Hickory High School

I would absolutely not recommend this school to anyone moving from outside the Mercer County area, due to personal experience. If your children don't already know children who go to Hickory, and have positive, working relationships with them, this is not the place for you. This school is extremely insider/outsider-oriented. If your last name is not important to the school district, or if you haven't been part of the district since the beginning, you kind of fall by the wayside, in terms of both the administration and the student body. The sports programs are run by parents of students, and it doesn't work out well for kids who aren't in the "in" crowd. The arts programs are practically nonexistent, aside from the band. The teachers are either hot or cold; you basically had to pray to get the ones who would actually teach. The administrative staff does an extremely poor job. I did not feel prepared for college when I graduated from Hickory five years ago.