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Many of New York City’s eighth grade families breathed a sigh of relief after submitting high school applications last month.
But some faced a fresh jolt of panic in recent weeks, as multiple schools that require auditions or essays emailed families asking them to resend their materials and raising concerns that technical snafus could prevent scores of applications from being considered.
LaGuardia High School, a top performing arts campus, sent messages to some families asking them to resend materials directly to the school. Staffers at Beacon High School have been unable to view hundreds of student essays, which are required for admission, because of problems opening the files, according to several people with knowledge of the situation. At Manhattan’s School of the Future, officials reached out to more than 100 families to resubmit essays that count for the entirety of a student’s application.
New York City has an unusually large share of high schools that admit students based on their academic or artistic abilities. Families can choose among more than 700 programs, submitting their school rankings through a centralized website called MySchools. Dozens of programs require additional materials for admission, such as artwork portfolios, video auditions, and essays.
Staffers at multiple schools said they saw a significant increase this year in the number of students whose application materials they were unable to access through MySchools, a platform that has experienced technical problems in the past.
Education Department officials contended there were no systemic technical glitches with the website and pointed to a number of reasons that a file might not properly upload to MySchools. Using a symbol like a pound sign or underscore in the document title, using a browser other than Google Chrome, using a phone rather than a computer, uploading a file that’s too big, or closing the browser before the document is fully submitted could all interfere with the file fully uploading, officials said.
Manhattan mom Stephanie Little uploaded her son’s portfolio of artwork, including drawings and a video statement, to the MySchools portal, according to screenshots reviewed by Chalkbeat. But earlier this month, she received a message from Gramercy Arts High School, one of the programs her son applied to, that claimed she had not uploaded her son’s required portfolio.
“It would be nice to have some confidence that when you’re going to upload to a central portal that it’s going to work as advertised,” said Little. She received a request to resubmit the materials. “If you’re going to make the system like this, shouldn’t it at least work?”
Little swiftly emailed her son’s materials directly to the school, and Gramercy officials confirmed that they received the portfolio.
The exchange prompted Little to reach out to a handful of other programs her son applied to that require supplemental materials. “If one school is having a problem, what’s to say another school isn’t?” Little wondered. Staffers at Gramercy declined to comment.
Most of the other campuses confirmed they could see her son’s submissions, but one his top choices, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts High School in Queens, responded that they were “unable to confirm” that they could review the materials.
Little resent them directly to the school.
Application problems increased this year
School officials and observers said it’s not unusual to experience some difficulties accessing supplemental application materials. But staffers at multiple campuses said this year’s technical problems were more pronounced.
At Beacon High School, where a supplemental essay counts for 80% of a student’s application, officials have been unable to view hundreds of students’ essays out of thousands of submissions, according to several people with knowledge of the situation.
That represents a big jump compared with prior years, sources said, requiring the school to reach out to individual families to ask for materials and keep track of which ones have been submitted, a painstaking process that is not complete.
At School of the Future, Principal Stacy Goldstein said the school has not been able to view about 110 out of 1,432 supplemental essays, affecting roughly 8% of applicants. The essay counts for 100% of a student’s application.
The Education Department’s central enrollment office offered as much support as it could and advised her to reach out to the affected families to have them resubmit their essays directly to the school, Goldstein said. Still, only about 50 of the 110 resubmitted their materials so far.
“This wasn’t an issue before,” Goldstein noted.
Education Dept officials say all materials will be reviewed
Families may not see or respond quickly enough to requests to resubmit, potentially costing them a chance at admission. At LaGuardia High School, officials wrote to one family on Jan. 2 asking them to resubmit materials by Jan. 5, according to emails reviewed by Chalkbeat. (The assistant principal who sent the message declined to comment.)
“What if a parent doesn’t get an email or doesn’t see an email? They don’t know this is happening,” said Elissa Stein, who runs High School 411, an admissions consulting service. “Families that have schools on their applications might not be considered because of this.”
Education Department spokesperson Jenna Lyle noted that most students are able to upload materials without issue. Families can confirm that their materials were correctly submitted by contacting their current or prospective school counselor or logging on to MySchools and downloading the materials a family previously submitted to make sure they’re viewable.
Department officials added that when families receive admission offers in early March, their results will show how each school scored the application materials. If a family does not receive a score, Lyle said officials would work with the family and school to ensure the materials will be reviewed and potentially make an admissions offer.
Still, some families are frustrated with the process.
The mom who received a three-day deadline to resubmit materials to LaGuardia and spoke on condition of anonymity said she wasn’t too stressed about the situation because the school is not her child’s first choice. Yet the back-and-forth left her feeling uneasy.
“I’m just submitting to the chaos of this system with an attitude of acceptance and helplessness,” she said.
Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.
Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.
