School preference and offer odds

[Anonymous]

It is not at all silly to list the school you actually prefer as 1. Are you basically throwing away Latin 2nd listing it later on? Sure. But My School allows 12 choices so some people add it anyways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A mix. Some people do Basis #1. Some people might have a sibling at Latin Cooper so that for them went ahead of 2nd Street. Some people prefer a Hardy/Deal feeder, SWWFS, or another school because its close to them.

If you have sibling preference at Latin Cooper, it's idiotic to list it #1 above Latin 2nd. You would list Latin 1 first, so that you could match at Latin Cooper and stay on the waitlist for Latin 1.

Idiotic? What if you match at 2nd street and then have a 6th grader at Cooper and a 5th grader at 2nd and are just annoyed with two drop offs all year? What if you live near Kirov and prefer that in the long run?

There is zero cost to listing schools below a school you have a 99.9% matching at .. so people do.

Finally, do we know for sure that applications - match - waitlist = percent matched someplace higher? I am not sure when myschool does all the verification and would not match for wrong grade entered, address, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is not at all silly to list the school you actually prefer as 1. Are you basically throwing away Latin 2nd listing it later on? Sure. But My School allows 12 choices so some people add it anyways.

It's silly to list anything below a school where you have a preference. That's just math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A mix. Some people do Basis #1. Some people might have a sibling at Latin Cooper so that for them went ahead of 2nd Street. Some people prefer a Hardy/Deal feeder, SWWFS, or another school because its close to them.

By the results, it would be silly for anyone to bother wasting a lottery spot trying for a Deal/Hardy feeder or SWWFS for 5th.

0 matches for 5th grade for any Deal/Hardy feeder school or SWWFS other than 4 spots at Eaton ES. Though plenty tried because there are anywhere from 20-50 waitlist spots for 5th at each school.

Simply not true. There is always movement at *some* Hardy/Deal feeders in some grades, and younger siblings can pull in older siblings (I know several families where this happened in the past) and as you said, there were a number of
spots at Eaton last year, so some people do get in. as others said, there is literally no cost to adding these schools to your list, and you may just "win the lottery" and get a spot.

(My 2nd grader is #7 at H-A right now, dropping down from 17 on April 1st. If he gets in, he'll pull his brother to the top of the list)

[Anonymous]

These percentage are so low for Latin and Basis. I am glad to have DCI as an option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

We listed schools higher than Latin (BASIS plus DCPS schools with better feeders). I know it wasn't totally rational because if we got a high enough number for BASIS, the latins would drop off the list. But that was our true preference. Maybe there are others.

This is what we did, too. Everyone has recommended the Latins above BASIS, but my kid has wanted to be an engineer since he knew what that was, he lives and breathes math class, and he loved his shadow day there. I knew there was almost zero chance we'd get into one of the Latins and not BASIS, but almost zero is not the same as zero. It's always possible there will be some kind of statistical anomaly, where the high numbers are disproportionately assigned to STEM-focused kids, or the current BASIS kids all have twin siblings in fourth grade. In any case, if he couldn't get BASIS, the Latins would be our second choice, and I trusted Al Roth and listed my actual preferences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A mix. Some people do Basis #1. Some people might have a sibling at Latin Cooper so that for them went ahead of 2nd Street. Some people prefer a Hardy/Deal feeder, SWWFS, or another school because its close to them.

By the results, it would be silly for anyone to bother wasting a lottery spot trying for a Deal/Hardy feeder or SWWFS for 5th.

0 matches for 5th grade for any Deal/Hardy feeder school or SWWFS other than 4 spots at Eaton ES. Though plenty tried because there are anywhere from 20-50 waitlist spots for 5th at each school.

Simply not true. There is always movement at *some* Hardy/Deal feeders in some grades, and younger siblings can pull in older siblings (I know several families where this happened in the past) and as you said, there were a number of
spots at Eaton last year, so some people do get in. as others said, there is literally no cost to adding these schools to your list, and you may just "win the lottery" and get a spot.

(My 2nd grader is #7 at H-A right now, dropping down from 17 on April 1st. If he gets in, he'll pull his brother to the top of the list)

Per the spreadsheet I downloaded, there were 0 matches for 5th at the feeder schools in the most recent lottery other than 4 spots matched at Eaton, for 5th. So it does seem a spot is wasted trying for 5th for lottery for these schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A mix. Some people do Basis #1. Some people might have a sibling at Latin Cooper so that for them went ahead of 2nd Street. Some people prefer a Hardy/Deal feeder, SWWFS, or another school because its close to them.

By the results, it would be silly for anyone to bother wasting a lottery spot trying for a Deal/Hardy feeder or SWWFS for 5th.

0 matches for 5th grade for any Deal/Hardy feeder school or SWWFS other than 4 spots at Eaton ES. Though plenty tried because there are anywhere from 20-50 waitlist spots for 5th at each school.

Simply not true. There is always movement at *some* Hardy/Deal feeders in some grades, and younger siblings can pull in older siblings (I know several families where this happened in the past) and as you said, there were a number of
spots at Eaton last year, so some people do get in. as others said, there is literally no cost to adding these schools to your list, and you may just "win the lottery" and get a spot.

(My 2nd grader is #7 at H-A right now, dropping down from 17 on April 1st. If he gets in, he'll pull his brother to the top of the list)

Per the spreadsheet I downloaded, there were 0 matches for 5th at the feeder schools in the most recent lottery other than 4 spots matched at Eaton, for 5th. So it does seem a spot is wasted trying for 5th for lottery for these schools

DP nevermind, I get what you're saying re movement

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A mix. Some people do Basis #1. Some people might have a sibling at Latin Cooper so that for them went ahead of 2nd Street. Some people prefer a Hardy/Deal feeder, SWWFS, or another school because its close to them.

By the results, it would be silly for anyone to bother wasting a lottery spot trying for a Deal/Hardy feeder or SWWFS for 5th.

0 matches for 5th grade for any Deal/Hardy feeder school or SWWFS other than 4 spots at Eaton ES. Though plenty tried because there are anywhere from 20-50 waitlist spots for 5th at each school.

Simply not true. There is always movement at *some* Hardy/Deal feeders in some grades, and younger siblings can pull in older siblings (I know several families where this happened in the past) and as you said, there were a number of
spots at Eaton last year, so some people do get in. as others said, there is literally no cost to adding these schools to your list, and you may just "win the lottery" and get a spot.

(My 2nd grader is #7 at H-A right now, dropping down from 17 on April 1st. If he gets in, he'll pull his brother to the top of the list)

Per the spreadsheet I downloaded, there were 0 matches for 5th at the feeder schools in the most recent lottery other than 4 spots matched at Eaton, for 5th. So it does seem a spot is wasted trying for 5th for lottery for these schools

Last year Eaton was the only Deal or Hardy feeder to offer seats (2) on match day for 5th grade, but by October Eaton had made 19 offers, Adams 29, Shepherd 5, Lafayette 2, Mann 1. Still not a great strategy but not totally hopeless either.

[Anonymous]

hard to waste a middle school spot when my school gives you 12.