Fiorello H. Laguardia High School Of Music & Art and Performing Arts

Daya got into the dance program at Laguardia!!!

The whole name of the school is probably the longest of all NYC schools:
Fiorello H. Laguardia High School Of Music & Art and Performing Arts.

And it is an AWESOME place to be.  (Even though everyone hates the principal.)

She has wanted this since 5th grade.
So back then I told her if she really wants it, she'll have to work very, very hard over years for it-- and she did it!

I don't know how many dance kids got in this year, but last year I believe it was around 80.

Actually WE did it, as there is no way she could do it without some very serious mom-support, and I have done this support on my own for the most part.  But it was enough, and this will be an AMAZING 4 years.

She is glowing!!

It is probably time for the ridiculous Laguardia Tree to come down; it has seen better days and has been up since November.  I'm sure Daya is the onliest kid ever in NYC to have a Laguardia Tree.

*****
Daya also received an offer to the Specialized High School of Math, Science, and Engineering from her SHSAT score of 530.  This is pretty awesome, especially considering I didn't put her in a SHSAT test prep course (because of dance scheduling) and she did minimal prep from a couple of books.

It is one of the 8 specialized academic high schools in NYC (LaG is the ninth but doesn't use the SHSAT), and she would be there if she hadn't gotten Laguardia.  She put this one down as her second choice, Stuyvesant was first.  To be honest neither of us cared too much about SHSAT results, but I wanted her to take it to open up options.  If I had test-prepped her I'm sure she could have gone to Stuyvesant.  Everyone who gets in there has test-prepped for at least a year, but more often 2 years before taking the SHSAT.****

But HSMSE is a really amazing school and I just could not be more proud of her.

Her regular high school offer was an engineering program at an engineering high school.

I still expect Daya to continue being a total math geek at Laguardia.

****That's why there was a lawsuit about specialized high school admissions, because the student populations are becoming less and less diverse.  Everyone test-preps their kids for these schools, Satuirday classes 2 years before the test are very common.  The specialized high schools only look at the SHSAT score, which is very narrow criteria.