How to Get into Brooklyn Technical High School

This blog post was most recently updated on May 28, 2024.

Brooklyn Technical High School Overview

Brooklyn Technical High School, more commonly known as Brooklyn Tech, is one of the 9 specialized high schools of New York City. These schools are known for their academic rigor, driven students, great course offerings, and exciting extra-curricular opportunities.

Brooklyn Tech boasts many notable alumni, including leading scientists, Fortune 500 CEOs, prominent political figures, and Nobel laureates. It’s also completely free to attend!

Photo by Beyond My Ken

Where is Brooklyn Technical High School located?

Brooklyn Tech is located in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, at 29 Fort Greene Pl, easily accessible via all major subway lines.

What Does Brooklyn Technical High School Specialize in?

Brooklyn Tech has excellent faculty and academics, with a particular emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Brooklyn Tech is unique in that it’s structured more like a college than a high school, allowing students to select from one of 19 majors at the end of sophomore year, such as Aerospace Engineering, Biological Sciences, Digital Media, and Industrial Design. The school has state of the art classrooms and lab facilities, and the largest AP program in the country.

Is Brooklyn Tech the Biggest High School?

With nearly 6000 students, Brooklyn Tech is not only the largest of the specialized high schools, it’s also the largest high school in the entire United States!

Brooklyn Tech Rankings

According to US News’ 2024 Rankings, Brooklyn Tech is ranked #7 among New York high schools and #67 nationally.

Brooklyn Tech School Admissions Process

The SHSAT is the only criterion for admission to Brooklyn Tech. The SHSAT (Specialized High School Admissions Test) is a 3-hour test open to all current eighth grade or first-time ninth-grade students who live in New York City.

IMPORTANT. If you want to get into Brooklyn Tech, 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 Brooklyn Tech, but ranked Bronx Science first, you will get into Bronx Science but NOT Brooklyn Tech.

Before registering for the SHSAT, we highly recommend doing some research on the specialized high schools and giving some thought to how you are going to rank them

Is it Hard to Get into Brooklyn Tech?

To get into Brooklyn Tech, you must score relatively high on the SHSAT compared to other students who took it that year. Brooklyn Tech has the 6th highest SHSAT cut-off score.

The approximate cut off score for acceptance (out of 800 / 400 Math + 400 ELA) to the specialized high schools of NYC are listed below with their corresponding 2023 numbers.

SHSAT Score Cut-offs 2023

• Stuyvesant 561
• Bronx Science 521
• Brooklyn Latin 493
• Brooklyn Technical 503
• HSMSE @ CCNY 518
• HSAS @ Lehman 510
• Queens Science @ York College 527
• Staten Island Tech 521

Brooklyn Technical High School Acceptance Rate

This year, Brooklyn Tech offered seats to 1,421 out of the approximately 26,000 students who took the SHSAT in the fall. This means that the acceptance rate for Brooklyn Tech is approximately 5%.

Because of its large size, there is a higher chance of getting an offer from Brooklyn Tech if you rank it as one of your top choices. Still, admission to Brooklyn Tech and all of the specialized high schools is very competitive.

Getting into Brooklyn Tech High School - in 5 Steps!

1. Research Brooklyn Tech 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. 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.
3. 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.
4. Take additional 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. Students should make sure they understand why they got the problem wrong (yes, all of them!) before moving on to more practice.
5. Register for the SHSAT. Finally, you will need to register for the SHSAT and rank your school choices. Registration opens in the fall and can be done through your MySchools account or a school counselor.

Regular SHSAT Tutoring can create the necessary structure and reinforcement students often need to practice consistently. 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.

Explore our SHSAT Classes, interactive online workshops in small groups. In these sessions, students partake in a diagnostic exam, delve into content review, and acquire valuable tricks and strategies to excel on this challenging test.