At a Glance
A small, selective midtown high school where Hispanic and Black families form the core community in one of Manhattan's wealthiest zip codes.
Best suited for
Families looking for a small, screened high school where their child won't get lost in the shuffle — and who don't need the neighborhood itself to match their family profile to feel at home.
Overall Rating
Rating = average of 4-year graduation, English Regents college-ready and Regents completion · DOE 2025 report
Bands are Motley's thresholds on a 0–100 scale, not New York State performance levels.
How this is scored→What stands out
- A 25% offer rate on 71 seats makes Murray Hill Academy meaningfully selective for a screened district school.
- Zero suspensions paired with 96% teacher-principal trust signal an unusually calm, collaborative climate.
- Dedicated ELL support and Spanish language programming run alongside AP courses, so supports and acceleration coexist.
- With 247 students, this is small enough that teachers likely know every face — a real contrast to the larger zoned high schools.
- A 24% IEP enrollment reflects genuine inclusion rather than selection-driven homogeneity.
Things to consider
- Survey response rates are very low (8% of families, 17 teachers), so the high satisfaction numbers should be read as directional rather than definitive.
- No school-specific proficiency data appears here, so academic outcomes can't be benchmarked against peers from this profile alone.
- Average class size of 25.8 is right at the district norm — don't expect seminar-style intimacy in every period.
- The economic and demographic gap between the student body and the surrounding blocks is real; think through commute logistics before committing.
- Program richness scores modestly (59.3/100), so this isn't a school overflowing with electives or specialty tracks.
Based on 2024-25 data
School SummaryDistrict 2
Within District 2, the names most parents hear are the elementary standouts like Lower Lab and Manhattan New School, but at the high school level Murray Hill Academy carves out a distinct niche as a small, screened option that pairs selectivity and inclusion in ways the larger zoned schools don't.
Academics
No school-level ELA or math proficiency figures appear in the data, so direct benchmarking against the district's 73% ELA and 73% math averages isn't possible here. What is visible: an academic menu built around AP courses, a humanities track, and dedicated ELL support alongside Spanish language offerings, with a 25% offer rate that makes the school meaningfully selective. The 24% IEP enrollment and 82.6 economic need index signal that selectivity hasn't translated into a homogeneous student body.
Culture
The climate numbers are warm — parent satisfaction at 94% edges the district's 92%, teacher-principal trust hits 96%, and teacher collegial trust is at 100% with zero suspensions logged. That paints a calm, collaborative school day. The honest caveat: only 23 families responded (an 8% response rate) and just 17 teachers chimed in, so these figures reflect a small slice of the community rather than a deep survey. Still, the zero suspensions and high teacher trust are concrete signals worth taking seriously.
Community
Murray Hill Academy's student body is 48% Hispanic, 26% Black, 11% Asian, and 8% White — a profile that reflects District 2's broader diversity far more than the immediate Murray Hill-Kips Bay census tract, where incomes and education levels run well above city norms. The 82.6 economic need index says roughly 8 in 10 students come from low-income households even as the surrounding blocks post a 7.9% poverty rate. In practice, most families here commute in rather than walk over from the doorman buildings next door.
Neighborhood
Murray Hill-Kips Bay is one of Manhattan's more affluent enclaves — median household income over $137,000, more than four in five adults holding a bachelor's degree, and a homeownership rate around 28% in a city built mostly for renters. Households with children under 18 make up just 7.6% of the area, which means the blocks around the school skew toward young professionals and longtime residents more than young families. The school community is the neighborhood-within-a-neighborhood here.
33 St on the 6 line is about a 2-minute walk, 28 St on the 6 is around 6 minutes, and Grand Central-42 St on the S train is roughly 9 minutes away — three solid subway options within easy range.
Survey Results
NYC School Survey (2025) · 23 families responded (8% rate)
Programs & Activities
Admissions Demand
Most students are admitted through the high school admissions process as 8th graders. Other students who are 15-16 years of age, have fewer than 8 credits at the time of admission, and have attended another high school for only one year are admitted to the transfer program. We also welcome, and admit on grade level, 10th grade students to our Murray Hill Academy learning community.
Racial & Ethnic Diversity
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Discipline
NYSED Student & Educator Database
Economic Need & Special Populations
How to get in, step by step
High school (9th grade)
High school is one citywide application, made in 8th grade. Murray Hill Academy admits through one program, and each one has its own admissions method:
- Murray Hill AcademyEd. Opt.
High school application
- Opened
- Tue, Oct 6
- Closes
- Fri, Dec 4
- Offers
- Wed, Mar 3
The DOE’s published dates.
- 1Apply on MySchools during the high school application, in 8th grade.
- 2Educational Option programs fill in equal shares across three reading levels, half by the school's ranking and half by lottery.
- 3Rank programs in true preference order — the match places your child in the highest-ranked one that offers a seat.
Open houses and tours
Open house
Wed, Nov 4, · 8:30 AM · In person
Open house
Fri, Nov 13, · 12:00 PM · Virtual
Open house
Wed, Nov 18, · 12:00 PM · In person
Open house
Mon, Nov 23, · 12:30 PM · Virtual
From the MySchools admissions calendar, checked weekly.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Murray Hill Academy a good school?
- On Motley, Murray Hill Academy earns an overall rating of 72/100 — the average of the school's four-year graduation rate, the share of its students scoring college-ready (70+) on the English Regents, and its Regents completion rate, shown out of 100.
- What grades does Murray Hill Academy serve?
- Murray Hill Academy serves grades 9 to 12.
- How do students get into Murray Hill Academy?
- Murray Hill Academy uses the Educational Option (Ed-Opt) method, ranking applicants across performance levels so seats go to a mix of abilities.
- Is Murray Hill Academy public, charter, or private?
- Murray Hill Academy is a public school in NYC Community School District 2.
- What neighborhood is Murray Hill Academy in?
- Murray Hill Academy is in Murray Hill-Kips Bay, Manhattan.