Can anyone explain DCI's sibling preference?

[Anonymous]

I'm pretty confused because various friends have told me DCI doesn't have sibling preference, but then I see on MySchoolDC that they do have sibling preference. Can anyone help me out with this? This is to decide whether to enroll DD in 6th for non-feeder French track if she gets an offer, if we enrolled her would our younger child get sibling preference? Thank you!


https://www.myschooldc.org/schools/profile/349/

[Anonymous]

You’ll get more second hand information on DCUM. I would call the school or My School DC and ask. Then report back because I’ve heard conflicting information too!

[Anonymous]

Call them. From what I understand, you do get sibling preference but it is not as good as feeder preference.

So feeder preference will get you in, and any leftover spots will then be given to those with sibling preference.

You cannot get sibling PLUS feeder preference.

[Anonymous]

Could you share any information that you get?

[Anonymous]

I had my older and a DCI feeder, but not my younger kid. Older one got into DCI immediately. Two years later, we had sibling preference in the lottery, and DC2 was waitlisted but with a low number (#6, I think). The younger kid was accepted in early May off the waitlist. For what its worth, the younger kid was in the Spanish track and spoke the language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had my older and a DCI feeder, but not my younger kid. Older one got into DCI immediately. Two years later, we had sibling preference in the lottery, and DC2 was waitlisted but with a low number (#6, I think). The younger kid was accepted in early May off the waitlist. For what its worth, the younger kid was in the Spanish track and spoke the language.

I think as time goes on your situation will become more unusual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had my older and a DCI feeder, but not my younger kid. Older one got into DCI immediately. Two years later, we had sibling preference in the lottery, and DC2 was waitlisted but with a low number (#6, I think). The younger kid was accepted in early May off the waitlist. For what its worth, the younger kid was in the Spanish track and spoke the language.

I think as time goes on your situation will become more unusual.

+1 with most of the feeders expanding this will not be the norm.

[Anonymous]

My understanding is that there is not both sibling and feeder preference.

If you have a child in DCI from a feeder your 2nd child will not get both a feeder preference and a sibling preference.

If you have a child in DCI and your 2nd child is not in a feeder they will get a sibling preference but a kid with a feeder preference will go ahead of them.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you everyone. So my DC1 lotteried as a non-feeder French student and was waitlisted with a single digit number. They made 74 waitlist offers for non-feeder French last year so I'm optimistic. So then DC2 would have sibling preference within the non-feeder category, but would only stand a chance of getting in if there were any non-feeder French seats offered. Which there might not be, because there will be kids from Stokes East End with transfer preference in DC2's year. Right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had my older and a DCI feeder, but not my younger kid. Older one got into DCI immediately. Two years later, we had sibling preference in the lottery, and DC2 was waitlisted but with a low number (#6, I think). The younger kid was accepted in early May off the waitlist. For what its worth, the younger kid was in the Spanish track and spoke the language.

I think as time goes on your situation will become more unusual.

+1 with most of the feeders expanding this will not be the norm.

I agree. In addition, there will likely be no spots left for non-feeder kids even in French or Chinese, because it will go to the Spanish feeder kids who did not get into the Spanish track. They could easily learn a 3rd language, and it would be much easier to pick up vs. a monolingual child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had my older and a DCI feeder, but not my younger kid. Older one got into DCI immediately. Two years later, we had sibling preference in the lottery, and DC2 was waitlisted but with a low number (#6, I think). The younger kid was accepted in early May off the waitlist. For what its worth, the younger kid was in the Spanish track and spoke the language.

I think as time goes on your situation will become more unusual.

+1 with most of the feeders expanding this will not be the norm.

I agree. In addition, there will likely be no spots left for non-feeder kids even in French or Chinese, because it will go to the Spanish feeder kids who did not get into the Spanish track. They could easily learn a 3rd language, and it would be much easier to pick up vs. a monolingual child.

I'm not sure that's true. The DCI website says this:

https://dcinternationalschool.org/about-us/faqs/
Must students from the member schools continue in the same language from their elementary school?
Yes. The purpose of the member school feeder pattern is for students to continue their language immersion journey towards adult bilingualism and biliteracy. Students are encouraged to add additional languages through language specials. Students who come to DCI without a language study background will have to commit to a language track to pursue throughout their time at DCI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had my older and a DCI feeder, but not my younger kid. Older one got into DCI immediately. Two years later, we had sibling preference in the lottery, and DC2 was waitlisted but with a low number (#6, I think). The younger kid was accepted in early May off the waitlist. For what its worth, the younger kid was in the Spanish track and spoke the language.

I think as time goes on your situation will become more unusual.

+1 with most of the feeders expanding this will not be the norm.

I agree. In addition, there will likely be no spots left for non-feeder kids even in French or Chinese, because it will go to the Spanish feeder kids who did not get into the Spanish track. They could easily learn a 3rd language, and it would be much easier to pick up vs. a monolingual child.

What makes you think non-feeder kids are monolingual? There are lots of language schools that aren't DCI feeders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had my older and a DCI feeder, but not my younger kid. Older one got into DCI immediately. Two years later, we had sibling preference in the lottery, and DC2 was waitlisted but with a low number (#6, I think). The younger kid was accepted in early May off the waitlist. For what its worth, the younger kid was in the Spanish track and spoke the language.

I think as time goes on your situation will become more unusual.

+1 with most of the feeders expanding this will not be the norm.

I agree. In addition, there will likely be no spots left for non-feeder kids even in French or Chinese, because it will go to the Spanish feeder kids who did not get into the Spanish track. They could easily learn a 3rd language, and it would be much easier to pick up vs. a monolingual child.

I'm not sure that's true. The DCI website says this:

https://dcinternationalschool.org/about-us/faqs/
Must students from the member schools continue in the same language from their elementary school?
Yes. The purpose of the member school feeder pattern is for students to continue their language immersion journey towards adult bilingualism and biliteracy. Students are encouraged to add additional languages through language specials. Students who come to DCI without a language study background will have to commit to a language track to pursue throughout their time at DCI.

DP, but I think what PP was saying is that a family would put their current language with feeder preference first, but list other languages without feeder preference lower on their lottery list. I feel like if you had a poor enough lottery draw that you didn't get a feeder slot, you'd also get shut out of the non-preference French or Chinese slots. We're in a Spanish school and DD has no problems with it since she's spoken it since birth. We'd have no qualms with her starting a third language in sixth (may be a cool opportunity actually!), but I know many families that are either concerned about their child's ability in their current language OR the child really doesn't like immersion and would refuse starting over in a third language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had my older and a DCI feeder, but not my younger kid. Older one got into DCI immediately. Two years later, we had sibling preference in the lottery, and DC2 was waitlisted but with a low number (#6, I think). The younger kid was accepted in early May off the waitlist. For what its worth, the younger kid was in the Spanish track and spoke the language.

I think as time goes on your situation will become more unusual.

+1 with most of the feeders expanding this will not be the norm.

I agree. In addition, there will likely be no spots left for non-feeder kids even in French or Chinese, because it will go to the Spanish feeder kids who did not get into the Spanish track. They could easily learn a 3rd language, and it would be much easier to pick up vs. a monolingual child.

I'm not sure that's true. The DCI website says this:

https://dcinternationalschool.org/about-us/faqs/
Must students from the member schools continue in the same language from their elementary school?
Yes. The purpose of the member school feeder pattern is for students to continue their language immersion journey towards adult bilingualism and biliteracy. Students are encouraged to add additional languages through language specials. Students who come to DCI without a language study background will have to commit to a language track to pursue throughout their time at DCI.

DP, but I think what PP was saying is that a family would put their current language with feeder preference first, but list other languages without feeder preference lower on their lottery list. I feel like if you had a poor enough lottery draw that you didn't get a feeder slot, you'd also get shut out of the non-preference French or Chinese slots. We're in a Spanish school and DD has no problems with it since she's spoken it since birth. We'd have no qualms with her starting a third language in sixth (may be a cool opportunity actually!), but I know many families that are either concerned about their child's ability in their current language OR the child really doesn't like immersion and would refuse starting over in a third language.

I agree, with a bad lottery number it would be hard to get in without another preference. But if you didn't get in with feeder preference, could sibling preference still put you high on the list? Because there are definitely kids who have both.

The DCI website says "Does DCI have sibling preference? DCI has sibling preference within DCI, as well as with some member schools. Sibling preference can only be approved for siblings in the same language track." But "language track" is different from which feeder school you're coming from, right? Mundo, LAMB, DCB, and Stokes have different feeder allocations and together they make up the Spanish language track? I.e. there's no need to be from a feeder school at all, as long as you're applying to the same language track as your sibling is in. So if Kid 1 came in as a Mundo Verde graduate, and Kid 2 doesn't have a good enough lottery to come in with feeder preference but also applies to the non-feeder Spanish track, that kid would likely be admitted if there were any spots? So basically anyone at a feeder who doesn't have an older sibling is SOL if their lottery number is bad.

This is so confusing!


It says "sibling preference I agree that someone with a bad lottery number and no sibling would have trouble getting in for any language track.

[Anonymous]

Supreme Court has declared it's not a preference, it's a prayer fence.