What is the SHSAT Discovery Program?
The Discovery Program, is a summer program that offers admissions to low-income, 8th grade students who score just under the cut off score. These students are given the opportunity to “work off” the remaining points that may stand in their way.
By the end of 2020, 20% of seats at each specialized high school were reserved for Discovery Program participants. In addition, the expansion targets students from high poverty schools across the City:
To be eligible for the Discovery program, a Specialized High Schools applicant must:
Be one or more of the following: a student from a low-income household, a student in temporary housing, or an English Language Learner who moved to NYC within the past four years; and
Have scored within a certain range below the cutoff score on the SHSAT; and
Attend a high-poverty school. A school is defined as high-poverty if it has an Economic Need Index (ENI) of at least 60%. You can see a school’s historical ENI by visiting the School Performance Dashboard and selecting the school from the list.
You cannot apply to the discovery program, you have to be selected. Students who are eligible to attend the Discovery Program will be notified in the Spring.
