A severely overcrowded Queens high school took top honors in the city’s annual popularity contest.
Despite being at almost double its 2,600-seat capacity, Francis Lewis HS in Flushing received 12,602 applications from eighth-graders for the 2008 school year – more than any other school in the five boroughs, according to Department of Education stats.
Nearby Benjamin N. Cardozo HS, also in Queens, came in second with 11,926 applications, followed by Midwood in Brooklyn, Forest Hills in Queens and Edward Murrow in Brooklyn.
Francis Lewis, the city’s biggest school, offers special law, humanities and math and science programs in addition to its standard admission program.
Last year, Francis Lewis was second in overall applications behind James Madison HS in Brooklyn, which fell to fifth this year.
In terms of individual programs, the most popular was Edward Murrow’s communications-arts program, which received 6,363 applications.
Herbert Lehman HS in The Bronx was second with its Academy for Computer Technology, and academic powerhouse Townsend Harris HS in Queens was third at 5,197 with its “intensive academic humanities” offering.
On the other end of the scale – usually dominated by newer, small schools that haven’t turned up on students’ radar yet – were some well-established institutions that simply failed to attract many applicants.
They include Jamaica HS in Queens, which garnered only 1,433 applications, and New Dorp HS in Staten Island, which drew 2,619.
During the spring application process, high school-bound students rank their top 12 choices, applying to each one. Schools, in turn, rank the students, who are then matched with the highest-ranking school that ranked them.
For the 2008-2009 school year, 80,566 students, mostly eighth-graders, applied.
Students at top-ranked Francis Lewis had nothing but nice words for the school, despite the overcrowding.
“It has a lot of extracurricular activities and a lot of language programs, like French,” said senior Grace Zhu, 17, adding that the top-rated sports teams also attract a lot of attention.