More lottery questions

[dbc1122]

Does anyone know ...

1) Can we find out what our lottery number is before the March 31 announcement, (so that we can get some idea of our chances)?

2) What's a good lottery number? About how many participants are there total? And how many for pre-K3 slots?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

That isn't how it works. You don't get assigned a single lottery number. All the schools have separate, simultaneous lotteries. Then the rankings are checked against each other so that each applicant only gets into one (max) school, and all the schools ranked below that one drop that applicant from their wait lists.

[Anonymous]

You do get a single lottery number. I called DME and they confirmed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That isn't how it works. You don't get assigned a single lottery number. All the schools have separate, simultaneous lotteries. Then the rankings are checked against each other so that each applicant only gets into one (max) school, and all the schools ranked below that one drop that applicant from their wait lists.

Actually, I don't think this is right.

The way it is working now is that each applicant gets a unique number per grade. So if 600 people are applying for 3rd grade spots, your rising 3rd grader will have a # between 1 and 600. They'll go down the list of #s one by one, and fill in the slots in a sign-up type method. So each school will have a single list, and the top of the list (down the the # of slots they have available) will be "admit" and below that cut off will be "waitlist." Once you make it on an "admit" slot, they stop adding you to lists.

What you describe is the model from years past; this one is a bit more involved than simple coordination. You can read more about the specific algorithm on the website.

As to the OP, relax. A month isn't that long. Speculation is futile.

[Anonymous]

It does feel anticlimactic, though I suppose we should relish the month of ignorance before the scramble starts again.

[Anonymous]

You get a tracking number, not a lottery number. That way you can find your child on lists. #XXXX You'll get it when you hit submit.

[Anonymous]

Your "lottery number" is basically going to be a tracking number for your application. It will not have any relationship to your waitlist numbers at schools you are waitlisted for. You will not have just one waitlist number unless you only are waitlisted at one school.

Each school has different numbers of applications, and some of those applications will have preference over others. You will have in-bounds preference at your in-bounds school, if you applied to it. If you have any older children already attending a school (suspect this is not the case based on questions), you would have sibling preference at that school (and possibly IB preference as well if it's your IB school). If you live within a certain distance of a school but are not IB for it, you would get proximity preference. Anyone who has one or more of those kinds of preference will have preference over anyone who has none.

Basically, speculating is not helpful. You can look at how many spaces a school has available. Sometimes you can get information directly from the school about how many siblings they expected to have applying. But none of that will tell you how many people applied total to one school, how they ranked that school in comparison with others or what their odds are for having a higher waitlist number than you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That isn't how it works. You don't get assigned a single lottery number. All the schools have separate, simultaneous lotteries. Then the rankings are checked against each other so that each applicant only gets into one (max) school, and all the schools ranked below that one drop that applicant from their wait lists.

Actually, I don't think this is right.

The way it is working now is that each applicant gets a unique number per grade. So if 600 people are applying for 3rd grade spots, your rising 3rd grader will have a # between 1 and 600. They'll go down the list of #s one by one, and fill in the slots in a sign-up type method. So each school will have a single list, and the top of the list (down the the # of slots they have available) will be "admit" and below that cut off will be "waitlist." Once you make it on an "admit" slot, they stop adding you to lists.

What you describe is the model from years past; this one is a bit more involved than simple coordination. You can read more about the specific algorithm on the website.

As to the OP, relax. A month isn't that long. Speculation is futile.

Right, but OP thought that she'd been assigned a single, ranked lottery number. Like, say #157, leaving 156 kids ahead of hers for all schools.

[Anonymous]

Your lottery number is not necessarily your place in line.

[Anonymous]

I think the # you get when you hit APPLY is the order you submitted in. Mine was in the 5000s on Sunday, which seems right. Can anyone with siblings confirm this (I assume you'd get #s very close together)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the # you get when you hit APPLY is the order you submitted in. Mine was in the 5000s on Sunday, which seems right. Can anyone with siblings confirm this (I assume you'd get #s very close together)?

You are right. And as I noted above, that number has NOTHING TO DO with your eventual lottery # at each selected school.

[Anonymous]

I submitted ps3 on Saturday and got a tracking number in the 7000s.

[Anonymous]

I submitted today and got a tracking number in the 20,000s

[Anonymous]

I submitted a few days after it opened and have numbers in the low 2000s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the # you get when you hit APPLY is the order you submitted in. Mine was in the 5000s on Sunday, which seems right. Can anyone with siblings confirm this (I assume you'd get #s very close together)?

You are right. And as I noted above, that number has NOTHING TO DO with your eventual lottery # at each selected school.

I don't know if this is right. Our number is in the 21,XXX, and we submitted and then edited our rankings and submitted again with the same number.