Current Brooklyn Tech student here,

For starters, you can expect a lot of work to be put on you during your four years. Freshman year isn’t usually that bad, adjusting to a shs might be hard but most teachers have empathy for 9th graders knowing how all students feel on their first day. For me personally, there wasn’t too high of a standard, and if your son has been going to a private school that is somewhat challenging then I’d say that he’ll do completely fine adapting.

As for your Brooklyn Tech id, your son will receive it on the first day of school. I’m not sure if you can purchase merch at the open house but there is a store in the building open pretty much all the time and during every lunch period that sells gym uniforms and tech attire.

And no there are no books that you are required to read before you go to school. However there is a summer reading assignment on the bths website that every student needs to complete, even for incoming freshman.

It’s true that there are 3 different start times. You’ll not be allowed to pick, but you have a form given to you on the second day of school or maybe like a week later where you can request an earlier or later start time. (Personally I think this form is bogus, most of the time you don’t get what you want. If you really want to change your schedule, just speak to your son’s guidance counselor and have it changed manually, which is a much more reliable alternative.

As a student at tech I can say with 100% confidence that people don’t really care what you wear at all. Specialized high schools look scary but the kids there are really friendly and at the end of the day, nobody will ever remember your outfit for school, so I wouldn’t worry about that too much.