The Early College at Guilford (ECG) is an early entrance high school located in Greensboro, North Carolina. The school was started in 2002 as a partnership between Guilford College and Guilford County Schools as the first early college high school in North Carolina, allowing students to graduate with a high school diploma and up to two years of college credit from Guilford College.

The cost of tuition for all Guilford College courses is covered by both Guilford County Schools and the state of North Carolina via funding through the Innovative Education Initiatives Act.

Early history

The Early College at Guilford, opened in August 2002, was one of the first early colleges in the United States and the first in North Carolina. Representatives from Guilford College met with Terry Grier, the Superintendent of Guilford County Schools, in the winter and spring of 2002 to develop the early college program, which was modeled after the program between Bard College and New York City public schools. At the time, Bruce Stewart, the chairman of the Guilford College board of trustees noted, “If this can be a contribution of this Quaker institution to making sure that talented young people have access to good teaching and resources, I would want to support it enthusiastically.”

The founding class at ECG included 51 ninth graders, 40 tenth graders, 19 eleventh graders and 9 twelfth graders. The school was originally located in the basement of the Frank Science building but moved to modular classrooms in the fall of 2004. The first principal of ECG, Tony Lamair Burks II, provided students with the opportunity to control what happened with their education. He organized ECG to align with ECGs original mission statement: “To graduate confident, ethically responsible lifelong learners who are prepared to succeed in higher education and in the changing world beyond.” He noted that the Early College program “exposes the students to problem solving that can ease the transition into college. They will already know how to work through situations like approaching a professor or dealing with group sessions where one person decides not to do their work.”

The success of ECG paved the way for an expansion of early college programs in North Carolina. The state passed the Innovative Education Initiatives Act, in 2003, which provided the necessary start-up funds to cover the cost of college tuition, waivers for seat time and changes to the academic calendar. Between 2004 and 2010, North Carolina opened more than 70 early college high schools through collaborations between the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, the University of North Carolina system and the North Carolina Community College system.

Admissions criteria

Update as of 03/06/2026:

Per Principal Pete Kashubara,

Students were evaluated using a detailed rubric based on grades, test percentiles, and submitted documents. Only those meeting the highest benchmarks advanced. Most students had a 4.0 GPA and scored above the 98%ile on their Reading and Math assessments.

With 669 applications, the selection process for Round 2 was an extremely competitive process and only the top 96 applicants were invited to Round 2.

It varies each year, however, for the class of 2030, the following was mandated to apply.

98th/99th Percentile on the Grade 7 NC Language Arts End-Of-Grade Test 98th/99th Percentile on the Grade 7 NC Mathematics End-Of-Grade Test AND/OR 98th/99th Percentile on the NC Math 1 End-Of-Course Test 4.0 Unweighted GPA throughout Grades 7 and the first semester of Grade 8 in all Core Classes Current 8th Graders should be enrolled in NC Math 1 or NC Math 2 as well as NC English 1 if offered (Brown Summit Middle School Center for Advanced Academics or The Academy at Lincoln)

This admissions criteria has been in place recently, and prospective students must meet all of the above criteria or at-least an average score of a 98 combined on their 7th grade testing in addition to the GPA requirements and advanced course requirements for a chance at admission.

It varies each year, however for the class of 2029, the following were the typical scores for a student to likely proceed to Round 2

96th Percentile on the Grade 7 NC Language Arts End-Of-Grade Test 96th Percentile on the Grade 7 NC Mathematics End-Of-Grade Test OR 90th Percentile on the NC Math 1 End-Of-Course Test 3.5 Unweighted GPA throughout Grades 7 and the first semester of Grade 8 Current 8th Graders should be enrolled in NC Math 1 or NC Math 2 While not needed to advance to the 2nd Round, most students who advanced had met the criteria listed above.

Admissions process For the classes of 2027 through 2030, students meeting the admissions criteria were required to:

Participate in a facilitated group discussion and/or group project, Participate in a facilitated individual interview session and Q&A session to current ECG students and teachers, Participate in a timed written argumentative essay assessment, and Provide 2 positive or “glowing” core class teacher recommendations from 7th and/or 8th grade After all data is reviewed, students are graded and the top 50 to 52 students are invited to enroll in the Early College at Guilford. The Early College at Guilford uses a rolling admissions process, which means more offers are sent out as seats are declined. The school also has a rising sophomore admissions process.

For the class of 2030, there were approximately 669 applications submitted for the freshman class. This means the school has an approximately 7% acceptance rate.

Course requirements/offerings 9th Grade Freshman Year Required Courses:

Honors NC Math 3 AP Precalculus Pre-AP Biology Honors Economics & Personal Finance Pre-AP English I (if applicable) Pre-AP English II AP World History: Modern Physical Education and Health 1 "Choose-Your-Own Underclassmen Elective"

10th Grade Sophomore Year Required Courses:

AP English Language and Composition AP Environmental Science AP United States History Honors NC/USA Founding Principles & Civics Literacy 1 1-Semester AP Math Course (AP Calculus AB or AP Statistics) (AB always takes precedence as your core class if you choose to take AB/BC + Stats) 3 "Choose-Your-Own Underclassmen Electives"

11th/12th Grade Junior/Senior Required Courses (for both years combined):

College-Level English Course College-Level Chemistry and/or College-Level Physics Course 14 "Choose-Your-Own Upperclassmen Electives" across both years

Choose Your Own Underclassmen Electives Options

AP Macroeconomics (9th + 10th Grade) AP Psychology (10th Grade) AP Statistics (9th + 10th Grade—this counts as an elective for G9 and an elective for G10 if you're not taking this as your primary math course to satisfy the required courses) AP Calculus BC (10th Grade ONLY) (If you're taking AP Calculus AB, you MUST take this elective and will only get to choose one other elective) Creative Writing and/or Yearbook/Journalism (9th + 10th Grade) (both aren't offered every year) Physical Fitness/Sports (10th Grade ONLY) Beginning Weight-training (10th Grade ONLY) Spanish I + Spanish II (9th + 10th Grade) (MUST be taken together and only counts as ONE elective, despite being TWO credits) Honors Spanish III (9th + 10th Grade) (Spanish I + II is a prerequisite) Virtual Foreign Language Course (9th + 10th Grade) (taken online through NCVPS or Edmentum) (includes courses like German, Japanese, and more!) Virtual Speciality Course (9th + 10th Grade) (taken online through NCVPS or Edmentum) (includes courses like veterinary science, NC Math 2, and more!) Virtual Advanced Placement Course (9th + 10th Grade) (taken online through NCVPS or Edmentum) (includes courses like AP Biology, AP Computer Science A, and more!)

Choose Your Own Upperclassmen Electives Options

Refer to the Guilford College Course Catalog (may choose any 4-credit courses)

Academics

Students at the Early College at Guilford follow a rigorous academic schedule throughout all four years. Underclassmen (freshmen and sophomores) take almost all honors, Pre-AP and AP classes required for graduation. Classes are taught on a modified block schedule with holidays that align with Guilford County Schools’ schedule. Most students say that sophomore year is the hardest with a very rigorous schedule. That year, students can take up to 7 AP courses in both semesters, with AP US History, AP Environmental Science, AP English Language and Composition as required courses and electives including AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Psychology, AP Macroeconomics and AP Statistics. Freshmen are required to take the PSAT while sophomores are required to take the PSAT, the Pre-ACT and the March SAT. The AP Exam pass rate in the 2025-2026 school year at the Early College at Guilford was near perfect being 98%. Additionally, their AP participation rate as well as English proficiency was 100%. Lastly, their graduation rate was greater than 95% w

Upperclassmen are dually enrolled in both the Guilford County school system as juniors (and then seniors), and in Guilford College as freshmen (and then sophomores in their second year). Often, the number of AP Classes taken as underclassmen allows students to register as sophomores and juniors at Guilford College. Juniors and seniors take Guilford College classes, which count towards their remaining high school credits, and can often be transferred to other educational institutions. If a student remains at Guilford College after graduating from the Early College, the credits they received for their two final years will transfer towards their undergraduate requirements.

Students are not ranked at ECG in order to foster cooperation and collaboration among students and to allow students to focus on learning material. Additionally, due to the rigorous requirements necessary for admittance, all ECG students are already highly academically competitive and accomplished. Adding this onto the fact that there are only roughly 50 students per grade, providing class ranks are not suitable and efficient; therefore are not there. Note that there is an unofficial class rank placed on the bottom of ECG students’ transcript. This rank is not taken into consideration for colleges and universities and are solely placed for informing the students and do not act like traditional class ranks in high schools. Student GPA is calculated per North Carolina state guidelines on a standard 4 point scale with an extra 0.5 quality point given for honors and Pre-AP courses and an extra 1.0 quality point for AP or college courses.

Academic achievement

In 2025, the average SAT score was 1480 of 1600, the highest of all North Carolina public high schools. In 2022, the average SAT score was 1468 of 1600, again the highest of all North Carolina public high schools.

The Early College at Guilford was ranked #1 nationally by U.S. News & World Report in 2023; that year, it was also placed as the best public school in North Carolina and the #9 STEM school in the United States. In 2022, ECG was placed 35th in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and was ranked as the best public school in North Carolina and the #9 STEM school nationally.

Newsweek ranked the Early College at Guilford 7th on its annual list of the top 500 STEM High Schools in 2020. In 2010, Newsweek listed ECG as one of "The Nation's Most Elite Public High Schools". Newsweek also ranked ECG at 5th on its annual list of America's Best High Schools in 2016, making it the top high school in North Carolina that year.

Each year, about one-fourth of students at The Early College at Guilford are named as semi-finalists for the National Merit Scholarship. Scholarships and awards received by the Class of 2025 totaled more than $17,000,000 and in 2023 totaled nearly $12,000,000.

Demographics