29 Jan Top 10 Reasons to Attend SET High
There are many reasons to attend SET High: we let you design your own education, we celebrate when you take risks (even if they fail), and we genuinely believe your pool table skills are just as important as your GPA. Want free college classes during high school? Done. Prefer a principal who actually knows your name? Check. Want a school where D&D club and Art & Friendship club can coexist peacefully? Yep, that too.
Our small, public tuition-free charter high school in San Diego doesn’t just prepare students for college and career, we prepare you for life. With a 12:1 student-teacher ratio, passionate educators who know and listen to you, a community that celebrates innovation without cliques, we’re creating tomorrow’s makers, business leaders, and innovators.
How far will you go? Here are 10 reasons SET High is a great fit.
1. Standards-Based Requirements + Personal Passions + No Academic Limit
Guiding you as you find and cultivate your individual passions is one of our favorite things we do as a school. Our SET High student-led Passion Projects exist to ignite a love for learning, while also challenging each student to follow their curiosity into the new and the different. We love big thinkers and daredevil doers, innovative creators and collaborative dream chasers. We’re here to cheer, champion and safely support you whether it’s a class on campus or with our dual enrollment partner, Mesa College. And we never neglect CA’s standards-based requirements.
2. College (& Life) Readiness
Ready to explore even more than high school classes? You and every SET student has access to curated, quality instruction and deeper dives courtesy honors classes and dual enrollment with Mesa College. What is dual enrollment? Glad you asked. Our students get free college tuition via your flexible scheduling of college courses during the SET school day. And feel free to ask us why our approach is a better option than taking AP classes. Engagement over pressure any day!
3. Teachers and Staff Who Love the Work We Do
Speaking of which, who are we at SET? We are educators and staff who live for student growth alongside academic success. We drive our campus culture of acceptance and compassion, and we intentionally know every individual as you are – an individual. Our small school enables us to share our creativity in our classrooms, which is why we can offer such fun electives…
4. Amazing Classes & Electives
No two days are the same at our WASC-accredited, tuition-free public charter high school in San Diego. And no two classes or electives are either. This semester we offer you yet another amazing array of unique opportunities:
- Mystery & Malice in Gothic Romance
- History Through Media: Video Games
- History: Conspiracy & Propaganda
- Green Engineering
- BioTech
- Boxing
- Digital Art
- Guitar
- Personal Finance
- Leadership SET Style
- Project You!
- The Wisdom of Star Wars
5. Risk Takers Rejoice
Our students aren’t the only risk takers at SET High. We lead by example. Use AI in class? Let’s try it…with guardrails firmly in place. Trust that students like you can keep their phones out of sight during the school day? We’re testing it out…and it’s working! Explain why attendance matters and use the money we get for it to pay for your student interests? Sure, sometimes ideas fail but that’s okay (actually better than okay)– it’s all part of the beautiful and sometimes messy world of learning.
6. Block Scheduling
Our 4×4 modified block schedule means that you have a full year of material, five classes at a time, each semester. These longer blocks of time mimic college class schedules and allow for project work in class together. We call our 4×4 block schedule “modified” because we recognize that math needs to be taken all year in order to prevent learning loss. Come visit us and see for yourself how our block schedule works!
7. California Distinguished High School
We are a twice-awarded California Distinguished High School. We value this recognition as a measure of our dedication to our high school students, to the honor it is to serve our families and community, and as a reminder of how our choices impact the next generation. We open our doors each morning knowing we can’t wait to engage with you. Our classrooms hum. Our staff works hard. And we grow together – learning alongside you and every motivated young mind in our midst. Students drive all of our decisions, and many of those decisions come directly from our students which is just the way we want it!
8. What is High School Without Clubs & Sports?
SET High is a proud member of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF). We have room on our teams to play and we even won the Girls Basketball championship last year! You can play basketball, volleyball, flag football, or run track & field and cross country.
You’re also invited to join a variety of clubs like Film Production, D&D, Community Service, Art and Friendship, Battle Bots, Magic the Gathering, Black Student Union, Peer Tutoring, ASB, Chess & Board Games, Yearbook, SET Senate, MECHA, Bible Study, and Wellnes.
9. Year-Round Enrollment
We enroll students like you year round and help everyone land here with care and compassion. We start the enrollment process with a tour or shadow days. We want you and other potential students and families to see our close-knit, small public high school up close and personal and for our students to share with you all their day-to-day favorites about our school.
10. Community is #1 (not #10)
Learning doesn’t happen alone. We pride ourselves on our accepting, active high school community. We are eager for you to see and feel how we lean on each other, cheer for each other, and have fun together. SET High is much more than a school building during a few years of your teenage journey. We partner with you as you grow, evolve, dive deep and build your best self. We come together in service to our local community too- we host community-driven service days where we might spruce up a park, clean-up a beach, or beautify our own campus!
SET High is enrolling now– come shadow for a day and see us for yourself!
About SET High
SET High offers each student individual attention from multi-talented, highly qualified teachers. Students at our twice-awarded California Distinguished School build a healthy camaraderie with classmates inside an intellectually rigorous environment that brings out their talents and personality, helping them develop their individual character and direction in life. With a wide variety of electives, flexible scheduling, dual enrollment college classes and more — our students regularly exceed their academic and personal expectations. Enroll now. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Find us at www.sethigh.org.