Sekolah Menengah Sains Selangor is actually located within the boundaries of the Federal Territory of
Kuala Lumpur, despite what its name suggests. It is one of the earlier science schools in the country, hence its name bearing or representing the State of Selangor, prior to the formation of the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur (for hitherto it was simultaneously the national capital which served as a district under Selangor state jurisdiction as well as being the capital of undivided Selangor state). SMSS is a co-ed school, with students from all states in Malaysia (not only catering those from the Peninsular especially the Klang Valley/Greater Kuala Lumpur area). The school enrollment was focused mainly on excellent students from rural areas and economically disadvantaged backgrounds. The pioneer batch of students which were made up of Form 1 and 4 started in 1973 temporarily placed for a year at three other different schools such as Sek. Men. Sultan Abdul Aziz, Kajang, Klang High School and Kajang High School for the first formers. Meanwhile, the form four students were temporarily placed in both Sekolah Sultan Alam Shah and
King Edward VII School, Taiping. They were reunited at the new school in 1974 as Form 2 and 5 students. Later intakes were mostly from Form 1 based on their UPSR excellence, with a trickle coming in at Form 4 based on their PMR results. In 1986, the school were chosen as one of 20 pilot school for Computer Literacy Pilot Project and received
BBC Master 128. After more than 34 years of establishment, SMSS now stands tall and proud alongside other more established SBPs like its own fellow rivals like
Sekolah Menengah Sains Tengku Muhammad Faris Petra and
Sekolah Menengah Sains Raja Tun Azlan Shah. They find themselves locking horns with each other during yearly competitions such as rugby, hockey, debate, wind orchestra and other events organized by the SBP sector of the Ministry of Education (MOE). Needless to say, Sekolah Menengah Sains Selangor has won their fair share of these competitions, and they would have given a more than worthy challenge for their opponents. Interestingly, the school was selected to be one of the off-site team challenge venues for
MasterChef Malaysia season 2. In 2013, in conjunction with the school 40 years celebration, the school were honoured to host the Fully Residential School Excellence Day, while the school also hosted FRSIS (Fully Residential Schools International Symposium) in 2016. ==Location==