Selective Enrollment High School Admissions Process

The Points System

CPS uses a 640-point system for Selective Enrollment High School and Choice Program admissions, based on two factors:

• 320 points for seventh grade grades: CPS will multiply your child’s final 7th grade GPA by 80. The GPA includes their grades for core subjects.
• 320 points for the CPS HSAT: CPS will multiply your child’s PreACT 9 Secure composite score by 10. The composite score is the average of the English, math, and reading scores (while students are required to take the science section, its score is not included in the composite).

You can read more about this process, bonus geographical points for IB programs, and the tiebreaker process, here.

Score Cutoffs

Thirty percent of seats are filled based on points alone. The other 70% are filled based on a combination of points and rank within socio-economic tier groups. There is one set of cutoff scores for Selective Enrollment schools, and another for Choice schools. Because of the updated points system, we are not sure what the cutoff scores will be.

Tiebreaker

If students have the same total number of points (composed of final seventh grade GPA and their HSAT score) and there aren’t enough seats, CPS will go through a tie-breaker process.

For Selective Enrollment High Schools: First, CPS will compare the students’ PreACT 9 Secure math scores. If one is higher than the other, the student with the higher score will move ahead of the other student in the line. If their math scores are the same, CPS will rank by their reading scores and move the student with the higher score ahead in the line. If both the math and reading scores are the same, “a random computerized lottery” will determine where each student will be placed in line. 

For Choice Programs: CPS will use a "computerized lottery" to determine the order for tied students.

Waitlists

The waitlist process differs for Selective Enrollment and Choice schools. 

Principal Discretion

If your child is not accepted into their top-choice selective enrollment school, they can choose to apply for a seat via Principal Discretion. Basically, the principal of each selective enrollment high school has the opportunity to choose a handful of students to enroll in their school. Interested students must complete an extensive application process and the students selected will be notified in the spring. Selection for Principal Discretion is very competitive, but it's worth trying if your child has their heart set on a particular school! 

Ranking Schools

When your child applies to Selective Enrollment High Schools, they will be asked to rank their school choices. CPS will attempt to place them in their top-choice school. If they do not qualify for that school, CPS will see if they qualify for their second choice school and so on. This means that your child should rank their top choice school first, even if it's a long shot. If they don't qualify for that school, CPS will simply move on to the next school on the list. 

The CPS Application

CPS has provided a helpful set of directions for filling out and submitting your application. 

Prepping for the CPS High School Admissions Test

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