Stuyvesant High School

Founded in 1904 as a trade school for boys, Stuyvesant High School -- or Stuy, as it is affectionately called -- went coed in 1969 and moved from the Lower East Side to its current home in Battery Park City in 1992.

Today, Stuyvesant specializes in mathematics, science and technology, and is counted as one of the best high school's in the nation. Like its specialized brethren, Brooklyn Technical and the Bronx High School of Science, Stuy is open to New York City residents free of charge. The only catch: Getting in is based on how one fares on a competitive exam -- and believe you me, competition can be fierce. In any given year, 20,000 prospective students take the admissions exam, and only 800 are accepted. We're not math geniuses here, but a 4% acceptance rate is pretty darned low.

Not surprisingly, Stuy consistently produces large numbers of National Merit Scholars and Intel Science Talent Search Honors Students, and even boasts four Nobel laureates among its alumni. Fittingly, Stuy nabbed the No. 31 spot on U.S. News & World Report's list of 2009 "Gold Medal" high schools. Our only gripe: why wasn't it higher?

By Tom