The school was originally built to hold 1,200 students, and overcrowding necessitated the use of modular classrooms.

[citation needed] The New Brunswick High School Zebras[2] compete in the Greater Middlesex Conference (GMC), which is comprised of public and private high schools in the Middlesex County area and operates under the supervision of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).

[14] The football team competes in Division 5D of the Big Central Football Conference, which includes 60 public and private high schools in Hunterdon, Middlesex, Somerset, Union and Warren counties, which are broken down into 10 divisions by size and location.

[16] Interscholastic athletic programs offered by NBHS include football, baseball, basketball, softball, soccer, cross country, tennis, golf, bowling, track and field, volleyball, and wrestling.

[17] The 1930 team won the Class A (since reclassified as Group IV) title with a 26–18 win against Union Hill in the championship game played in front of a crowd of 5,000 at the 144th Regiment Armory in Elizabeth.

[19] The boys cross country running team won the Group IV state championship in 1958.

[21] The team finished the season with a 12–0 record after winning the Central Jersey Group IV state sectional title by a 21–14 score against Long Branch High School in the championship game; the 2003 team earned consideration from the Courier News as one of "the best in GMC history".

There are clubs devoted to languages and cultures, academic fields, sports, fitness, music, art, computers, and other interests and skills.

Student organizations include chapters of the National Honor Society, the Key Club, and the International Thespian Society, as well as a student council, a school newspaper, and groups that design the school's yearbook and Spectrum Literary & Art Magazine.

NBHS offers courses and clubs focusing on various aspects of theatre arts, including music and acting.

[23] Since then, NBHS has put together productions of such shows as A Chorus Line, Grease, Seussical the Musical, Smokey Joe's Cafe, The Wiz, High School Musical, Footloose, Two By Two, Little Shop of Horrors, The Apple Tree, In the Heights, They're Playing Our Song, Putting It Together, Hello, Dolly!, The Fantasticks, Once Upon A Mattress, The Little Mermaid and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.