A record number of current 8th-grade students have set their sights on attending Holyoke High School’s Dean Campus in the fall, with 276 submitting applications before the February 7 deadline. This is a 34% increase in applications compared to recent years, with almost 100 more students applying for the 2025-2026 school year compared to the 2023-2024 school year. Last year, 216 students applied.
With the paperwork and all in-person interviews now completed, interested students must now wait until the first week of March to learn if they have been accepted.
To put this level of interest in perspective, Dean offers nine Career Technical Education (CTE) programs, and each has room for 12-20 students. Each program accepts new students in the fall, along with returning students.
This year marks the second year of the admissions lottery system at Dean, implemented to ensure a fair and equitable admissions process given the high demand and limited shop capacity. Students who meet the admissions criteria for grades, attendance, discipline, recommendations, and interview will be assigned lottery tickets based on their overall application score, with higher scoring applications receiving more lottery entries.