Recently, with the increasing prevalence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, some eighth-grade students are turning to ChatGPT for help in writing their high school admission essays. In response to this trend, Beacon High School in Manhattan, a well-known institution, has made adjustments to its admission process. They now require applicants to come to the school in person to complete two essays, each consisting of 500 words, and submissions from home are no longer accepted.
Educators at Beacon High School have stated that this change is a result of noticing a growing number of “seemingly unreal” pieces when reviewing application essays in recent years. An anonymous teacher from Beacon remarked that many essays they have read in the past few years were very well-written and scored highly according to the school’s standards, yet they “didn’t sound like they were written by 12 or 13-year-olds.”
To address this issue, the school has published on its official website a plan to announce specific dates in November for eighth-grade students to come to the school and complete the essays on-site. The school has also released the essay prompts and grading criteria (rubric) in advance.
Competition for admission to Beacon High School is extremely fierce, with last year seeing 4,210 applicants vying for 282 spots, resulting in an acceptance rate of less than 7%. The middle school application season runs from October 7th to December 5th this year, with admission notifications expected to be sent out on March 5, 2026. The specific writing times for each applicant to complete the essays on-site have not been disclosed by the school yet.
In conjunction with the rule changes, there has been a shift in the weighting of the essay portion in the application process. The essay’s importance has been reduced from around 80% to 50%, with the remaining weight placed on seventh-grade core course grades.
During the high school application process in New York City, there are approximately 400 public high schools offering 700 programs. Out of these, over 20 programs, as a supplementary evaluation beyond the seventh-grade core course grades, use criteria such as application essays.
Additionally, around 24 schools require students to participate in auditions for their programs. Furthermore, eight specialized high schools utilize the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) as the sole criterion for admission.