Lick-Wilmerding High School is a private college-preparatory high school located in San Francisco, California, United States.
Contents
History
Lick-Wilmerding High School was founded in January, 1895, as the California School of Mechanical Arts, at Sixteenth and 17th Street and Potrero Avenue and Utah streets, in the Mission District, by a trust from James Lick. George Merrill was hired to manage the school as the first director, and Lick, as the school was informally known, officially opened in January 1895. George Merrill was the director of Lick until 1939, and later also the director of the (Jellis Clute) Wilmerding School of Industrial Arts and the (Miranda) Lux School for Industrial Training for Girls, which were both located immediately adjacent to the Lick campus. In the early 1950s, The California School of Mechanical Arts and the Wilmerding School of Industrial Arts merged to become Lick-Wilmerding High School. The Lux School later closed, and its students joined Lick-Wilmerding. Lick-Wilmerding High School moved to a new campus at 755 Ocean Avenue in 1956.
Academics
Curriculum
Each student must be enrolled in a minimum of six five‐unit courses per semester, regardless of grade level. A total of 30 units per semester are required. Every student is required to complete four semesters of technical arts courses (such as wood, metal, jewelry, or electronics), one semester of performing arts, and two semesters of visual arts. Additionally, students must complete two semesters of health class (BME), one in freshman year and another in sophomore year. As of 2025, freshmen are required to complete one semester of Identity & Belonging.
Technical courses include Metal, Woodworking, Robotics, Electronics and Jewelry. LWHS also has several year-long Architecture courses and an introduction to design course, entitled Contemporary Media and Art that is compulsory for all freshmen.
LWHS' Performing Arts Department has a choir, jazz band, orchestra, and two a cappella vocal ensembles. There is also a dance program comprising four classes: Dance 1, Dance 2, Dance Ensemble, and Dance Company. The Ehrer Theatre (named after Marcel Roy Ehrer, an American of French and Alsatian origin) Program presents plays, musicals, and a festival of original one-act plays written and directed by students. Theatre class offerings include: Acting 1, Acting Intensive, Improv, Playwriting, Stagecraft, and Directing.
Community
As of the 2021–2022 school year, the student body is 9% South Asian, 6% Southeast Asian, 11% African-American, 18% Latino, 29% East Asian, and 62% Caucasian. Overall, 35% of the student body identifies as multiethnic, which explains why the sum of these percentages is more than 100%.
Test scores
In 2014, the Huffington Post reported that students at LWHS had the 8th-highest SAT scores in the nation.
Averages for the class of 2018:
ACT Average Composite 32 (52 takers).
SAT Average Score: 1420 (85 takers)
Biology Ecology: 593 (7)
Biology Molecular: 645 (2)
Chemistry: 689 (25)
Chinese with Listening: 587 (3)
English Literature: 665 (71)
French: 651 (10)
French with Listening: 710 (1)
Korean with Listening: 800 (1)
Math Level I: 599 (13)
Math Level II: 708 (73)
Physics: 672 (9)
Spanish: 685 (6)
Spanish with Listening: 695 (6)
US History: 595 (6)
World History: 640 (1)
In spring of 2018, 38 students took 44 Advanced Placement exams; 93% of the scores 3 or higher
Aim High Program
Aim High was founded in 1986, with 50 students and 12 teachers, on the campus of Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco.
The program has evolved into a collaboration with several educational institutions: Lick-Wilmerding High School, The Urban School of San Francisco, the San Francisco Unified School District and St. Paul's Episcopal School. Additional partners include the Bay Area Teachers Center, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the Exploratorium."
Extracurricular activities
Technical Arts Courses
The following courses were available during the 2021–22 school year.
3D-Printing and Parametric Design
Circuits and Electronics: Analog and Digital
Circuits and Electronics: Device Invention
Community Computing PPP
Design & Technology
Graphics and Game Design (formerly Computing 1)
Jewelry 1
Jewelry 2
Private Skills for a Public Purpose (PPP)
Rethinking Furniture
Sewing and Textile Arts Level 1
Sewing and Textile Arts Level 2 PPP
Wood: Joinery and Turning
Awards
Alternet.com has also designated Lick-Wilmerding as the 6th top high school in the United States utilizing Green Architecture [1]
Chamber Singers: Unanimous Superior, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007.
Big Band: Unanimous Excellent, two years running, and Unanimous Superior, two years before.
Advanced Jazz Combo: Unanimous Superior, for four years
Orchestra: Unanimous Superior, for one year
2004: Chamber Singers and Chamber Orchestra: Gold
Notable alumni
Andres Amador, artist
Dan the Automator, DJ/Producer
John Lane Bell, mathematician and philosopher
Nathan Chan, Assistant Principal Cello, Seattle Symphony
Wayne M. Collins, civil rights attorney
John D. Goldman, philanthropist (class of '67)
Luca Iaconi-Stewart, model aircraft builder
Jonathon Keats, conceptual artist
Rafael Mandelman, attorney, politician, and current member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Gerek Meinhardt, fencer at the 2008 Summer Olympics, youngest American Olympian fencer
mxmtoon, Singer-songwriter
Albert Overhauser, National Medal of Science winner (class of '42)
Lionel Pries, University of Washington faculty member and noted Seattle architect
Harold W. Roberts, WWI Congressional Medal of Honor recipient
Ned Segal, businessperson
Frederick Seitz, physicist, National Medal of Science winner
Debby Soo — CEO of OpenTable
Teresa Strasser, radio and television personality, writer