Irwin Altman Middle School 172: SHSAT testers and specialized high school offers, 2022-2026
District 26 · Queens · DBN 26Q172
- 8th graders, 2026
- 270
- Sat the SHSAT
- 124
- Took the test
- 46%
- Offers
- 20
SHSAT 2026: registration October 6–30; the test is November 14–15 (School Day November 18, 9th grade November 21).
For families choosing a middle school
Getting in (Fall 2026 admissions)
In Fall 2026 middle school admissions, Irwin Altman Middle School 172 admitted sixth graders through 4 programs (Open, Screened, ASD/ACES Program, Zone Priority).
Its most requested program, District-wide program, had 39 general education applicants for 22 seats, 2 applicants per seat in the DOE's count.
| Program | Admissions method | General education seats | Students with disabilities | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seats | Applicants | Per seat | All filled | Seats | Applicants | Per seat | ||
| District-wide programOpen to New York City residents | Open | 22 | 39 | 2 | Yes | 8 | 7 | 1 |
| Irwin Altman Middle School 172 Screened ProgramOpen to New York City residents | Screened | 66 | 117 | 2 | Yes | 26 | 12 | 0 |
| Irwin Altman Middle School ASD Horizon ProgramOpen to students currently enrolled in the ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) Horizon program. If you are applying to ASD programs for the first time, please visit www.schools.nyc.gov/specializedprograms for the application and contact ASDprograms@schools.nyc.gov with questions. | ASD/ACES Program | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Irwin Altman Middle School 172Open to New York City residents | Zone Priority | 145 | 133 | 1 | No | 55 | 21 | 0 |
Where its students go next. The DOE lists Bayside High School, Benjamin N. Cardozo High School and Queens High School of Teaching, Liberal Arts and the Sciences as the high schools its students most often attend.
Fall 2026 admissions: families applied in fall 2025 for sixth grade in September 2026. Seats, applicants and applicants per seat are the DOE’s, from its Fall 2026 Middle School Data file on InfoHub (saved by the DOE 2026-09-18), the same figures MySchools shows as last year’s demand. The DOE counts applicants this way: “MySchools shows the true number of applicants who were considered for a seat in a program, meaning this number excludes applicants who matched to a more preferred choice from their application.” (schools.nyc.gov, read October 4, 2026). Applicants per seat is the DOE’s own figure, rounded to a whole number, so 0 means fewer than one applicant for every two seats. “All filled” is the DOE’s flag for whether every seat in that group was filled; “n/a” means the file gives no figure. Seats and demand change every year; this page does not turn them into a chance of admission.
In 2026 admissions, 270 eighth graders at Irwin Altman Middle School 172 applied to high school and 124 of them sat the SHSAT, a participation rate of 46%. Across District 26 the rate was 60%, so this school sits 14 points below it. Citywide, among public middle schools that published both counts, 39% of eighth graders sat the test. It ranks 5th of 7 in District 26 on that measure. Its eighth grade is smaller than most in District 26: 5th of 7, against a median of 288.
20 students from the school received an offer to one of the eight testing specialized high schools, 16% of its testers. Across the city, 4,023 offers went to 26,123 testers that year, 15.4%. It is the 49th highest count of the 111 middle schools whose 2026 offer count was large enough to be published.
The number of testers went from 164 in 2022 admissions to 124 in 2026, down 40. Offers went from 22 in 2022 to 20 in 2026, with a high of 29 in 2023.
In District 26, the most offers in 2026 admissions went to students from J.H.S. 067 Louis Pasteur (93), out of 329 published for the district as a whole.
Year by year
| Admissions year | 8th graders | Sat the SHSAT | Took the test | Offers | Discovery |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 318 | 164 | 52% | 22 | 5 or fewer (not published) |
| 2023 | 265 | 138 | 52% | 29 | 5 or fewer (not published) |
| 2024 | 282 | 140 | 50% | 29 | 5 or fewer (not published) |
| 2025 | 256 | 127 | 50% | 26 | 5 or fewer (not published) |
| 2026 | 270 | 124 | 46% | 20 | 5 or fewer (not published) |
| District 26, 2026 | 1,912 | 1,153 | 60% | at least 329 | |
| New York City, 2026 | 26,123 | 4,023 |
“2026 admissions” means students who sat the SHSAT as eighth graders in the 2025-26 school year and received offers for fall 2026, as in the DOE’s Fall 2026 SHSAT and Discovery Summary. “8th graders” counts the school’s eighth graders who applied to high school; “took the test” divides testers by that count when both are published. The district row adds the published counts of its schools, so its offers are a floor; the city row is the DOE’s own total. “Not listed” means the school is absent from that year’s file.
Schools in District 26 with a similar share of testers
The schools just above and below Irwin Altman Middle School 172 when District 26’s schools are ordered by the share of eighth graders who sat the SHSAT in 2026 admissions.
- J.H.S. 067 Louis Pasteur77% of 332 sat the test · 93 offers
- J.H.S. 216 George J. Ryan68% of 512 sat the test · 86 offers
- J.H.S. 074 Nathaniel Hawthorne63% of 380 sat the test · 83 offers
- M.S. 158 Marie Curie52% of 288 sat the test · 47 offers
- P.S./I.S. 26629% of 63 sat the test · offers: 5 or fewer (not published)
- P.S./ IS 178 Holliswood27% of 67 sat the test · offers: 5 or fewer (not published)
See how this school ranks
In 2026 admissions, Irwin Altman Middle School 172 received 20 specialized high school offers for 124 students who sat the SHSAT: 16.1 per 100. That ranks it #27 of 38 in Queens and #68 of 105 citywide, among schools with at least 30 test-takers.
Best middle schools in Queens for the SHSAT
Compare with…
What to do with these numbers
Your child is in 8th grade now
Registration closes October 30. Test day: November 18.
November 18 is the SHSAT School Day; the weekend sittings are November 14/15 and November 21. Whatever the count at Irwin Altman Middle School 172, the decision to sit the test is yours, and a scored official practice test tells you more about your own child than any school figure.
- How to register for the SHSAT, step by step
- Score an official SHSAT practice test, free
- Book an SHSAT session
Dates read on schools.nyc.gov on October 19, 2026.
Your child is in 6th or 7th grade
A 7th grader sits the SHSAT in fall 2027; a 6th grader, in fall 2028.
The test comes in the fall of 8th grade, so there is no deadline yet, and that is the point: starting now leaves time to work on reading and math at a steady pace instead of in the last weeks. The counts above show what happened at Irwin Altman Middle School 172, not where your child stands. We start with a scored official practice test, which does.
Your child is in 5th grade
Middle school applications are open until December 11.
Start with how many families applied for each seat last year: the DOE publishes it program by program. The middle school you choose is also where the SHSAT years happen, so ask the schools on your list how many of their students sit the test and how they prepare them.
- How hard Irwin Altman Middle School 172 is to get into
- SHSAT preparation: what it involves and when to start
Dates for fall 2027 entry read on schools.nyc.gov on October 3, 2026.
Irwin Altman Middle School 172 is a school figure. Your child needs a score.
Figures from Specialized High Schools Admissions Tests Results (school counts) and Specialized High Schools Admissions Overall Summary (city totals), New York City Department of Education, as listed for DBN 26Q172; 2026 figures from the DOE’s Fall 2026 SHSAT and Discovery Summary on InfoHub, not yet on NYC Open Data. Rebuilt 2026-10-04. Method and caveats are set out on the index page. Back to all 735 middle schools.