Lowest qualifying scores, fall 2026 admissions (9th grade)
As published by NYC Public Schools on its Specialized High Schools page for students who entered in fall 2026. Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School admits by audition, not the SHSAT.
| School | Lowest score with an offer |
|---|---|
| Stuyvesant High School | 561 |
| High School for Mathematics, Science and Engineering at City College | 539 |
| Queens High School for the Sciences at York College | 531 |
| Bronx High School of Science | 525 |
| Staten Island Technical High School | 517 |
| High School of American Studies at Lehman College | 507 |
| Brooklyn Technical High School | 506 |
| Brooklyn Latin School | 495 |
How offers work
Students rank the specialized high schools they want. Offers go out in score order: the highest scorer gets their first choice, and so on down the list until seats run out. So a school's cut score is the score of the last student who got a seat there.
The 2026 change
From fall 2026 the SHSAT is computer-adaptive: 50 English Language Arts and 50 math questions in 180 minutes, with 10 unscored field-test questions in each section. Questions get harder or easier as the student answers. Students choose which section to start with and can split the time as they like, but can't go back to a section once it is submitted. No calculator.
Because the test changed, cut scores for fall 2027 admissions may not match past years. NYC Public Schools turns answers into scaled scores and adds the two sections into a composite, but does not publish the conversion. Our practice tests give a rough composite estimate only.