Merced High School

The Merced High School Advanced Placement program is open for any student who wishes to be challenged in the fields of chemistry, English, physics, government, Spanish, biology, calculus, statistics and studio art. The teachers at Merced High School try to ensure that their students work their hardest, which explains the high percentage of students who pass the Advanced Placement examinations with a score of 3, 4, or 5. Merced High School's Advanced Placement exam and test scores have earned it a place among the Top 1300 schools in the United States by Newsweek magazine. The school has also earned a Bronze Award from U.S. News & World Report, having been cited as one of the top 1,800 schools in the United States.

The Merced High Academic Decathlon team took the title of Merced County Champions (10 years in a row 2009-2018) and competed in Sacramento in March 2015, coming in 51st place in the state of California.[2]

The school has the Newcomer Program for newly arrived immigrants. As of February 2006, 80 students from Southeast Asia were a part of the program. Many of them were refugees from the Thamkabok refugee camp in Thailand. Many had never had formal education before, did not know how to use writing utensils, and did not know how to write their own names.[3]

As of 2006 the school has an Asian Club, which has over 100 members. It is one of the largest groups at Merced High School. The Asian Club takes end of the year school trips and holds fundraising and social events.[3]

Merced High School produced the 2015-2016 Gatorade National Softball Player of the Year. Madilyn Nickles received this award as the top high school softball player in America.[4]

As of 2017, the Merced High boys' swimming team has won nine straight Central California Conference championships.[5]

Merced High School has won the Central California Conference for three straight seasons in football (2014, 2015, and 2016).[6]

By January 1983, Merced High School North Campus had suddenly received over 200 Hmong refugee students, with almost all of them in English as a second language (ESL) programs. Between the northern hemisphere spring of 1982 and January 1983 the school doubled the size of its ESL program. A former assistant principal at Merced High North said that many of the Hmong students valued education and had almost perfect school attendance.[7]

• Margaret Dingeldein – member of the US Women's Olympic Waterpolo team during the 2004 Summer Olympics
• Marvin Eastman – mixed martial arts fighter
• Duke Fergerson – former NFL football player for the Seattle Seahawks and the Buffalo Bills
• Jerry Garvin - former MLB baseball player for the Toronto Blue Jays
• Brian Fuentes – MLB baseball player
• Salar Kamangar - CEO of YouTube, and founding member of Google's product team
• Janet Leigh - actress
• Eric A. McAfee - entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and philanthropist
• Tony Slaton – former NFL football player for the Los Angeles Rams and Dallas Cowboys

• Vangay, Jonas. Hmong Parents' Cultural Attitudes and the Sex-Ratio Imbalance of Hmong Merced High School Graduates. Mong Pheng Community Inc., 1989.

• Merced High School