← All eight specialized high schools
The Brooklyn Latin School
The only specialized school running the full IB Diploma, with Latin for all.
Where it is
Williamsburg, Brooklyn — a deliberately small school in a neighbourhood setting.
How big it is
About 800 students — small classes, seminar tables, and teachers who know every name.
Brooklyn Latin is the deliberate outlier: a classical education inside the specialized system. Every student studies Latin, classes run as discussion-heavy seminars with declamation — public speaking — built into the programme, and it is the only school of the eight offering the full International Baccalaureate Diploma, with its extended essay and oral examinations.
Its cutoff is usually the lowest of the eight, which misleads people in both directions: it is not the easy option — the IB workload is famously heavy — and it is not a consolation prize. It suits a student who wants writing, discussion and structure; a student who wants nine engineering labs should look at Tech instead.
The cutoff, with its year attached
"2026 Admissions" means the exam sat in Fall 2025 — a finished cycle, published by NYC Public Schools. The Fall 2026 exam decides 2027 Admissions, and its cutoffs do not exist yet. A cutoff is the score of the LAST student admitted — an output of one year's applicants and seats, not a pass mark anyone set.
Lowest qualifying score, 2026 Admissions (8th grade)
495
Source: NYC Public Schools, checked 2026-08-17 · NYC Public Schools ↗ · How cutoffs actually work →
How a seat here is actually won
- One exam, nothing else. No grades, essays, interviews or attendance records — admission to this school is decided by the SHSAT alone, for 8th graders and first-time 9th graders who live in NYC.
- Rank by real preference. Offers walk down the citywide score list, each student getting the highest school on their OWN ranked list with a seat left — putting this school lower 'to be safe' can only cost you a seat you would have won.
- Registration closes weeks before the test and is not automatic. The dates, and the three ways to register, are on the test-date page.
Registration deadline and dates →Sit a free full-length practice test →
The official Fall 2026 SHSAT will be computer-adaptive. SHSATus currently provides fixed-form digital practice based on DOE-published content areas and question types. It does not reproduce the DOE's adaptive item-selection or scoring algorithm.
Last checked: