Admissions Process
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How the High School Admissions Process Works

Every eligible student is assured entrance into one of the New York City public high schools. To file an application, a student must be a resident of New York City and meet eighth or ninth grade promotional standards. In order to get the most out of the high school admissions process, students should work with their parents and counselors to research their options and apply to the programs of greatest interest to them. Students can rank up to 12 schools/programs on their application. If a student wishes to attend his or her zoned high school, he or she must list the zoned programs of that high school as one of the choices on his or her application. All students must submit their high school applications by the deadline. There are three rounds in the high school admissions process:

Specialized Admissions Round

Students who wish to attend one of the Specialized High Schools must take the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test or audition for Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School to be eligible for admission.

Offers for Specialized High Schools are sent to students in February. Students who receive an offer are also notified if they were matched to one of the programs they listed on their application, and they can choose which offer to accept. If a student opts not to accept an offer to a Specialized High School, he/she forfeits the seat and will not have a place in a Specialized High School. Students who do not receive an offer are automatically entered into the main round.

Main Round

This round is for all students including those who did not receive an offer to a specialized high school. Students will be notified about the program to which they have been matched.

Supplementary Round

If a student does not receive a match in the main round, he/she has another opportunity to select up to 12 new choices during the supplementary round. The process works in the same manner as the main round in that it tries to match every applicant into his/her highest ranked school/program that also ranked them. Students who are not able to be matched to one of their choices will be assigned to an available high school as near as possible to their homes. All students receive a high school match by the end of the supplementary round.