Just a month into the new school year, the Department of Education is calling on parents to get a leg up on next year’s school applications.
The city agency just announced that students in middle and high school can apply for up to 12 programs from now until Dec. 2. The application process is open to current fifth- and sixth-grade students and students just entering eighth grade, according to Patch. First-time ninth-graders can also apply to DOE high schools.
According to the DOE, students and parents can learn about their options and apply on the MySchools online portal. Middle school students can select up to 12 schools and the agency clarifies that the more schools on an application, the better the chances of getting an offer to one of the schools.
“It does NOT lower your chance of getting an offer to any of your top choice programs,” DOE said on its website.
Applicants are asked to list schools in their true order of preference, as students will be considered for their first-choice program first and subsequent programs in the listed order. Middle schools will not see the order so they will not know if they were someone’s first or last choice.
The DOE encourages middle school applicants to sign up for middle school email lists, visit schools and attend middle school district fairs, which begin on Oct. 16.
High school students can also choose up to 12 schools after receiving a high school admissions welcome letter, which has instructions on how to register for the MySchools portal. According to the agency, there is no advantage to submitting an application early and applications may be changed and resubmitted until the deadline.
Students interested in applying to specialized high schools and audition for LaGuardia High School must register for testing and auditions by Oct. 10.
During the application process, parents and students should sign up for high school email lists and attend a high school admissions fair.
The DOE will notify students of the schools they got into in March 2020.
Visit the following links to get more information on the application process: middle school application, high school application.
