Three years ago, BPS also changed the way it counted applications. It now excludes from its figures Students who do not have at least a grade point average of B in English, mathematics, science and social studies. Previously, there was no minimum score cut-off for admission.

As a result, applications for 7th and 9th grades at Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy and O’Bryant School of Math and Science have fallen from 4,010 in the 2020-21 school year to 2,014 in the coming school year – a 49.8 percent drop, according to a Globe analysis of school data.

By comparison, in the BPS, where most applicants for the entrance exams come from, the number of students enrolled in the sixth and eighth grades has fallen by about 15 percent to fewer than 1,000 during this period.

“It’s a sign of a broader trend,” said Will Austin, executive director of the Boston Schools Fund, a nonprofit that works to expand access to quality education. Austin wrote about the application trends in an April newsletter and then in August for the Globe’s Ideas section. “We’ve been talking for years about Boston becoming a city where fewer families can live and student enrollment is declining as a result.”

It is unclear whether the number of students at examination schools is increasing less, but some evidence suggests that this may be the case.

Anne Yount, a school admissions counselor who has worked with Boston families for years, said many parents are hesitant about exam schools because they fear BPS has watered down curricula following the pandemic and admissions changes.

“They’re flocking to private schools,” Yount said. “Most private schools in the Boston area have an acceptance rate of less than 10 percent.”

At Thayer Academy in Braintree, for example, applications from Boston have more than doubled since the 2021-22 admissions season, according to school spokeswoman Alison Terry.

The declining application numbers for the exam school come at a time when BPS has made great strides in increasing the racial, socioeconomic and geographic diversity of students offered admission to the exam school. (The district in recent years began giving bonus points to applicants who meet certain criteria, such as attending high-poverty schools.)

Competition at the examination schools remains; 598 applicants who were eligible for admission were unable to obtain a place this autumn.

“The new exam school admissions policy is undoubtedly a success,” said Oren Sellstrom, litigation director at Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston, which is defending the exam school changes in federal court. “The process is now much fairer and more equitable, and the result is a student body in the exam schools that better reflects the socioeconomic, geographic and ethnic diversity of the city.”

Due to the pandemic, BPS changed the admission process as it was not safe to conduct the entrance test in person. In addition, the institute decided to make other changes to increase the diversity of the student body.

The first changes under a one-year transitional arrangement The system, which allocated seats based on grade levels and zip codes, prompted a group of white and Asian parents to file a federal lawsuit in 2021 to prevent its implementation. The lawsuit was unsuccessful, however. The group is now seeking an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

BPS required a minimum GPA as part of the zip code policy. Applications for 7th and 9th graders immediately dropped by 40 percent. The decline continued even after BPS implemented a new permanent admissions policy that kept the GPA cutoff and restarted the admissions test.

Max Baker, a spokesman for the BPS, warned against comparing application numbers “as the criteria change from year to year”.

However, the BPS has repeatedly compared application numbers.

Under the current admissions policy, applicants are divided into eight socioeconomic groups so that students with similar economic backgrounds can compete with each other for admission. Admissions decisions are based on a ranking of grades, test scores and bonus points. Before the pandemic, applicants were admitted based on a citywide ranking of grades and test scores.

The new policy has highlighted the difficulties BPS has faced for years in recruiting low-income students. The lower classes struggle to find enough applicants. In contrast, competition is fierce in the classes with wealthier households.

The problem underscores the need for BPS to be more proactive in recruiting disadvantaged students, said Christopher Parris, director of programs and innovation at Steppingstone, a Boston-based nonprofit that helps disadvantaged students get into exam and private schools. When those students learn about exam schools, their interest is high, he said.

“From talking to all of our families, they are just really interested in exploring as many options for quality schools as possible,” Parris said.

Competition for low-income students has also increased as many high-performing charter schools complement their high schools, says Monica Roberts, senior vice president and executive director of City Year Greater Boston and former chief family involvement and community support for BPD.

She also said other choices could deter students from attending exam schools, such as wanting to attend a school closer to home or to their friends’ school.

In parts of the city where competition for entrance exam schools remains fierce, families are looking for alternative options or not considering entrance exam schools at all, parents say.

Tera Lally of Charlestown said her two oldest children have different views on finishing schools. Her daughter decided not to apply to ninth grade this fall and instead attend a private school. That’s because her friends from a local swim club were leaving finishing schools for various reasons, including arguments between students, Lally said.

Her son, however, had tried to get into a receiving school a year earlier but was not accepted despite getting straight A’s. He now attends Thayer Academy in Braintree, which aggressively recruited students. She said many Charlestown parents accepted offers of admission from Thayer after the school quickly responded to a request to start a bus service to the neighborhood.

Lally said it would be appropriate for BPS to learn from private school recruitment and focus on “attracting as many students as possible.”

“I know private school systems are different, but that’s their philosophy and it works,” she said. “They attract thousands of applicants every year for an education that costs $60,000 a year and that you could get for free in your own city.”

You can reach James Vaznis at [email protected]. Follow him @globevaznis.