Critic our rankings and chances of getting in?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I think this is all good advice but a lot of it boils down to: if you are probably not going to stay somewhere past PK years, then you may as well go to your in bound. I think people like it this year. We were scared away from Bunker and the other DCPS in the neighborhood, but now I'm more aware that people are dissatisfied with a lot of charters beyond PK-K years as well. Those include: SSMA, CMI, Bridges, maybe Sela, Breakthrough. So, if you're likely to want to trade up anyways, may as well walk to school for a couple of years first. In other words, charters are not always better!!! However there is one elephant in the room which is that our DCPS often has zero white kids and probably zero gentrifiers. And by zero I really do mean zero.

I agree with this PP, except I think this is a little unfair. SSMA is going down in flames, CMI is falling steadily, Bridges is as stable as it's always been (fine to good for pre-k, weak after that), but I've heard nothing but really positive things about Sela and Breakthrough. Sela has amazing scores and is not competitive, and Breakthrough's scores are a little weak, but I think that's common for a Montessori at first since the methodology is so different.

I only included Sela and Breakthrough because I think parents do not tend to stay but look to lottery out for various reasons as the kids get older. I could be wrong.

Really? I hear Breakthrough parents saying the "done with the lottery now" stuff, but who knows whether that's just lip service and they're still secretly playing the lottery.

Sela has 80% retention - this is decent, actually.

For folks that aren't Spanish or bust and just want a "bilingual for the brain benefits" option, Sela is a hidden gem. It's our back pocket option if we are still not lottery winners by 1st grade.

The location is kind of challenging, though.

Challenge for who?

Anyone who doesn't live in Manor Park, Ft Totten, Lamond Riggs, Takoma, Queens Chapel, Brightwood, Brightwood Park...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You've gotten some decent advice here OP, out of curiosity (and given that you know your specific commuting route) are you thinking of making any changes. I'm just curious.

OP here...

Our final list

1) stokes French
2) stokes Spanish
3) yu ying
4) inspired teaching
5) dc bilingual
6) mundo verde
7) capital city (never heard of that one)
8) el Haynes
9) Latin american
10) creative mind
11) lee montesorri
12) bunker hill

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You've gotten some decent advice here OP, out of curiosity (and given that you know your specific commuting route) are you thinking of making any changes. I'm just curious.

OP here...

Our final list

1) stokes French
2) stokes Spanish
3) yu ying
4) inspired teaching
5) dc bilingual
6) mundo verde
7) capital city (never heard of that one)
8) el Haynes
9) Latin american
10) creative mind
11) lee montesorri
12) bunker hill

Are you willing to make the commute to Haynes or Capital City? If not, I'd drop Cap City (no PreK 3 offers last year) and add Burroughs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You've gotten some decent advice here OP, out of curiosity (and given that you know your specific commuting route) are you thinking of making any changes. I'm just curious.

OP here...

Our final list

1) stokes French
2) stokes Spanish
3) yu ying
4) inspired teaching
5) dc bilingual
6) mundo verde
7) capital city (never heard of that one)
8) el Haynes
9) Latin american
10) creative mind
11) lee montesorri
12) bunker hill

Are you willing to make the commute to Haynes or Capital City? If not, I'd drop Cap City (no PreK 3 offers last year) and add Burroughs.

Capital city is a 10 minute drive , 1.5 miles from our house
Haynes is 15 minutes, 3.3 miles

Would be willing to make the commute and more in the general direction to go to work.

[Anonymous]

Not happening. Time to move on.

[Anonymous]

1) stokes French
2) stokes Spanish
3) yu ying
4) inspired teaching
5) dc bilingual

You're top five is very hard to get in. Time to put some safety schools

6) mundo verde - This is a hit or miss, last year there was a high chance to get in because it was new.

7) capital city (never heard of that one) - Safety?
8) el Haynes (Is this a safety? seems medium one to get in)
9) Latin american - Super hard to get in
10) creative mind - Safety
11) lee Montessori - Hard
12) bunker hill

I think if you are OK with your choices, you should be OK that your worse case scenario is getting into Capital City (Maybe), EL Haynes, Creative Mind and Bunker. To me those the most likely you get in.

[Anonymous]

Have you thought about adding the new school in it? Rocketship Fort Tottem? Just wondering, it'll probably be easy to get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1) stokes French
2) stokes Spanish
3) yu ying
4) inspired teaching
5) dc bilingual

You're top five is very hard to get in. Time to put some safety schools

6) mundo verde - This is a hit or miss, last year there was a high chance to get in because it was new.

7) capital city (never heard of that one) - Safety?
8) el Haynes (Is this a safety? seems medium one to get in)
9) Latin american - Super hard to get in
10) creative mind - Safety
11) lee Montessori - Hard
12) bunker hill

I think if you are OK with your choices, you should be OK that your worse case scenario is getting into Capital City (Maybe), EL Haynes, Creative Mind and Bunker. To me those the most likely you get in.

Umm cap city and CMI are not safeties.

Haynes also hard.

So you’re basically heading to bunker hill hope you do know that. At least I give you 75% chance. If you don’t love that idea add Burroughs, maybe bridges.

[Anonymous]

Cap City is very, very difficult to get into. CMI has more wait list movement than the other charters on the list, but is not a guarantee for PK3.

OP, this is a great list if you're happy with Bunker Hill but figure you might as well take your shot at the more selective schools. If that doesn't describe your situation, I'd agree with adding more safeties to give you more options--unless you get a fabulous lottery number (which could always happen!) Bunker Hill and maybe CMI are likely to be your only matches.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the folks who are pointing out that EL Haynes, Capital City, and CMI are definitely not easy to get into.

However, I don't think you need more safeties - the whole point of a safety is that it's your fallback school. Bunker Hill is an early action school and you're guaranteed a slot there. With this list, you'll probably match there. As long as you're ok with that plan, it's a great list.

[Anonymous]

If Cap City is not inconvenient, Breakthrough is just another 5-7 minutes up Blair Road.

[Anonymous]

We got into Haynes and Breakthrough last year but the waitlist for Cap City didn't budge. Having a lovely time at Breakthrough.

[Anonymous]

OP again, Our final list and we submitted this morning ... and now we wait!

1) stokes French
2) stokes Spanish
3) yu ying
4) inspired teaching
5) dc bilingual
6) mundo verde
7) Sela
8) capital city
9) el Haynes
10) lee Montessori
11) creative minds
12) bunker hill

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP again, Our final list and we submitted this morning ... and now we wait!

1) stokes French
2) stokes Spanish
3) yu ying
4) inspired teaching
5) dc bilingual
6) mundo verde
7) Sela
8) capital city
9) el Haynes
10) lee Montessori
11) creative minds
12) bunker hill

Looks like a well thought out list, OP! One thing, since Sela makes a lot of initial offers and clears it's list very early in the summer, just be aware that you are pretty much guaranteed to get an offer by June and all of the schools below will drop off. If you truly prefer Sela to your numbers 8-12, then that's great. If not, then consider moving Sela below them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP again, Our final list and we submitted this morning ... and now we wait!

1) stokes French
2) stokes Spanish
3) yu ying
4) inspired teaching
5) dc bilingual
6) mundo verde
7) Sela
8) capital city
9) el Haynes
10) lee Montessori
11) creative minds
12) bunker hill

I'm sorry to see you took LAMB off, but great list! Best of luck.