Istanbul High School - Overview

Overview

As a state school, admissions to İstanbul Lisesi are through the Secondary Education Institutions Entrance Exams (OKS), the central state school examination. İstanbul Lisesi is one of the most difficult schools to enter of all the 400 Anadolu Lisesis (special state secondary schools) in the country. Admission to the İstanbul Lisesi requires a tough competition, since only 180 students out of 1,400,000 applicants can make it through every year, and İstanbul Lisesi is usually among the first choices of best ranked students along with Galatasaray High School and leading Fen Lisesis (Science high school).

The school offers a tuition-free, high level education, providing voluntary boarding possibilities, and as such, draws a diverse group of students from all over Turkey, including students who cannot afford private education. The academic program enables students to pursue academic excellence and acquire fluency and literacy in German and Turkish.

İstanbul Lisesi is the first Turkish school

• to offer private high school education (~ 1886)
• to publish the first student newspaper (before 1887)
• to use the title "Lise", equivalent of 'Lyceum' (1910)
• to provide German education to students (1912)
• to show a movie in the school (~1913) "Les Misérables", shown as "Jean’in Hikayesi" (Jean’s Story)
• to establish a student theater group (~1913) staging Abdülhak Hamid’s “Eşber” and “Pinti Hamid” (L’avare), a Molière adaptation by Teodor Kasap
• whose students wore hats in İstanbul, following the announcement of the Reform of headgear and dress (1925).

The education period is five years (one year German preparatory, and four year high school). The German Abitur has been offered at İstanbul Lisesi since 2002. The Abitur diploma permits successful students the admission to any German university in almost any faculty. All science and mathematics courses in the last two years are at Abitur level. İstanbul Lisesi has a very strong academic record, with a high proportion of its students proceeding to prominent universities in Turkey, Germany, Austria and the United States.