Baruch College Campus HS in Manhattan is the most sought- after public high school in the city — landing on the wish list of 7,461 aspiring freshmen this school year, according to records obtained by The Post.
This means that roughly one of every 10 eighth-graders in the city applied to the Gramercy high school, which boasted a 100 percent graduation rate in 2012, according to preliminary city data.
But just 1.5 percent of applicants were offered a seat for September — making the school much harder to get into than any Ivy League college.
“We have a connection with [CUNY’s Baruch] College, so that’s like a really big ticket for a lot of people,” said 15-year-old Baruch HS sophomore Chloe Shay, whose school topped the list for the third straight year.
“We have really good teachers here . . . [and] it’s a really safe environment, too.”
Other students said the school is like “we’re one big family.”
“It’s amazing. Our school is like community . . . [there’s] no bullying,” said 14-year-old freshman Lily Mantel.
Principal Alicia Perez-Katz, who said the school would enroll 110 freshmen this fall, attributed Baruch’s popularity to its “high graduation and college-enrollment rate.”
Pace HS in lower Manhattan was the second most popular choice for the second-straight year, followed by Eleanor Roosevelt HS on the Upper East Side.
The list does not include the city’s specialized high schools, such as Stuyvesant and Bronx Science, which work under a separate admissions process that requires an entrance exam.
Of the top 20 most popular schools or programs in the city, 17 screen at least some of their applicants based on test scores or some other academic measures.
Only three schools without academic screening made the city’s top 20 list: Pace (No. 2), Pelham Prep Academy in The Bronx (No. 17) and Manhattan’s Food and Finance HS (No. 19).
While there hasn’t been much movement in the rankings in recent years, a look further back shows that this year’s top three schools have made hefty strides in their reputations.
Baruch has boosted its applicant pool by nearly 3,000 students since 2009 — when it was ranked eighth — while Pace and Eleanor Roosevelt didn’t crack the top 10 in 2008.
On the flip side is Lehman HS in The Bronx — a school that has been targeted for closure three times in recent three years, but always spared at the last moment.
The large high school was the second most popular choice in 2008, but is now nowhere near the top 20 after going through several years of declining results and poor leadership.
Overall, 75,690 eighth-graders applied to as many as a dozen high schools each this year.
About 90 percent got matched.
The remaining 7,225 will soon enter a second round of admissions, with fewer options.