WHAT?? How does this happen re: DCPS lottery??

[Anonymous]

I am following the brilliant idea of someone in another thread and checking out some of the applicants above me on the waitlist of a school that I have a sorta ok # on. The applicant I just checked got single digit lottery #s for TWO JKLMM schools and a single digit for an impossible to get into language school, and those were the only schools they applied to. HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?? Is that just the luckiest person on the planet or... what?

[Anonymous]

They should be on a plane to Vegas.

[Anonymous]

I think they are probably just really lucky.

There are strange things that happen.

I have a friend whose kid got into SWS this year, and they live a block away from the new site. So part of me wonders, did they secretly do some kind of proximity preference?

Two years ago, my twins had waitlist numbers which followed each other at 3 of the six schools (19 and 20, 59 and 60, and 25 and 26). That seemed so strange that that happened randomly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think they are probably just really lucky.

There are strange things that happen.

I have a friend whose kid got into SWS this year, and they live a block away from the new site. So part of me wonders, did they secretly do some kind of proximity preference?

Two years ago, my twins had waitlist numbers which followed each other at 3 of the six schools (19 and 20, 59 and 60, and 25 and 26). That seemed so strange that that happened randomly.

That simply CANNOT be random, can it?? That seems like some feature/glitch in the system that entered sibs or twins together. Did you ever meet anyone else with twins that year who did the lottery, and did they have a similar experience? Maybe there's a way and a reason that's intentional..?

[Anonymous]

For your twins it was not random - the system is set-up such that after twin #1 is selected, twin #2 automatically gets the next spot. All twins get this.

For the original question - there is something fishey.

[Anonymous]

Is there some sort of preference for SN kids or something? Perhaps this explains it?

[Anonymous]

I'm the twin mom - but why did it only happen in three of the six schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I have a friend whose kid got into SWS this year, and they live a block away from the new site. So part of me wonders, did they secretly do some kind of proximity...

This could be because every parent within the LT bounds ranked SWS #1. She might have been the lucky one...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For your twins it was not random - the system is set-up such that after twin #1 is selected, twin #2 automatically gets the next spot. All twins get this.

For the original question - there is something fishey.

I think what you're trying to describe is the "sibling accepted" preference and that really only works if one kid was accepted and the other was waitlisted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there some sort of preference for SN kids or something? Perhaps this explains it?

children who are a part of Early Stages are placed outside of the lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the twin mom - but why did it only happen in three of the six schools?

because it was random.

[Anonymous]

Gotta joke for you- what do you call people with really great waitlist numbers.... "Not In"! Get it? Op, that so-called " lucky kid" is perhaps the unluckiest. Not in, but very teased. And this will probably be the first year waitlist a move very slow if at all because of the new rules. Double "unluck"!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think they are probably just really lucky.

There are strange things that happen.

I have a friend whose kid got into SWS this year, and they live a block away from the new site. So part of me wonders, did they secretly do some kind of proximity preference?

Two years ago, my twins had waitlist numbers which followed each other at 3 of the six schools (19 and 20, 59 and 60, and 25 and 26). That seemed so strange that that happened randomly.

That simply CANNOT be random, can it?? That seems like some feature/glitch in the system that entered sibs or twins together. Did you ever meet anyone else with twins that year who did the lottery, and did they have a similar experience? Maybe there's a way and a reason that's intentional..?

Bridges did something like this in the spring 2010 lottery (they may have done it other years, but I only know about 2010). When a child's name was drawn, if that child had a sibling then the sibling's name was automatically given the next spot in line. (However, in 2010 Bridges would keep the sibling's name in the hat & draw it at random later, so a family could have waitlist #s 12, 13 and 78 for only two kids. If the child who was drawn at 12 didn't enroll, 13 would slip back to 78.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am following the brilliant idea of someone in another thread and checking out some of the applicants above me on the waitlist of a school that I have a sorta ok # on. The applicant I just checked got single digit lottery #s for TWO JKLMM schools and a single digit for an impossible to get into language school, and those were the only schools they applied to. HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?? Is that just the luckiest person on the planet or... what?

Yes. It's luck. As PP said, that means the child is on 3 waitlists. It's not like they got into 3 schools.

Just wait until the charter results roll in. There will be more than a few trifectas.

(IMHO it's kind of creepy to check someone else's results.)

[Anonymous]

another thing to keep in mind is that twins are always going to have the same preferences. If the twins had the only "OOB w/Sib" for the school (or something other than "no preference") then the chance of them being ranked together is higher.