Your independent guide to NYC public schools

My son has to choose between iSchool and HSMSE, and we'd love to hear from people who go to either school about their experience and pros and cons to the school. The curriculum at HSMSE interests him, but we're concerned that he may have trouble with the work load and too much pressure. He has ADD and is not great about getting homework done. How many hours per night? How supportive are teachers if you slack off and then fall behind? When he feels bad about being behind it can make it hard for him to get motivated. As to iSchool, his middle school thinks he'd love it and that it's a great fit for him because of the self-paced work on the computer. The concern about iSchool is whether it will be challenging enough? The classes we saw during the tour seemed kind of dull. What we liked, though, is that if he falls behind it seems like the school will be supportive about helping him out of the hole. He's not that into sports or after school activities, so those are not areas of concern.

This is probably too late to help, 3 months after you asked your question. I just joined the forum today. I teach at HSMSE.
The HW load at HSMSE is considerable, I'd say a minimum of an hour a night, probably closer to two hours, though there will be light and heavy days.
We have had numerous ADD students in prior years. There are programs in place to help students facing this challenge.
Starting in Fall 2012 we will have a class for all Freshmen on how to adjust to high school, manage time, assignments, and so on. The teachers will act as additional guidance advisors as well.
I'm not familiar with iSchool, but HSMSE does offer a challenging curriculum and our seniors are well prepared for college when they are done, having had an exposure to high level science, math, history, english, engineering instruction.
A student must work hard to succeed; there is no way to avoid that, but we try to keep the pressure low.

Good luck to your son and yourself as he moves up and on to high school.