Applying To High School in #NYC Is Abusive. @NYCSchools @NYSEDNews @BilldeBlasio @NYCMayorsOffice

That’s right, this is an abusive process.

Abusive because the popular high school on the west side, “B” High School, has tours set up for one day for the Manhattan residents, starting at 4:30 p.m. My first annoyance was that the tour entrance was on 43rd Street. Is that information that is hard to share? The school published address is 44th Street. Everyone tells me I have to communicate properly, why isn’t that universal?

After watching many people cut the line, we were the second group in. We had arrived one hour early, so that was pretty good. We enjoyed the tour and liked the school. We exited on the 44th street side of the school at around 6:00 p.m., and the line was still wrapped around the entire city block. Hence the abuse allegation. An institution of this kind cannot better organize this process? Or do they purposely make it a cattle call? It was the school’s choice to have people stand on lines for up to two to three hours.

Saturday morning we had a tour scheduled for 9 a.m. at the “T” Unlimited High School. The web site said 9 a.m. Did I mention that the published time on a Saturday morning on the school’s web site said 9 a.m.? So, what time do you think the planned tour was scheduled to begin? Yes! You guessed it! 10 a.m. So now I have to apologize for the abuse allegation. This is incompetence. Or gross negligence. I am trying to use big high school terms! And I am at an age where telling me you apologize for your errors just does not work. I am not here to be polite and let you get away with gross errors. Yes, everyone makes mistakes. But a mistake that caucuses hundreds of people to adjust their schedule like this is not excusable.

Or should we choose the “N” school? It is a K-12 school. My son was immediately turned off at the thought of entering a school for 9th grade with 4 year olds in the next hall way. But that’s just him.

Note: We have a lot of tours to attend because we have to put up to 12 choices down on our High School application, and they can be anywhere in the five boroughs of NYC?

Did I mention that there are around 10 specialized schools that require a separate exam for entrance? That families pay thousands of dollars for their kids to take classes and tutors to help them prepare for the test? How else can you keep the lower income folks out? That’s one of the reasons people who can’t afford tutors won’t get in. Is this a rigged system perhaps?

Once you get used to the fact that there is a specialized test for the top schools in the five boroughs of NYC, then you have to realize that there are several schools, at the level a tiny bit below these top schools, that also require separate tests. The six day Common Core tests in ELA and Math from the year before are not enough. Your grades from the 7th grade are not enough. Some over zealous applicants are taking an additional four tests just to apply to a New York City High School. Do you think that is crazy?

We are touring ten schools so that our twins can see what might be the best fit. Some of our friends are touring up to 20 schools. In order to attend what folks perceive is the best choice, kids will end up traveling up to three hours round trip on public transportation to get to and from high school. Except for the upper middle class kids, their parents will chip in for a bus service.

Lastly, you apply at the end of November and receive a preliminary answer as to the school you were accepted to four months later. Happy Holidays.

Guest post by Deb Sallinger