Mar 31, 2009 7:28 pm US/Eastern
Frustration Mounts Over NYC High School Placement
Even The City's Best And The Brightest Are Having A Difficult Time Getting Into The Schools Of Their Choice
Reporting
Cindy Hsu
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Thousands of families throughout New York City have no idea where their kids will be going to high school in the fall.
The process of applying to public schools is turning out to be incredibly painful for even the top students.
Alexander Tonhazy has been playing piano since he was 5. He performed at Carnegie Hall at 10, and is a straight-A student, and yet was not admitted to any of the four public high schools where he applied.
"I thought why didn't they want me? I don't mean to brag, but I get good grades, I play piano, I play basketball," Tonhazy said.
Academically, Alex scored in the top 2 percent on state tests, and his parents say not getting matched to any of his chosen schools has been tough.
"The other night he was up in the middle of the night. He said he had a nightmare. He dreamt that he was a failure and that he was homeless," Frank Tonhazy said.
While 7,500 students are in the same boat as Alex with no match with a high school, the Department of Education said the admissions process is improving.
Back in 2004, 72 percent of students were matched with one of their top five choices. Last year it was up to 86 percent. The stats on students getting no match, went from 16 percent down to 9 percent.
Pamela Wheaton is with insideschools.org, a non-profit that helps parents get through the confusing process of finding a school for their child. She said the problem is that everyone wants to go to the same schools.
"There just simply are not enough seats in the good schools for high achievers," Wheaton said.
You'll find more than 700 high school programs to choose from, in the school directory, and each school has its own selection criteria from academics to interviews. On insideschools.org, there's a lot of information on schools that still have room for new students.
On Tuesday night at Martin Luther King Jr. high, the thousands of students who did not get matched are invited to an information session to learn more about the 100 schools that still have seats available.
The Department of Education said all students will be matched with a high school by the end of next month.
For more information on schools in your area, and the admissions process, please click
here and
here.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
2009 Celebrity Deaths, July-Dec.
Click to enlarge
U.S. House Passes Health Care Reform Bill 24 mins ago 
Stumble It!
