both campuses; 30 questions in 40 minutes, no calculator |
| Open houses | Durham October 24; Morganton November 7, 2026 | Events page |
| Decisions | Not yet published | The apply page lists the date as to be announced |
The school reviews an application against a rubric: grades in challenging courses, counselor, English and STEM evaluations, essays and the math assessment, with no SAT or ACT. Applicants must be legal residents of North Carolina, and teams read applications by congressional district. We found no seat or offer counts for any recent year.
Which future-critical STEM fields is this school genuinely strong in—and which ones are major gaps?
Based on our review, biotechnology is the strongest field, at 5.0 out of 5. AI and data, robotics, computer science, aerospace and biomedical engineering follow at 4.0, clean energy, Earth and geospatial and advanced manufacturing at 3.0, and cybersecurity and battery storage at 2.0.
| Field | Grade | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| Biotechnology | 5.0/5 | A mentorship tradition of more than 40 years with over 200 outside mentors a year; Molecular Genetics; five Science Talent Search scholars in 2026 |
| AI & data | 4.0/5 | Machine Learning, Foundations of Data Science, Advanced Data Science and a data science programme; no competition result |
| Robotics | 4.0/5 | FIRST Team 900 since 2002, state champion in 2025; two robotics courses |
| Computer science | 4.0/5 | Seventeen courses, and one engineering or computer science course is required to graduate |
| Aerospace | 4.0/5 | Rocketry Design for Competition, Aerospace Engineering, Satellite Design and a team that flew high-power rockets |
| Biomedical engineering | 4.0/5 | Biomedical Engineering, Instrumentation and Biophysics; no clinical partnership found |
| Clean energy | 3.0/5 | A batteries, fuel cells and solar cells course, Environmental Engineering and a solar courtyard; no project or club |
| Earth & geospatial | 3.0/5 | Environmental Science and Climate Change Biology; no geospatial course found |
| Advanced manufacturing | 3.0/5 | CAD/CAM and the Haughton fabrication lab with CNC routers and a waterjet; no manufacturing course or credential |
| Cybersecurity | 2.0/5 | Cryptography and security topics inside other courses; no course, club or competition |
| Batteries | 2.0/5 | One elective on batteries, fuel cells and solar cells; nothing further |
Does the school expose students to biotechnology, biomedical engineering and the life sciences beyond ordinary biology?
Yes. Based on the school’s catalogue and research pages, students can take Molecular Genetics, which covers DNA technology, gene cloning and bioinformatics, along with Developmental Biology, Immunology, Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering. Residential seniors can spend six hours a week in the Mentorship program, a tradition of more than 40 years, working mainly with researchers at Duke, NC Central, NC State, RTI International and UNC-Chapel Hill.
| Stage | What students do | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Courses | Molecular Genetics, Classical Genetics, Developmental Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Biomedical Instrumentation and Honors Agricultural Biotechnology | Durham catalogue |
| Mentorship | A summer placement of five to seven weeks, then an academic-year placement for residential seniors that counts as one of five core classes | Mentorship page |
| Presenting | A portfolio, a research proposal and a final product, shown at the Research Symposium each spring | Mentorship page |
| Competing | Regeneron Science Talent Search, the NC Science and Engineering Fair and ISEF | Science research page |
The school reports at least five Science Talent Search scholars each year, eight in 2022 (the school calls that the second most from any one school) and five in 2026, with projects in 2022 from planarian wound closure to anticancer agents. We found no count of students in the mentorship programme and no industry certification; the pathway runs to research and university study.
How strong is it in robotics, engineering and hands-on problem solving?
Based on FIRST’s event records, robotics at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics is strong and sustained. Team 900, the Zebracorns, has competed since 2002, ranked 5th of 77 in the Newton Division at the 2023 FIRST Championship, won the North Carolina State Championship in 2025 and ranked 6th of 28 at the Cabarrus event in 2026. Students can take Introductory Robotics and Robotics Design for Competition, which prepares teams for national robotics competitions.
| Season | Zebracorns, Team 900 |
|---|---|
| 2023 | Ranked 5th of 77 (8–2) in the Newton Division of the FIRST Championship; Innovation in Control Award at three events |
| 2025 | Won the North Carolina State Championship (ranked 3rd of 40); played the Daly Division (7–3); Team Spirit Award |
| 2026 | Ranked 6th of 28 at Cabarrus (8–4) with a FIRST Leadership Award semi-final place; 16th of 29 at Elon (5–7) |
Hands-on engineering also runs through the catalogue: CAD/CAM has each student complete an original functional object with all the drawings needed to build it, and Robotics Design for Competition covers computer vision, path planning and machine learning and needs approval from the robotics competition advisor or the department chair. We show 2023, 2025 and 2026 only, and we found no team membership count and no count of students in the robotics courses.
Do students get access to advanced coursework, specialist electives and serious competitions?
Yes. Based on the school’s catalogue, students take five core courses a semester from a catalogue that includes engineering electives from Aerospace to Circuits, Machine Learning, Data Structures and Algorithms, Electrochemistry and research courses in biology, chemistry and physics. Competition results we could verify include the Zebracorns’ 2025 state championship, a 29th-place finish among 1,107 teams at the 2026 American Rocketry Challenge finals and the school’s Science Talent Search scholars.
| Route | Examples | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Specialist electives | Machine Learning, Cryptography, Data Visualization, Aerospace Engineering, Elements of Satellite Design, Biomedical Engineering, Computational Physics | Durham catalogue |
| Advanced math | AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, Foundations of Data Science and Advanced Data Science | We did not count the other Advanced Placement courses |
| Research | A double-block research course for juniors, a four-week Research Experience in January and research courses in each science | Research page and catalogue |
| Competitions | FIRST Robotics Competition; American Rocketry Challenge; Science Talent Search; NC Science and Engineering Fair | Results found for these |
In 2026 the school’s rocketry team won a $500 Most Creative prize at the American Rocketry Challenge finals. We found no hackathon, cybersecurity or data-science competition result, and the catalogue we read lists no Advanced Placement computer science course.
Will your child be ready for jobs that don’t exist yet?
Here’s what the evidence actually shows for the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics — not what the brochure claims.
72/100 — Developing overall. NCSSM’s biotechnology, AI and robotics provision is advanced: a mentorship programme that has run for more than forty years places residential seniors with researchers at Duke, NC State, UNC-Chapel Hill and RTI International, five NCSSM students were named Regeneron Science Talent Search scholars in 2026, the catalogue carries Machine Learning, Foundations of Data Science and Advanced Data Science beside a graduation requirement of one engineering or computer science course, and FIRST Team 900 won the 2025 North Carolina State Championship after playing in the Newton Division at the 2023 FIRST Championship.
But: cybersecurity and battery storage are thin.
Best positioned forBiotechnology, AI & Data, Robotics
Underdeveloped inCybersecurity, Batteries
Future-critical exposure9/15 domains
Very strong
- Biotechnology
Strong
- AI & Data
- Robotics
- Computer Science
- Aerospace
- Biomedical Engineering
Limited
- Clean Energy
- Earth & Geospatial
- Advanced Manufacturing
Little / no pathway
- Cybersecurity
- Batteries
Best fit for
Less ideal for
Where the marketing exceeds the evidence
No dated student project from 2023 onward found on the lab’s pages, and no advanced-manufacturing course beyond CAD/CAM.
Where the school is stronger than its marketing suggests
Where the school is stronger than its marketing suggests
Curriculum
- Machine Learning covers basic machine-learning concepts and algorithms in Python, including neural networks and ethical concerns, and follows an object-oriented, networks or game-engine course plus a placement exam
- Foundations of Data Science, Advanced Data Science, Data Visualization, Topics in Artificial Intelligence for Health & Life Science and AI in Science Fiction are in the Durham catalogue
- A data-science programme led by a dean says it will reach over 1,400 students
Evidence seen
- The 2024 strategic plan names Artificial Intelligence as one of seven strategies (the page gives no description)
- The Hg Foundation is giving $250,000 over two years to widen access to Step Up to STEM and develop a new AI and technology course for it (August 2026)
- Nutanix gave $250,000, matched by state dollars, for an endowed computer science professorship that funds live honors and AP-level courses statewide (June 2026)
What's missing
- No AI or machine-learning competition result found
- The Hg-funded AI course is in development and not yet taught
- The descriptions of Foundations of Data Science, Advanced Data Science and the AI-for-health topics course could not be read in full
Evidence seen
- Cryptography, open with no prerequisite, covers methods used to encipher and decipher secret messages from Caesar ciphers to public-key encryption, implemented in Python
- Server-Side Development says security implications are addressed as students deploy their own web server; Computer Architecture and Operating Systems includes local cybersecurity topics
- A 2022 Regeneron scholar simulated quantum key distribution in three polarization bases
What's missing
- No course titled as cybersecurity or digital safety, no certification, and no club found
- No CyberPatriot, capture-the-flag or other competition record found
- The catalogue, the department pages and web searches were checked; the school may run activity that is not published
Curriculum
- Introductory Robotics has students build a robot that reacts to its environment and completes challenges; it leads only to Robotics Design for Competition
- Robotics Design for Competition is project-based work on robotic applications for national competitions, including computer vision, path-planning, ROS and machine learning, with approval from the Robotics Competition Advisor or the department chair
Evidence seen
- FIRST Robotics Competition Team 900, the Zebracorns (Durham, rookie season 2002), is housed in the Mechatronics Laboratory
- 2023: ranked 5th of 77 (8–2) in the Newton Division of the FIRST Championship; Innovation in Control Award at three events
- 2024: District Event Finalist and FIRST Impact Award at Orange County; Creativity Award at the state championship
- 2025: won the North Carolina State Championship (ranked 3rd of 40), played the Daly Division (7–3) and took the Team Spirit Award
- 2026: ranked 6th of 28 at Cabarrus (8–4) with a FIRST Leadership Award semi-final place, and 16th of 29 at Elon (5–7)
What's missing
- A 2017 school article says about half of the team came from other area schools or were homeschooled; no current membership count found
- No count of students taking either robotics course found
- The team ranked 28th of 40 (4–7–1) at the 2024 state championship
Curriculum
- Electrochemistry: Batteries, Fuel Cells and Solar Cells puts the emphasis on the chemistry of technologies relevant to renewable energy, with lab work building and testing electrochemical energy systems
- Environmental Engineering covers hydrology, stormwater management, water treatment and remediation with field measurement and data modelling; Environmental Science and Climate Change Biology cover climate change and ecosystems; Architecture covers green building
Evidence seen
- The engineering department lists solar panels in a Sustainability Courtyard on the Durham campus, with their data published online
What's missing
- No energy-technology competition, project or club found
- The courses sit in separate departments with no stated progression between them
- The solar-panel data page was not opened
Curriculum
- Molecular Genetics covers the central dogma, DNA technology, gene cloning and bioinformatics with laboratory work and research projects; Classical Genetics, Developmental Biology, Immunology, Neuroscience and Hallmarks of Cancer are in the catalogue
- Research in Biology I–III, Honors Agricultural Biotechnology and Biomedical Instrumentation extend into research and engineering
Evidence seen
- The Mentorship program, a tradition of more than 40 years with over 200 volunteer mentors a year, places residential seniors mainly with researchers at Duke, NC Central, NC State, RTI International and UNC-Chapel Hill for six hours a week, as one of five core classes
- Regeneron Science Talent Search scholars: eight in 2022 (the school reports the second most from any one school that year) and five in 2026, with projects from planarian wound closure to a minimal-residual-disease assay for breast cancer
- Fifty rising ninth and tenth graders took Exploring Genes and Genomes with Real Research Tools at UNC Pembroke through Step Up to STEM in July 2026
What's missing
- No industry certification found; the pathway runs to research and university study
- No count of students in the Mentorship program or research courses found
- Scholar counts for 2023–2025 appear only in a Wikipedia summary and are not used
Curriculum
- Seventeen computer science courses on three levels run from Computing for Everyone, Web Development and Game Design to Data Structures and Algorithms in Java, Machine Learning and Server-Side Development, with placement exams to enter at a higher level
- Every student must take one engineering or computer science course to graduate, and a second counts toward the STEM elective requirement
Evidence seen
- NCSSM Connect delivers live honors and AP-level computer science courses to public high schools; six courses begin in fall 2026 and their teacher reaches about 100 remote students a year
- Research Experience in Computational Science and Computational Physics are in the catalogue
What's missing
- No AP Computer Science course appears in the department’s course list
- No programming-contest, hackathon or app-challenge result found
- No count of students taking computer science courses found
Evidence seen
- Environmental Science covers ecosystem processes, population ecology, climate change and environmental risks and exposures
- Climate Change Biology, Environmental Engineering (field measurement and data modelling) and Civil Engineering are in the catalogue
- Astronomy and Astrophysics are on the physics list
What's missing
- No geographic-information-systems, remote-sensing, geology or oceanography course found in the catalogue as read
- No fieldwork or Earth-science competition record found
- The courses sit in different departments with no stated progression
Curriculum
- Aerospace Engineering, Rocketry Design for Competition, Elements of Satellite Design, Astronomy and Astrophysics are in the Durham catalogue
- Rocketry Design for Competition is aligned with the American Rocketry Challenge and covers Newton’s laws, propulsion, aerodynamics, recovery and orbital mechanics, with rocket construction, flight modelling, data analysis and required launches
Evidence seen
- NCSSM Rocketry fields American Rocketry Challenge teams and a high-power team; two teams qualified for the 2023 national finals, and in 2026 a team placed 29th of 1,107 teams and won a $500 Most Creative prize in the Northrop Grumman Foundation Rocket Building Contest
- High-power flights: a two-stage rocket in April 2023, Cardinal to 5,023 feet in April 2024 and Goose to 2,880 feet in April 2025; members earn Level 1 certifications each fall and spring
- The team presented its projects at the Research Symposium in 2024, 2025 and 2026
What's missing
- No NASA Student Launch result since 2018–19 found
- The descriptions of Aerospace Engineering and Satellite Design could not be read in full
- No drone or aviation course found
Curriculum
- CAD/CAM has students complete an original functional object with all the drawings needed to build it; Mechanical Engineering, Materials for Engineering Applications and Statics are in the catalogue
Evidence seen
- The Peter T. Haughton Fabrication and Innovation Lab has a makerspace, a woodshop with ShopBot CNC routers, a metal shop with a CNC bed mill and a waterjet cutter, and a Digi-Lab, and serves residential and online students working on academic and independent projects
- The lab reports a January Term tally of 375 printing hours and over 250 prints for 3D Puzzles, CubeSat and BioEngineering projects (undated)
What's missing
- No manufacturing course beyond CAD/CAM, and no manufacturing competition or credential, found
- The newest dated project on the lab’s Student Stories page is from January 2020
Evidence seen
- Electrochemistry: Batteries, Fuel Cells and Solar Cells covers primary and secondary batteries, fuel cells and solar cells, with lab work building and testing electrochemical energy systems; it needs a first chemistry and a first physics course
What's missing
- One elective course: no second course, club, project or competition found
- The course page describes no final project
- No battery or storage topic among the scholar projects found
Curriculum
- Biomedical Engineering surveys biomaterials, biomechanics, bioelectricity, devices and measurement through hands-on labs and collaborative design; Biomedical Instrumentation, Biophysics, Computational Medicinal Chemistry and Topics in Artificial Intelligence for Health & Life Science follow
Evidence seen
- Students in a biomedical engineering design project 3D-printed a shoe-sole prototype in 2019, and the instructor now requires 3D modelling and printing for the assignment (the lab’s Student Stories page)
- The 2022 Regeneron scholars’ projects included an anticancer agent from green synthesis of silver nanoparticles, a tubulin inhibitor and an Alzheimer’s treatment
What's missing
- No device-design competition or clinical partnership found beyond mentored research
- No count of students taking the courses found
- The descriptions of Biomedical Instrumentation and Biophysics were not read
Creativity cannot be graded the way a course can. It can only be evidenced through what students made.
| Criterion | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Art + technology | ||||
| Design | ||||
| Architecture | ||||
| Engineering design | ||||
| Media / digital production | ||||
| Maker learning | ||||
| Interdisciplinary projects |
Three strands run for three years or more. The densest year is 2024, at 4 of 7 criteria.
The record — 5 artefacts
Students design, build and program a competition robot each season. The team played in the Newton Division of the 2023 FIRST Championship, won the 2025 North Carolina State Championship and played in the Daly Division, and in 2026 ranked 6th of 28 at the Cabarrus event with a FIRST Leadership Award semi-final place.
FIRST event records, Team 900, 2023–2026
Students select, edit and publish the school’s journal of student STEM research, one volume a year since 2011; the 2025–2026 volume carries twelve papers and one essay.
Broad Street Scientific, archive of fifteen volumes on Issuu
Students design, build and fly their own rockets each season. Two teams qualified for the 2023 American Rocketry Challenge finals, a team placed 29th of 1,107 in 2026 and won a $500 Most Creative prize, and high-power teams flew a two-stage rocket in 2023, Cardinal to 5,023 feet in 2024 and Goose to 2,880 feet in 2025.
American Rocketry Challenge, 2026 finalists and results · NCSSM Rocketry season pages, 2022–2026
Students write, edit and photograph the monthly student newspaper, which reported in May 2025 that 322 seniors shared their college plans, headed for 47 colleges.
The Stentorian, ncssmstentorian.org, August 2024 to May 2025
Students make the art and literature magazine of NCSSM-Durham. Its Spring 2024 edition earned a Distinction rating from the North Carolina Scholastic Media Association, first place in Nonfiction and second in Art, with honorable mentions for layout, cover design, photography and theme development.
North Carolina Scholastic Media Association, 2024 literary magazine results · NCSSM student media page
Nothing found for
No student work was found evidencing these. For a school this well documented, an unrecorded programme is unlikely to be a large one.
What a family should ask about directly
- Admission is competitive and the school publishes no applicant or offer counts. A 2015 report put the figure near 1,400 applicants and a 24 percent offer rate, which is old. Ask admissions for current figures, and note that only North Carolina residents are eligible, that applicants complete a Residency Determination Service process, and that the Class of 2029 deadline of January 5, 2027 has no exceptions.
- Cybersecurity and battery storage each rest on a single elective, and clean energy, Earth systems and advanced manufacturing are structured without advanced work. A student set on any of them should ask what runs outside the catalogue: January Term courses, mentorship placements and clubs.
- Much of the research evidence comes from the school’s own pages: the Mentorship program, the Regeneron counts and the rocketry results. Ask how many seniors complete a mentored project, how placements are matched, and what a student who is not placed does instead.
- In 2017 the school said about half of the Zebracorns came from other area schools or were homeschooled. Ask how many current members are NCSSM students and how juniors join.
- School-day hours and class sizes are not published: the admissions FAQ asks how large the classes are and gives no answer. Ask the registrar or admissions for the daily schedule, and ask how often the residence halls close, which the school says happens about once each month for holidays and extended three-day weekends.
| Domain | Evidence class | Key sources |
|---|---|---|
| AI & Data | Verified · School-reported | Durham course catalogue (Machine Learning, Foundations and Advanced Data Science, Data Visualization, AI for health topics); data-science programme site; Nutanix and Hg Foundation news, 2026 |
| Cybersecurity | Verified | Durham course catalogue and engineering and computer science course list (Cryptography, Server-Side Development, Computer Architecture and Operating Systems); no club or competition found |
| Robotics | Officially recorded · Verified | FIRST event records, Team 900, 2023–2026; course catalogue; engineering facilities page (Mechatronics Laboratory) |
| Clean Energy | Verified · School-reported | Durham course catalogue (Electrochemistry, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Science, Climate Change Biology); engineering facilities page (Sustainability Courtyard solar panels) |
| Biotechnology | Verified · School-reported | Durham course catalogue; Mentorship program page; science research page (Regeneron scholars, 2026); school news report, January 2022; Step Up to STEM report, July 2026 |
| Computer Science | Verified · School-reported | Engineering and computer science course list; graduation requirement; Nutanix news, June 2026 |
| Earth & Geospatial | Verified | Durham course catalogue (Environmental Science, Climate Change Biology, Environmental Engineering, Astrophysics); no geospatial course found |
| Aerospace | Officially recorded · Verified · School-reported | American Rocketry Challenge 2026 finalists and results; rocketry team season pages, 2022–2026; Durham course catalogue |
| Advanced Manufacturing | Verified · School-reported | Durham course catalogue (CAD/CAM); Haughton Fabrication and Innovation Lab pages (space, history, Student Stories) |
| Batteries & Energy Storage | Verified | Durham course catalogue (Electrochemistry: Batteries, Fuel Cells and Solar Cells); no other provision found |
| Biomedical Engineering | Verified · School-reported | Durham course catalogue (Biomedical Engineering, Biomedical Instrumentation, Biophysics); Student Stories page; school news report, January 2022 |
Academics
Courses, research and college credit.
We are a public, tuition-free residential school for grades 11 and 12, with campuses in Durham and Morganton, and we also teach students online and through NCSSM Connect. Our students take five core courses each semester. The courses below come from our Durham course catalogue, our engineering and computer science pages, our research pages and our admissions pages; ask below about any of them.
Residential, Online and Summer Ventures
One application covers our Residential, Online and Summer Ventures programmes. Applicants must be legal residents of North Carolina, and “there is no application fee or cost for tuition, meals, room/board, or textbooks for these three programs.”
- The application for the Class of 2029 opens October 15, 2026 and closes January 5, 2027 at 11:59 PM; there is no SAT or ACT
- Every applicant takes a math assessment, February 13 or 20, 2027, of 30 questions in 40 minutes without a calculator
- Admissions Open House: Durham, October 24, 2026; Morganton, November 7, 2026
- NCSSM Connect brings our courses to public high schools across the state
Engineering and computer science courses
“During your time at NCSSM you are required to take one engineering or computer science course.” Our computer science courses include Introductory Robotics, which has students build a robot that reacts to its environment and completes challenges, and Robotics Design for Competition.
- Computer science: Web Development, Game Design and Simulation, Scientific Programming, Art, Technology and Computing, Cryptography, Machine Learning, Data Structures and Algorithms and Server-Side Development
- Engineering: CAD/CAM, Mechanical, Electrical, Architecture, Biomedical, Materials, Aerospace, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Digital Agriculture and Circuits
- Rocketry Design for Competition and Elements of Satellite Design
- Prior experience can let students bypass prerequisites for intermediate or advanced courses, using the placement information on each discipline’s page
Science, data and mathematics
Our science courses include Molecular Genetics, Developmental Biology, Climate Change Biology, Biophysics, Astrophysics and Computational Physics, and our Electrochemistry course covers batteries, fuel cells and solar cells with labs that build and test electrochemical energy systems.
- Data science: Foundations of Data Science, Advanced Data Science and Data Visualization
- Mathematics: AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics and Research in Mathematics I and II
- Interdisciplinary: Research Experience in Computational Science and Topics in Artificial Intelligence for Health & Life Science
- We give grades from A to D with a satisfactory or unsatisfactory mark in some courses
Mentorship and research courses
Our Mentorship program is “a 40+ year tradition” with “over 200 volunteer mentors per year,” and Durham mentors work at Duke University, NC Central University, NC State University, RTI International and UNC-Chapel Hill.
- Summer Mentorship is open to Durham, Morganton and Online students; the academic-year placement is for residential seniors, six hours a week, and counts as one of five core classes
- Students produce a portfolio, a research proposal and a final professional product, and present at the Research Symposium each spring
- Research courses in biology, chemistry and physics, and a four-week Research Experience in January
- Our research page says of the Regeneron Science Talent Search, “Each year, NCSSM has 5 or more Scholars recognized among the top 300 students!”
Humanities, arts and making
Our humanities and fine arts students publish and perform: in Research in the Humanities they edit and publish the journal Fifth World, and our Classical Myth students create original works and a public performance. We also teach Digital Music Production and Digital Photography.
- STEM and the Stage, a course of creative stage projects
- Art, Technology and Computing, which “combines art, electronics, and programming for interactive creative work”
- The Peter T. Haughton Innovation and Fabrication Laboratory, with a makerspace, a woodshop with CNC routers, a metal shop with a CNC bed mill and a waterjet cutter
- Blue Mirror, our art and literature journal, appears twice a year
College credit and guaranteed admission
“NCSSM has articulation agreements with all 16 University of North Carolina System campuses.” Eligible Residential and Online courses can earn university credit without an exam.
- UNC System guaranteed admission for Residential graduates from the Class of 2022 on, with a weighted GPA at or above 3.5
- Online students are not eligible for the guarantee
- Questions go to your assigned NCSSM school counselor
- January Term, January 6–28, 2027, in two sessions; most January Term courses are not taught for grades
Clubs, teams and journals
We have “nearly 150 student clubs and organizations,” and our residence halls close about once a month for holidays and extended weekends.
- FIRST Robotics Competition Team 900, the Zebracorns, since 2002
- NCSSM Rocketry, with American Rocketry Challenge and high-power rocketry teams
- Twenty-one varsity sports, with men’s varsity volleyball joining in spring 2027
- The Stentorian, our monthly student newspaper, and Broad Street Scientific, our student research journal
Ask about academics
Calendar
The months ahead.
These are the dates we have posted for the months ahead, soonest first. Our full academic calendar is on our website, so ask below if you need us to confirm a date or a time before you make plans.
October
November
January 2027
February 2027
Ask about the calendar
Our Story
Igniting innovation, cultivating community.
We are the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, a public, tuition-free residential school for grades 11 and 12 at 1219 Broad Street in Durham, with a second residential campus in Morganton. The General Assembly established us in 1978, and we opened in 1980 with “150 high school juniors” on the grounds of the former Watts Hospital. Our mission statement reads, “We inspire talented young North Carolinians to pursue studies in science, technology, engineering, and math.” Since 2007 we have been the 17th constituent institution of the University of North Carolina System, and our Durham campus held its 45th commencement on May 22, 2026, and our Morganton campus its third on May 21, 2026.
Leadership and contacts
Todd Roberts
Our chancellor, who has led us since 2010. You can reach us through the Durham campus line, 919-416-2600, or the Morganton campus line, 828-347-9100.
Allison Danell
Our provost, who joined us on August 3, 2026 to lead our academic programmes.
Kevin Baxter
Our leader on the Morganton campus, at 901 Burkemont Avenue in Morganton; the campus line is 828-347-9100.
Garrett Love
Our dean for engineering and computer science, and the contact for NCSSM Rocketry.
Taylor Gibson
Our dean for data science, whose programme says it will reach over 1,400 students at the Durham and Morganton campuses.
Ayesha Yousafzai
Our director for campus health and safety. “The 24/7 presence of staff security officers and off-duty police keep campus safe,” and each campus has a Student Health Clinic.
Ask about our story
Give
Annual giving, endowments and mentoring.
The ways we know to help are below; ask us if you want to give in another way. Our foundation is a 501(c)(3) partner of the school.
Annual giving
Annual gifts “provide the flexible, unrestricted support that touches every department at NCSSM,” and recurring monthly gifts are a way to sustain our mission. Katie Seiz, Director of Annual Giving, is at 919-416-2633 or katie.seiz@ncssm.edu.
Endowments and planned gifts
“Endowments provide a permanent, self-sustaining source of funding through annual earnings.” Planned gifts range from real estate to will bequests, and Transformative Giving Circles invite members to make a commitment of leadership, engagement and personal resources.
Stock, donor-advised funds and other gifts
We accept gifts of stocks and bonds, donor-advised funds, qualified charitable contributions from IRAs for donors aged 70 ½ or older, employer matching gifts, cryptocurrency through Coinbase, and in-kind gifts of materials and services, which are tax-deductible. Checks go to NCSSM Foundation, P.O. Box 2733, Durham, NC 27715-2733.
Volunteer as a mentor
Our Mentorship program depends on “over 200 volunteer mentors per year,” who host our students for summer and academic-year research placements. Our get-involved pages describe how to volunteer.
Ask about giving
News
What’s happening on our campuses.
Recent posts from our news page, newest first.
Our school counselors are a lighthouse for students
Our counseling department takes a holistic approach to preparing students for college from the day they arrive. Counselors help students choose courses and reach out to them as well as meeting when asked, and approximately 50 public and private universities from across the country came to NCSSM-Durham for our college fair.
Niche ranks us the top public high school again
For the fourth time in the last five years, we have topped Niche.com’s annual list of the 20,655 high schools it evaluates. We hold that standard across two residential campuses 168 miles apart.
The junior class settles in
“481 juniors are now living and learning at NCSSM-Durham or NCSSM-Morganton.” They come from 217 high schools across North Carolina, and 66 of the state’s 100 counties are represented in our Residential program.
Men’s varsity volleyball arrives
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association has made men’s volleyball a varsity sport. Tryouts in Durham for the spring 2027 season are set for February 15, with an anticipated first game sometime in March.
A new Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Programs
Allison Danell joined us on August 3 as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Programs.
Nutanix and NCSSM partner to expand computer science access
A $250,000 corporate gift, matched by state dollars for a total investment of $500,000, creates the Nutanix Endowed Professor of Computer Science at NCSSM. The funding supports statewide teacher training and free curriculum, with NCSSM Connect bringing honors and AP-level courses to rural schools.
Ask about the news
For You
Schools we’ve independently assessed and think are worth comparing against this one. View all schools
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics hasn’t added its side of this page.
The independent STEM assessment is built from public sources and runs regardless. The school’s own pages — academics, calendar, story, giving and news — are still empty.
Looking for a school?
There’s nothing here for you yet. Schools we’ve assessed that match what you’ve asked about this session are in For You.
Are you from North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics?
This review is already live, and the assessment publishes from public sources whether or not you take part. Claiming it is how your own account appears beside ours.
Free, and no account needed — we follow up with the contact details you leave.