The Department of Education (DOE) just announced a change to both the middle and high school admissions process. Middle schools will no longer have district requirements, and high school applicants can now put as many high schools as they want on their application. Additionally, a new feature in MySchools will help families better understand their student’s chance of getting an offer to a program.
Middle School
For middle school, priority will still exist for those in their home zone or district. The DOE says that a strong middle school application includes:
- programs in the district(s) where your child lives or goes to school.
- some programs with an average level of demand (1-2 applicants per seat)
Middle school applications open on October 9. Learn more about middle school admissions.
High School
The high school application opens on Oct. 1. Students will now be able to apply to an unlimited number of high schools, which had previously been 12. An application with 12 school choices is considered complete, but students can add as many as they’d like.
To help with these choices, MySchools is rolling out a new feature where families can get an idea of their chance of getting accepted into a program. Families will now see an icon next to the school indicating if a student has a low, medium, or high chance of getting accepted into the program. The platform takes into account the number of available seats, a program’s admission rules (e.g., priorities), application patterns from last year’s admissions process, and each student’s individual characteristics, which include:
- General Education / Students with Disabilities status
- Screened admissions group based on 7th grade course grades
- Ed Opt category (low / medium / high)
- Diversity in Admissions characteristics
- Free and reduced price lunch eligibility (if parent consents)
- English Language Learner status
- Students in temporary housing
- Current school
- Zoned school (if the student’s address has a zoned school),
- Borough of residence
- Borough of attendance
- Random number
Applicants will see one, two, or three orange bars next to the school:
- Three orange bars means that a student has a high chance of receiving an offer to this program. A student is expected to have a 99% chance of receiving an offer to a program that shows three bars.
- Two orange bars means that the student has a medium chance of receiving an offer to this program. About half of students are expected to receive an offer to a program that shows two bars.
- One orange bar means that a student has a low chance of receiving an offer to this program. A student is expected to have a 1% chance of receiving an offer to a program that shows one bar
If there are no bars, this means there is not enough information, but details on the prior year’s admissions will be available.
There are some cases where this feature will not work for:
- Schools that require an audition
- Schools that are screened with assessment
- Schools that consider students’ English proficiency and/or home language after the application closes
- Students who transfer and are over-aged and under-credited
- ASD / ACES / D75 inclusion: students must be deemed eligible to apply by the Special Education Office.
So what should your child’s application look like? The DOE says that a balanced application includes:
- four low-chance programs
- one medium-chance program
- and one high-chance program
Learn more about high school admissions. Be sure to check out our handy guide with key dates for high school admissions.
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