Help me understand PreK 3 lottery

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go to the open houses - I felt that was my best source of gut information on each school. Understand that it really is a lottery and that while there's a small chance you can get in somewhere fabulous, you can also be hugely prepared and not get in anywhere.

I did not find the open houses helpful at all. They take up tons of time, and for the hugely popular schools they're a clusterf*ck. Plus many schools don't really care what the huge crowds of prospective kids experience during the open house. I distinctly remember taking a whole day off of work to attend two open houses only to find out at each that there were only going to have room for maybe 5 non sibling spots. Great. So I would go to EdFest to talk to the schools that are hugely popular and get some literature on their teaching style. Then I would attend only the open houses of your "safety" schools. Those will almost certainly have a spot for your kid, and you need to know whether to look at private options or not.

I really wouldn't waste your time too much on the LAMBs and Mundo Verdes because they probably won't have any spots and if you are lucky enough to get in you can take a tour before you accept.

[Anonymous]

I would recommend EdFest as well, but if at all possible try to attend without bringing your child.

If you are a working parent who will being doing drop off, I would also recommend taking a morning to commute to the schools you are considering by whatever transportation you'll be using with your child and then heading on to work to see what you'll be experiencing on a daily basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would recommend EdFest as well, but if at all possible try to attend without bringing your child.

If you are a working parent who will being doing drop off, I would also recommend taking a morning to commute to the schools you are considering by whatever transportation you'll be using with your child and then heading on to work to see what you'll be experiencing on a daily basis.

This is good advice.

[Anonymous]

Two works of advice OP:

1) Be super duper realistic about your commute. You will have to manage this in bad weather, bad traffic, when you are super busy at work, etc. etc., potentially going there more than twice a day for volunteering, sick kids, special events, etc. And don't forget to consider the parking situation-- will you have to wait for a spot? And the time to get kids out of car seats.

2) Check out your neighborhood school first. Many neighborhood schools are able to take all IB PK3 applicants, and many people report that when they check out the neighborhood school they are pleasantly surprised. If that works out, then you really only need to look for schools you like better than your neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. Learn about the schools from MySchoolDC.org or their individual websites, which should be listed on their MSDC profile.

2. If you are able, attend open houses so that you can see the school. Open houses that occur today are best to see the school in action.

3. Go to EdFest, but research the schools you are considering in advance. EdFest is huge and if you go in without an agenda, you will be overwhelmed and may waste the opportunity to ask specific questions.

4. Visit your in bounds school and list it, but only rank it highly if you truly want to go there more than other places.

5. Do not bother with most of the "highly desired" DCPS schools. You can list Ross, but you will not get in. The Ward 3 schools don't have PK3 anyway, but the same is mostly true over there. Eaton and Hearst still have space for some out of bounds kids, but the rest of them mostly do not.

Hearst at least does have room for OOB kids, but doesn't have PK3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Showing my ignorance - what is the DC schools forum? Thanks

I am wondering the same thing....

[Anonymous]

On the charter front, take a good hard look at schools in their first or second year of existence (not Lee, probably); there might be more spots open and a higher likelihood of getting in.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't rule out Lee-- the move to a currently unknown location may make the school less feasible for some.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Showing my ignorance - what is the DC schools forum? Thanks

I am wondering the same thing....

This is it. The thread was originally posted in the daycare/preschool forum

[Anonymous]

When I applied for my twins - I applied to 6 DCPS schools that were less than 2 miles from home, Two Rivers, and Appletree. We got into Appletree and our unpopular in boandary DCPS, then after school started we got into our current popular DCPS school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Learn about the schools from MySchoolDC.org or their individual websites, which should be listed on their MSDC profile.

2. If you are able, attend open houses so that you can see the school. Open houses that occur today are best to see the school in action.

3. Go to EdFest, but research the schools you are considering in advance. EdFest is huge and if you go in without an agenda, you will be overwhelmed and may waste the opportunity to ask specific questions.

4. Visit your in bounds school and list it, but only rank it highly if you truly want to go there more than other places.

5. Do not bother with most of the "highly desired" DCPS schools. You can list Ross, but you will not get in. The Ward 3 schools don't have PK3 anyway, but the same is mostly true over there. Eaton and Hearst still have space for some out of bounds kids, but the rest of them mostly do not.

Hearst at least does have room for OOB kids, but doesn't have PK3.

PP here. Apologies if that was not clear. My point was that attaching her hopes to one of the Ward 3 schools is largely asking for disappointment. My main lottery strategy was to be very realistic about what we could tolerate and what was possible. The commute to Ross for us would've been great, but we are not in bounds so there was no chance of getting in. We didn't even bother to apply to schools where the commute would not work because we knew that commute was largely going to be our deciding factor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Learn about the schools from MySchoolDC.org or their individual websites, which should be listed on their MSDC profile.

2. If you are able, attend open houses so that you can see the school. Open houses that occur today are best to see the school in action.

3. Go to EdFest, but research the schools you are considering in advance. EdFest is huge and if you go in without an agenda, you will be overwhelmed and may waste the opportunity to ask specific questions.

4. Visit your in bounds school and list it, but only rank it highly if you truly want to go there more than other places.

5. Do not bother with most of the "highly desired" DCPS schools. You can list Ross, but you will not get in. The Ward 3 schools don't have PK3 anyway, but the same is mostly true over there. Eaton and Hearst still have space for some out of bounds kids, but the rest of them mostly do not.

Hearst at least does have room for OOB kids, but doesn't have PK3.

PP here. Apologies if that was not clear. My point was that attaching her hopes to one of the Ward 3 schools is largely asking for disappointment. My main lottery strategy was to be very realistic about what we could tolerate and what was possible. The commute to Ross for us would've been great, but we are not in bounds so there was no chance of getting in. We didn't even bother to apply to schools where the commute would not work because we knew that commute was largely going to be our deciding factor.

+1. OP, it's critical that you understand the difference between an in-demand charter and an in-demand neighborhood school. Charters typically don't have a geographic boundary, so after siblings are admitted, all applicants stand basically the same (tiny) chance. Neighborhood schools place in-boundary applicants above out-of-boundary applicants, so if you are OOB, you really may have literally zero chance of admission. Don't waste a spot on that.

[Anonymous]

I have to chime in and underscore the importance of being realistic about your commute if you are working parents. I have too many friends who underestimated the commuting stress and ended up needing to turn down schools they had put on their list that they too late realized were not possible for them to handle given the location.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have to chime in and underscore the importance of being realistic about your commute if you are working parents. I have too many friends who underestimated the commuting stress and ended up needing to turn down schools they had put on their list that they too late realized were not possible for them to handle given the location.

I would disagree with this (although I may be in the minority). We are in 2nd grade and have had about a 25-30 min commute (opposite work) since PK3. I feel like the most important thing is a long term fit for my DC. There weren't many decent schools near us and not with long term solutions (through at least middle school).

[Anonymous]

Check out any new opening charters. We got into a (now) HRCS the first year and were so glad we made the choice to take that chance.