Types of Public High Schools in NYC
New York City has the largest public school system in the country. So if you’re feeling overwhelmed about the high school admissions process, you are not alone! It’s a mammoth undertaking. And you’ll get through it. We’ll take it one step at a time. The first thing we need to discuss are your options.
There are four types of public high schools in NYC: specialized, random number, screened, and audition-based.
Although all methods are very different, there are excellent schools in each category! Please consult our guide to “Applying to High School in NYC” for more information on how to conduct and rank your schools.
Specialized high schools are designed to “support the educational needs of students who excel academically and/or artistically.” All will require your 8th grader to take the SHSAT (except LaGuardia), a NYC-only test administered at several locations and on multiple dates. The SHSAT is the only criteria used to determine admission to these schools. If you are not planning on applying to any of these schools, there is no need to take the SHSAT. The specialized high schools are:
The Bronx High School of Science
The Brooklyn Latin School
Brooklyn Technical High School
High School for Mathematics, Science and Engineering at City College of New York
High School of American Studies at Lehman College
LaGuardia High School (no SHSAT required)
Queens High School for the Sciences at York College
Staten Island Technical High School
Stuyvesant High School
Random number schools are lottery-based but also use non-academic priority groups. They do not take grades into consideration or require any additional testing or materials in order to apply. Many of these schools do give preferences to certain priority groups, which you can see on their MySchools page. Priority groups could include living in the zone, living in the district, or having a current sibling attending the school. If you are waitlisted, a new random number will be generated for each waitlisted school, which will determine your placement on the new list.
Screened schools have additional requirements. Most screened schools use numbered academic groups based on their average grades in 7th grade English Language Arts, math, science, and social studies. Some schools will have additional admissions criteria such as an essay requirement (Beacon) or interview (Bard). And others still, such as the NYC iSchool, have a separate application that does not take grades into consideration. The weighting of each of these elements differs according to the school and can be found here.
Audition schools are highly specialized programs for students looking to immerse themselves in the arts (film, photography, dance, theatre, etc.) Admission is based solely on the audition/portfolio - grades are not taken into account (except for LaGuardia, where students must have received a minimum score of 65 in each of their classes in 7th grade). All auditions can be submitted virtually, and some schools will also conduct in-person auditions.
Deadline for high school admissions to NYC Public Schools is Wednesday, December 3, 2025.