Millburn Sr High School

462 MILLBURN AVE

School District

Millburn Township
Grade

9-12
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:10
Type

public

School Map for Millburn Township School District

GreatSchools Rating

The school rating calculation is based on four ratings: the Student Progress Rating or Academic Progress Rating, College Readiness Rating, Equity Rating, and Test Score Rating each designed to show different facets of school success. Learn more about GreatSchools Ratings

Reviews

Submitted by parent on September 06, 2024

Great school in an excellent community. We have enjoyed our time here.Kids are always encouraged to leant and to participate.
Submitted by parent on March 18, 2024

The reviews are accurate. The school has a sink or swim attitude and they focus on grading and stratifying the children rather than teaching them. There are some good teachers, but most of them seem to be punching the clock. Students will be well-prepared for college workloads, but they will not learn to love learning, which is a real shame. The classes are uninspiring and many teachers use Google Classroom differently, so half the battle is trying to locate assignments and each teacher's idiosyncrasies. Many classes do not use textbooks, but notes and clippings that the teachers put together, so the classroom experience becomes more of a memorization exercise versus understanding the material. Some children do well in this environment if they are willing to study 5 hours a day after school and memorize everything. However, do not send your children here if you want to inspire them to learn, be curious and gain confidence in their abilities. They start stratifying the winners from the losers in 8th grade, and to have winners, there have to be losers. And the teachers will let the losers slide, with no efforts to help them get to a better place. And I will let you in on a big secret. It is better to go to a less competitive school and get better grades than attend a tough school and get average grades in terms of college acceptance. The guidance counselors here really focus on the top students and leave all the rest to find their way. Again, there are some good people at this school that care, but they can only do so much. And yes, there appears to be allot of alcohol and drug usage to cope with the stress of MHS.
Submitted by student on July 14, 2023

I hate it here. I truly think that although this school prepares a student well for college, it does it at the expense of the student's mental health. People don't go here to learn. They go here to get good grades, compete with their classmates (and even friends), and destroy their childhood. Before I came here, I really enjoyed learning and school. Now, this school is taking a toll on my mental health and killing my desire for knowledge.
Submitted by parent on August 10, 2022

This school is extremely hard - much more than the typical "rigorous or stressful" life that most people write. Classes here are extremely hard - about a range of 30-60 people dropped out of Accelerated Algebra 2, and there are many more courses like this. Many teachers don't teach well, or guidance counselors either. A few would even use their phones during class, give bad review material, do not give partial credit, and then wonder why their students did horribly. Rather than letting their students enjoy the high school life, there is a consistent toxic competitive environment, with many tests each week. In addition, the school often gatekeeps students from taking the AP classes they want to learn from because they want better students to artificially inflate AP scores to improve the school's rankings. Most high school sports also require their athletes to participate every day after school for two hours, which reduces the amount of time they have for academics social lives. There is also not much protection against bullying, many students even smoke or get drunk, especially at the football games. Grades are often low even though students work hard, and students are constantly tired, often staying up to around 2 AM or pulling all-nighters. If you were considering moving to this district because it is a "good school" and to get into a "good college", do not. Your child's mental health will struggle in this toxic, competitive, extremely hard environment.
Submitted by teacher on February 22, 2022

I am a teacher in Millburn. The complaints by parents and students are generally accurate. The school does ask students to work hard. Very hard. Generally, students cope with the stress, but some have trouble with it. Some students are anxious and some resort to cheating. However, that happens in other school districts. I've seen it. If parents want a different school district, they can demand change. They can speak up at board of education meetings and vote for candidates in school board elections who want to reduce the workload. The curriculum that I am mandated to cover each year is so specific and demanding that my students can just finish it, if we keep a brisk pace all year. I would be happy to teach fewer topics and to spend more time on each topic and do more enriching activities. There is very little time for that. What students (and parents) are experiencing is what the parents asked for. It's that simple. On the other hand, these parents are some of the most economically successful people in the country. They didn't get that way by sitting on their hands. The parents value hard work and they want their children to work hard. In the movies, when the kid works hard, they play a song in the background and show a montage of activities. In real life, hard work is ... hard. It hurts. I am constantly impressed by the hard work and dedication of my students. Everyone, even low performing students, works here. I have worked in other districts before. It's different here. When people complain about the school not teaching character, I assume they mean that there is little time to sit back and philosophize about right and wrong. On the other hand, students that attend Millburn schools generally learn the hard lesson that life is not always easy but they can succeed if they work hard. That is a type of character building. Isn't it?
Submitted by other on November 17, 2020

This is a terrible school for cultivation of character, stressed students way too much, and over prepares students for college. If you are fine with having your child be highstrung all the time because they are taking 4 AP classes, 3 clubs, and maybe a sport, plus trying to socialize.
Submitted by parent on September 06, 2020

Overall, it was a lackluster experience. Supposed to be an excellent school, but instead we felt the excellence must be somewhere else - not in supporting or delivering quality education to students with disabilities. Not a good array of options for electives. Unless you are a pushy parent or kid, you don't always get what you need.
Submitted by other on October 30, 2015

If I could, I would give MHS zero stars. MHS is not a place to learn and grow, but an institution that only cares and caters to the overachieving and overprivileged. I will state that the one good thing about going to MHS is that it taught me the valuable lesson of learning how to embrace individuality and to not be anything like most of the kids I went to school with.
Submitted by parent on June 30, 2015

Think school is great for the over-achievers, and those who have fallen behind, but does not deal well with those in the middle. Every child coming out of Millburn High wants to go Ivy League. Classes are challenging, and thought-provoking. Plenty of extra-curricular activities available. Many students here grow up with a sense of entitlement and that carries over to the class rooms.
Submitted by parent on February 25, 2014

It is a school full of over achievers. I had one child attend and the stress and the pressures these kids indure is jusr ridiculous. When it came time for my other child to attend high school we moved out of the district. While a good education is important not at the risk of a child missing out on the fun part of high school as well. The workload left absolutely no time for any extra curricular activities ir clubs. They have their whole lives tk work hard and suffer pressure they don't need it in high school.
Submitted by other on September 11, 2013

This place is lots of fun, and I think I got an edumacation while I was at it.
Submitted by student on July 25, 2013

The academic pressure in this school is outrageous. While all the kids who want to can get an education that is above average, what does that matter when your skills are dwarfed by the 100 other people in your class who are smarter. Getting into college is harder. The amount of work every night for an above average student is ridiculous compared to the amount of homework and extra work at other schools. I would not send my child here in the future because while high school is about learning it is also supposed to be about fun and this school sucks the fun out of high school, making it an unhealthily stressful environment where kids cannot have the best opportunity to succeed, as opposed to other schools where the best students can get the education wanted while the students who are not as good have less work and more time to enjoy high school.