Checking out applicants per seat is a great tool to use when considering schools. Some people think the more applicants per seat, the more desirable/popular a school is - even how good it is. And while yes, that number is a data point, it also helps to take into account how many seats there actually are.
Many of you are looking at specialized schools and ranking them this week. I’m using these schools as an example but it applies everywhere.
In the chart below you’ll see that the larger schools: Brooklyn Tech, Bronx Science, and Stuyvesant have far fewer applicants per seat than the other schools. The very small schools have the most applicants per seat. That doesn’t make schools with more applicants per seat better - it just means that there are less seats to go around for all that have them on their application.
Bronx Science
748
26
Brooklyn Latin
215
82
Brooklyn Tech
1490
16
HSMSE
140
140
HS American Studies
104
161
Queens HS for the Sciences
116
145
Staten Island Tech
328
48
Stuyvesant
850
26