As the high school search for my eighth-grader intensifies, I've been reading up on some interesting and relatively new schools. All are far from where we live and not at all convenient: Frank Sinatra High School of the Arts(which will soon move to Astoria); The Brooklyn LatinSchool in Bushwick and the High School of American Studies at Lehman College in the Bronx, for example.

I cannot get my eighth-grader to even visit, and a small part of me can't blame him. If you worked on Wall Street and lived a few blocks away in Tribeca, you might not care much about great deals on homes an hour away, in Flushing or Marine Park.

It's not surprising that a kid who has always attended schools less than 25 minutes away can't fathom the thought of spending more than two hours a day squeezed in on a subway, even though tens of thousands of city kids do it every day. Without trying, I've raised something of a real estate snob when it comes to choosing a high school. But in the same way that economic reality can interfere with real estate dreams, sheer competition intrudes on the high school search and forces many students and their parents to search far and wide for options. The competition for the top high schools in a city where the supply for quality public education in no way comes close to meeting demand.

For example, while glancing through the most recent edition of Clara Hemphill's "New York City's Best Public High Schools," I nearly choked when contemplating the competition at top schools, including specialized high schools like Stuyvesant and Bronx Science. Last year, 27,720 students sat for the SHSAT exam; 5,391, or just under 20%, scored high enough to make the cut.

Non-specialized schools are in high demand, too: For example, the DOE's high school directory says that Bard Early College High School received 2886 applications for 152 seats. At the familiar swath of popular Manhattan schools -- Beacon, Baruch, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lab andMillennium High Schools -- applicants regularly outstrip available seats: 4600 applicants for 262 spots at Beacon, 3418 applicants for 140 places at Millennium. (Ed note: It's important to remember that students rank up to 12 schools on their high-school application, so someone who applies for Beacon can and probably does apply to the other schools listed above, inflating what's already staggering to a new level.)

The "getting in" question is sure to come up on tours of these selective schools and unfortunately takes up conversation better devoted to teacher quality, course offerings, school philosophy and curriculum. But who can blame parents, when the competition is so fierce and the choices within Manhattan so coveted?

By the time it comes to finding a college, we'll all be seasoned pros. Small comfort during this intense, competitive, confusing process.