how the PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL
ADMISSIONS process works

TIMELINE

Spring of 7th grade: some high school tours are offered.
August through December: high school tours/open houses are offered.
Early November: SHSAT is offered.
Early December: applications are due.
Early March: offers are made and waitlists open - waitlist offers can be made from early March through the first week of 9th grade.

NYC public high schools are separated into 2 groups: MAIN ROUND and SPECIALIZED.

Keep in mind:

• main round is MANDATORY
• specialized schools are OPTIONAL
• students who apply to both MAY receive more than one offer
• students may apply to and be accepted at more than one discipline at LaGuardia
• a student may receive a specialized offer/offers and NO main round offer
• all offers are noted on letters/posted in MySchools

MAIN ROUND

  • variety of admissions methods (see admissions chart below)

  • every 8th grade students must submit an application

  • students rank up to 12 schools on application

  • applications are turned in to guidance counselors OR submitted through MySchools.nyc

  • all students will receive ONE offer in main round

  • if a student is not matched to a school on their list the DOE the DOE will provide a match

  • if a student gets a specialized offer and wasn’t ranked by a main round school, they could get only a specialized offer

  • waitlists start after acceptances are submitted

    • students will be automatically added to waitlists at schools ranked higher than the school they get an offer from

    • students can add themselves to waitlists at other schools as well

    • high schools manage their own waitlists and notify families if/when space becomes available

    • there are no waitlists for specialized high schools

    • waitlist info is available in MySchools

SPECIALIZED

  • There are 9 specialized high schools.

  • Admission to 8 (Bronx Science, Brooklyn Latin, Brooklyn Tech, HS for Math, Science and Engineering, HS of American Studies, Queens
    HS for the Sciences, Staten Island Tech and Stuyvesant) is solely based on the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT).

  • students are offered seat based on scores, rankings, and availability

  • 20% of test in seats are held out for Discovery Program students

  • info about the SHSAT

    •  114 questions: half math, half ELA

    • editing section and show your math

    • there is no fixed cut off score per school

    • cut off scores are NOT revealed by the DOE

    • you are offered a seat based on your ranking and score

    • 20 questions are field questions and don’t count towards final score

  • LaGuardia has its own admissions method

    • all students with a 65 average will be considered equally

    • admissions will be based on audition/portolio

  • there are no appeals for specialized schools

MY SCHOOLS

MySchools.nyc is the DOE’s information/application portal.

Families can both find information about schools and can apply to high schools themselves instead of going through guidance departments.

To use MySchools students need an OSIS number and an account creation code from guidance counselors, which you will get in fall of 8th grade, to initially log on. If you are not a public school family, you need to be in touch with either your guidance counselor or a DOE Family Welcome Center to get access.

If you don’t have log on info yet, you can still research schools—scroll down towards the bottom of the MySchools homepage and click in the blue BROWSE THE SCHOOL DIRECTORY! link. You can also access it in the grey toolbar at the bottom right.

How to search for a school and helpful info:

type in the name of the school you’re interested in

the first page that shows up has contact and travel info, performance, academics, and activities

scroll to the bottom of that page and click on the school name at the bottom, with a star on the left

that new click opens up the schools ADMISSIONS METHOD and info about how many seats are available for General Education (GEN ED) and Students with Disabilities (SWD), along with info about how many applications there were per seat

Along with submitting applications, families can also sign up for the SHSAT and LaGuardia auditions as well.
NOTE: you cannot sign up for auditions/testing/interviews for any other schools than the specialized.