Six vocational high schools take fall 2027 applications, with two open houses Sunday, Nov. 8

SOUTH COAST Eighth graders weighing a vocational high school for next fall can visit two of them on Sunday, Nov. 8, when Diman in Fall River and Old Colony in Rochester hold open houses.

Diman's open house runs from 1:15 to 2:45 p.m. and is open to the public, the school's admissions flyer says, and Old Colony's runs from 10 a.m. to noon, its school calendar shows. Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School follows on Nov. 22, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., a date also listed on the agenda for its School Committee's Nov. 10 meeting.

Six regional vocational, technical and agricultural high schools that serve South Coast towns are taking applications for the class that starts grade 9 in fall 2027, the Class of 2031. Among the exact deadline dates the schools have posted, the earliest is Jan. 1 at Diman and the latest is Feb. 12 at Greater New Bedford. State rules send every seat to a lottery when applicants outnumber seats, and at Diman and Bristol County Agricultural High School an application without a required visit or information session does not go into the drawing, their policies say.

School by school

• Diman Regional, Fall River: For students in Fall River, Somerset, Swansea and Westport. Applications opened Sept. 15 and are due Jan. 1. Each applicant must sign in at one awareness event. The choices still open are the Nov. 8 open house, the virtual admissions presentation and the admissions video online; the middle school tours, booked through each sending school, took place Nov. 6. The public lottery for 365 seats is March 16, with March 17 as the snow date. Under the regional agreement, Fall River students get 76.5% of ninth grade seats, Somerset 9.8%, Swansea 8.4% and Westport 5.3%. Questions go to admissions@dimanregional.org or 508-678-2891, ext. 3059.
• Old Colony Regional, Rochester: For eighth graders in Acushnet, Carver, Lakeville, Mattapoisett and Rochester, who apply through the school's online portal at oldcolony.go2cte.com. The open house is Sunday, Nov. 8, from 10 a.m. to noon. The admissions policy the school posts, written for the 2025-26 school year, uses a blind lottery with no extra weights. Old Colony has not posted its fall 2027 application deadline or lottery date; SC360 will add them when the school provides them. The main office number is 508-763-8011.
• Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech, New Bedford: For students in New Bedford, Dartmouth and Fairhaven. Applications opened Oct. 13 and are due Feb. 12, and the middle schools send each applicant's attendance and discipline records. Seventh and eighth graders are sent an invitation to the Nov. 22 open house. The lottery for 625 freshman seats will be held online between March 15 and 26, and applicants get the date and time by email a week ahead. The admissions office is at admissions@gnbvt.edu or 508-998-3321, ext. 740.
• Bristol County Agricultural, Dighton: For any Bristol County eighth or ninth grader expected to be promoted to the grade they seek. Students elsewhere in Massachusetts, except Norfolk County residents, may also apply, with their home superintendent's approval of a nonresident tuition application. Applications close Jan. 15, the lottery for the Class of 2031 is March 2 and a waiting list lottery follows March 23. Each applicant must attend an on-campus or virtual information session, an on-campus tour, the school's Fall Show in October or Explore BA Night in January. The admissions office is at admissions@bcahs.com or 508-669-6744, ext. 7308.
• Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical, Taunton: For students in Berkley, Bridgewater, Dighton, Freetown, Middleborough, Raynham, Rehoboth and Taunton. The school asks families to apply online by February for priority admission. Completed applications go into a March lottery, acceptance emails go out in early March, and families then have seven calendar days to confirm or decline. Bristol-Plymouth has not posted an exact deadline or lottery date for fall 2027, and SC360 will add both once the school answers. Student Services answers questions at 508-823-5151, ext. 2020.
• Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical, Bourne: For students in Bourne, Falmouth, Marion, Sandwich and Wareham. The lottery application deadline is Jan. 5. Families can join their sending town's tour day, book a school tour or schedule an interview, and the guidance office takes questions at 508-759-7711, ext. 210.

Bristol-Plymouth's School Committee voted Sept. 2 to add provisions for the siblings of students and the children of staff to its 2027 admission policy, SC360 reported in October.

How the lottery works

A state regulation, 603 CMR 4.03, has required career and technical schools to fill seats by lottery whenever more students apply than there are seats, starting with the students who entered in fall 2026. The drawing must be held in public with at least a week's notice, or electronically with the method shared publicly.

Every completed application goes into the lottery, and a school may not score students on its criteria. It may give one extra entry, which the rule calls a weight, for each of three things. The first is fewer than 27 unexcused full-day absences in the 270 school days before applying. The second is no suspension or expulsion for having a dangerous weapon or assaulting school staff, counted only when the case was a felony that was adjudicated or that the student admitted in court. The third is a show of interest, such as a short interview that is not graded, an essay, a video or a letter of recommendation from someone outside the family. Attendance and discipline records from before seventh grade do not count.

A school that holds at least two in-person and two virtual information sessions a year may also require proof that the student attended one, such as an open house or a tour. Each school committee or board of trustees must approve its criteria every year. Applications must be available by Nov. 1, and deadlines must fall between Jan. 1 and March 1. A sending district may not count a school-day tour of a vocational school as an unexcused absence when the vocational school confirms the student went.

What is new for the Class of 2031

Bristol County Agricultural High School will split its ninth grade seats into two equal pools under a policy its Board of Trustees approved Aug. 11. Half go to applicants whose declared tie to agriculture, such as a family farm, a job in an agriculture business or 4-H membership, is approved by the admissions coordinator, and half go to everyone else. Seats one pool cannot fill move to the other. An applicant can earn up to four entries, one for a complete application with the required visit and one each for attendance, discipline and interest, shown by an uploaded video, audio or written answer or by an interview.

Greater New Bedford's School Committee approved the school's admissions policy Oct. 20, the policy says; SC360 previewed that vote. It awards two extra weights, for attendance and discipline, and it makes an application ineligible if the student's residence in New Bedford, Dartmouth or Fairhaven is not confirmed before the lottery.

Diman's policy, approved Sept. 17, uses all three state weights, so an applicant there can also hold up to four entries. The interest entry goes to students who upload a personal essay or a letter of recommendation from a non-family member or a school counselor by Jan. 1.

Tours, shadow days and students from other towns

Bristol County Agricultural High School offers shadow days only to accepted students who are still deciding where to go, and it runs school day, afternoon and weekend tours through the year, its admissions page says.

Under the state rule, residents who meet a school's requirements are admitted ahead of nonresidents seeking the same program, and a student from outside a district must apply by March 15, or by the school's own deadline when it comes first, and must file a nonresident tuition application with the home district by April 1. Bristol Aggie takes applications from Massachusetts students outside Bristol County, except Norfolk County residents, whose county school is Norfolk Aggie, its admissions page says.

What happens next

The Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech School Committee meets Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 6 p.m. in the school's Student Forum, 1121 Ashley Blvd., and streams the meeting on YouTube. Written comments are due to the recording secretary by 3 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9. After the Nov. 22 open house, the next date on the admissions calendar is Diman's Jan. 1 deadline.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.