J.H.S. 217 Robert A. Van Wyck, Queens | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

I used to say that this school is bad(this review was made on January or February of 2017), but it’s actually not a bad school. This is a school for students of all levels of academic achievement. I say this because this school has a very challenging yet helpful curriculum for struggling students, and even challenging for gifted students, as the large population ensures that they will have to compete with other gifted students and be on their toes trying to be at the top. Nonetheless, this school is a great learning experience. The large population and the size of the school might be overwhelming for those who came from a small school, but students usually get used to it after a while. .This also ensures that students can make friends and increase social connections with numerous people. There is a diverse selection of extremely passionate teachers, and they usually get the work done. This school recently started exemplifying growth mindset, which means that people can change their knowledge or personality and pretty much anything, even if they began struggling on something. There is a huge variety of programs that capture a variety of interests that students have, and a large school means more resources for every student to be their best and improve college readiness.

This might come as a surprise to many, but I attended Van Wyck Junior High in 1966-1968. I had arrived in 1965 (went to PS 117 across the street for 1 year) from a village in India. You can just imagine the field the kids had with me. Thanks to the British, I spoke a bit of English. But that was it. Never saw a white person or a black person until I arrived in the US.
There was lots of violence – no guns but students carried stilettos. It had lots of gangs. An italian gang, a black gang, a puerto rican gang, even a jewish gang. I was the only indian in the whole school. A second indian student joined a year later. He became my body guard. 🙂
Academically it was an ok school. It had great teachers. They really cared.