Specialized high school admission results out

Letters sent home last week in back packs and by mail brought good news to 5,991 8th and 9th graders (including our blogger Izzy) who took the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) last fall, letting them know that they gained admission to at least one of the city's nine specialized high schools.

Roughly 28,000 students took the SHSAT in November, an increase from last year's 27,000 applicants. Admission offers climbed to 5,991, up from 5,533 in 2007, opening up more seats in several schools and helping to ensure that seats would be filled at the newest and smallest specialized school, Brooklyn Latin, which had a smaller than expected class this school year. Also, more students received an offer from their top-ranked specialized high school — 2,286 this year compared to 2,199 in 2007 — according to the Department of Education.

Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, a specialized arts high school, based its admissions upon student auditions and academics. Some students received offers to more than one of the six programs in the school and to a specialized exam school as well. This year LaGuardia extended 1,035 offers to 936 students, a slight increase from the 1,013 offers to 922 students in 2007.

Students who were accepted by a specialized high school also learned whether they were matched with a school on their separate high school application list of 12.

Cutoff scores

There are no predetermined cutoff scores for admission to any of the specialized high schools. The lowest scores necessary to gain admission varies year to year based upon several factors including the number of seats available at each school, the number of acceptances above the available seats a school is willing to extend (usually based upon a projected number of students declining), and the order in which students rank the schools.

Department of Education spokesman Andy Jacob confirmed that the lowest score to earn an offer to any specialized high school this year was 470, a drop from 478 in 2007 and 485 in 2006. Beyond that the DOE is mum about cutoff scores. Insideschools, however, spoke with middle and high school officials and determined that the lowest score to gain admission to Stuyvesant High School, historically the most sought after of the specialized high schools, was 561, a bit higher than last year's score of 558.

From what Insideschools has been able to determine, the lowest scores admitted to the seven other specialized exam schools were clustered closer together, ranging between 470 and 507.

Responses due Feb. 26

Students have until Feb. 26 to accept or decline their offers. Those students lucky enough to get multiple offers may only choose one school. Students unhappy with their offers can decline them and request consideration in the main round of high school acceptances. Feb. 26 is also the date for which applications to the new small high schools are due.

Students who did not apply or were not accepted to a specialized high school will have to wait until March 27-28 to learn where they are matched.

Laura Zingmond, February 12, 2008

What is your experience with the high school admissions process this year? Join the conversation or start a new one with other students and parents at the High School forum.