High School Guide: Admissions, reviews, and advice

Got it, thanks for the heads-up.

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Registration for the system officially opens tomorrow!

rustyowl7 said:Registration for the system officially opens tomorrow!

Does that mean schools start inputting their data? Because right now, the system is completely empty...

Kate Jackson4 said:Does that mean schools start inputting their data? Because right now, the system is completely empty...

Yeah, I suppose—though I’m honestly not sure if they’re typing it all in manually or if the app just pulls everything directly from the district database. Anyway, the school told us parents that we definitely need to log in between May 29th and mid-June just to double-check that all the data is correct... you know, just to make sure there's enough time to fix any errors before things get finalized.

Dana Smith2 said:My daughter recently checked out that high school over in the suburbs, and I have to say, she really loved the place.
They’ve bumped up the entrance requirement to 70 points.
So, that’s pretty much it—it looks like she’ll probably be staying there for the next few years.

Is this info about the cutoff score 100% for sure?
Because the last kid enrolled last year only needed a 67.40.
Whenever these places decide to raise the bar, they don't do it halfway... last time they jumped from 60 to 65.

They also bumped the Sports Academy up from 63 to 70.
It’s a fair move—they’re really raising the bar since they're planning this massive overhaul of the high schools in Washington, D.C.
Though, I suppose it’s actually better that the vocational schools have raised their standards quite significantly as well...

amberpilot72 said:Is this info about the cutoff score 100% for sure?
Because the last kid enrolled last year only needed a 67.40.
Whenever these places decide to raise the bar, they don't do it halfway... last time they jumped from 60 to 65.

Yes, the point threshold only applies to grades; if someone has an extra point for a national competition, they still need the base grades to hit the threshold first, then those bonus points are added on top.

The cutoffs in New York City are incredibly high. For example, NASA needs 72 points for a computer technician, even though they were enrolling people with over 76 last year.

And certain High Schools constantly hike their scores. They hold entrance exams, but what good is that when you can't make up for Cs if the score requirement is 76, like at one school in Chicago...
grades remain the primary factor for enrollment.

feralgardener33 said:Hi there,
Quick question: besides the Harvard Kennedy School, are there any other high schools in the area with a STEM track that offers a curriculum entirely in English?
Thanks!

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The IB program at MIT is actually quite unique compared to other local high schools. It’s taught entirely in English, so it definitely isn't like a standard public High School.
So, just to clarify, MIT doesn't follow the typical English-track curriculum found elsewhere.

School X offers both STEM and general tracks, where some subjects are taught in English.
You'll find a similar setup at language academies (like the 16th or 4th ones) or over in Columbus.
Just keep in mind that it's usually just a portion of the classes taught in English, rather than the whole thing.

Thanks for clearing that up. MIT isn't really on the table for her, so I didn't bother digging too deep into the specifics there. She’s not interested in language studies either, which pretty much leaves us with option X. It’s a STEM track taught in English, though I know only certain subjects are actually handled that way. Does anyone here have experience with X? What’s the reputation like? I honestly don't know the first thing about high schools in New York City.
Columbus is out, too. We're looking at Luciana or maybe some other STEM-focused high school that's conveniently located on the West Side.

Michael Lee75 said:Don't take this the wrong way, but look, if she doesn't pass the entrance exam for some specific high school, it just means it isn't the right fit for her, and honestly, it's better that way because enrolling would just mean she'd be miserable the whole time.

My kid was applying to high schools last year and went for an entrance exam at a specialized prep academy—he's actually decent at math, though God knows why he even bothered applying there in the first place—and he didn't make the cut. In my view, that's a perfectly clear sign that the school wasn't meant for him, and I've seen plenty of cases where kids who were straight-A students signed up for these elite academies only to end up struggling through a nightmare of a curriculum.

As for the enrollment process itself, based on everything I read in the news, browsing various forums, and listening to people vent, I had prepared myself for this to be a massive, soul-crushing ordeal filled with disappointment, especially since my son was a top student in middle school, even if he wasn't quite at the very top of the class, so I expected getting into a prestigious prep school to be a total struggle, but in the end, things turned out to be completely fine.

He handled the whole thing himself, from filling out the applications and showing up for the exams to dealing with the final enrollment steps. I only really hopped onto the application portal after the results were being shuffled around just to see what the interface looked like. And don't even get me started on the fact that I certainly wasn't sitting there studying, writing papers, or prepping him during eighth grade, or any other year for that matter. I truly have no idea what parents who micromanage every single assignment for their kids during middle school think will happen when they hit high school. 🤷 You're all just going to burn out together.

When you're looking at high school options, I'd suggest considering some of those less intense, more standard public high schools; if a specific elite academy is the goal, I suspect any top-tier student will find a place somewhere, but you really have to remember that your kid needs a social life, they need time to themselves, and they need time to actually rest instead of just living in a constant state of academic burnout.

I'm not mad. Why would I be?

Of course, I agree. If he doesn't get into a school he's actually interested in, it’s simply because he didn't earn his spot.

It's definitely not some failure of this broken selection system or the inflation of GPA scores where kids with padded grades somehow think they have an edge.

Blonde Sanja said:My little girl—who’s usually an honors student, totally independent, handles everything herself, never needs tutoring, studies solo, all that—completely lost it on Sunday night. Just pure hysterics and tears. She accused my husband and me of favoring her younger sibling, saying we never teach her anything or help her out. I was stunned. From 5th through 8th grade, she’s been a lone wolf; if you even offer help, she brushes you off. So I was just left there, speechless. Why now? Pressure. Pure burnout. She’s sitting at 76 points and looking at a few competitive high schools, and she's terrified those points won't be enough. She had a total meltdown over history. Her last oral exam was January 11th, her last written one was March 1st, and then... nothing. Just sixty pages of a textbook. I ended up re-studying the whole WWII era—the Axis, the Allies, the whole lot—just because my kid was crying her eyes out from the stress.

This is a nightmare. The whole enrollment process makes me sick, though she’ll definitely get in eventually.
They didn't make the deadline; apparently, it's toward the end of the school year.

I feel terrible reading this. We’ve been saying for a while now that high school admissions should be based on an entrance exam, but unfortunately, nothing ever changes.

Michael Lee75 said:Don't take this the wrong way, but look, if she doesn't pass the entrance exam for some specific high school, it just means it isn't the right fit for her, and honestly, it's better that way because enrolling would just mean she'd be miserable the whole time.

My kid was applying to high schools last year and went for an entrance exam at a specialized prep academy—he's actually decent at math, though God knows why he even bothered applying there in the first place—and he didn't make the cut. In my view, that's a perfectly clear sign that the school wasn't meant for him, and I've seen plenty of cases where kids who were straight-A students signed up for these elite academies only to end up struggling through a nightmare of a curriculum.

As for the enrollment process itself, based on everything I read in the news, browsing various forums, and listening to people vent, I had prepared myself for this to be a massive, soul-crushing ordeal filled with disappointment, especially since my son was a top student in middle school, even if he wasn't quite at the very top of the class, so I expected getting into a prestigious prep school to be a total struggle, but in the end, things turned out to be completely fine.

He handled the whole thing himself, from filling out the applications and showing up for the exams to dealing with the final enrollment steps. I only really hopped onto the application portal after the results were being shuffled around just to see what the interface looked like. And don't even get me started on the fact that I certainly wasn't sitting there studying, writing papers, or prepping him during eighth grade, or any other year for that matter. I truly have no idea what parents who micromanage every single assignment for their kids during middle school think will happen when they hit high school. 🤷 You're all just going to burn out together.

When you're looking at high school options, I'd suggest considering some of those less intense, more standard public high schools; if a specific elite academy is the goal, I suspect any top-tier student will find a place somewhere, but you really have to remember that your kid needs a social life, they need time to themselves, and they need time to actually rest instead of just living in a constant state of academic burnout.

I guess that might be true if you didn't have all those people getting a head start because of grades they were basically handed. These exams only account for a tiny percentage of the total score anyway. If it were split 50/50 between grades and the exam, then maybe your arrogant take would actually make sense.

The high school right near West High is actually also a top-tier prep school.

All three of them—West, East, and Luciana's place—have pretty solid reputations. I guess they all take the high-achievers, and they all have entrance exams.

I was wondering, how many points does the entrance exam usually count for at a top-tier High School, for example?

Carl Bishop2 said:Look, I honestly dread these types of admissions more than the national exams. Entrance tests are fine if the actual performance matters more than just GPA. But the idea that a kid from Skyfall needs high school grades just to get into a vocational arts program is a nightmare, regardless of the entrance exam.
Have the test results come in yet? They said we’d hear by May.

A quick side note, just for info since we joke about our kid not needing to study—she’ll just enroll in a vocational art or design program and call it a day. But now it looks like if she doesn't study, she won't even get into that. What do kids who pass with decent or passing scores actually end up enrolling in? Just trade schools?

I mean, who actually gets by with just "enough"?
Back in the day—like, twenty-five years ago—having solid grades was practically a golden ticket to getting into those specialized vocational schools.

I guess a lot of kids manage to get by with just okay or decent 🤷
but for my little one, there's honestly no chance they'll end up with 🤷

Look, I’ll be honest—those kids who scrape by with just enough to pass? Usually, they’re the ones who never quite mastered reading fluently or nailed their multiplication tables before finishing elementary school. Or, you know, they might be dealing with learning disabilities that went unsupported because—let’s face it—parents were too checked out to push for an IEP or proper accommodations. Sometimes, it's just pure laziness. But those heavy D's that keep a GPA below 2.5? Most of the time, teachers just hand those out as a courtesy. It's basically a mercy move; everyone knows failing a kid doesn't actually fix anything, it just drags out the misery for everyone involved.

There's an admissions calculator here—plus a breakdown showing the minimum scores required over the last four years for specific majors.
I've also attached a PDF with all the score data if you want to dig through the numbers there instead.

Carl Bishop2 said:I was wondering, how many points does the entrance exam usually count for at a top-tier High School, for example?

The entrance exams for all the STEM-focused academies cap out at 10 points. I think they mentioned that this year the exams will be standardized for all those schools, too. So kids just take one test at their top choice, and the score counts for any of those STEM programs they apply to.