The community of Fresh Meadows is home to St. Francis Preparatory, the largest Catholic high school in the United States of America. It also the location of St. John’s University, a private Catholic university founded in 1870 by the Vincentian Fathers of the Roman Catholic Church, was originally located in the borough of Brooklyn. The university was relocated to Queens in the 1950s. St. John’s is a fulltime, four-year school, which features academic courses in arts, science and many other professional fields. One of the core classes at the university is Discover New York, a three-credit course which takes advantage of Fresh Meadows’ close proximity to midtown Manhattan. The university also has a very successful athletics department. The 17 NCAA Division I teams are part of the Big East Conference annually.

Fresh Meadows also has highly rated public schools as well as the only private, tuition free special needs school, the Summit School located at the Hillcrest Jewish Center. There’s local access to free universal pre-k, elementary schools P.S. 26 the Rufus King School, P.S. 23 the Fresh Meadows School and the George P. Ryan Middle School. Fresh Meadows was also the home of the Japanese School of New York from 1980-1991 and continues to host the Japanese Weekend School of New York, holding classes at The Rufus King School (P.S.26Q).