2021 High School admissions: Vol. 2
/By Joyce Szuflita
We have a tiny bit more clarity. Here is the full megillah as of Dec. 31. I wrote this blog with Vince Guaraldi on repeat. I suggest you listen as you read - it will keep your blood pressure down.
Dates
SHSAT: sign up on MY SCHOOLS starting Dec. 21. Deadline Jan. 15. New this year - you will rank your SHSAT choices when you sign up on MY SCHOOLS. You can edit that list through Jan. 15. Testing will begin on January 27. 8th grade public school students will take the SHSAT at their current school. Other students will take the SHSAT at DOE locations. These locations, along with all test dates, will be shared by the DOE soon. We don't know yet if there will be accommodations made for kids who are doing school remotely.
LaGuardia: Register for an audition by Feb. 23. Indicate the auditions that you want to do. You can edit that list until the deadline in Feb. The auditions will be done virtually through VAST (Virtual Audition Submission Tool) The link will be here, when it goes live. It hasn't gone live. There is a ton of information about auditions here.
Regular Application: the regular application will open on MY SCHOOLS on Jan. 18. The deadline will be Feb. 23. You can edit the list until the deadline.
What is different:
Screened Programs:
Schools that had previously given a priority to a specific district have removed that priority. If they gave a priority to a certain borough - that priority may remain until next year, unless the school voluntarily removes that priority as well. Each school can determine that for themselves. An example of this is Museum School that no longer has District 2 priority and has removed their Manhattan priority, so priority to the whole city. Their priorities and admissions criteria will likely be finalized by Jan 18 when applications open (just a guess). According to the DoE - the final word on priorities and admissions criteria is MY SCHOOLS - that is aspirational. If I were you, I would check MY SCHOOLS AND the school’s own website before clicking submit in Feb.
Schools can use a combination of data to set their screens; including final grades in the four core subjects from 6th grade, grades from the four core subjects for the first half of 7th grade, and ELA and math scores from spring of 6th grade (if you opted out or are coming from a school that doesn't give the State tests, in the past, the schools have just doubled your grades for that year as an equivalent). The schools have been tasked with listing their rubric publicly on MY SCHOOLS. Few is any of them are up yet. My guess is that they will be required to have them finalized by Jan. 18 when applications open (just a guess). That still gives you a month to tweak your list. The little details that they will reveal should not keep you from creating your short list now. You can tweak it when the details emerge.
No one will use attendance or punctuality for anything.
Schools that have previously used an additional method such as essay, proprietary test, online activity, may choose to continue to use them, but no schools can adopt that as a new criteria this year.
Some schools may adopt "batch ranking". They must spell that out on MY SCHOOLS (it isn't up yet). An example is Lab School (they did this last year too), where they gave priority to students with an 85 average or above and then ranked those kids by lottery. It has always been the case when there are students of equal priority, they will default to a lottery within that group. This method seems to be a favorite of the small, popular D2 schools.
more schools may adopt the Diversity in Admissions priorities. There are rumors that they will list that on the MY SCHOOLS Directory (which would be helpful), if not, you can find the current programs and their percentages here.
Ed Opt Programs:
They will use a composite score of grades from the four core subjects (English, math, science and social studies) from final 6th grade and first semester of 7th grade and standardized test scores from 6th grade to divide kids into groups: HIGH, MEDIUM, or LOW. You can generally find that in "edit profile" on MY SCHOOLS
last year, all kids were put into the MEDIUM category for a time before the application opened. Parents freaked. Lesson learned: Wait for a week or two before you look for your Ed Opt category.
This year for the first time: 1/3 of the incoming Freshmen will come from the HIGH group. 1/3 will come from the MEDIUM group. 1/3 will come from LOW. You will be ranked within those categories by lottery. This is not necessarily a boon for HIGH and LOW and a problem for MEDIUM. Since this balancing is a bit different than in the past, the city is likely making adjustments to the % of categories that take this into account.
Audition Programs:
The auditions will be done remotely through the VAST system that is not up yet, but you should read the instructions now to prepare.
No grades or test scores will be used in determining placement in regular audition programs.
The programs listed on your application will receive your audition through VAST.
You don't list LaGuardia on your regular application. Your signing up on MY SCHOOLS for the LaGuardia talent auditions is your application for LaGuardia.
Things to remember:
Zoned students and returning 8th graders keep their priority. If you are a returning 8th grader, you need to put that program on your application somewhere. Nothing changed here.
When a school has a lottery aspect to their ranking - you DO NOT NEED TO PUT THEM AS YOUR FIRST CHOICE TO GET IN!!! (no matter what the Principal says. I am sorry that they are so misinformed. They are good educators but they suck at giving advice about admissions).
Popular schools will still be popular and if they have a wider catchment (district to citywide) they will be even more popular. Make a list that is diverse in its "Applicant : Seat" ratio. If you have all (or most) schools with a high applicant : seat ratio, you run a very likely risk of not getting any placement from your list, even if you have a kid who is a good candidate for all those programs.
After placements are made, you are automatically put on a wait list for any school that you ranked higher than the school you were placed in.
Don't count on getting a plum placement (or any placement) from the wait list. The wait lists rarely move and sometimes they move in the wrong direction! All schools are given "over offers" which means that if a kid gets both Stuy and Beacon and picks Stuy, Beacon DOES NOT all of a sudden have an open seat.
Put all your eggs in this first (application) basket, and don't trip. Waiting for a magical surprise off the wait list is a terrible strategy.
As always with the DoE, being too on top of things can lead to confusion. Have a drink. Put your feet up. Hug your baby. MY SCHOOLS will be there when you get back to this in Jan. and it will be less glitchy and more accurate. Be happy that you don't work at the DoE and say a little prayer for them. They need all the help they can get.
...and you? You got this. I'm here if you need me. I'm fine; fire, hot toddy, and I'm having a Dutch Baby for breakfast tomorrow (look it up).
