The Education Bureau explains the application process for the Special High School Entrance Examination

Applications for New York City’s eight specialized high schools close at the end of this month. To help families hoping to attend these eight top schools familiarize themselves with the application process, a New York City parent group recently hosted an online seminar with Wu Diying, a project manager in the New York City Department of Education’s admissions department, to answer various questions. Over 300 parents attended the event.

This year, the registration period for the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) required for specialized high schools runs from the 7th to the 31st of this month. Registration is required on the Department of Education’s official website, myschools.nyc. Students must also indicate their preferred specialized high school when registering; however, this list can be changed at any time before the registration deadline.

For students attending city public schools offering courses only through eighth grade, the SHSAT will be administered at their school on November 12th. For students attending charter schools, private schools, or public schools offering courses from sixth to 12th, the SHSAT will be administered at designated locations on November 15th or 16th. Ninth graders wishing to transfer to a specialized high school will take the exam on November 22nd or 23rd. The specific exam location and time can be found on the test ticket in the myschools system.

This year’s special college entrance examination is an online exam, lasting 180 hours and divided into two sections: English (ELA) and mathematics. There are no breaks. For students who receive special extensions, such as English Language Learners (ELLs), the total time is 360 minutes, with two 15-minute breaks.

The English section consists of 57 multiple-choice questions, and the mathematics section consists of 52 multiple-choice questions and five fill-in-the-blank questions. Students can manage their time for both sections within the total time.

Students taking the exam do not need to bring their own computers or other devices; they may consider bringing a regular watch to check the time. However, Wu Diying reminds students not to bring electronic watches such as Apple Watches, as doing so may result in their test scores being invalidated.

The admission process for specialized high schools is to place students in descending order of their highest-scoring special high school scores. If there are still spots available at the top-scoring student’s preferred school, the student will be offered an admission to that school. Therefore, admission is based solely on three factors: a student’s special high school score, their preferred ranking, and the number of available spots at the school. There is no standard admission score cutoff, and a student will only receive an acceptance from one special high school.

Last year, the highest admission score for a special high school, Stuyvesant High School, was 556, while the lowest, Brooklyn Latin, was 496.

If there is only one spot left at a special high school and multiple students have the same scores and preferred ranking, the school will decide whether to admit none or all of them. Students will not be screened based on state exam scores, academic performance, or attendance.

Students who fail to gain admission to their preferred special high school can choose to transfer by taking the special high school again in ninth grade. Students whose scores fall short of the cutoff have the opportunity to attend a special high school through the summer discovery program.

Each special high school will reserve a certain number of places for the exploration project, and those who meet the project requirements are usually disadvantaged students who have reached a certain score line in the special college entrance examination (such as low-income students who receive free lunch); participation in the exploration project can only be based on school invitation, and the school’s invitation letter will be issued at the same time as the special college entrance examination score. Students can only apply to schools that issue invitations.