Established 1997 Phone +1 814-874-6300 Motto Pride, Honor, Respect Lowest grade Ninth grade | Principal James Vieira Founded 1997 Number of students 900 | |
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Type Public, college-preparatory magnet school Address 2825 State St, Erie, PA 16508, USA Similar Strong Vincent High Sch, Cathedral Prep School, Irving Elementary School, Burton Elementary School, Mercyhurst Preparato School | ||
Northwest pennsylvania collegiate academy 2016 commencement ceremony
The Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy (abbreviated NPCA), or just Collegiate Academy or Academy High School, is located in midtown Erie, Pennsylvania. The school is housed in the former Academy High School building; that school merged with Central Tech High School in September 1992. The school boasts a 100% college acceptance rate among recent graduates.
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Northwest pennsylvania collegiate academy art show at blasco library
Admission requirements
Students from within the district are not required to pay tuition. Home districts paid the $3100 tuition cost for a set number of out-of-district students up until the 2010-2011 school year. Previous to the 2010-2011 school year, any out-of-district student who met the acceptance criteria, but could not be accepted because of the home district cap on the number of students it would pay to attend, could elect to pay the tuition out-of-pocket.
About 180 of the school's 861 students came from outside of the Erie school district for the 2010-2011 school year. Beginning with the 2011-2012 school year, home districts stopped paying the tuition costs and providing transportation. Currently enrolled out-of-district students for the 2011-2012 year paid a tuition of $3400 and incoming freshmen paid $4200. This resulted in many students returning to their home schools. In the 2012-2013 school year, the tuition cost for out-of-district freshmen increased to $5000. Collegiate Academy has about 225 openings for freshmen each year. There were 195 incoming freshmen for the Class of 2016. The admission standards were lowered after the 2012-2013 school year by lowering the requirement for a national standardized test scores at the 75th percentile or greater to a 50th percentile or greater and the number of teacher recommendations was lowered from two to one.
Academic competitions
Collegiate Academy has an impressive record of success in its involvement with the Academic Sports League. This is an extracurricular activity that allows students to compete in academic subject areas such as music, art, language, literature, math, and science. Over the last three years, Academic Sports League students have received more than two million dollars in scholarships.
Collegiate Academy's participation in the Academic Sports League has garnered national recognition through the United States Academic Decathlon. NPCA won its division (Division III) in the 2005 and 2009 national competitions and seventh overall in 2009. NPCA finished in third place in its division as well as ninth overall in 2008 and 2014.
In 2015 the engineering students at Collegiate Academy won one of five national prizes in the National Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Contest. The contest required students to develop stem-driven projects that would benefit their own communities. Collegiate Academy's Vertical Veggies Project sought to feed families in urban settings. The school's grand prize was $120,000 worth of Samsung products.
FIRST Robotics: CIA Team 291
Since 2005 Collegiate Academy has fielded a team in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition.
2005 - The team placed fifth at 2005 Pittsburgh Regional and won the Motorola Quality Award for having built the robot with the most rugged and reliable design.
2006 - At the 2006 Pittsburgh Regional the team won the Johnson and Johnson Sportsmanship Award, the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship Award, and the Industrial Safety Award. The team moved up to states at Philadelphia, placed third seed, and won the General Motors Industrial Design Award. The team advanced to the Championships in Atlanta, Georgia. There, the team advanced to the quarter-finals of their division.
2007 - At the 2007 Pittsburgh Regional, the team was the 8th seeded team, and was picked up by the 3rd seeded team. Two weeks later the team traveled to the Buckeye Regional. The team was successful at the Buckeye Regional, ending qualifiers 7-1-0, and gained the #1 seed. For the second year in a row, the team advanced to the Championships in Atlanta, Georgia. They ended 3-4-0 in Atlanta, finishing in the top half of the team's division.
2008 - In the 2008 Pittsburgh Regional, the team was chosen by the #1 seed team, #375, to be in an alliance with Team #2544 from Harbocreek High School. This alliance went undefeated until the finals, where the team lost due to a line penalty in the final round. The team won the Chairman's Award for professionalism and community outreach. During the Great Lakes regional in Ypsilanti, Michigan, the team finished qualifying rounds leading the eighth-seed alliance for the elimination rounds. Although the team lost in quarter-finals, they won the Delphi's Driving Tomorrow's Technology Award. After competing in these two regionals, they traveled to Atlanta to compete for the national Chairman's Award. In the Atlanta Championships, the team finished in the upper half of the Galileo division.