With the deadline to apply to public and specialized high schools extended to Friday, Dec. 14, middle schoolers in the Bronx have hours left to christen the Department of Education’s (DOE) newly erected online application system.

Aimed to alleviate the confusing process of applying to city high schools, the DOE’s new MySchools website allows parents and students to browse and apply to public high schools. But the initial rollout wasn’t without some hiccups, including site crashes and slow-downs.

For eighth-grader Janely Cruz, 13, the ease to which middle schoolers navigate the high school application process depends less on website errors and more on the tangible resources available to students.

“Some schools are more supportive than others,” Cruz said. “They’ll inform students and they’ll help them more, and sometimes that’s not the case. That’s how some fall behind in that process.”

Cruz has applied to 10 city high schools and took the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) last spring for application to elite public high schools, like Bedford Park’s Bronx High School of Science. Cruz is also a student at Breakthrough New York (BTNY), a nonprofit organization that offers educational guidance to students from sixth grade through their college graduation.

Cruz attends Hyde Leadership Charter School in Hunts Point and said that without BTNY, she would’ve applied to only one high school. Without BTNY Cruz said, “I wouldn’t have known to research other high schools.”

BTNY serves primarily low-income students of color, many of whom would be the first generation of college students in their family. BTNY services students citywide and 34 percent of their participants live in the Bronx. According to the DOE, black and Hispanic students make up nearly 90 percent of the Bronx’s public school population, but only account for 7 percent of the student body at the Bronx High School of Science.

According to BTNY’s Executive Director, Beth Onofry, the sometimes complicated high school application process can deter some students from applying to competitive schools or schools beyond the city’s purview.

“Our students apply to a range of different kinds of schools,” Onofry explained. “They apply to public, specialized and selective high schools, some of them apply to parochial schools and some of them also apply to independent, day or boarding schools.”

For Onofry, the goal of BTNY is in democratizing the high school and college application process to fill the gaps of the meaningful education that impacts communities for generations.

“When we think of our broader goal of helping our students break the cycle of poverty in their family,” Onofry said, “We think about the difference in pay over time for someone who graduates from college and someone who doesn’t.”

Belmont high-schooler Juliette Ramirez, 15, describes the high school application process as “tiring,” but says middle schoolers should not procrastinate when it comes to applying to the right school.

“It’s better to get this done early than leave it at the last minute,” Ramirez said. “Your high school records are what most colleges look for, so what high school you go to is really important.”