Age: 14
Neighborhood: Brooklyn
Current School: Williamsburg Collegiate Charter School
First Round Choices: Brooklyn Technical High School or The Bronx High School of Science
Second Round Choices: The High School for Enterprise, Business, and Technology, Transit Tech High School, George Westinghouse Career,Technical Education High School
Admitted: Uncommon Charter High School
Shania Prescod, 14, an eighth-grader at Williamsburg Collegiate Charter School in Brooklyn, said went through the high school admissions process, hoping for either one of the elite specialized high schools or Brooklyn’s popular P-Tech early college school. But she was not matched with any school in the first or the second round.
Her mother, Ann Prescod, explained that neither she nor her daughter fully understood the complex application process. Another parent told her it wasn’t necessary to list 12 choices on the application, so she and Shania listed only four. Two of the four were among the most competitive schools in the city, Brooklyn Technical High School and The Bronx High School of Science, that each require high scores on a specialized application exam. Shania’s scores didn’t make the cut.
A third choice was P-Tech, a high-profile early college high school for 9th through 16th grade located in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
“Shania wanted to go to P-Tech, so much,” said Prescod, explaining that P-Tech became popular after President Obama visited a few years ago. In the second round, she went for four other science and technical high schools. None worked out.
Her last resort is the Uncommon Charter School that is the feeder school for her middle school charter. Meanwhile, Prescod said she would spend the year learning more about the choice system, and apply again next year.