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Admissions Criteria

We have received many calls and emails from families who are having trouble uploading the additional materials. It is an issue with the MySchools platform. The Office of Student Enrollment is aware of the issue. The NYCPS IT department is working on it. In the meantime, the HS Enrollment team is uploading additional materials for applicants who cannot. Here is what they told us families should do:
 
  • Include the applicant's name, OSIS, and attach the essay and video
  • Families can email the HS Enrollment team through Friday, 12/6, for assistance

 

 

For Students Entering High School in Fall 2025

 

 

From Townsend Harris High School:

 

Criteria for Applying to Ninth Grade

Assessment for Townsend Harris High School 

 

Please click here for the 2024-2025 Townsend Harris Admissions Assessment Questions for the essay and the video.

 

Submit the essay and video through MySchools. 

 

You can find a video tutorial that walks you through the process of submitting additional materials here.

 

All additional materials will be evaluated after the MySchools application closes on December 4.

 

IMPORTANT: Please ensure that your essay and video are submitted in an acceptable file format. You can find information on acceptable file types in the MySchools application.  

 

For our school:

  • .PDF and .DOC (NOT Google Doc) files are preferred for essays
  • .MOV and .MP4 files are preferred for videos

 

There are many tutorials and free tools online to help you save your files in the correct formats. Doing this will help us ensure that we have access to reading and viewing all of the wonderful materials that you will submit. Thank you in advance for your help!

 

 

Criteria for Applying to Tenth Grade

For Fall 2025 tenth grade admissions, Townsend Harris admits the top-performing applicants from across each middle school and citywide. Students will be admitted in group order, starting with students in group one. Students fall into a screened admissions groups based on the average of their final eighth-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. If there are more applicants in group one than available seats at Townsend Harris, students from group one will be randomly selected for seats using the random number linked to each applicant’s application. Applicants should not submit an essay and/or video.

 

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. For the average grades needed to fall into the different groups citywide for the Fall 2025 admission process please click here.

 

 

Townsend Harris has a Diversity in Admissions Initiative.

  • Applicants eligible for free or reduced price lunch will be considered first for 50% of seats.
  • For the remaining 50% of seats, all students will be considered.
 
 

From the NYC Public Schools Office of Student Enrollment:

 

Key dates for families applying during the 2024-2025 school year for admission to the 2025-2026 school year:

 

  • Tuesday, October 1, 2024: High School Application Opens 
  • Wednesday, December 4, 2024: High School Application Closes; Deadline to submit additional materials for screened with assessment programs
  • Thursday, March 6, 2025: High School Offer Release 

 

During the application period, you can submit your application one of the following three ways:

 

Questions? Enrollment is here to help! Talk to your child’s current school counselor, email us at [email protected], or give us a call at (718) 935-2009. We’re excited to support you this year as you apply to school!

 

Still have questions about high school admissions? We’re excited to invite you to join us for one of our upcoming virtual information sessions! All NYC families of eighth grade students (as well as interested families of first-time ninth graders) are encouraged to attend.

 

During these sessions, we will cover the basics of the high school admissions process in NYC and answer your most frequently asked questions, such as how to understand your chances of receiving an offer and how your child’s random number is used. After each presentation, we will respond to your questions.

 

Schedule of Events:

  • Wednesday, November 20 (from 5pm – 6pm)
  • Tuesday, November 26 (from 3pm – 4pm)
  • American Sign Language (ASL) will be available at both events.

 

How to join any of these events:

  • At the start of each event, please click on https://bit.ly/2024FallHSEvents
  • Webinar ID: 941 9185 4852
  • Passcode: 123456
  • To join by phone:
    • Call + 1 646 558 8656
    • Conference Line: 941 9185 4852#
    • Passcode: 123456#

 

We look forward to your participation! In the meantime, if you have any questions, please email [email protected]

 

Be sure to sign up for our high school admissions mailing list at schools.nyc.gov/SignUp.