Magna Cum Laude

Hunter College Schools: For Fortunate New Yorkers

Volume 3 / Issue 3 / Spring 2003

It is likely that a third-grade math scholar at Hunter College Elementary School can deftly calculate a student’s odds of gaining entry to New York City’s prestigious school for the gifted. Even a younger student could offer the advice that it is certainly a long shot to get in.

Each year over 1,000 very bright young candidates take a standardized IQ test for a seat at the Hunter College Campus Schools, which they hope to attend through high school. Since the only points of entry for the elementary school are the 16 nursery school and 32 kindergarten openings available each September, only a fraction of these best and brightest gain admission. A score in the 97th percentile (or the 98th in some years) on the Stanford-Binet test will move a prospect to round 2 in the admissions process. A seat is not assured, however, until the admissions committee reviews each child’s group and peer interactions and then performs the difficult task of whittling the still-large group to size.

One of the most selective schools of its kind in New York City, Hunter College Elementary is certainly worthy of this rigorous entry process. The school features innovative curriculum approaches, a distinguished faculty, and a myriad of extracurricular activities and clubs, all in a comfortable and cosmopolitan environment.

Chess classes, foreign-language study, instruction in the works of Shakespeare, and an advanced math curriculum are a few of the components of each student’s schedule from the earliest grades. Students at preprimary and primary levels concentrate on generating new perspectives through discovery; those in the first to third grades take on the application of learned concepts; and those in the fourth to sixth grades learn to experiment, investigate, and think independently, with teachers supporting and mentoring.

Seventh-graders continue their education at nearby Hunter College High School. About 2,500 new prospects, hoping to join them, vie for 240 openings (the only high school entry point) by taking an entrance exam and writing an essay or short story to admissions specifications. For the few who are admitted, the high school offers strong debate and chess clubs that travel to national competitions, winning sports teams, and devoted and excited classmates involved in all sorts of academics. In addition to the required curriculum, students have interesting and challenging electives to choose from, ranging from physiology and international relations to Russian and photography. During their senior year students can take a combination of Hunter High classes, Advanced Placement classes, and courses at area colleges, or they may engage in an internship.

The students here are phenomenal kids. They are interested in everything.
—Dr. David Laurenson, director, Hunter College Campus Schools

A week before the school year, at least a dozen students are on campus, working to ensure that the 12–15-page school newspaper is in incoming students’ hands on the first day of school. “These students work constantly to make the school the best it can be,” says Dr. David Laurenson, principal of Hunter College High School and director of Hunter College Campus Schools. “Intellectual and extracurricular activities are all important to the students here. . . . They are a well-rounded group of kids.”

Hunter College Campus Schools are an arm of the City University of New York system, are publicly funded, and charge no tuition. The Hunter schools are run as laboratory schools; they are used as research and demonstration centers and are administered by Hunter College. Students must be New York City residents. Strict rules mandate a Manhattan primary address for the student’s entire tenure at the Hunter schools.
—Susan Ludwig, M.A.

Susan Ludwig is a teacher and freelance writer who holds a master’s degree in educational leadership, with an emphasis in exceptional student education, from Florida Atlantic University.