Bard High School Early College and Millennium High School, two highly selective high schools in Manhattan, have a lot of seats available for incoming 9th graders. Here's the catch: neither are included in the supplementary round of admissions for students who weren't matched anywhere during the main round. Students interested in attending either school will have to file an appeal after the supplementary round.

A glitch at Bard -- no seats filled in main round

Quincee Robinson, director of admissions at Bard High School Early College, told Insideschools.org that there was a glitch in the system that assigns students. "No students were matched to Bard during the main round," said Robinson. Typically the school enrolls 150 to 160 9th graders each year. "We're getting the word out to guidance counselors that students should appeal if they were matched with a school they ranked lower than Bard on the application," she said.

Millenium is under-enrolled

According to Marjorie Cooper, a guidance counselor at Millennium High School, the school is "under-enrolled" for the incoming 9th grade class. "We're not sure what happened," said Cooper who told Insideschools.org that Millennium ranked enough students during the admissions process to fill the incoming class. In past years, Millennium, which gives priority to students from downtown Manhattan, had space for many applicants from Brooklyn. This year very few students from Brooklyn were matched.

Millennium would not release the number of seats available, but Cooper said there were enough to accommodate qualifying students residing in the priority zone of District 2, as well as students residing elsewhere in Manhattan and even in Brooklyn.

Students must appeal

Neither school is participating in the supplementary round of high school admissions or in the fair that will be held this Thursday, April 22, for schools that still have vacant seats. Instead, students must file an appeal to be considered for a spot. If you didn't receive a match during the main round, you have to first apply toschools listed in the supplementary round, get a match, and then file an appeal.

Representatives from Millennium and Bard said that they are working with Department of Education officials to handle the special appeals process and will consider appeals from students who both meet their admission criteria and who ranked the schools on their original high school application. According to Robinson, Bard will only consider appeals from students who completed Bard's application process, which included sitting for the admissions exam. If you have a question about how to appeal, talk to your middle school guidance counselor.

We're awaiting an explanation from the Department of Education on what happened, and why neither school is participating in the supplementary round. Both schools are selective and highly sought-after: In 2009, Millennium had more than 4000 applicants for 170 seats; Bard had 3000 applicants for 152 spots.

The DOE has yet to release the number of 8th-graders who remain unmatched after the main round. Unofficially,the word is that the delay is due to the fall-out from the lawsuit ruling that 19 schools originally slated for closure must remain open, and students who originally applied to any of those high schools were to be re-matched by the DOE. Maybe the "glitches" in admissions to two popular Manhattan schools are contributing to the lack of information about high school matches overall?

UPDATE April 21: The number of 8th graders who were matched, and not matched, was released today. According to Danny Kanner, of the DOE's press office, the delay was tied to the lawsuit, and not to anything else. We asked for clarification as to why both Bard and Millennium apparently still have seats available and yet are not in the supplementary round.

According to Kanner, Bard had a target of 155 seats; 125 students were matched to Bard during the specialized high school round. He confirmed that no students were matched during the main round. Because that was "unusual," the DOE investigated and discovered that a "clerical error led us to misstate the school's actual seat target. We immediately offered seats to the 30 students who would next have been offered them. All seats have now been filled." He said that the 30 students were offered seats on April 9th over the phone and then received a follow-up letter. "Future vacancies, caused by attrition" will be filled from the appeals process, he wrote.

As for openings at Millennium, Kanner writes: "Millennium High School met its target but subsequently experienced higher than expected attrition. Out of fairness to students who listed and were ranked by the school, and consistent with our standard practice when schools have empty seats due to attrition, Millennium will not be included in the supplementary round. Its vacancies will be filled through our appeals process - which is based on how schools ranked students, how students listed schools, eligibility, and seat availability ."

Have you heard anything different from your guidance counselors or the schools? Comment below.