Gilmer High School
Ellijay · GA · Gilmer County · Public
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Most similar nearby schools
Pickens County High School → Murray County High School → Fannin County High School → North Murray High School → Sonoraville High School → Southeast Whitfield County High School → Calhoun High School → Lumpkin County High School →📋 At a glance
- 📚 16 AP courses offered — Elite
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🔢 2 calculus classes · 3 physics · 10 chemistry
- 🎓 AP rigor: 90th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: 76th percentile by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 90% (Bottom 49% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Gilmer High School compares for families
Standout academic depth by national standards.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor in the top 10% nationally with 16 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyGA sits right at the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math — local school quality will set your kid apart.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Pickens County High School, Murray County High School, Fannin County High School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Elite — exceptional AP + advanced course breadth
90th percentile nationally
✅ Gifted/talented program
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).
SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-2176th percentile by test-taker volume
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.
🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts
What % of students graduate on time?
Bottom 49% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate
Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.
👩🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC
Teacher experience & reliability
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
Title I Schoolwide eligible
≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program
40-74% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The district can use Title I funds across the whole school under federal Schoolwide Program rules.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.
🏛️ Your state's public flagship
University of Georgia
The in-state tuition gap is the flagship's biggest draw — most in-state families pay far less than the out-of-state sticker. Average net price after aid runs about $13,936/yr. Admission odds depend on your student's GPA and test scores, not which high school they attend.
Source: IPEDS admissions, tuition & enrollment + College Scorecard net price. Flagship = the state's primary public research university.
💰 Pay for college in Georgia
Georgia's public scholarships
Georgia's lottery-funded HOPE and Zell Miller scholarships are pure merit — no income limit. GPAs are recalculated by the state (GSFC) on core academic courses only.
Covers a set share of public-college tuition for Georgia grads with a 3.0+ core GPA — no test score or income limit. (Requires 4 rigor credits; maintain a 3.0 in college.)
Official program details ↗Top tier: full public-college tuition for a 3.7 GPA plus a single-sitting SAT 1200 / ACT 25. Named valedictorians and salutatorians qualify at a 3.0 with no test. (The 3.0 val/sal path needs no test score; 3.3 is the separate in-college maintenance GPA.)
Official program details ↗Eligibility rules change yearly — confirm with the official program before relying on it. Amounts are recent published figures; awards cover tuition/fees, not housing or books unless noted. Verified 2026-06-14.
Chronic absenteeism
Why this matters to enrollment: Chronic absence is the most reliable early indicator that a student will leave a school — either by transferring out, dropping out, or matriculating to a charter or private alternative. At this level, today's absentees become next year's enrollment loss and the year-after's revenue loss. For school leaders: an Enrollment Trend Audit traces this dynamic forward →
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.
Counselor capacity
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.
Enrollment trend & projection
Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).
If the recent trend holds…
At its recent rate of +0.7%/year, projecting from 2024's 1,216 students:
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue upside
At $15,670 per student in district revenue, the 45 students projected to be gained by 2029 represent ≈ $705,150/year in additional funding.
District total revenue ÷ enrollment, NCES F-33. Public funding largely follows enrollment, so a shrinking class is a recurring budget hit.
Most similar nearby high schools
The schools most like this one — same type, blended on distance and size — and where their enrollment is heading. These are the schools families here weigh against each other.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pickens County High School Jasper |
Public | 16.9 | 1,219 | -3.3% |
| Murray County High School Chatsworth |
Public | 17.6 | 1,068 | +0.8% |
| Fannin County High School Blue Ridge |
Public | 15.5 | 824 | -7.7% |
| North Murray High School Chatsworth |
Public | 19.7 | 961 | -3.6% |
| Sonoraville High School Calhoun |
Public | 24.5 | 1,094 | -5.0% |
| Southeast Whitfield County High School Dalton |
Public | 25.2 | 1,453 | -0.3% |
| Calhoun High School Calhoun |
Public | 28.7 | 1,282 | +2.7% |
| Lumpkin County High School Dahlonega |
Public | 29.6 | 1,125 | -0.4% |