About MSSM

Pixie dust. Secret sauce. Magic formula.

MSSM students, families, alumni, and staff often use a variety of phrases to describe that inscrutable quality that makes MSSM so exceptional. What they are all describing, however, is the community that is created when academically motivated students are brought together with caring adults in a community that seeks to get the best out of each student. 

MSSM is a place where you can challenge yourself to go beyond the ordinary. There is nothing secret or magical about it, but it is certainly special.

MSSM is a public residential high school focused on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) for scholars in grades 9-12 who enjoy stretching their brains in new and challenging directions. Our students hail from across the state of Maine and around the world. They come for inquiry, camaraderie, and a unique high school experience. Here, students, staff, and faculty engage in energetic intellectual sparring served up with encouragement and support.

Following the 1994 closure of Loring Air Force Base, the Maine State Legislature chartered and funded the Maine School of Science and Mathematics (MSSM) at the site of the Limestone High School. MSSM also acquired the former nearby elementary school and promptly converted it to a 150 bed dormitory. The first classes of students, appropriately termed the Pioneer Classes, laid the foundation for all students who came after by establishing MSSM as a place for students looking for something – and to be something – extraordinary. 

Tucked away in the far north of Maine, surrounded by natural beauty and a supportive small-town community, MSSM students are able to dive deeply into academics and community. Surrounded by other scholars, MSSM students quickly find themselves being challenged academically in ways many may have never had the opportunity to in their home schools. 

Since then, MSSM has built a reputation as one of the most well-respected high schools in the country. Throughout the years, MSSM continues to rank strongly in such publications as US News and World Report ranking as high as number two in the nation in 2019. MSSM alumni have built careers in a variety of fields, from aerospace to academia, medicine to marketing, software engineering to patent law, video game design to finance.