Upper Saint Clair High School

1825 McLaughlin Run Rd

School District

Upper Saint Clair
Grade

9-12
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:14
Type

public

School Map for Upper Saint Clair 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 October 25, 2024

This school is fantastic! The teachers and staff are very nice and they are motivated to do anything that would help the students to do their best. The principal is always smiling and he is fantastic. The school has good resources for both teachers and students. They have so many clubs for students and athletics department is super. The school looks like a college! You won’t regret sending your children to this school at all. One of the best schools in PA!
Submitted by parent on November 09, 2022

they don’t have anything together at all
Submitted by other on April 29, 2019

I had teachers who would come to class on the day of a test only to tell us that they FORGOT to create a test. Of course this is only after I studied days before and was ready for the test. One teacher showed up to class 5-10 minutes late on a near daily basis. Freshman year, I had a teacher that gave us authors test on a book we did not have! Therefore, we had questions on the test that the teacher did not cover nor were they covered in our textbook. I think it is absurdly lazy to give the students authors test to begin with. The class average one particular quarter was just 64%. Pathetic! In my senior year, I had a teacher for one semester that was determined to give me a B. In the first quarter of the class I received an A with ease. The second quarter each and every paper I would turn in would come back with the most ridiculously amount of points taken off. These would not be for grammar or spelling errors but some absurd statement that I had never seen before. Toward the end the class we were told to write up a review of a movie we recently saw. She knocked off 15% for the one reason that I gave too much of the movie away. I can assure you that I did not give away even the first 15 minutes of the film. At the end of the day, I was given a B for the semester. This was not a unique example. Nearly, every paper I wrote up in the second quarter was knocked out, not for spelling or grammar issues but for nonsensical items. The teachers also massively favored females. If you all think this is an absurd notion, you wont be laughing if your son is distraught of their grades, become zoned out because they did A work on an assignment but got a B instead, or is obtaining less in a college scholarship of which you will be footing the bill for. I actually had teachers confirm to the entire class that they do in fact favor the girls. Imagine how that sounds to a boy. From kindergarten till the 6th grade I had zero male teachers. Throughout school the general viewpoint among the boys was that they were treated far inferior compared to the girls. Finally, I also had numerous teachers that gave out each student’s grade to the entire class. Yeah, that’s real professional.
Submitted by other on October 08, 2015

I am an alumni of USCHS, and since then I have gone on to received my Doctoral degree in Music. Having extensive experience at the collegiate level, I can tell you without a doubt that USCHS prepares kids for college better than almost any other public school. Also I was definitely not a jock or cheerleader, but I never felt that the teachers didn't care. In fact I still remain in touch with quite a few of my teachers, even though I graduated almost 15 years ago. Of course it's affluent so you will have the snobby cliches, but trust me there are enough students that you will find friends no matter what your interests. Is any school perfect? Of course not, but overall USC really does care and does a wonderful jobs preparing students for the future. When I attended quite a few of my teachers had doctoral degrees in their field. I thought this was normal until I went to college and learned that it's usually only at the collegiate level that you have teachers with a doctorate. If teachers whom are that educated are choosing to teach at USC. instead of the collegiate level, that should tell you something about the school and district.
Submitted by student on February 18, 2013

If you have a gifted student, do NOT send them to baldwin/bethel/whatever. The experience there will not be the same. While the "regular" classes are absolutely comparable to what you'll find in Baldwin/Bethel, Upper St. Clair is distinguishable by the quality of their honors and AP classes. We had lots of them. And that's what gifted kids are gonna take. These gifted kids are getting amazing deals on colleges are consistently going to top tiers, so go to upper st clair. come one.
Submitted by student on June 07, 2012

I can't name one teacher that was not prone to favoritism. It was downright annoying every single day coming to school knowing I had to face my snobby classmates. It is NOT a friendly atmosphere whatsoever.. I am so glad I go to a different school now because it reassured me the fact that it wasn't me that was the problem, it was the school.
Submitted by other on March 07, 2012

I am a former student. I attended Upper St. Clair (USC) for grades 9 and 10. My father was then transferred to Canada. I would rate the school experience at USC as poor in comparison. Teacher quality poor, academic quality dismal. I found that there was a much greater focus on extra curricular activities over academic ones. While the school facilities were better than the Canadian ones, the teacher quality and involvement was far superior in Canada. I currently live in California. You can see why the American education system is so poor compared to other countries. The fact that a lousy school like USC can get such a high rating shows the problems with education in the USA. When it came to math, geography, history, English, writing etc. The Canadian school far out matched USC. I had to work much harder to succeed there, yet my experience was much more fulfilling. I found the teachers and the administration completely out of touch and in some case quite unprofessional. The classes too large, and disorganized. In the Canadian school you were expected to work more on your own but were offered more guidance and were expected to act more respectful.
Submitted by parent on January 14, 2012

One parent writes "the school is very highly regarded nationally"; I would be curious to know where that information came from ~ the realtor? This district, or state has a "blue ribbon" award program in place, that basically requires administration to pull a couple of teachers from a school each year to fill out the paperwork, so that the school qualifies for an award. Realtors love it, helps them sell properties in the area. I once asked administration if they ever followed up their AP students to see how many had placed out of their college classes. They had not, and secondly, they also did not acknowledge that most of their students did not even take the exams. According to the students they felt they were not adequately prepared.
Submitted by student on October 23, 2006

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