NYC specialized high schools: the 9 schools compared

By Trieu Ly · Updated November 2, 2026

New York City has nine specialized high schools. Eight admit students by one thing only: their score on the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT). The ninth, LaGuardia High School, admits by audition. For 2026 admissions (the fall 2025 test), 26,123 students took the SHSAT and 4,023 got an offer (about 15%).

Cutoffs and dates checked November 2, 2026 on the Specialized High Schools page of NYC Public Schools (the NYC Department of Education). Offer counts: NYC’s InfoHub admissions outcomes. SHSAT Practice Test is independent of NYC Public Schools (where our facts come from).

NYC specialized high schools at a glance

Cutoff: NYC’s “lowest qualifying score”, the lowest SHSAT score that got an offer, for 2026 admissions. * NYC prints 652 for Bronx Science and Brooklyn Latin with no explanation. That is far above every other school. Tenth-grade seats are few (MySchools lists 10 per school), so treat these two numbers as unreliable. Cutoffs year by year and offers by school: SHSAT cutoff scores for 2022 to 2026.

How do you get into a specialized high school?

To get into one of the eight SHSAT schools, a student registers for the SHSAT in MySchools, ranks the schools, takes the test, and scores high enough for a school on the list. The score is the only thing that counts.

1. Check eligibility

   Your child must live in NYC and be in 8th grade, or in 9th grade for the first time (not repeating). Public, charter, private, parochial and homeschooled students all qualify.

2. Register and rank the schools

   SHSAT registration happens in MySchools (NYC’s online system for school applications). The testing schools are ranked there, in order of preference. Your child is considered only for schools on that list. Dates: SHSAT test dates.

3. Take the SHSAT in November

   For the eight testing schools, the score is the only thing that counts; NYC says “no other criteria are used.” Depending on their school, 8th graders test on November 14 or 15 at a test site, or on November 18 at their own school. 9th graders test on November 21. The test ticket gives the day and place. More on what is on the 2026 SHSAT.

4. Offers go in score order

   NYC starts with the highest score. Each student gets the highest school on their list that still has a seat. No one gets more than one offer, and there are no waitlists. Scores and offers arrive in early spring 2027; NYC has not announced the date.

5. Accept or decline the offer

   Nothing is needed to accept a specialized high school offer. If your child will attend a private, parochial or charter school or a school outside NYC instead, the school counselor changes the offer to “Opt out” in MySchools, or you can email HSEnrollment@schools.nyc.gov.

Lottery numbers, priority groups and the SHSAT schools

The eight testing specialized high schools do not use lottery numbers, priority groups or grade-based screens. The SHSAT score is the only criterion NYC uses for these schools. Offers go in score order, and your child is matched to schools in the order of the list made during SHSAT registration.

Lottery numbers and priority groups belong to the general high school application. That system works differently:

• Every applicant gets a random number, as in a lottery.
• Priority groups come first. All students in a program’s first priority group get offers before any student in the second group.
• The random number breaks ties inside a group.
• Screened programs sort students into five groups using 7th-grade core course grades.

A student can take all three paths to high school: the high school application (closes Friday, December 4, 2026), the SHSAT (tests November 14 to 21) and the LaGuardia audition application. Details are on NYC’s high school admissions page.

One thing NYC does not explain: whether a student can hold a specialized high school offer and another high school offer at the same time. NYC’s pages do not say. Ask your school counselor if both offers arrive.

Townsend Harris, Bard and other schools that are not SHSAT schools

Families often compare these schools to the specialized high schools, but none of them uses the SHSAT. Each admits through the regular high school application, by its own method as listed on MySchools for 2027 admissions:

Methods can change, so check each school’s MySchools page before applying.

How you rank: the SHSAT list and the high school application are two separate lists. Our reading is that one does not change the other. On the general application, NYC says to list programs in your true order of preference, because schools never see the order. Your child can rank Stuyvesant first on the SHSAT list and Townsend Harris first on the application, and both lists stay as written.

For the eight SHSAT schools, which admit by score only, see past cutoffs by school.

Which specialized high school is hardest to get into?

By cutoff, Stuyvesant. It had the highest 9th-grade cutoff of the eight in every year from 2022 to 2026 (561 in 2026). Brooklyn Latin had the lowest (495). By offers, the picture changes. Brooklyn Tech made about a third of all 2026 offers and American Studies made the fewest. So fewer students get into American Studies, even though its cutoff is lower than Stuyvesant’s. (Our calculation from NYC’s tables.)

Our reading: a cutoff depends on who ranked the school that year and how many offers it made. So it is not a fixed bar, and it moves from year to year.

The eight SHSAT schools one by one

Student counts are for 2024-25 (NYC Department of Education data, as listed by InsideSchools). Each name links to the school’s website. We checked the course and program notes on those websites on November 2, 2026.

LaGuardia High School: admission by audition

Questions parents ask

Next steps