Yu Ying waitlist hypothesis

[Anonymous]

I have an (unproven) hypothesis that the YY waitlist will be the slowest moving, because it is the school with the most pre-selection. Curious what you all think.

For prek3/4 I have spoken with a number of families who applied to 10 schools in the common lottery, plus all the schools outside of the common lottery, except for YY.

Two main reasons were cited by these families:

1) zero interest in child learning chinese, in some cases because they are already learning another language and don't want to confuse them. Would prefer to stay in private daycare or SAH etc instead of attending YY

2) lukewarm interest in chinese and vaguely aware that it's a school with a great reputation, but time stamp lottery process too much of a hassle if you are only lukewarm on YY (not passionate about kid learning chinese)

For this reason I think the YY waitlist should have a higher percentage of families who really want to go to YY, in comparison with other waitlists, especially compared with the other schools outside of the common lottery process.

What do you think?

[Anonymous]

Interesting.

I think unlike many of the other schools, MV, lamb...that offer immersion, you can't half-ass YY. You really need to put in the effort. I think those parents that apply really want the school for their kids.

I agree. Those that apply, want the school. Want it bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I have an (unproven) hypothesis that the YY waitlist will be the slowest moving, because it is the school with the most pre-selection. Curious what you all think.

For prek3/4 I have spoken with a number of families who applied to 10 schools in the common lottery, plus all the schools outside of the common lottery, except for YY.

Two main reasons were cited by these families:

1) zero interest in child learning chinese, in some cases because they are already learning another language and don't want to confuse them. Would prefer to stay in private daycare or SAH etc instead of attending YY

2) lukewarm interest in chinese and vaguely aware that it's a school with a great reputation, but time stamp lottery process too much of a hassle if you are only lukewarm on YY (not passionate about kid learning chinese)

For this reason I think the YY waitlist should have a higher percentage of families who really want to go to YY, in comparison with other waitlists, especially compared with the other schools outside of the common lottery process.

What do you think?

I think it will be the slowest moving of the non-common-lottery schools, especially since they order it by time stamp. But the popular schools in the common lottery will probably have less movement, since much movement is already built into the algorithm.

[Anonymous]

I agree. Even the lukewarm on Chinese people that ultimately applied will go just because of the ranking. Also, at YY info sessions the administration noted that every year there are kids who enter the school whose parents had no clue the school was Chinese immersion. The parents go for it just on rep alone.

[Anonymous]

I agree too. Yu Ying was the only public school, DCPS or charter, we applied to b/c we really wanted Chinese. If we had not got in, we would have sent DC to private school. I know other families there who are the same.

[Anonymous]

We are a Yu Ying family. We wanted immersion, no particular interest in Chinese.

But I think it will be the slowest moving because of thr ones tamp. Anyone who wanted it a lot applied right at the beginning.

By the way Chinese is a lot of work to support! Which we are doing.

[Anonymous]

I think "duh"

Did you just figure that out?

Schools do time stamp wait list for exactly that reason -they want parents who are motivated to go there.

[Anonymous]

The waitlist only went to 19 last year, which is pretty low considering there were something like 35 pk4 slots. People who stood in line to get on the waitlist are unlikely to turn down a slot if offered.

[Anonymous]

Interesting. I do know 2 families at the school who ended up there simply because they didn't get in anywhere else despite applying to 12+ schools. (This is not a critique of the school---just the reality of their situations.)

This year I put my child #3 in the lottery for PK and logged in the moment the application went live (because why not) but it was for a back-up to our JKLM. If we get into PK at the JKLM (where my other 2 kids are) then we'll go there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, at YY info sessions the administration noted that every year there are kids who enter the school whose parents had no clue the school was Chinese immersion.

Wow! That'd be a shocker! Hard to imagine being in that boat.

[Anonymous]

PP again--
I can share further that at the JKLM I'm talking about the inboundary applicants with siblings have a 50/50 chance of getting in. I know quite a few families this year and over the past 2 years who would prefer the JKLM but also have an interest in Chinese or Spanish and view Yu Ying or Mundo Verde as a back-up for PK. PK is viewed as a bonus year--if the kid likes it and the commute works then they'll stay at the school. If not, the kid will go to the JKLM for K with their guaranteed seat.

[Anonymous]

By the way Chinese is a lot of work to support! Which we are doing.

Yeah, I've always had the feeling that having a child there would be a lot for the whole household, and we're very meh about Chinese. IMO, the time stamp biz is right on the money.

[Anonymous]

YY demographics is 9% Asian and 20% Other - many if not most of the "other" are biracial Asian/White and/or AA kids. Understandably, most of their parents really want Mandarin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:YY demographics is 9% Asian and 20% Other - many if not most of the "other" are biracial Asian/White and/or AA kids. Understandably, most of their parents really want Mandarin.

We're one of these families at YY and aside from learning Mandarin, DH and I like to joke that this is the one school where a multiracial kid will NEVER get teased for being mixed race or Asian.

[Anonymous]

^^ you don't get teased at Lamb either. Like every this kid is some kind of biracial. Makes me (and my mixed family) feel very warm and fuzzy!