How to Enter Secondary Level Education on the DS-160

When the DS-160 asks about secondary level education, you need to list every school you attended above elementary — that means middle school, junior high, and high school — with the school’s name, full address, start and end dates, and whether the course of study was “Academic” or “Vocational.” Elementary schools are the only level the form tells you to leave out.¹

What Counts as Secondary Education Here

The education and training section opens with a yes/no question: “Have you attended any educational institutions other than elementary schools?”¹ If you answer yes, the form expects entries for middle school, junior high, and high school, along with any college, university, or vocational training that followed.²

High school in particular is treated as mandatory. Skipping it, or marking “Does Not Apply” when you did attend, has been flagged as a common reason DS-160 submissions get rejected.³

What Each School Entry Asks For

For every institution above elementary, the form collects:

Name of the institution, in English characters.
Full address of the school.
Start and end dates of attendance.
Course of study — for secondary schools, the choices are “Academic” or “Vocational” rather than a specific major.¹

If a school’s name or address is in a script that doesn’t use the Latin alphabet, transliterate it. All answers must be entered in English using English characters. F, J, and M visa applicants can pull the school address for their current U.S. program from the I-20 or DS-2019.³

Academic or Vocational

The course of study field is where most applicants pause on secondary entries. There’s no space for a major or concentration at this level; there are only two buttons.¹

Choose “Academic” if you attended a standard general education program. Choose “Vocational” if the school was a trade school, a technical school, or a secondary program built around vocational skills rather than a general academic curriculum. In systems where senior high school includes specialized tracks such as accountancy or business management, applicants have reported picking whichever of the two labels better fits the program, since consular officers generally aren’t parsing that choice on a high school entry.⁴

Listing More Than One School

Most people will have several entries. Use the “Add Another” button to create a new record for each school, and enter them from most recent back to oldest.¹ If your junior high and senior high were different institutions, list them separately.

If You Don’t Remember Exact Dates

The date fields require specific dates, and there’s no “Does Not Know” option for attendance dates the way there is for some other fields. Give dates that are as close to accurate as you can. If you remember the month and year but not the day, pick a reasonable day within that month to complete the field.⁵

Whatever you enter should line up with anything else you submit or bring, such as transcripts or a résumé. The Department of State suggests having your résumé or CV nearby while you work through the education section so entries stay consistent.³

Why Getting This Section Right Matters

An incomplete or inaccurate application can be rejected at the interview, which means submitting a new form, paying a new fee, and rescheduling.³ It can also draw a formal refusal under INA section 221(g) when a consular officer finds required information missing; you then have one year to supply what’s missing before you’d have to reapply from scratch.⁶

The Department of State warns that false or misleading statements on the DS-160 “may result in the permanent refusal of a visa or denial of entry into the United States.”³ “Does Not Apply” is only for questions that genuinely don’t apply to you, not a shortcut when an answer is inconvenient to look up.

Before You Start

Pull together the name and address of every school you attended from secondary level onward, your approximate attendance dates, and any qualifications you earned. Have your résumé within reach for cross-checking. The form won’t let you submit with mandatory fields blank, so a missed field will surface right away — but the system can’t catch a wrong entry, and that part is on you.

1
ImmiHelp. US Visa DS-160 Form Previous Work Education Training Information
2
Wildes Law. DS-160 Form
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U.S. Department of State. DS-160 FAQs
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VisaJourney. DS-160 Vocational Academic or Specify
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VisaJourney. DS-160 Secondary and College Dates Started Help
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U.S. Department of State. Visa Denials