It Depends
Headline capitalization sidesteps the proper-noun question: both words are capitalized in every style. Paste the title into the capitalization checker to see the full result.
The Rule
"High school" works like most institutional terms in English. It's a common noun when it describes a level of education, and it becomes part of a proper noun when it's in an official name.
Think of it like "lake." You swim in a lake (lowercase), but you swim in Lake Michigan (capitalized). Same word, different job. High school describes where teenagers go to learn. Westfield High School is the specific name of a building with a sign out front.
The tricky part is that people write about their own high school experience constantly – in college essays, resumes, LinkedIn profiles – and the instinct is to capitalize it because it feels important. But "importance" isn't a capitalization rule. If you're not naming a specific school, it's lowercase.
Quick Rules
Capitalize when
- Part of a specific school's name: She graduated from Roosevelt High School.
- In a title (title case rules): My High School Experience
- First word of a sentence: High school prepares students for college.
Keep lowercase when
- Referring to the level of education generally: She's a high school student.
- Talking about the experience generally: I went to high school in Texas.
- Used as an adjective: high school diploma, high school football, high school reunion
- No specific school is named: He's been teaching high school English for ten years.
Tip: If you can put a specific name in front of "High School" and it would be the school's official name, capitalize. If not, lowercase.
Examples
✓ Do
- She graduated from Jefferson High School in 2019.
- He's been teaching high school English for ten years.
- My high school was in a small town in Oregon.
- The rivalry between Central High School and Eastside High School is decades old.
✗ Do not
I hated High School.
General reference, not a proper name. Lowercase: I hated high school.
She got her High School Diploma in May.
"High school diploma" is a generic credential, not a proper noun. Lowercase both words.
He teaches at the High School on Oak Street.
Unless that is literally the school's name, it's a generic reference. Lowercase: the high school on Oak Street.
Edge Cases Worth Knowing
These are the situations that trip up resume writers, college essayists, and educators most often.
- "High school" on a resume. Lowercase in descriptions: Graduated from high school in 2018. Capitalize when naming the actual school: Graduated from Lincoln High School, 2018. Resume section headers like "HIGH SCHOOL" are a design choice, not a grammar rule.
- "High-school" as a compound adjective. Some style guides recommend hyphenating when "high school" modifies a noun (high-school teacher). AP style does not hyphenate. Most modern writing skips the hyphen: high school students is widely accepted.
- Middle school, elementary school, junior high. Same rules. Lowercase when general (she's in middle school), capitalize when part of a name (Oakridge Middle School). The pattern is consistent across all school levels.
- "The high school." Even with "the," keep it lowercase when you're not naming a specific school: The high school down the road has a new gym. Capitalize only if "the" is part of the institution's official name (rare).
- College and university. Same pattern. She went to college (lowercase), She went to Boston College (capitalized). "College" on its own is not a proper noun, even when you're clearly talking about a specific school.
Frequently Asked Questions
Writing about your school in a title or heading? Our free Title Case Converter applies the correct capitalization rules for AP, APA, Chicago, and MLA styles.
Open the converter with a prefilled example and adapt it to your headline.
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About Oleh Kovalenko
Oleh Kovalenko develops practical capitalization guidance for editorial and SEO workflows, with a focus on consistent rule application.
