Tech glitch prompts extended deadline for NYC high school applications

A tech glitch that gave some New York City students wrong odds on their chances of being admitted to two sought-after high schools prompted the education department to extend a deadline for all high school applications on Wednesday.

All high school applicants now have until Dec. 9 to apply. The original deadline was set for Wednesday.

Applicants to NYC Lab School for Collaborative Studies and Millennium High School, who were directly affected by the glitch tied to a new tool produced by MIT, have until Jan. 10. The new deadlines represent at least the third major tech mishap affecting public school students in the last year. An education department official downplayed the problem, calling it an “initial implementation issue” affecting “a small percentage of students.”

New York City’s public high school admissions process is notoriously complex and high stakes. Eighth graders can apply to 400 high schools in the city, ranking their choices, but admissions criteria vary.

Last summer, New York City public schools announced the debut of the new tool that would give families a better sense of their chances of getting into certain schools.

The “chance of offer” app, developed in partnership with MIT, promised to be especially useful for students applying to the city’s most popular and selective schools. It purported to crunch a student’s randomly assigned lottery number, along with “admissions characteristics” including borough, grades and admissions method. Families could then use information about the likelihood of an offer to decide whether and where to rank schools on their applications.

But in recent days, some students applying to NYC Lab School for Collaborative Studies and Millennium High School received notices that they were given the wrong information about their odds.

“We’re proud to provide resources like the new chance of offer tool, which help to provide more guidance and insight as students make exciting decisions about where they’d like to attend high school,” said education department spokesperson Jenna Lyle. “While we address an initial implementation issue, we are glad that families are finding the tool helpful and are always eager to hear from families about how the tool can be refined. This issue, which only impacts a small percentage of students, has been resolved, and we apologize for this inconvenience.”

Earlier this fall, the education department delayed the launch of middle school applications because of technical problems with the MySchools portal. And in February, many families struggled to log on for remote learning during a snow day. There have also been multiple breaches of students’ data.

Public high school admissions consultant Elissa Stein said other recent changes – including allowing families to apply to as many high schools as they want this year – made the byzantine process more overwhelming, even before the glitch. “It’s even more complicated and overwhelming,” said Stein, who runs a business called High School 411.