Good luck

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By Joyce Szuflita
According to the DoE high school placements will be coming out through MY SCHOOLS on Thursday March 9. If your child took the SHSAT, the results of the test, and LaGuardia auditions as well as your main application results will be listed there. You will receive an email when your results are available. They often stagger the results because MY SCHOOLS would crash if everyone went on at the same time.

Here is the thing. Life is uncertain. You can prepare and calculate and hope. It is hard not to fall in love with one place or another, but you can’t engineer your placement. Your mission is to prepare your child (and yourself, cause you have worked hard for this!) There is no doubt that you will be disappointed for any number of reasons, possibly just because there has been so much effort and angst.

This is what I hope students will consider when they get their placement:

This school is all potential.
It will be what I make of it.
I don’t know those kids, but my new best friend for life is somewhere in that crowd.
My first love is probably in there too.
There will be a teacher that I will never forget in that building.
There will be some uncontrollable laughter.
There will be something that seemed nearly impossible that I will conquer.
I will likely be sorry to leave at the end of it all.

You can focus on what you desire, but you don’t always get it, and you might even be sorry if you did, because you would have missed the wonderful thing that appeared when you least expected it. Go out and find it.

My kid is not in Group 1, what do I do now?!!!

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By Joyce Szuflita
I just got a great email from Elissa Stein (High School 411) about priority groups and it inspired me to write this. If you use the code JOYCE10 she will give you a little discount on her subscription.

This process is not a lottery. It is a match and there are lots of wrinkles to it. Random numbers are in there, but they are not the only thing to consider.

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What does that crazy change in Applicant : Seat ratio numbers mean?

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By Joyce Szuflita
First to find each school’s Applicant:Seat ratios which can give an idea about how popular a school is.
Go to the MY SCHOOLS directory.
Put the name of the school in the search bar.
When the school page comes up, go all the way to the bottom and you will see one or more programs that you can apply to. Open the link on the program name.

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Lottery numbers will be revealed this season for middle school and high school placement.

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By Joyce Szuflita
Counter to my speculation earlier this year (It happens), I have gotten conclusive confirmation from the Director of Enrollment that random numbers will be released before the application deadlines this fall.

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how to make a high school list

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how to make a high school list

By Joyce Szuflita
Families are starting to think about the public high school search right about now. Spring of 7th grade is also the perfect time to start making a list of around 24 programs to investigate. You will whittle down to 12 by the deadline in 8th grade. You need to keep your mind open at this time of year. If a school is within and hour commute and has something that intrigues you, it is worth at least a passing glance early in the game. If you are too particular right now, your list will be a pathetic group of well known, tiny, wildly popular schools that will be impossible to gain entry to.

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i like art in high school, but I don't want to be a professional artist

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By Joyce Szuflita
Who says you have to pick your career in high school?
The high school art audition programs get the reputation as being only for the singularly passionate or wildly talented. The idea that the “Fame” school (LaGuardia) is only about becoming a professional artist and dancing on cabs is overrated. When searching for high schools, many students disregard those programs immediately, because they don’t think of themselves as “those kids” or as talented enough. If you have no interest, then they are not for you. If you like doing whatever (performing or visual arts) and wouldn’t mind digging deeper, then you should investigate further.

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why I love middle sized high schools

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why I love middle sized high schools

By Joyce Szuflita
High Schools in NYC are either 500 kids or 4000. That is very odd.
While there are many good high schools that are tiny or giant, my optimal size is 1000-2000. That is 250 to 500 students in the graduating class; enough to have lots of sports, arts, electives and extra-curriculars but small enough that you have probably run into everyone in your class at least once. The academic and social biodiversity that this size promotes is healthy. You can find your people, but it won’t take you four years to do it.

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ch-ch-ch-changes for public high school admissions

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By Joyce Szuflita
The one big thing that is changing in the HS admissions procedure for the fall 2014 admissions season is that 2%ers (students who score in the top 2% state wide on the 7th grade ELA test) will no longer be given a guaranteed entry to an Ed Opt program. In the past if you were a 2%er and you listed an Ed Opt program as your number one choice, it was a GUARANTEED entry. Sorry, no longer.

Now there are NO guarantees of any placement in the entire Doe admissions process from prek to high school. Oh well, that's life in the big city.

secrets for nyc public high school parents

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By Joyce Szuflita
You and your child have run the nation's most famous high school admissions gauntlet! I promise you that the college search will be a breeze in comparison. You can put your feet up, but you may want to keep a couple little hints in your back pocket in case there are some hitches as your kids head off to high school.

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