HGC waitlist question

[Anonymous]

I don't think it's a real lottery. My child's third grade teacher told us that another student was wait listed and would probably get in. And she did. This was after a child in the class declined because he was moving out of state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it's a real lottery. My child's third grade teacher told us that another student was wait listed and would probably get in. And she did. This was after a child in the class declined because he was moving out of state.

Someone else said the wait lists are attached to the home school (if someone from a given school declines, someone waitlisted at that school is accepted), so this makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is it determined who goes on the waitlist? At my kid's school 3 kids are going to a HGC and 3 are on waitlist. Thanks.

How do you people know the statistics from your school? Is it by talking to other parents? or do you call/e-mail the teacher/principal? My daughter is also on the wait list but I have no idea who else got in or on wait list at her school.

[Anonymous]

Administrators/teachers will not tell you WHO got in. But they will tell how many.

Admitted kids who attend the open house know who was accepted with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is it determined who goes on the waitlist? At my kid's school 3 kids are going to a HGC and 3 are on waitlist. Thanks.

How do you people know the statistics from your school? Is it by talking to other parents? or do you call/e-mail the teacher/principal? My daughter is also on the wait list but I have no idea who else got in or on wait list at her school.

Because the kids at school talked, and then my kid talked to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Administrators/teachers will not tell you WHO got in. But they will tell how many.

Admitted kids who attend the open house know who was accepted with them.

My child's teacher told me who got in and who was on the wait list.

[Anonymous]

Your child's teacher breached confidentiality.

[Anonymous]

My daughter was on the wait list for Barnsley last year. At least one child from our home school declined (I know the mom) and they did not offer the spot to anyone (or at least no child from our home school attended that was not part of the initIal admit). My understanding is that they over-admit a little bit, so will not necessarily replace all declines with someone from the wait list.
I think 4 kids from our home school were admitted (3 boys, 1 girl). I have no idea how many were on wait list.

[Anonymous]

Someone else said the wait lists are attached to the home school (if someone from a given school declines, someone waitlisted at that school is accepted), so this makes sense.

I don't know that this is true. All the kids accepted to Barnsley from my son's home school chose to attend. One wait list child was accepted over the summer. I do not know how many were waitlisted from the home school.

I've heard that the kids are not ranked for waitlist giving the powers that be the most flexibility to offer the slot(s) in anyway they choose. I imagine that if there were no buses required from school x, and one slot opened in late August, it probably would not be offered to a child from school x because it would complicate the bus schedule just before the start of the year. I don't know that anyone would say that...but who knows?

[Anonymous]

This is obviously only anecdotal, but my daughter got into Barnsley off the waitlist the week before 4th grade started -- another girl from our home school decided not to go after all (as per the HGC coordinator). That's not enough data to say how the waitlist works in practice, but at least for my daughter there was a home school correlation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HGC waitlists are completely different from MS or HS. For MS and HS they read kids' files again. For HGC they do not read files again at all. It is simply lottery.
So it absolutely does not matter how many writing samples or awards you will submit later. Everyone on waitlist have exactly the same probability to be chosen.

Also with MS and definetely HS, when one kid is accepted to several program, some seats free up and waitlisted kids get accepted.
With HGC this is not the case. Kids can go to only one HGC, as a result very few seats are available if any once initial acceptance is completed.

I do not know how different schools operate.
I know for a fact that 3-4 year ago Cold Spring NEVER took any kid after 4th grade started. Even when several kids moved between 4th and 5th grade to different states no kids were added to classes. Actually at that time principal mentioned at the meeting that they will not take kids once program will start.

How do you know this information?
I feel like I'm always reading people saying they definitively KNOW A THING TO BE 100% TRUE and then I talk to people involved with the magnets, IB programs, HGC's and they say very different things.
So... how do you know?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HGC waitlists are completely different from MS or HS. For MS and HS they read kids' files again. For HGC they do not read files again at all. It is simply lottery.
So it absolutely does not matter how many writing samples or awards you will submit later. Everyone on waitlist have exactly the same probability to be chosen.

Also with MS and definetely HS, when one kid is accepted to several program, some seats free up and waitlisted kids get accepted.
With HGC this is not the case. Kids can go to only one HGC, as a result very few seats are available if any once initial acceptance is completed.

I do not know how different schools operate.
I know for a fact that 3-4 year ago Cold Spring NEVER took any kid after 4th grade started. Even when several kids moved between 4th and 5th grade to different states no kids were added to classes. Actually at that time principal mentioned at the meeting that they will not take kids once program will start.

How do you know this information?
I feel like I'm always reading people saying they definitively KNOW A THING TO BE 100% TRUE and then I talk to people involved with the magnets, IB programs, HGC's and they say very different things.
So... how do you know?

i can support the comment. When my DC went to cold spring afew years ago, a boy from our home school was pulled from waiting list bc a girl from the same school decided not attending the HGC. That boy told his friends the story. The principle told the parents at the information meeting that they admit 55 students every year in anticipation of dropping out or moving away. The official target is 50 students per class. Don't know how it works with a new principle.

[Anonymous]

"This makes sense to me. It would be almost impossible for kids to catch up to accelerated instruction halfway through the first year, much less the second."

Having been through the program, I didn't really see much acceleration at our HGC. It was much more about enrichment and encouraging the kids to change their assignments so they were more meaningful to them and using the peer group to get the kids to work hard.

I guess if you were admitted between 4th and 5th you most likely wouldn't be in the highest math group but otherwise you could get up to speed in the first week or two.