A Free Spreadsheet to Help You Choose NYC High Schools for Your 8th Grader
Leto built a free spreadsheet that scores up to 50 NYC public high school programs on what matters to your family, so you + your 8th grader know where to start.
How the NYC High School Fit Score works
Leto's NYC High School Fit Score tool builds an editable spreadsheet of up to 50 NYC public high school programs, each scored on the preferences you provide:
- How much distance from home matters
- Whether school size matters, and which sizes you'd prefer
- Which boroughs to include
- Which program areas interest your 8th grader
- Which sports interest your 8th grader
You can also write a few sentences about your child, in your own words (that part is optional). Leto uses it once to number the schools in your spreadsheet by how well each fits what you wrote, with a sentence on why, so you know which to look at first. It won't add or remove schools, or change any Fit Score.
What's in the spreadsheet
Download the spreadsheet straight from the page. It's usually ready in 10-15 seconds, it opens in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers, and it's yours to keep. Save it when it downloads: the download link works for an hour, or for 30 minutes after your first download.
An illustrative sample of the Matched Schools tab. Your own spreadsheet fills in real schools and programs, scored on what you tell it.
The spreadsheet has four tabs:
- Matched Schools: each program's Fit Score, admissions method and priorities, borough, enrollment, a note on why it fits, and a link to the program in MySchools.
- About This Spreadsheet: where the data comes from and how to read it.
- My Priorities: the choices you made, with a priority for each that you can change.
- Scoring Settings: the distance and size bands and the interest-area and sports lists behind the scores.
Change a priority or a setting and every Fit Score recalculates. The list of schools stays the same, and the rows don't re-sort on their own; to change which programs are in it, build a new one.
The spreadsheet includes the specialized high schools and LaGuardia High School programs, which have their own admissions: the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test and auditions. Charter, transfer, private and parochial schools are not included.
Why Leto built this tool
New York City has hundreds of public high school programs. Each program has its own admissions method, its own priorities and its own size, and the details live in different places. It's easy to start with a few names you've heard of and a browser full of tabs.
Parents need help with this. The spreadsheet starts from what matters to your family, shows which programs line up with it, and keeps your research in one place you can edit.
It's the same idea behind everything Leto makes. Leto helps parents keep up with school: it reads the school emails in your inbox, from the school, the PTA, teachers and activities, and pulls out what you need to do and when. The spreadsheet is free, and there's no account to create.
How to use it to choose schools
Use it to decide which schools to look into, not to decide for you. Start near the top of the Matched Schools tab, open the promising ones in MySchools, go to open houses, and talk to families who know the schools.
A few things to keep in mind:
- A Fit Score measures how well a program fits what you told it. It is not a school-quality rating, and it doesn't predict admission.
- MySchools is the authority for current admissions requirements, priorities and deadlines. Check each program there before you rank it.
- Distance is straight-line distance from your home, not travel time. Look up the commute for any school you're serious about.
- The data is official NYC Public Schools data, with its dates listed on the tool's page.
How many NYC high schools should your 8th grader apply to?
Your 8th grader can add any number of programs to the application. The NYC Department of Education recommends applying to at least 12.
When it's time to rank, the spreadsheet has a column for that. From its About tab:
Put the programs on the Matched Schools tab in your true order of preference, in the "Your MySchools Order" column. You can add any number of programs to your high school application; the NYC Department of Education recommends students apply to at least 12. Ranking a program lower cannot hurt your chance at it, schools never see your order, and the match never skips a choice.
Then enter that order in MySchools, where the application actually happens.
When are NYC high school applications due?
Applications open on October 6, 2026, and the deadline is December 4, 2026. Check the current dates on the NYC Public Schools high school page.
If you have an 8th grader, build your free spreadsheet, and share the link with another family who has one. It can save them hours of research.
Where this started
Leto's founder, Keith Harper, has built a spreadsheet like this before.
"In 2017, when my four-year-old was applying to pre-K, I built a spreadsheet and shared it with other parents. Dozens of parents reached out, and nine years later parents are still downloading it. My little kid has grown up and is now applying to high school, so I thought: let's create a tool for other parents to use, because let's be honest: NYC high school admissions are a complicated affair. That's what Leto is all about—building helpful tools for parents." — Keith Harper, founder of Leto