As you look around the Boston Latin School hallways today, the students in your view were likely admitted into BLS through different admissions policies. No matter which policy is used, however, there always seems to be someone who is at a disadvantage. Some students with perfect Independent School Entrance Exam (ISEE) scores were not given a spot at BLS due to living in a neighborhood or attending a school with more advantages. On the other hand, students who are in schools that are unable to provide adequate resources to prepare for the exam schools are left unprepared for the entrance test and academic rigor of BLS after they are accepted.
In the past few years, the admissions policy has changed several times to achieve equity. For the 2020-2021 school year, admissions were only based on GPA and performance on the ISEE exam, prioritizing high-scoring students. For the year after, 20 percent of seats were given to students with top GPAs, and the rest of the seats were based on zip code. Starting from that year, the policy has shifted toward a more complex process by providing extra points to certain geographic tiers, backgrounds and financial situations. Even with these changes, however, equity has not been achieved.
The admission policy for the 2026 to 2027 school year, however, makes good progress. In November 2025, the Boston School Committee approved a new policy that reserves 20 percent of seats for top scorers, eliminates bonus points for high-poverty schools and reduces bonus points for students experiencing homelessness or living in public housing.
This new policy does not completely eliminate the points system, as some extra points are still given to students experiencing special circumstances, like homelessness. The key distinction, however, is that it does so without giving large amounts of points based on the poverty level of schools to students, a system that often could make or break a student’s admission. Manali Rao (VI) expresses her opinion that “the school ‘poverty points’ […] gave students an unfair advantage, because a lot of people [at] my [previous] school didn’t need that.”
Some may claim that this new policy can cause students to end up at a place that may not work for them because they were not given adequate resources to be accustomed to the School’s rigorous curriculum. BLS Humanities teacher Ms. Kristy Dupuis explains, “When the entrance policy shifted, we had students who had not had strong writing instruction at their previous school. This is not a negative, just an example of how teachers need to be flexible with students.” The point of exam schools is to train students for the academic rigor of college. Many students start off struggling in academics at a school like BLS. As long as they put in significant effort to improve, however, any student can be successful at BLS. With this new policy, a high-achieving student can be rewarded, no matter their background.
Many argue that the previous policies have allowed for a more diverse population of kids attending these top schools. BLS World History teacher Mr. Brian Smith explains, “The last few classes have been amongst the most ethnically diverse I have taught in [my] 20 years of education.” To keep this diversity, Boston Public Schools needs to focus on helping lower-income schools in earlier years of education to build better foundations. Studies have shown that low-income children often fall behind their peers around fourth grade, where students are transitioning from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” By providing under-privileged students with resources to prevent them from falling behind, these students have a better chance of success in not only exam schools but also the remainder of their education.
All in all, there is no perfect admissions system for such a complicated applicant range; using GPA and standardized testing is a flawed way to determine the intellectual abilities of students. Instead of attempting to compensate by giving inconsistent bonus points, school districts need to shift their attention to providing better resources for elementary schools across the board. The 2026-2027 school year admissions policy progresses toward a more equitable system, but for it to be truly effective, we need to start at the elementary level.