Baruch College High School topped the list of most sought-after high schools for the second year in a row. Baruch – a selective district 2 high school with a 98% graduation rate and only 438 students – received 6,465 applicants for about 104 seats. Last year, Baruch received 7,606 applicants.

Two other small district 2 high schools, Pace High School and Eleanor Roosevelt, were once again neck and neck for second and third most popular: Pace, which does not screen potential applicants, had 6,289 for 108 seats; Eleanor Roosevelt, a selective school with a 100% grad rate last year, had 5,983 for 125 seats.

Number four, Edward R Murrow, is a large, audition and educational option high school in Midwood with a 78% graduation rate – the lowest graduation rate of schools on list. More than 5,600 students listed its Comm Arts program as one of their twelve choices on 2012 applications.

Like last year, a majority of schools on the list are selective high schools. And many schools maintained their sought-after status – numbers one through seven were also on the 2011 list of most-applied-to high schools.

Number ten, Food and Finance High School, is another of the Mayor’s new small high schools. It opened in 2004.

These ten schools received the most applications out of all 400-plus high schools in the city excluding the nine specialized high schools. The Department of Education list includes the number of 8th graders who listed the schools anywhere on their applications – it doesn't indicate how many students ranked the schools first. The DOE did not release the number of applicants for any other school. 

View all ten schools in the photo above and click here to download the PDF.

(Updated 3/2/12)