Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST), Virginia was last week ranked by the US News & World Report as the best high school in America for the year 2008.

It is the second consecutive year the school was named as the top high school in the US, beating more than 21,000 (21,069) other public schools in 48 states in America.

Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson High School, or more often referred as ‘TJ’, is a publicly funded school and started its selective admission program in 1985 by accepting students based on some strict criteria including admission test results, essay scores, teachers’ recommendations, personal statement and their prior academic achievements.

The school offers wide range of academic courses and pay particular attention to science related programs including chemistry, DNA science, marine biology, quantum mechanics, neurology, robotics, microelectronics, astronomy and oceanography.

More than 30% of the students in TJ’s are made up of students of Asian origin.

Other top high schools in America apart from TJ include Oxford Academy (California), Pacific Collegiate Charter (California), High Technology High School (New Jersey), Design and Architectural Senior High (Florida), International Academy (Michigan), IB School at BHS (Florida) and Preuss School UCSD (California).