High School of Economics and Finance

Standardized proficiency numbers aren't in our dataset for this school, so the academic picture has to be read from proxies. The school is one of the city's screened "specialized" high schools — its sole program is Economics and Finance, with a 158-seat screened track that drew 1,911 applicants for an 8.3% offer rate, suggesting families see it as a meaningful academic launchpad. AP coursework and ELL support are both on offer, and the class size (25.8) sits right at the District 2 average, so the average student is unlikely to feel either lost in a crowd or unusually cosseted. What we can say with confidence: the teachers rate instructional quality at 93%, well above the District 2 average of roughly 90%, which tracks with the school's selective reputation.

Zero suspensions in a school of 714 is striking against the District 2 average of about 0.3%, and parent-reported trust runs unusually high — 96% parent-teacher trust and 97% parent-principal trust, both well above the district norms. Teachers also report strong collegial trust (88%) and confidence in instruction (93%). The honest caveat: the family survey response rate is only 10% (61 respondents) and only 25 teachers completed the teacher survey, so these glowing numbers reflect a self-selecting slice of the community, not necessarily the full picture.

The student body is majority Hispanic (49%), with substantial Asian (23%) and Black (18%) enrollment and a small White (8%) contingent — a diversity index of 71% that looks more like the city as a whole than like the surrounding Financial District. The economic need index of 75.5% tells you most students come from households experiencing financial pressure, which is a sharp mismatch with the neighborhood's median household income of $192,000. Roughly 1 in 5 students has an IEP, and ELL support is built into the program, so this is a school that has to — and clearly does — serve a wide range of learners under one roof.

The school sits in the Financial District-Battery Park City, where nearly 83% of adults have a bachelor's degree or higher and most residents are well into their careers. Children are rare here — only about 14% of households have kids under 18 — so the school is genuinely one of the few places in the immediate area where you'll find families with teenagers. The neighborhood skews toward condo and rental living rather than ownership (roughly 25% own, the rest rent), and weekday foot traffic is dominated by office workers rather than residents.

The Wall St (4, 5), Cortlandt St (R, W), and Rector St (1) stations are all about a three-minute walk away, so getting here by subway is genuinely easy from almost anywhere in Manhattan or the outer boroughs.