Nearly half of the 77,137 8th-graders who applied to high school last fall were matched with their first choice school, but 10 percent got no match at all, the Department of Education announced today. The results are nearly identical to last year's main admissions round when 90 percent of applicants got offers. Eighty-four percent of 8th-graders were accepted to one of their top five choices this year, as compared to 83 percent last year.

Similarly to last year, nearly 6,000 students received an offer to attend one of the highly selective specialized high schools. Of those, 5,360 received an offer to one of eight schools that accept students based only on their score on the specialized high school admissions test. The ninth specialized high school, LaGuardia, accepted 965 students based on their auditions and a review of their transcript. Of those 965 students, 328 also got an offer from one of the exam schools.

In a change this year, all high school applicants were notified at the same time of their results. In previous years, students who applied to one of the specialized high schools found out up to a month earlier than those who did not.

The lowest score accepted to any of the specialized exam schools was 472, the same as in 2011. (The Department of Education does not divulge the lowest score accepted at each school, only the lowest number over-all.)

Slight rise in specialized offers to black & Hispanic students

The number of black and Hispanic students accepted by one of the specialized exam schools rose slightly: 733 black and Hispanic students were matched at one of the exam schools in 2012 as compared to 642 in 2011 and 653 in 2010. Fifty-one black and Hispanic students got offers at Stuyvesant, more than any year since 2007. The diminishing number of black and Hispanic students at Stuyvesant was highlighted in a recent SchoolBook article. Last year, black Stuyvesant alums sponsored a free prep course for talented black and Hispanic middle school students in an effort to boost their rate of acceptance.

Applying for 10th grade

This year 5,314 9th-graders applied for a new school in 10th grade. Of those, 2,789 got offers.

Applying in Round 2

The 7,391 students who did not get an offer from any school will go into a second round of applications. A directory of new high schools lists 11 new or expanding schools, seven in the Bronx, four in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn. Of those, two are schools for students who are new to the country and learning to speak English, two are career and tech schools and one is a transfer school for older students who are 16 or older. None have selective admissions.

There will be a fair this weekend at Martin Luther King, Jr. high school with representatives from new schools and some of the hundreds of other schools that still have space.

All students may apply to programs with available seats, including those who got matches in the first round. 

Read the press release announcing high school results here.

How did your 8th-grader fare? Did the system work? Please share information in comments below.