Prospective students must apply to UHS with at least intermediate-level proficiency in instrumental or vocal music. The school accepts approximately 130 new freshmen per year by lottery from its pool of applicants. It is possible to transfer to the school as a junior, but this requires taking the first-year Latin and musicianship courses in summer school or acquiring some exemptions from the administration.
Curriculum
The UHS curriculum offers students a college-prep course of study. In addition to typical high school courses in math, science, English, social sciences, and PE, students are also required to study two years of Latin and four years of musicianship, which entails musicology, music theory, audiation, and musical analysis. Students are required to participate in music performance classes every semester, either playing an instrument or participating in choir. Because of its location on the CSUF campus, students are required to take selected university courses for dual credit beginning in the sophomore year. These include world history, science, and foreign language. Elective courses may include selected university classes, along with an array of short courses in subjects such as the arts, sciences, theater, literature, culture, competitive teams, athletics, and community service.
Extracurricular activities
Academic teams include Academic Decathlon, Science Olympiad, Mock Trial, and Speech and Debate. The school is the ten-time champions in the Small School United States Academic Decathlon Online National Competition University High School also won the Fresno County Academic Decathlon in 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 making UHS one of only 3 schools to have ever won consecutive Fresno County Championships. UHS fields two teams each year in Fresno County Science Olympiad and has had one or both teams qualify for Nor-Cal state competition every year since 2007.
Permanent Campus
The school opened in fall 2000 in temporary facilities on the campus of California State University, Fresno. In October 2009, construction began on a brand new facility for University High School, designed to replace the complex of portables that had held students for the previous nine years. The new building, which opened in November 2010, contains 11 new classrooms, four science labs, three music rooms, and a Mac-based computer lab. The building is split into three wings: the leftmost administration wing, the center classroom wing, and the rightmost music wing. Every classroom is fitted with state-of-the-art tools to enhance the learning process such as interactive whiteboards and Steelcase desk chairs that offer reclination. All of the music rooms are acoustically engineered for the types of ensembles performing in them. The building also contains a fitness center, which the school won as a result of their achievement in the Governor's fitness challenge. On November 16, 2010, classes were cancelled at the school, and students and faculty all helped to move from the old portables, to the new facility. The building is dedicated to the late Dean Luis Costa, a former Fresno State Dean of Arts and Humanities who played a major role in founding the school in 2000, and President John Welty, the president of Fresno State at the time of the high school's opening and during the entire building process. The new building was designed by renowned architect, Arthur Erickson, who had previously designed Fresno City Hall.
Awards
University High School is recognized as a Gold Medal School and was ranked as the 42nd best public high school in the United States by US World and News Report.
