Help me understand PreK 3 lottery

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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). [/quote

I am in the same boat and spend 15-20 min each way commuting for my children's amazing immersion school. It's worth it for us, and we have a great carpool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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). [/quote

I am in the same boat and spend 15-20 min each way commuting for my children's amazing immersion school. It's worth it for us, and we have a great carpool.

The thing to remember is that if you got into a school before the common lottery, the equation was different. Back then the good charter far from your house may have been the only school you got into. But now (other than LAMB) you have one lottery number for all schools. So if you have a great lottery number, you will get into a top pic and otherwise not. If you do have a top pic, many people would consider both commute and quality of the school. For example, if you live in Eckington and have a great number, you'll have your pick of schools and odds are you may prefer IT to SWW or CMI, just because it is closer and they are all good schools. So among the top HRCS, we picked the one near us that fed into DCI (we wanted a middle school option plus the language) and ranked that first.

another PP said to evaluate your in bounds school and compare others to that school.

[Anonymous]

PP, everyone determines their priorities when figuring out the school thing. I'm glad you have made 30 minutes in the wrong direction work. That wouldn't work for my family, though, so we prioritized a short commute. My point was that the OP and others should be very realistic about their limitations, including commute. It's not an insignificant factor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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).

I think the point is just to be realistic about it. If 25-30 mins is feasible and worth it for a family, great. But people who do not realistically measure the actual length of the commute and the impact it will have on life stress often end up with regrets.

[Anonymous]

I think the Ed Fest was helpful, but I agree that you should do your research before you go, and don't bring your kid with you if possible.
We also found attending open houses really important. There were several schools I had a high opinion of on paper, but then was less impressed with after visiting, and vice versa. Our rankings in our lottery list changed a lot after visiting the schools. I wouldn't wait until you get in somewhere to go visit it because you need to rank the schools in the order you want to go to them - so having seen them in person really helps with that. Also, if you get called off a waitlist you may be required to make a decision very quickly (1 or 2 days) if you want to accept the spot- so if you can't get to the school in that time period, or you are away on vacation, you'd have to make a decision without ever seeing the school.

Also, rank the schools in the true order you would want to go to them. Include schools that you really like even if you think you have slim chances. You never know when a school may add an extra class, move, or expand in some way that changes the lottery results from last year.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

That is an oft-repeated and wholly illogical statement. Unless you have more than 12 schools on your list (I know I surely did not) there's no such thing as wasting a spot. OP is asking for facts, so how about sticking to facts. It will not hurt their chances to put Brent #1, even if they have no chance. They need to align their expectations to be sure, but it isn't a wasted spot.

[Anonymous]

Figure out if you will get into your in bounds school. If not, you will need to do research to find lots of alternatives that might have space. If your in bounds school usually takes all in bounds families and/or you don't mind not getting in anywhere, you can use a lot of slots for reach/miracle schools like Ross and Brent. But either way if there are charters you really want, put them down!! Last year I knew families who didn't list MV because they thought they didn't have a chance, and then they opened up more classrooms and a lot of non-siblings got in.

[Anonymous]

I think, OP, you will get from this thread - that different things are valued by different families. What matters - is what YOUR family values. People will argue on DCUM all day about what is the best school, but what is important is what is the best school/fit for your child. And can you find and rank 12 of them.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think, OP, you will get from this thread - that different things are valued by different families. What matters - is what YOUR family values. People will argue on DCUM all day about what is the best school, but what is important is what is the best school/fit for your child. And can you find and rank 12 of them.

Good luck!

Sage wisdom. Like they need you to tell them that their own values are more important than anonymous trolls postings. I think the fact that you felt the need to weigh in like that says more about you than you think.

[Anonymous]

I'll add my experience: we chose about eight schools that were in NE (where we live) that had programs we thought looked good, including some notably hard-to-get-into ones (Yu Ying) but without making an effort to make sure there were any really safe bets in there. My son attended a daycare where I worked that he could continue at, if necessary, through kindergarten.

We didn't get into anything. But we got decent-ish waitlist numbers on two schools, and decided to wait it out. The summer came and went, and our numbers moved. The school year started. September came and went. And in October, we made it to the bottom of the list for one of the schools, transferred in, and are really happy.

So, in our case, it helped to have a primary plan we could fall back on, giving us time to wait out the waitlists in the fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think, OP, you will get from this thread - that different things are valued by different families. What matters - is what YOUR family values. People will argue on DCUM all day about what is the best school, but what is important is what is the best school/fit for your child. And can you find and rank 12 of them.

Good luck!

Sage wisdom. Like they need you to tell them that their own values are more important than anonymous trolls postings. I think the fact that you felt the need to weigh in like that says more about you than you think.

Yes, please go back to arguing passionately about how important commute is. Or how Finnish immersion is THE most important ever.

[Anonymous]

I actually thought most of the advice here was pretty good.

[Anonymous]

OP, my advice is to start with your in boundary school and learn more about it, then make decisions off of that. For example, if it is a school that everyone who is IB traditionally gets into, and you are ok with it at least for a year or two, then have that be the last school on your list and only look at schools that would be a better fit for your family. If it is a difficult school to get into even for an IB family, then start thinking of schools that let a good number of people with no preference in. Appletree is one that is generally a good choice, but other schools, like Bridges and Meridian, also have a lot of openings. And of course, think about "dream" schools for your family. But be realistic in your choices. When we applied for PK3, we were 400+ on the Mundo Verde waitlist. Someone has to be lucky, but it's probably not going to be you, so have some solid backups on your list.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Agree with many of the prior posters.

1. Just in the interests of managing your time and stress, I think it's important to go into the process with a strong fallback plan -- whether it's your in-bound school or a charter that always gets through its waitlist but that you can live with for a year or two, or even deciding that by year x, you'll head for the suburbs. This gives yourself a couple of years until you find your way into a longer term solution -- or even to allow your "safety school" to become your longer term solution. This will let you play the lottery from a position of relative "strength" and safety and avoid devastating yourself if you aren't lucky the first round.

2. Others will disagree, but unless you have a lot of time on your hand and are unusually good at compartmentalizing your feelings, I suggest skipping the open houses and multi-school fairs. From my perspective, having skipped them myself and hearing other parents who spent a lot of time on them, any benefit these events offer are often offset by causing parents to fall in love too soon with "dream" schools that they never even get into, as well as to reject as "unacceptable" schools that you might seem to compare unfavorably due to false comparisons with dream schools (see above), when they might be the school you could get into later. Instead, I found it beneficial to stick to online information that I could more efficiently and objectively rank while keeping at a healthy emotional distance, until after each round of the lottery was over and I could devote a more focused burst of attention on those schools where we had an actual likelihood of admission. Many schools are pretty good at offering last-minute open houses and tours to help low-waitlist-numbered and recently-admitted parents make a decision.

3. Prepare for the long haul, including the prospect of at least one if not two or three moves for your child. I know many parents think this is damaging to kids, but we did it with no apparent ill effects. And even assuming it isn't ideal, that might be the price worth paying in the long run. Also at least prepare for the likelihood of spending summers and even early fall following up with higher demand schools as their waitlists move. If you are prepared for that ahead of time as part of playing the game, you'll be able to handle the stress of it and take advantage of slots that open up late and when waitlists speed up after other families who aren't willing to stick it out and decide to cut bait.

4. Try to remember that as an involved parent who values your child's education, whatever warts or flaws your school might have can be significantly compensated by what you add to their educational experience through being involved, giving them supplemental enrichment, and so on. Just look at test scores for high SES students across the District, who not only outperform high SES students elsewhere in the country, but are consistently and similarly high whether your child is at Janney/Deal /Wilson or at an EOTP charter or DCPS alternative.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree with many of the prior posters.

1. Just in the interests of managing your time and stress, I think it's important to go into the process with a strong fallback plan -- whether it's your in-bound school or a charter that always gets through its waitlist but that you can live with for a year or two, or even deciding that by year x, you'll head for the suburbs. This gives yourself a couple of years until you find your way into a longer term solution -- or even to allow your "safety school" to become your longer term solution. This will let you play the lottery from a position of relative "strength" and safety and avoid devastating yourself if you aren't lucky the first round.

2. Others will disagree, but unless you have a lot of time on your hand and are unusually good at compartmentalizing your feelings, I suggest skipping the open houses and multi-school fairs. From my perspective, having skipped them myself and hearing other parents who spent a lot of time on them, any benefit these events offer are often offset by causing parents to fall in love too soon with "dream" schools that they never even get into, as well as to reject as "unacceptable" schools that you might seem to compare unfavorably due to false comparisons with dream schools (see above), when they might be the school you could get into later. Instead, I found it beneficial to stick to online information that I could more efficiently and objectively rank while keeping at a healthy emotional distance, until after each round of the lottery was over and I could devote a more focused burst of attention on those schools where we had an actual likelihood of admission. Many schools are pretty good at offering last-minute open houses and tours to help low-waitlist-numbered and recently-admitted parents make a decision.

3. Prepare for the long haul, including the prospect of at least one if not two or three moves for your child. I know many parents think this is damaging to kids, but we did it with no apparent ill effects. And even assuming it isn't ideal, that might be the price worth paying in the long run. Also at least prepare for the likelihood of spending summers and even early fall following up with higher demand schools as their waitlists move. If you are prepared for that ahead of time as part of playing the game, you'll be able to handle the stress of it and take advantage of slots that open up late and when waitlists speed up after other families who aren't willing to stick it out and decide to cut bait.

4. Try to remember that as an involved parent who values your child's education, whatever warts or flaws your school might have can be significantly compensated by what you add to their educational experience through being involved, giving them supplemental enrichment, and so on. Just look at test scores for high SES students across the District, who not only outperform high SES students elsewhere in the country, but are consistently and similarly high whether your child is at Janney/Deal /Wilson or at an EOTP charter or DCPS alternative.

Good luck.

We too, did not attend any open houses and I don't regret that decision. For us, commute was a huge deal so we only listed those schools with realistic commutes for our family (can we walk or bike to the school)?