APPLICATION INFORMATION [Updated 10/28/2024]
This page is dedicated to Manhattan Hunter Science High School admissions information for students entering high school in the 2025-2026 school year.
***New Update*** Please sign up for our newly added Open House Opportunities. To register, please see attached flyer.
Thank you for your interest in MHSHS.
Applications for the 2025-2026 School year are being accepted through MySchools starting on Tuesday October 1st, 2024. The deadline to submit the High School Application, through MySchools is Wednesday December 04th by 11:59pm and the deadline to submit the MHSHS application essay is also December 04th, 2024 by 11:59pm. Essay must be submitted via our Google Form (See below)
Applications are not first come, first served. All applications received by the deadline will be scored and scores submitted the the DOE Office of Admissions to use to match students to schools.
MHSHS is open to candidates from all five boroughs.
MHSHS participates in the NYCDOE Diversity in Admissions program, meaning a portion of seats (69%) are reserved for free/reduced lunch students that meet the entrance criteria.
Admissions Application Ranking:
You must rank MHSHS (Code M55A) on your list of 12 programs/schools on My Schools. https://www.myschools.nyc/en/
Assessments for Screened Schools
For Fall 2024 Admissions
MHSHS uses a writing assessment as part of Fall 2025 admissions. To apply, students need to both list it on their high school application and complete our school's assessment by December 4th 2024.
Grading:
70% Average Course Grades
30% Essay
Mandatory admission Requirements:
Fill out your MySchools application and rank MHSHS (Code M55A) on your list of 12 schools.
Then you MUST complete the supplemental application and essay, to be ranked, as fully complete!
Incoming 9th and 10th grade students/transfers must complete and submit our supplemental application and essay to be considered for admission.
Supplemental Application and essay*** can be found here.
Actual link: https://forms.gle/eR8j1j4oANvajkJM7
*** Essay prompt is part of the Google Form, it can be found in section 6 of the form.***
How to Apply?
During the application period, you can submit your application one of the following three ways:
Online with MySchools(Open external link)––recommended!
Through your school counselor
Through a Family Welcome Center
Use MySchools to explore high school options, and talk with your school counselor about your application choices.
Be sure to place programs in your true order of preference, with your first choice as #1.
Applying to 12 or more programs, any of which you'd be happy to attend, makes it more likely that you'll get an offer to a program of your choice.
Check the "Selection Criteria" section of each program's MySchools page to see if that program has any additional admissions requirements. For example, MHSHS requires an essay
Updates to 2025-2026 high school application process.
Chances of offer feature in the HS application:
Beginning this fall, high school applicants will have access to a new feature in MySchools that helps them better understand their chance of getting an offer to a program.
For each program, students will see an icon indicating whether they have a high, medium, or low chance of receiving an offer, based on the applicant’s admissions characteristics like grades, priority group, etc.
We have more detailed information about this on the chance of an offer webpage.
No limit to application choices:
As of this upcoming admissions cycle, students across all grades will now be able to list any number of application choices, an expansion of the original twelve.
A complete high school application lists twelve high school options. If there are additional programs a family is interested in, they may add them to their application as a thirteenth choice, fourteenth choice, and so on.
Fall 2024 Admissions Timeline*
Below are the application open, close, and offer release dates. These dates are for students who are applying during the 2024-2025 school year for admission in the 2025-2026 school year.
*Please note: These dates are subject to change. Any changes will be announced and communicated directly to families. Sign up for updates here (Open external link).
For general High School Admissions information, please view the official NYC Public Schools page(Open external link):
High School Admissions Important Dates
Tuesday, October 1, 2024: High School Application, LaGuardia Application and Specialized HS Admissions Test (SHSAT) Registration Opens
Friday, October 18, 2024: SHSAT Registration Closes
Wednesday, October 30, 2024: SHSAT School Day Testing
Sat/Sun, November 16-17, 2024: SHSAT Testing
Wednesday, December 4, 2024: High School Application Closes
Sat/Sun, December 7-8, 2024: SHSAT Testing (9th grade students)
Thursday, March 9, 2025: School School Offer Release
*Note that we are NOT a specialized High School and do not look at SHSAT scores. Information about the SHSAT can be found on the official page
aDDITIONAL Important nOTES:
Applications for the 2025-26 School year are being accepted through MySchools. The deadline to submit the High School Application, through MySchools is Wednesday December 04th by 11:59pm and the deadline to submit the MHSHS application essay is also December 04th, 2024 by 11:59pm. Applications are not first come, first served. All applications received by the deadline will be scored and scores submitted the the DOE Office of Admissions to use to match students to schools.
All ranking of students will be managed centrally again this year by the Department of Education.
For 2025-2026 school year, MHSHS will be offering seats to rising 10th grade students, but we do not accept rising 11th grade students. (even if you were previously offered a seat in the past)
Selection Criteria for Screened Admissions
For Fall 2025 admissions, screened programs admit the top-performing applicants from across each middle school and citywide. Students will be admitted to screened programs in group order, starting with students in group one.
Students fall into a screened admissions groups based on the average of their final seventh-grade core course grades (ELA, Math, Science, Social Studies). This average must fall into the top percentage of students citywide or at a student’s school in order to fall within a certain admissions group.
To learn what average grades are needed to fall into a group at your child’s NYC public school*, please contact your current school beginning October 5. These are the average grades needed to fall into the different groups citywide for the Fall 2025 admission process:
- Students will be in group one if the average of their final seventh grade course grades falls in the highest 15% of their school or citywide, and that average is at least a 94.25.
-Students will be in group two if they are not in group one, and the average falls in the highest 30% of their school or citywide, and that average is at least an 89.75.
-Students will be in group three if they are not in groups one or two, and the average falls in the highest 50% of their school or citywide, and that average is at least a 82.75.
-Students will be in group four if they are not in groups one, two, or three, and their average falls in the highest 70% of their school or citywide, and that average is at least a 76.25.
-All other students will be in group five.
*Students with an average lower than a 90 will not fall into Group 1, even if they are in the top 15% of their NYC Public School. This will be the case for students with an average lower than an 80 for group 2, lower than a 75 for group 3, and lower than 65 for group 4.
If there are more applicants in group one than available seats at a program, students from group one will be randomly selected for seats using the random number linked to each applicant’s application. If all students in group one can be accommodated at a school, students in group two will be considered next; if there are more applicants in group two than remaining available seats, then students in group two will be randomly selected for available seats. This will continue with subsequent groups until all seats are filled.
Applicants from charter schools are eligible for an admissions group based on the citywide averages and their school averages if their school provides the NYC Public Schools with grades for all students at that charter school. Applicants from non-NYC Public Schools or other charter schools are eligible for an admissions group only by meeting the citywide average.
When the HS application opens, students will be able to see which screened admissions group they are in on their MySchools profile. On the dashboard, click on “Edit profile” just above your child’s name. Scroll down to see the screened admissions group.
Applicants will see which admissions group they are in and what their random number is when they start their HS application, once it opens on October 01st.
Students applying from parochial or independent private schools should submit report cards by their school and the Department of Education will translate their scores accordingly.
Standardized test scores are not being used in 2025 applications.
For incoming 9th-graders, 7th-grade report cards and 1st term 8th grade are being submitted.
Earlier Application Timelines, Earlier Offers. This school year, we are moving the high school application timeline earlier in the fall so that offers can be released in March. This timeline will give you more time to plan for the next school year. Additionally, we will release high school offers together with any Specialized High Schools results in one offer letter.
The Four Admissions Factors:
Your Application Choices. The number of program choices you add to your application AND the order in which you place them matter! This is a factor you can control. Only apply to programs you are truly interested in attending. Add 12 choices to your application in your true order of preference. Then submit your application.
Seat Availability. The number of applicants compared to the number of available seats it has helps show how in demand (or popular) a program is.
Your Priority Group for a Program. Some programs give admissions priority to specific groups of applicants before others, such as to students who live in a specific district or borough. Applicants in a program's priority group 1 will be considered first. Then, if seats are still available, applicants in that program's priority group 2 will be considered next, and so on. Learn which priority group you're in for each program. You may be in different priority groups for different programs.
The Program's Admissions Method. For some programs, applicants get offers based on random selection. For other programs, applicants are evaluated based on selection criteria and then ranked based on that evaluation.