Tips for NYC DOE Public High School Admission
The NYC DOE public school system is the largest in the nation. And whether you’ve been through middle school, kindergarten, and preschool admissions or if you’re brand new on the scene, it can be daunting. High school means higher stakes. While there are a lot of great school options, so much can feel out of your control. Here are a few things you can do now to feel more confident in your decision-making process.
Attend open houses. In my opinion, this is the best and most thorough way to get a gauge on a school. If you can attend an open house during the day, where you can see the kids in action, that is ideal. Ask questions about school hours, how technology is used and/or limited in the classroom, class sizes, learning support options, etc. If you can’t go to the school in person, a virtual open house is better than nothing. And if your child can come with you, that’s also great. Ultimately, it’s their education, and it’s always a good idea to involve them in this process as much as possible. There is a schedule of open houses on the NYC DOE website here.
Understand the different types of schools and what their admission requirements are. See our previous post on the types of public high schools in NYC and the admission requirements for each of them. If considering a specialized school, you may want to consider hiring an SHSAT tutor to boost your chances of acceptance. 7th grade grades are monumentally important for admission to almost all screened schools, so if you only get support for one year of schooling, it should probably be that one!
Talk to parents whose children attend the school. There are so many great parent groups on WhatsApp or Facebook. But there are also other avenues to meeting parents. Start asking parents you know where their children attend and what their experience has been like. The Applying to High School in NYC Facebook group has a plethora of resources and relationships that can yield valuable information.
Research support structure for learning differences. Depending on your child’s needs, they might be better off at certain schools rather than others. Consider what you’ve noticed about your own child’s preferences, abilities, and how they learn best. If you have a child who will need more support, make sure the school is equipped to help them.
Research curriculum and tracking. Depending on what’s important to you and your child, you may opt for a school that is less focused on testing and more focused on performance assessments, like the Consortium schools. Alternatively, you may be interested in an audition school that puts an emphasis on the arts.
Check statistics and test scores. Now, I am the first to say that test scores are NOT everything. But they can give you some insight into the school. Just please take them with a grain of salt. It’s not the end all, be all. But of course, parents take an interest. This website, NYC-SIFT, is a great resource for school statistics, and was created by an NYC parent.
If you have an 8th grader (or you’ve done everything above),
Check out the timeline on the NYC DOE website. This year, applications are due Wednesday, December 3, 2025.
Compile a list of at least 12 schools that would be acceptable to you. Do not list fewer than 12 schools, and you may even want to consider listing more than 12 if you feel comfortable. If you are not matched with any of the schools on your list, you will be placed matched with a random school. It’s much better to rank several schools that you feel comfortable at based on your personal criteria.
List your schools in true order of preference. Do not try and game the system. The algorithm will try and match you according to the order of schools listed, and once you match with a school your application for all the schools remaining on your list will be withdrawn, so make sure you list your top picks first and in order of preference!
If you have a less-than-ideal random lottery number, consider applying to screened schools. If your student made it into screened admissions group 1 or 2 due to excellent 7th year grades, screened schools can increase your chances of placement even if you have a poor lottery number. If you have a poor random lottery number and are in screened groups 3 or 4, there are screened schools that place more weight on other elements of the application like an interview or essay.
Above all, if you have any questions please reach out! We’d love to connect you with the answers.