The Early College at Guilford (ECG) is ranked as the top public high school in North Carolina[citation needed].

[6] The school was originally located in the basement of the Frank Science building but moved to modular classrooms in the fall of 2004.

[7] The first principal of ECG, Tony Lamair Burks II, provided students with the opportunity to control what happened with their education.

He organized ECG to align with ECGs original mission statement: “To graduate confident, ethically responsible lifelong learners who are prepared to succeed in higher education and in the changing world beyond.” [8] He noted that the Early College program “exposes the students to problem solving that can ease the transition into college.

They will already know how to work through situations like approaching a professor or dealing with group sessions where one person decides not to do their work.” [9] The success of ECG paved the way for an expansion of early college programs in North Carolina.

The state passed the Innovative Education Initiatives Act, in 2003, which provided the necessary start-up funds to cover the cost of college tuition, waivers for seat time and changes to the academic calendar.

The Early College at Guilford uses a rolling admissions process, which means more offers are sent out as seats are declined.

Often, the number of AP Classes taken as underclassmen allows students to register as sophomores and juniors at Guilford College.

Juniors and seniors take Guilford College classes, which count towards their remaining high school credits, and can often be transferred to other educational institutions.

[13] In 2022, the average SAT score was 1468 of 1600, the highest of all North Carolina public high schools[citation needed].

[16] [17] [18] Newsweek ranked the Early College at Guilford 7th on its annual list of the top 500 STEM High Schools in 2020.

[21] The Early College at Guilford has about one-fourth of its students each year named as semi-finalists for the National Merit Scholarship.

Competition clubs include Battle of the Books, Chess, Code, Economic Challenge, National History Day, Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA), Math, Mock Trial, Model UN, Quiz Bowl, one FIRST Robotics Competition and four FIRST Tech Challenge teams (under the umbrella of ECG Robotics, Inc,[26] and Science Olympiad.

Service clubs include ECG Active, Environmental, Interact, Red Cross, Campus Life and Student Human Relations Coalition.

Interest clubs include Data Analytics and Cybersecurity, International, Mental Health Advocacy, Publishing and Theater.

[28] In 2023, ECG won the Joe Childers Cup for small high schools for the third year in a row.

In 2022, ECG not only claimed the Joe Childers Cup for small high schools but was also announced as the state champion for Quiz Bowl, National History Day, The Twelve, and The Economics Challenge.

National History Day: First place state winners in the Senior individual website category.

In 2018, the team received the Inspire Award at the state competition and at Worlds was the second pick of the second seeded alliance in the Franklin Division.