The school, commonly referred to among its students, faculty and alumni as "Stuy" (/staɪ/ STY),[9][10][11] specializes in developing talent in math, science and technology.

[7] Notable alumni include former United States Attorney General Eric Holder, physicists Brian Greene and Lisa Randall, economist Thomas Sowell, mathematician Paul Cohen, chemist Roald Hoffmann, biologist Eric Lander, Oscar-winning actor James Cagney, comedian Billy Eichner, and chess grandmaster Robert Hess.

[23] The examination program, developed with the assistance of Columbia University, was expanded in 1938 to include the newly founded Bronx High School of Science.

[15]: 5 [23] In 1967 Alice de Rivera filed a lawsuit against the Board of Education, alleging that she had been banned from taking Stuyvesant's entrance exam because of her gender.

[26] The current school building in Battery Park City of lower Manhattan since 1992, is about a half-mile / 0.5 miles (0.8 km) away from the site of the World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

Less than an hour after the collapse of the second World Trade Center tower, concern over a bomb threat at the school prompted an evacuation of the surrounding area, as reported live on the Today show.

[27] When classes resumed on September 21, 2001,[28] students were moved to Brooklyn Technical High School while the Stuyvesant building served as a base of operations for rescue and recovery workers.

In August 1904, the Board of Education authorized municipal architect and engineer Snyder to design a new facility for Stuyvesant High School at 15th Street.

[23] Unfortunately through the 1970s and 1980s, when New York City municipal government and especially the public schools system, in general, were marked by violence, vandalism / graffiti and low academic grades among their students, Stuyvesant High still had an excellent academic reputation for being a top-notch public high school, and was still graduating well-prepared and accomplished alumni, (judging from their track record now four decades later).

A New York Times daily newspaper expose report stated that the building had "held out into old age with minimal maintenance and benign neglect until its peeling paint, creaking floorboards and antiquated laboratories became an embarrassment."

The new 10-story building also included banks of escalators, glass-walled studios on the roof, and a shorter four-story northern wing with a swimming pool, five gymnasiums, and an auditorium.

[51] An unfortunate escalator collapse at Stuyvesant High School on September 13, 2018, 26 years after it was built / installed, injured 10 people, including 8 students.

In 1971, then 103rd New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay (1921–2000, served 1966–1973), argued that the test was culturally biased against black and Hispanic students and sought to implement an affirmative action program.

[26] However, protests by parents forced the plan to be scrapped and led to the passage of the Hecht-Calandra Act, in the New York State Legislature which preserved admissions by examination only.

In these reports, ACORN called the SHSAT "permanently suspect" and described it as a "product of an institutional racism," saying that black and Hispanic students did not have access to proper test preparation materials.

[70][71] A number of students take preparatory courses offered by private tutorial companies such as The Princeton Review and Kaplan, Inc. to perform better on the SHSAT, often leaving those unable to afford such classes at a disadvantage.

[77] Stuyvesant also receives private contributions from alumni, retired faculty, charitable foundations and educational grants to build up a school endowment.

Humanities electives include American foreign policy; civil and criminal law, prejudice and persecution, and race, ethnicity and gender issues.

[96] Stuyvesant also administers more Advanced Placement exams than supposedly any other high school in the world, as well as the highest number of students who reach the AP courses' "mastery level".

In 2008, the baseball team was granted use of the pier after construction and delivery of an artificial turf pitching mound that met Public Schools Athletic League specifications.

[110] Relying on the 1969 U.S. Supreme Court holding in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District that "undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance is not enough to overcome the right to freedom of expression",[111] Motley ordered the New York City Board of Education to permit the distribution of the survey to the juniors and seniors.

[117] Their involvement ranges from being members of the production's casts, choruses, or costume and tech crews to Step, Hip-Hop, Swing, Modern, Bolly, Flow, Tap or Latin dance groups.

[119] In December 2007, The Wall Street Journal studied the freshman classes at eight selective colleges in the U.S. and reported that Stuyvesant sent 67 students to these schools, comprising 9.9% of its 674 seniors.

[123] Stuyvesant has had the second highest number of National Merit Scholarship semi-finalists, behind Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia.

[127] Notable scientists among Stuyvesant alumni include mathematicians Bertram Kostant (1945)[128] and Paul Cohen (1950),[129] string theorist Brian Greene (1980),[130] physicist Lisa Randall (1980),[131] and genomic researcher Eric Lander (1974).

[132] Other prominent alumni include civil rights leader Bob Moses,[133] MAD Magazine editor Nick Meglin (1953),[134] entertainers such as songwriter and Steely Dan founder Walter Becker, Thelonious Monk (1935),[135] and actors Lucy Liu (1968),[136] Tim Robbins (1976),[137] and James Cagney (1918),[138] comedian Paul Reiser (1973),[139] playwright Arthur M. Jolly (1987),[140] sports anchor Mike Greenberg (1985), and Columbia University, early NBA and minor league pro basketball player and bookmaker Jack Molinas (1949).

Teacher Man's third section, titled Coming Alive in Room 205, concerns McCourt's time at Stuyvesant, and mentions a number of students and fellow faculty.

[145] Former New York City Council member Eva Moskowitz (1982) graduated from the high school,[146] as did the creator of the BitTorrent protocol, Bram Cohen (1993).

[148][149] Economist Thomas Sowell was also a student of Stuyvesant High School, but dropped out early at age 17 because of financial difficulties and problems in his home.

[150] Russian (and former Soviet Union) journalist / propagandist Vladimir Pozner Jr., known in the West for his numerous appearances during the 1980s and 1990s on the ABC News late-evening program Nightline, with Ted Koppel, on the topic: U.S.–Soviet Space Bridge and influential longtime daytime talk show host / moderator Phil Donahue, was also a student of Stuyvesant High School.