Hunter College High School (HCHS) is a part of the Hunter College Campus Schools, the laboratory schools of the City University of New York administered by Hunter College.  The only entry years at Hunter College Campus Schools are Kindergarten for the Elementary School and Seventh Grade for the High School.

Below is general information for admission to the 7th grade at HCHS. Though we are a high school, HCHS is a 7-12 grade school. 7th grade is the sole entry point for HCHS. We do not accept inquiries or applications for any other grades than 7th grade. We do not accept students for 8th or 9th grade or transfer students for any grade.

HUNTER COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL ADMISSIONS PROCESS

Entrance to HCHS is by exam only. The exam is open only to students who are New York City residents. Students must qualify to take the Entrance Exam by achieving qualifying scores on 5th grade NY State-wide tests.  The qualifying score changes each year.

Students in independent and parochial schools must have scored in the 90th national percentile of the Reading Comprehension and Math tests used at their schools and have those scores reported directly to the Admissions office.

We will arrange a qualifying examination for students for whom no scores are available (if they were sick on the testing days or if their home school does not require annual testing), if the principal of the home school submits a letter of recommendation with evidence of the student’s academic qualifications to the Admissions office.

The best and fastest way to contact the Admissions Office with questions is to send an email to

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).  In your email, please include your name, your child’s name, your child’s school, and a daytime phone number where you can be reached.

Students who qualify for free or reduced price lunch may apply for a reduced administrative fee for the entrance exam. Applications must be accompanied by a money order for the reduced fee of $32.50, the completed Reduced Fee Application form and documentation for BOTH parents. If you receive a notice that your application has been rejected, you must pay the balance of the $65.00 administrative fee BY MONEY ORDER as soon as you receive notice. Without proper payment, your child’s application will be considered incomplete. Until payment is made, your child will not receive an admittance ticket for the exam. If you feel your application has been rejected in error, please send the appropriate documentation to support your request. Applications are often rejected when a tax return indicates assets (i.e. savings) that would enable a family to pay the fee, regardless of annual income.

If your child does not have the qualifying scores on the NY State exams or the 90th national percentile or above on tests used at his/her independent school, the application will be returned to you. There are no exceptions to the eligibility requirements and we will not respond to requests for exceptions in any case. 

THE ENTRANCE EXAM

The 2013 test will be given on JANUARY 11TH, 2013 at one of three locations:
1. HCHS at 94th St. between Park and Madison Avenues
2. Hunter College – West Building at 68th St.and Lexington Avenue
3. Hunter College – North Building at 69th St. between Park and Lexington Avenues

Your child will be assigned a location and room for the Exam. Mailings will include information about pick up and drop off and will refer students to comprehensive information about test day.

TESTING, SCORING and SELECTION

The Entrance Exam consists of two multiple-choice sections covering English and Math and a writing assignment. Students have three hours to complete the Exam. It is given once per year, with no make-up dates or rescheduling. For the 2012-2013 year, the Exam will be given on January 11th, 2013. In the event of inclement weather, the snow date is scheduled for January 18th, 2013.

The multiple-choice sections are computer-scored and hand-checked for accuracy. A cut off score is established, allowing the top approximately 500 scorers to have their essays read by a panel of HCHS English faculty. Essays are read “blind”; at all times, students are identified solely by their HCHS Identification numbers. Readers do not know the students’ identities at any point in the assessment process. The students who write the top approximately 170 essays are selected for admission to HCHS.

HCHS also maintains a wait list pool of 20 to 30 students. If admitted students decline admission or withdraw from HCHS prior to the beginning of 7th grade, students from the wait list will be offered admission at HCHS’s discretion. No students will be admitted from the wait list after 7th grade.

HCHS does not rescore exams, reread essays, or reconsider admissions decisions.  HCHS does not share or publish any portion of the Exam and does not endorse any test preparation service or agency.

PREPARING FOR THE EXAM

Below is a sample of the Hunter College High School (HCHS) Entrance Exam. This is a sample test, not an actual exam that was given in any year for admission to HCHS.

The exam is designed to assess your learning. No one test can give a complete picture of your skills and knowledge, but your exam provides us with a sample of your comprehension and problem solving, analytic and writing abilities. 

This test contains three sections: 60 multiple-choice English Language Arts questions, a Writing Assignment, and 35 multiple-choice Mathematics questions.  Each multiple-choice question is followed by five possible answers: A, B, C, D, or E. You must choose the best answer for each question.Students are given a total of three hours to complete the examination, including the Writing Assignment.

In the Grammar and Usage portion of the English Language Arts section, you will demonstrate your understanding of correct grammar and word use in the English language by identifying errors in a list of sentences that make up a paragraph.

In the Critical Reading portion, your reading comprehension will be assessed. You will answer questions about specific reading passages to show your ability to understand, interpret, and analyze a number of types of writing. You will read six passages of varying lengths. Each is followed by multiple choice questions about it. Every fifth line of each passage is numbered so that you can find the part the question refers to.  You are asked to read the passage and answer the
questions based on the content of the passage.

The passages in the Critical Reading section usually reflect a range of writing styles from different time periods. In this sample exam, all of the reading passages are older, allowing us to print them without costly special permissions. Each year, we secure limited permission to reprint more contemporary selections. In an actual exam you would read and answer questions about passages from a wider range of writing styles.

In the Writing Assignment section, you will write either an essay or an autobiographical piece (up to two pages) to demonstrate the originality, effectiveness, and use of detail in your writing. There is scrap paper in the test booklet where you can jot down, outline thoughts, or compose a draft before writing the full assignment.

The Mathematics section tests your problem-solving ability. Students solve a variety of problems, including multi-step ones involving: estimation; computations with fractions, decimals, percents, and whole numbers (not negative numbers); rules of divisibility; simple probability; rate; average; ratio; time; money; area of shaded regions; perimeter; counting; visual and numerical pattern recognition; and three dimensional figures.

We hope that this sample exam gives you an opportunity to prepare for the HCHS entrance exam, to know what kinds of questions to
expect, and to feel your best on test day.

Good luck!

VISITING HUNTER COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL

We do not have a visitation program for prospective students. Those offered admission or placed on the wait list will be invited to Hunter Day on the afternoon of March 5th, 2013, a program introducing parents and students to all aspects of academic and student life at the school. Information about Hunter Day accompanies all letters of admission and offers of places on the wait list.

Students are required to accept or decline their offers of admission within one week of the Hunter Day program.

For a more in-depth look at what HCHS offers in the classroom, there is extensive information about the curriculum available on the HCHS Homepage. See the 2011-2012 Course Catalog, among other options, on that page.