the school received a charter from the regents of the state of new york (now the new york state education department) under the name "technical high school of buffalo" in 1918, and remained in this building until 1954. in the spring of 1921, tech began issuing entrance exams and became what is now known as a magnet school, even though with its course load it would normally fall into the classification of a vocational-technical school. that practice still continues today to help select classes, which now consist of roughly 200-300 students.