How to Get into Stuyvesant High School

Why Stuyvesant High School?

Before we talk about how to get into Stuyvesant, let’s talk about why you might want to go there. Stuyvesant is a top rated, public high school in lower Manhattan, considered by many to be the “crown jewel” of the NYC public school system.

With over 3000 students, Stuyvesant is known for its rigorous academics, unique course offerings, and exciting extracurriculars. It attracts both top students and top teachers. It boasts four noble laureates among its alumni, along with many other notable figures. Oh, and did we mention it’s free!

Notable Stuyvesant Alumni

The list is very long, but here's a few: Thelonious Monk, Tim Robbins, Lucy Liu, Billy Eichner, Ron Silver, Martin Brest, David Axelrod, Eric Holder, Bram Cohen, and Lisa Randall.

Where Is Stuyvesant High School?

Stuyvesant high school is located in downtown Manhattan at 345 Chambers Street.

Photo By Wikiweeki - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=106677693

Stuyvesant High School Ranking

According to US News, Stuyvesant is consistently ranked among the top ten high school in New York City, and is #36 in national rankings.

What Does Stuyvesant High School Specialize in?

Although Stuyvesant is known for its strong math and science, it also has an excellent humanities program. Students are required to take on a well-rounded and rigorous academic course load, including 4 years of history, english, science, and mathematics, as well as 3 years of a foreign language. Stuyvesant offers unique and exciting electives, as well as 30 APs in nearly every subject.

Where Do Stuyvesant High School Students Go to College?

Graduates of Stuyvesant consistently attend the best colleges and universities in the country. Every year, multiple students are accepted to schools like Yale, Harvard, Princeton, MIT, and Stanford. Stuyvesant has its own college office, and all the admissions representatives from top universities have Stuy students on their radars.

Stuyvesant High School Admissions Process

To get into Stuyvesant, you must score very high on the SHSAT relative to the other students who took it that year. Of all the specialized high schools, Stuyvesant has the highest cut-off score.

IMPORTANT. If you want to go to Stuyvesant, you must rank it as your first choice school when registering for the SHSAT. The way the process works, you are automatically placed in your highest choice school for which you score higher than the cutoff. You cannot change your first choice after the test. This means that if you score high enough for Stuyvesant, but ranked Bronx Science first, you will get into Bronx Science but NOT Stuyvesant.

Before registering for the SHSAT, we highly recommend doing some research on the specialized high schools (including attending virtual and in person school tours, if available) and giving some thought to how you are going to rank them.

Stuyvesant High School SHSAT Score

The approximate cut off score for acceptance to the top three specialized high schools of NYC are listed below with their corresponding 2022 numbers.

SHSAT Score Cut-offs 2022

• Stuyvesant 563
• Bronx Science 524
• Brooklyn Latin 497
• Brooklyn Technical 506
• HSMSE @ CCNY 532
• HSAS @ Lehman 516
• Queens Science @ York College 523
• Staten Island Tech 527

Stuyvesant Acceptance Rate

This year, Stuyvesant offered seats to only 762 of the approximately 26,000 students who took the SHSAT in the fall. This means that the acceptance rate for Stuyvesant is approximately 3%.

Getting Into Stuyvesant High School: In 5 Steps!

1. Research Stuyvesant and the other specialized high schools. You can learn more about the specialized high schools here and by visiting each of their individual websites. We highly recommend attending any tours or information sessions that are available, either in-person or online.
2. Take a diagnostic SHSAT. This will provide you with a better sense of your strengths and weaknesses, and a valuable roadmap for topics to review and testing skills to master. We can help administer this test and provide a comprehensive report to help organize the test prep process.
3. Study for the SHSAT. We recommend students start studying for the SHSAT in the second semester of 7th grade if they are taking it as an 8th grader, or the second semester of 8th grade if they are taking it as a 9th grader. The key to mastering the SHSAT lies in ample and consistent practice. Students not only need to become confident in the material covered on the test, they also need to practice important testing skills like time management and concentration.
4. Take additional proctored practice tests after several months of study, and/or a month before the test date, to gauge the student’ progress, inform their long-term test prep plan, and build their confidence in test taking. Like the diagnostic test, these tests should be timed and proctored (by a parent or tutor), re-creating the actual test conditions so that the student can accurately assess their test taking skills.
5. “Perfect practice makes perfect.” Practice is a good thing, but students who don’t first learn the content and strategies related to their test are just “practicing” or reinforcing their mistakes. Students should make sure they understand why they got the problem wrong (yes, all of them!) before moving on to more practice.

Ivy’s brilliant and caring tutors have helped thousands of students learn smart studying and test taking strategies, understand key concepts and build confidence, skills that are vital not just for SHSAT, but for the SAT, ACT and more. Regular SHSAT Tutoring creates the necessary structure and reinforcement that students often need to practice consistently.

Discover our SHSAT Classes, an online workshop in small groups. Students here complete a diagnostic exam, review course material, and acquire valuable tricks and strategies for excelling on this demanding test.