Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) is an alternative public secondary school in New York City, United States, that allows highly motivated and scholastically strong students to begin their college studies two years early. Students complete their high school requirements in two years and then embark on college work. After four years, they receive both a Regents diploma and an associate degree. BHSEC has three campuses: BHSEC Manhattan, which opened in 2001, is located in the Lower East Side, Manhattan in a building previously occupied by Public School 97; BHSEC Queens, which opened in 2008, located in Long Island City; and BHSEC Newark opened 2011 and located in Newark, New Jersey. In 2012, The New York Observer ranked BHSEC Manhattan as the number one public high school in New York City, with an A+ grade, a higher grade than the top school in the private school rankings.