Midwood High School

Midwood High School at Brooklyn College
File:Midood Main Building.JPG
Address
2839 Bedford Avenue Brooklyn , New York United States
Information
Type	Public
Motto	Verus, Bonus, Et Pulcher (The True, the Good, and the Beautiful)
Established	1940
School board	New York City Public Schools
School number	K405
Principal	David Cohen
Faculty	206
Grades	9–12
Enrollment	3938
Color(s)	blue   white   and red
Mascot	Hornet
Newspaper	Argus
Yearbook	Epilog
Website	midwoodhighschool.org

Midwood High School, at Brooklyn College, is a public, urban, co-ed high school located on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, New York City.Midwood High School was for many years the recipient of multiple accolades because of its competitive educational programs and for the achievements of its students and graduates. Midwood is noted for its strong academic programs, having produced many notable alumnus.

Midwood High School celebrates a long tradition of academic excellence. The school, which is administered by the New York City Department of Education, has an enrollment of 3938 students. Its H-shaped building, with six Ionic columns and a Georgian cupola, was constructed in 1940 as part of the Works Projects Administration.

Academics

Ranking

Midwood High School has over 3000 students, is currently ranked in the top 150 high schools in the nation and considered "The School Of Excellence" by U.S. News and World Report. In the early 1990s Midwood was chosen as a Blue Ribbon Secondary School of Excellence by the United States Department of Education.

Top students in the school had been admitted to Ivy League Colleges, for several years, there were nearly 15% of the seniors who got admitted to one of the Ivy League Colleges like Harvard, Yale, Columbia University; Princeton, Cornell, and 30% of seniors admitted to schools like Massachusetts Institute of Technology, NYU, UC Berkeley, and Stanford. The Average SATs in Midwood High School (2007) is 620 Verbal, 650 Math, and 610 Writing.

The New York Times reported in an article on June 29, 1986, that: "Getting into Midwood High School ... is about as easy as getting into an Ivy League college. More than 12,000 eager eighth graders applied this year for 450 fall openings in Midwood's highly touted programs in the medical sciences and humanities."

Population

As many as 3938 students are packed in a building designed for 2,800. Classes are held in three overlapping sessions, with some students arriving as early as 7 a.m. and finishing at 1:15 p.m., and others arriving at 9:30 a.m. and staying until 4:00 p.m. The first lunch period is at 9:45 a.m.; practice for band and orchestra starts as early as 7 a.m. Advanced Placement courses are so oversubscribed that only students with near-perfect grades are permitted to take them.

A new science annex, built across the streets from the original building, opened in the summer of 2008 which can ease the overcrowd problem. The building houses new science labs that replaced the antiquated labs in the original building. The annex also hosts a new library; the library in the original building is now a theater. The annex is connected to the southern end of the original building by a glass bridge that connects the second and third floors of the buildings.

Special programs

Midwood is composed of three "institutes" – Medical Science, Humanities, and Liberal Arts. Liberal Arts, Humanities and Medical Science students are placed into classes specifically for their course. Placement in the Medical Science and Humanities Institutes is highly competitive and dependent upon strong academic performance.

The Medical Science Institute (MSI) is for students interested in science or the medical field along with mathematical interests. It requires 5 years of science and 5 years of math. As of 2007, incoming freshman of the Medical Science Institute must choose from three different tracks: Medical, the Research, or Engineering. The Medical Science Institute also has its own website which is part of the main school website. Click Here For Midwood Science's Home Page

The Humanities Institute requires two foreign languages, including Latin. Also, 5 years of English, and 5 years of social studies. Students in the Humanities program starting fall 2009 will be able to choose between having to take 2 years of Latin or instead take 2 English/History electives, credits are the same for either one.

The Liberal Arts & Science Institute (formally called the Collegiate Program),serves students who reside in the geographical catchment area. Students in the program choose among four main areas of study: Law/Leadership/Community Service, Pre-engineering/Technology, Performing Arts and Communication/Media Arts.

These are supported through the school's courtroom, robotics lab, chemistry lab, drama classrooms and television studio.

Advanced Placement Courses

Midwood claims to offer over 15 Advanced Placement courses, and 5 years ago the College Board listed it among the best schools in the nation in terms of AP courses offerings. The School is one of the high school in the City with the highest number of Advanced Placement exams taken, and scoring on the Upper Quartile. Midwood offers Advanced Placement courses in

• AP Biology
• AP Calculus AB
• AP Calculus BC
• AP Chemistry
• AP Computer Science A
• AP Economics
• AP English Literature
• AP Environmental Science
• AP European History
• AP French Language
• AP Physics B
• AP Physics C: Mechanics
• AP Psychology
• AP Spanish
• AP Statistics
• AP United States History
• AP World History

Intel Science Talent Search Competition

Midwood has two classes that specialize in introducing students to scientific research, culminating in the creation of projects for the Intel Science Talent Search – Science Research and Social Science Research. In 1999, Midwood had more semifinalists in the Intel STS and Siemens-Westinghouse Science & Technology Competition than did any other high school in the nation. In 2000, it tied for first place for STS.

Across the United States, 11 secondary schools have produced 20 or more semi-finalists over the years 2002-2010. All of the 11 schools are public schools, and 7 out of the 11 (64%) are located in the greater New York area.

Secondary schools of finalists and semi-finalists (2002–2010)

School	Location	Semi-finalists	Finalists
Montgomery Blair High School	Silver Spring, MD	108	16
Stuyvesant High School	New York, NY	103	13
Ward Melville High School	East Setauket, NY	85	11
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology	Alexandria, VA	75	7
Bronx High School of Science	Bronx, NY	59	6
Paul D. Schreiber High School	Port Washington, NY	50	3
Byram Hills High School	Armonk, NY	46	10
Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science	Denton, TX	43	7
Great Neck North High School	Great Neck, NY	31	3
Illinois Math and Science Academy	Aurora, IL	29	8
Midwood High School	Brooklyn, NY	23	5

Extracurricular activities

Sports

Midwood's Official PSAL page

Midwood has several PSAL sports teams. They include teams in baseball, bowling, basketball, cricket, football, golf, cheerleading, handball, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track, wrestling, and volleyball.

Midwood's handball team has won 2 consecutive city championships in 2008 and 2009. Midwood Girls' Handball team has won finals in 2009 and city championship in 2010. Midwood's lacrosse team has won several city championships, including 2006, 2007, and 2008. The team has made the championships the past 5 years and is the measuring stick for city lacrosse. Midwood also started the first Girls Lacrosse team in Brooklyn.

The Midwood Boy's Volleyball Team, considered to be one of the best and the "team to beat" in the PSAL, has gone undefeated in their division for the past 13 years with 4 city championships in 1996, 2001, 2007, and 2009 (the most Volleyball Championships ever by a PSAL team).

The Midwood Boy's Track and Field Team won its first ever indoor track championship in winter 2008. Under current coach Marc Cohen, the track and field team also managed to win its first ever outdoor track title in June 2010, upsetting some of the fastest high schools in the city and solidifying the legacy of Midwood Track and Field.

The team is given the nick name "The Midwood Hornet" or simply "Hornet".

SING!

SING!, an annual student-run inter-school musical theater competition was conceived at Midwood by Bella Tillis, a music teacher, in 1947. It is still being produced at Midwood. It's also a tradition for many New York City High School seniors, juniors, and "soph-fresh" (freshmen and sophomores working together) who compete against each other to put on the best performance at their own school. The 1989 movie Sing, which starred Lorraine Bracco, was based on SING!. SING has been responsible for hours of dedication and hard work, as well as fierce competition, among New York City's high school students.

In the summer of 2004, the film The Squid and the Whale was filmed in Midwood High School's auditorium, using students from the school's Drama Club as extra seat-fillers, in 80s-style costumes. The production also used background scenes on the stage that had been painted for the Drama Club's production of Bye Bye Birdie two months prior. The film production crew also enlisted the help of a former Drama Club and SING! lighting manager to help them light the stage for the scene.

Clubs

Midwood has nearly 100 clubs, including Key Club, Asian Society, Akiva Club, Philosophy, Amnesty International, Latin Club, Young Democrats, West Indian Society Club Environmental Club, Gay-Straight Alliance, Anime Club, Black Heritage Alliance (BHA), Young Writer's Club, Women in Power Club, Model Congress, ASPCA Club, The Muslim Society, Model United Nations, Hellenist Society, Slavic Society, Eastern Orthodox, Snowboard Club and Robotic Club. Lots of talented students complained that the school doesn't have an official Math Team, so a group of students established an unofficial group for students with an interest and talent in math.

Argus

The headline picture of Midwood's newspaper ARGUS

The Argus is Midwood's official school newspaper. The paper is published monthly and gives student journalists a chance to have their articles published. Editors are chosen by Midwood's journalism teacher in June from amongst the junior Journalism class. It contains different things such as news, features, op-ed, arts & sports, photography, school info, and web info, all per student request/input, as well as updated news about PSAL sport events and other events occurring in and outside the school. The newspaper also has its own website for students who didn't get a chance to read the latest paper edition.

Notable alumni

Woody Allen

• Woody Allen, Academy Award-winning film director and screenwriter, writer, Academy Award-nominated actor, and comedian
• Noah Baumbach, Academy Award-nominated independent film writer-director
• Paul Ben-Victor, actor
• Jacques Berlinerblau, associate professor (Georgetown University) and writer
• Andrew D. Bernstein, Senior Director of NBA Photos
• Steve Bracey, NBA basketball player
• Richard Campagna – 2004 Libertarian Party Vice Presidential Candidate
• Mark Cane, American climate scientist and professor at Columbia University
• Roz Chast, cartoonist

Martin J. Fettman

• Humayun Chaudhry, president and CEO, Federation of State Medical Boards
• Didi Conn, stage, screen and television actress (played Frenchy in the original cast of Grease)
• John Corigliano, Academy Award-, Pulitzer Prize for Music- and Grammy Award-winning composer
• (Richard Cummings, author, playwright, politician, academic
• J. M. DeMatteis, writer of comic books
• Hilly Elkins, theater and film producer
• Martin J. Fettman, astronaut
• Henry Gross, singer-songwriter; Sha Na Na.
• Madeleine Grumet, academic in curriculum theory and feminist theory
• Gerald Gutierrez, Tony Award-winning stage and film director
• Marvin Hamlisch, Academy Award-winning composer of film scores
• June Jordan, poet

Wentworth Miller

• Emmanuel Lewis, actor
• Michael Lynne, movie executive, vintner
• Robert Markowitz, movie and television director
• Lawrence A. May, physician, author, and public speaker
• Wentworth Miller, Golden Globe Award-nominated actor. Though he didn't graduate from Midwood, he did attend for two years in the late 1980s.
• Joel Moses, former provost, MIT
• Kevin Parker, New York State Senator
• Irma S. Raker, lawyer and jurist ⋅
• Adam Richman, TV host of Man v. Food (Travel Channel)
• Neil Rosenshein, operatic tenor
• Andre-Michel Schub, pianist

Erich Segal

• Erich Segal, author, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, and educator, Harvard University graduated
• Heather Simms, actress
• Shaun Smith, NHL ice hockey player
• Jason Starr, novelist
• Sy Syms, businessman and philanthropist
• Bill Thompson, New York City Comptroller
• Elliot Tiber, artist and screenwriter, helped arrange Woodstock festival in Bethel, NY
• Sean Wilentz, Professor of History, Princeton University
• Victor Williams, actor
• Zach Zarba, NBA official

Statistics

• Admissions policy: neighborhood school; screened; MUST have 90 or higher on all major subjects, either a level 3 or 4 on both New York State Math and English exam to be considered as an applicant.(For Medical Science+Humanities)and an 85 or above on all subjects and at least a level 3 on both The New York State Math and English Exam to be consider on the Bilingual program (Part of the Medical Science Program).
• Grade levels: 9–12
• Graduation rate (2009-2010): 91%
• Class size: 24-33
• Ethnicity: 25% W, 34% B, 11% H, 30% A
• Average SAT score: 1880/2400
• Free lunch: 28%

Transportation Information

Subway:

• 2 or 5 train to Brooklyn College – Flatbush Avenue (IRT Nostrand Avenue Line).
• Q train to Avenue H.

Bus:

• B6 or B11 to Glenwood Road-Bedford Avenue.
• Q35,B41 or B103 to Glenwood Road-Flatbush Avenue.
• B44 to Glenwood Road and Nostrand Avenue.

References

Notes

External links

• Midwood High School Official Website
• NYC Department of Education new School Portal For Midwood High School
• Midwood High School Physical Science Department
• Midwood High School Profile
• JOLLY