Midwood High School is a high school located at 2839 Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, New York City, administered by the New York City Department of Education. It has an enrollment of 3,938 students. Its H-shaped building, with six Ionic columns and a Georgian cupola, was constructed in 1940 as part of the Works Projects Administration.
Contents
Academics
Ranking
Students from the two selective programs often attend top-ranked colleges, many on significant scholarships. Typically, the school sends around 3% of its seniors to Ivy League colleges, and 10% of seniors to colleges such as New York University, Boston College, and Johns Hopkins University. The average SAT scores in Midwood High School (2015) were 530 Verbal, 610 Math, and 570 Writing.
The New York Times reported in 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."
In the 1986–87 and 1997–98 school years, Midwood High School was recognized as a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence by the United States Department of Education and was chosen as a "School of Excellence" by U.S. News & World Report.
Population
As of the 2014–15 school year, the school had an enrollment of 3,785 students and 160.4 classroom teachers (on a full-time equivalent [FTE] basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 23.6:1. There were 1,849 students (48.9% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 180 (4.8% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
The school occupies a building designed to hold 2,800 students, with an enrollment nearly 1,000 larger. Renowned for its diversity, Midwood students are made up of about 37% Asians, 30% African-American, 24% Whites (Non-Hispanics), 7% Hispanic and 2% Native Americans and other races.
Classes are held in three overlapping sessions, with students arriving and departing at different times. Band practice starts at 8 a.m. and the first group of students breaks for lunch at 8:50 a.m. The large population of students creates a high demand for Advanced Placement classes; thus, high grades are required to be able to take the classes.
A new science annex, built across the streets from the original building, opened in the summer of 2008 to help ease the overcrowding 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 split into two classrooms. 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.
CUNY Brooklyn College partnership
Midwood High School is the affiliated campus high school of Brooklyn College, a partnership which began with the 1984–85 academic year. It was one of the earliest New York City public high schools to partner a four-year college in the City College of New York (CUNY) system. The campus high school project reflects the college's continuing concern for strengthening public secondary education and building professional working relationships between its faculty and teachers in the city's schools. Its goal is to strengthen the preparation of Midwood High School students for college and expand the constituency from which those students are drawn.
In this partnership, Midwood High School remains under the jurisdiction of the New York City Department of Education. In matters of curriculum design, school organization and high school–college articulation, the president of Brooklyn College maintains contact with the chancellor of the New York City public schools, the High School Division of the Department of Education and the Midwood High School principal." In addition, Students are able to take classes at Brooklyn College and other Colleges in the CUNY system, free of charge, through the College Now program. Through this program, students can obtain both high school and college credits.
Classes
Midwood offers 22 Advanced Placement courses, and the school's AP courses offerings have been listed by the College Board as among the best in the nation. A high percentage of the students sign up for the Advanced Placement exams, and score in the Upper Quartile. Due to a high demand by students to take AP courses, students are required to apply for AP classes in the spring and go through a competitive academic review process in order to be accepted into AP classes:
Midwood is composed of three institutes – Medical Science, Humanities, and Liberal Arts. 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. Students in either one of these institutes are required to take 6 terms of foreign language at Midwood High School, regardless of any acceleration credit from junior high school.
The Medical Science Institute (Med-Sci) is for students interested in science or the medical field along with mathematical interests. It requires 6 terms of science and 6 terms of math and 6 terms of a foreign language. As of 2011, incoming freshman of the Medical Science Institute must choose from three different tracks: Medical, the Research, or Engineering. The Science Research Program also has its own website.
The Humanities Institute is for students interested in English language arts, literature, languages, and social studies. It requires two foreign languages, including 2 terms of Latin and 6 terms of another foreign language. Also, 8 terms of English, and 8 terms of social studies. The Humanities Institute is a challenging program that affords students the opportunity to learn about the world, its different societies and cultures. Students in this program are not required to take as many years of math and science as students in the Medical Science Program.
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. Students in this program with grades at 95 or above average may request to switch to either the medical science or humanities program.
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 (formerly the Westinghouse Intel Science Talent Search). In 1999, Midwood had the most semifinalists in the Intel STS and Siemens-Westinghouse Science & Technology Competition of any school in the country. The following year the school tied for first place in STS.
Secondary schools of finalists and semi-finalists (1999-2015)
Extracurricular activities
Sports
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.
In 2018, the boys' lacrosse team won the city championship in their divisions, defeating Columbus High School.
In 2017, the girls' volleyball team won the city championship in their division by defeating Cardozo High School. In 2016, the Varsity Boys' Baseball team won the school's first "AAA" Division City Championship by defeating Tottenville High School at Yankee Stadium.
Following a city championship win in 2005, Midwood's handball team won 2 consecutive city championships in 2008 and 2009. Midwood Girls' Handball team 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 had made every championship appearance between 2007 and 2011 with 3 championship wins including an undefeated championship in 2011. Midwood HS Football Team who was coached by Alan G. Arbuse, was also back to back 1979 & 1980 City Champions and 1979 Metro Bowl Champions.
Midwood's girls' bowling team had gone into the semi-final in the past three years, and undefeated division championship. The Midwood boys' bowling team has also made the playoffs 3 times in last 4 years. Midwood's girls' swimming team had come into the play off in the past 14 years, and is considered one of the top teams within Brooklyn and New York City. Midwood also started the first Girls' Lacrosse team in Brooklyn.
The Midwood Boys' Volleyball Team, has gone undefeated in their division for the past 13 years with 4 city championships in 1996, 2001, 2007, and 2009.
The Midwood Boys' Track and Field Team won its first-ever indoor track championship in winter 2008. Under 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. They have also won their first-ever Cross Country title in November 2013
Senior seminar/Independent research studies
Midwood High School offers a new program to most senior students who need to fill up their schedule with 5.5 hours of class under the new department of education law that was taken into effect September 2012. During students free periods, they would be offered a multitude of special programs to do for class credit. Examples include SING, peer tutoring, monitoring for a teacher, and certain clubs that are offered in Midwood High School. Students fill out a time card for the number of hours that they have done in school. Students need to get a certain number of hours to pass the class, and it counts as a class credit.
Notable people
Notable alumni
Woody Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg, 1935, class of 1953), Academy Award-winning film director and screenwriter, Academy Award-nominated actor, Grammy Award winner
Antonio Anderson (born 1973), NFL player
Steve Augeri (born 1959), singer, briefly attended Midwood
Victor Axelrod (aka Ticklah), musician, producer, arranger and engineer
Noah Baumbach (born 1969, class of 1987), Academy Award-nominated writer, director, and independent filmmaker (The Squid and the Whale)
Paul Ben-Victor (born 1958/1959, class of 1976), actor
Joan Berkowitz (1931-2020), chemist
Jacques Berlinerblau (born 1966), professor at Georgetown University and writer
Andrew D. Bernstein, Senior Director of NBA Photos
Richard J. Bernstein (1932-2022), philosopher who taught at The New School for Social Research
Steve Bracey (1950-2006), NBA basketball player
Al Brodax (1926-2016), film and television producer
Susan Brownmiller (1935-2025), feminist journalist and activist.
Richard Campagna (born 1954), 2004 Libertarian Party Vice Presidential candidate
Mark Cane (born 1944; class of 1961), climate scientist and professor at Columbia University
Notable staff
Herb Bernstein, record producer, composer, arranger, and conductor.