Located in the heart of the Fulton neighborhood, but serving a larger area of the city of Minneapolis, Southwest High School opened for its first school year in 1940, serving students from Edina, Richfield and the Washburn area.  Currently, it is ranked highly in the state, and on a national level, due in part to its IB programming (International Baccalaureate  (IB) school with Middle Years Programme (MYP).  In a nutshell, the program is based around five ‘areas of interaction’: approaches to learning, community and service, human ingenuity, environments, and health and social education.The Washington Post ranked Southwest the best high school in Minnesota in 2011, with a four year graduation rate of 96%.    Southwest High School is a neighborhood school to root for!  (According to Wikopedia, Southwest High School also is known for the amount of hipsters that attend the school. They recently were the subject of an episode of EpicLloyd Alqhuist’s youtube rap series ‘dis raps for hire’.  COOL.