SHSAT
(Specialized High School Admission Test)
New York City has seven specialized high schools. Admission to these schools, determined by a student’s score on the New York City Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT), is highly competitiv. According to NYC Department of Education, out of the 29,000 students who took the test in fall of 2008, 6,106 students were extended an offer to attend one of the elite schools. All students must be New York City residents to apply. Each school caters to special academic interests and offers advanced courses in mathematics, sciences, the humanities, and art. Eight of these schools require that students take the (SHSAT) for admission, with the exception of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts (LaGuardia High School), where the admissions process requires review of academic records and student audition.
As specified above, New York City has nine Specialized High Schools, six of which offer rigorous programs in mathematics, science, and technology. At least 95% of the graduates of each of these schools attend college, and many students go on to attend Ivy League colleges and universities. Four of the schools, La Guardia, Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech, and Styvesant High School are much larger than the five newer schools, and the kind of environment where your child will be more successful—larger, stimulating, and more competitive or smaller and nurturing—should be a factor when making decisions about these schools.
The nine Specialized High Schools are :
- Fiorello H. La Guardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts
- Bronx High School of Science
- Brooklyn Latin School
- Brooklyn Technical High School
- High School of American Studies at Lehman College
- High School for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at City College
- Queens High School for the Sciences at York College
- Staten Island Technical High School
- Stuyvesant High School
2009 SHSAT Test Dates(to be confirmed)
Oct 24, 2009 (Sat)
Oct 25, 2009 (Sun)
HUNTER College High School Admission Test
Hunter College High School is one of the oldest self-contained schools for intellectually gifted students in the nation. It is publicly financed, chartered by the Board of Trustees of the City University of New York and administered by Hunter College. Hunter College High School is a coeducational laboratory school organized as a research and demonstration center to serve the spectrum of New York City’s gifted junior and senior high school population (grades 7-12). The only entry point to Hunter College High School is the seventh grade. Students who show superior cognitive ability on standardized tests may sit for the Hunter College High School Entrance Examination while in the sixth grade. Students admitted to Hunter College High School must reside in New York City in any one of the five boroughs. Each year we ask school directors and principals to identify candidates for the Hunter College High School Entrance Examination. For the January 9, 2009 exam, we looked for all sixth grade students who were interested in attending Hunter and whose fifth grade standardized test scores are at the 90th national percentile (701 Scale Score on CTB) or higher in Total Reading AND at the 90th national percentile (744 Scale Score on CTB) or higher in Total Mathematics. We cannot permit any student with scores below these levels to take the exam regardless of his/her economic situation or other extenuating circumstances.
2010 HUNTER Test Dates (to be confirmed)
Jan 08, 2010 (Friday)
The cut-off scores have been established as of August, 2008:
701 for reading(90th percentile) and 744 for math(90th percentile)
