Parents often wonder what’s the best high school for their child, and most Asian parents in New York City lean towards the city’s nine selective Specialized High Schools: Stuyvesant High School; Bronx High School of Science; Brooklyn Technical High School; Staten Island Technical High School; Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts; High School of American Studies at Lehman College; High School for Mathematics, Science and Engineering at City College; Queens High School for the Sciences at York College; and The Brooklyn Latin School. To gain admissions into one of these schools, with the exception of Laguardia, students must take the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) and reach the score threshold for their desired school.

Appleseed hosted a seminar to educate parents about the SHSAT, introduce them to three Specialized High Schools—Stuyvesant High School, Brooklyn Technical High School, and The Brooklyn Latin School—as well as a private school, The Chapin School.

To inform parents about the SHSAT, Kelly Ma, a rising sophomore at Stuyvesant, shared her experience on practicing for the SHSAT and offered advice on time management and helpful resources. 

Ziling Liu, a rising sophomore at Stuyvesant, then discussed support systems in the school, homework and test calendars, and time management. She also shared some of the 300 clubs and forty-three sports teams, specifically the debate team, award-winning robotics team, and math team. In her experience, Stuyvesant prepares students for life beyond high school by challenging them with school work and providing them various options for clubs and teams, helping students explore their interests and develop skills such as leadership and teamwork.

Eddie Zheng and Steven Humosun, rising juniors at the Brooklyn Technical High School, discussed the school’s large and diverse student body, STEM programs, 250 clubs, thirty sports teams, and twenty AP classes. Unlike the other Specialized High Schools, Brooklyn Technical High School allows students to choose a major. Once students pick from one of the nineteen offered majors in their sophomore year, they get assigned classes based on the major, helping to specialize their studies and giving them more resources to explore their interests. 

Then, Amy Chang, a rising sophomore, shared her experience at the Brooklyn Latin School. Unlike the previous schools mentioned, her school focuses on both STEM and humanities. Being a classical and liberal arts school, the teaching style is inspired by Greco-Roman, with emphasis on learning Latin and on developing skills such as public speaking by having a declamations event where students memorize a passage. The school is the only school that offers IB courses, which are college-level studies in high school and help students adjust to college in the future.

Lastly, Miya Zhao, a rising junior at Chapin, shared her experience at a private school. Chapin’s classes are discussion-based to promote public speaking and problem-solving skills. Students are encouraged to meet with teachers regarding any concerns, and the school also offers coordinators to help each student find internships and clubs that align with their interests. Chapin offers sixty clubs and fifteen sports teams for students to build their interests and hobbies. For interested parents, she also talked about the application process for private schools. 

In the end, there was a Q&A session where parents could ask questions ranging from the best way to prepare for the SHSAT to each school’s swim team and how to start your club.