Date-of-Application-Based Wait Lists

[Anonymous]

I am so torn about this. I agree somewhat that to order that wait list by date does give you a sense of family commitment to a school. So many families (including me) play the game of applying to as many schools as possible to see how it all plays in the end. I too wish that I could have greater control. Of course I have the flexibility to show up either online or in person to apply whenever and I know that is not the case for everyone. However, I have also seen low income moms who apply on the first day the application is available and receive a terrible position on a random lottery wait list. It can and does cut both ways unfortunately.

At the end of the day, school choice is generally a frustrating and expensive choice though less expensive than private school.

[Anonymous]

Because of sibling preference the ordering of the waitlist has become crucial. As well-regarded charters gain experience that means siblings of current students inevitably take up several of the PS, PreK and K spots, leaving few (if any) that are truly "lottery". So it comes down to the waitlist order. Charters have the ability to change their own rules on this and other things (thanks, Bridges for screwing me over by changing the birthday cutoff from Dec 31 to Sept 30!). So if people feel strongly enough about how YY and Stokes handle their waitlist then make a stink with them...not with the PCSB. I don't care about either school, so it doesn't matter to me. I happen to think pure random lottery is the most fair...I do find it interesting that for the DCPS lottery you MUST submit you application online while some of the supposedly best charters resort to having panicky parents line up in the cold like their waiting for Springsteen tickets. Something off about that to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because of sibling preference the ordering of the waitlist has become crucial. As well-regarded charters gain experience that means siblings of current students inevitably take up several of the PS, PreK and K spots, leaving few (if any) that are truly "lottery". So it comes down to the waitlist order. Charters have the ability to change their own rules on this and other things (thanks, Bridges for screwing me over by changing the birthday cutoff from Dec 31 to Sept 30!). So if people feel strongly enough about how YY and Stokes handle their waitlist then make a stink with them...not with the PCSB. I don't care about either school, so it doesn't matter to me. I happen to think pure random lottery is the most fair...I do find it interesting that for the DCPS lottery you MUST submit you application online while some of the supposedly best charters resort to having panicky parents line up in the cold like their waiting for Springsteen tickets. Something off about that to me.

I don't think that schools actually require in-person applications. Certainly I know that Yu Ying allows you to submit your application online. Folks who choose to line up outside do so out of anxiety that the electronic system could get hung up if a hundred folks are submitting their kids' applications at the same time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because of sibling preference the ordering of the waitlist has become crucial. As well-regarded charters gain experience that means siblings of current students inevitably take up several of the PS, PreK and K spots, leaving few (if any) that are truly "lottery". So it comes down to the waitlist order. Charters have the ability to change their own rules on this and other things (thanks, Bridges for screwing me over by changing the birthday cutoff from Dec 31 to Sept 30!). So if people feel strongly enough about how YY and Stokes handle their waitlist then make a stink with them...not with the PCSB. I don't care about either school, so it doesn't matter to me. I happen to think pure random lottery is the most fair...I do find it interesting that for the DCPS lottery you MUST submit you application online while some of the supposedly best charters resort to having panicky parents line up in the cold like their waiting for Springsteen tickets. Something off about that to me.

I don't think that schools actually require in-person applications. Certainly I know that Yu Ying allows you to submit your application online. Folks who choose to line up outside do so out of anxiety that the electronic system could get hung up if a hundred folks are submitting their kids' applications at the same time.

I thought at YY and Stokes the in-person applications received that first day get ordered before any of the online ones submitted that day. Didn't someone say that earlier in this thread?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also FYI -- It seems that last year YY gave priority to those who showed up at the school rather than those online (they took all of them and then added the online applications to the list). Not sure if they do that this year but worth asking.

Is this true

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also FYI -- It seems that last year YY gave priority to those who showed up at the school rather than those online (they took all of them and then added the online applications to the list). Not sure if they do that this year but worth asking.

Is this true

I'd just e-mail the school with this question. When I applied I found that they were very willing to answer my questions about the application process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also FYI -- It seems that last year YY gave priority to those who showed up at the school rather than those online (they took all of them and then added the online applications to the list). Not sure if they do that this year but worth asking.

Is this true

Oh for god's sake if it's on DCUM it must be true, right? And the person who wrote this and the person who wrote about it earlier definitely attend YY and know ALL the ins and outs of how the lottery was handled, right??

If you believe that I have some swamp property in Florida I'd like to sell you.....

Don't even believe me when I tell you I know that the above assertions are false---CALL THE SCHOOL AND GET THE TRUTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

I did Stokes last year and I recall that ordering was by time. I believe the time was stamped when they took the application. I was afraid that online submission would be difficult as there would be a rush on the system and mine would not go through.

As for Bridges, don't think their cut off date change was fairly characterized. My child also has a late bday so we would benefit but I could agree that it did not make sense for them to be different than almost every other charter and DCPS. I had heard that they had the later date to try and capture SN kids as soon as possible. But Since they cannot prioritize SN kids, that rule prob did not result in more SN kids enrolled. INstead, they would have kids there for three rather than two years, resulting in them being able to impact a fewer number of kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I thought at YY and Stokes the in-person applications received that first day get ordered before any of the online ones submitted that day. Didn't someone say that earlier in this thread?

I do not think this is true at YY. I applied online and got an excellent waitlist number. The website didn't crash either.

[Anonymous]

I applied online with Stokes last year 2 minutes after time opened. My WL number was in the 30s while girlfriend that we there in person, still in line (we confirmed via cell entire time), was in the 20s. Since then I have lost all hope with proper handling of timing WLs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I applied online with Stokes last year 2 minutes after time opened. My WL number was in the 30s while girlfriend that we there in person, still in line (we confirmed via cell entire time), was in the 20s. Since then I have lost all hope with proper handling of timing WLs.

Last you could not apply online at Stokes. Your options were to either hand deliver, fax or email.

[Anonymous]

If there weren't for double standards, some people would have none at all.

It's perfectly fine to move into a neighborhood with "exclusive" schools such as Janney's and have a deliberate, outspoken strategy of keeping out OOB students (aka "poor single mothers"). And this, in spite of the fact that in theory, Janney offers the same curricula as any other DCPS.

Yet, it's somehow "illegal" (it's not) for Yu Ying and Stokes to order their WAITLIST by order of application, because it "disadvantages" "poor single mothers."

And the best part is, DCPS has NO RULES AT ALL for waitlists. You might be at the bottom of the pile, but if you show up professionally dressed? on a weekly basis demonstrating your commitment? the Principal has free reign to move you to the top of the list at her/his discretion.

Like I said, if it weren't for double-standards...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And the best part is, DCPS has NO RULES AT ALL for waitlists. You might be at the bottom of the pile, but if you show up professionally dressed? on a weekly basis demonstrating your commitment? the Principal has free reign to move you to the top of the list at her/his discretion.

I agree with your overall point, but I'm not sure that this is true regarding DCPS. Pre-Rhee, DCPS principals did have this kind of discretion. But when my family was playing the DCPS lottery in 2010, we were told that principals had to follow the waitlist strictly. I didn't think that this had changed.

[Anonymous]

^^ oh boy. If only that was true. Until it becomes a centralized process, principals will definitely manipulate the waitlist to some degree. How many times do we call to reach the parent? How many phone numbers on the paper do we call? How long to we give for a response? Do we have special categories of students ( special ed? FARMS ) we need to fill?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I applied online with Stokes last year 2 minutes after time opened. My WL number was in the 30s while girlfriend that we there in person, still in line (we confirmed via cell entire time), was in the 20s. Since then I have lost all hope with proper handling of timing WLs.

Last you could not apply online at Stokes. Your options were to either hand deliver, fax or email.

This time, you have to submit the app online. No in-person apps will be
accepted.