Selective HS not that difficult to get into

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When the teachers and the counselor submit their letters, the student gets a confirmation that x teacher submitted their recommendation letter. The students can track who submitted the letters!

Right. But if a letter or any other element somehow got lost after that point, there's no way to know, until the lottery results come out and the kid is marked incomplete. And more broadly, there's no way to try to correct any of these problems.

It's in an electronic system, so it's not like a paper is going to get lost.

I thought they hand wrote the essays on site?

If a kid was invited to the campus for an interview / essay and the school lost the essay (which, how?) then that would not likely count against the kid since it was not their fault.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not to be cynical, but on DCUM it’s pretty easy to pretend to be someone you’re not. And according to My School, no one was waitlisted for 9th grade at McKinley this year.

Caveat lector.

You don't understand the process. Kids who didn't get into McKinley earlier in the process would not be waitlisted.

I understand the process fine. The PP said she knew kids “waitlisted at McKinley.” In actual fact, zero kids were waitlisted at McKinley.

How does this work -- according to the 2025-26 historical waitlist info McKinley had 250 lottery seats, 1,186 applications on results day, only 163 matches, and 0 waitlist.

Does that mean that they're not filling all the seats? Were there not enough qualified applicants? Am I looking in the wrong place? DCPS seems to have data. many places!

It means that many qualified applicants ranked McKinley below other schools in the lottery and matched with their higher-ranked schools. For example, a 8th grader might apply for Latin, DCI, Walls, Banneker, Duke and MacArthur. But that still leaves six spots on their dance card, so why not add McKinley Tech? The odds that a kid qualified for McKinley matched with one of their top six schools are pretty high: the match rate for rising 9th graders who listed six schools was 95%. And if a qualified kid matches with a higher-ranked schools, they will not be matched or waitlisted with MT.

Just so you know, not every 8th grader applies for Latin, DCI, Duke Ellington or MacArthur over McKinley Tech. My kid had no interest in any of those schools and chose McKinley. Your supposition that McKinley is usually the last choice is insulting and ill-informed.

[Anonymous]

Also, for (hopefully) the last time: McKinley Tech does not now and has never, in recent memory, maintained a waitlist. That's not how it works.

[Anonymous]

A lot of students list Walls or Banneker as their first choice and then also include McKinley. Some students list some combination of non-application schools like those the above higher. None of that makes McKinley bad or undesirable. Its just how it is.

[Anonymous]

Lol at Banneker and McKinley being some kind of prize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, for (hopefully) the last time: McKinley Tech does not now and has never, in recent memory, maintained a waitlist. That's not how it works.

They waitlisted one kid last year. Three kids a few years earlier.

Last year they had 247 matches, this year only 163. I wonder why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, for (hopefully) the last time: McKinley Tech does not now and has never, in recent memory, maintained a waitlist. That's not how it works.

They waitlisted one kid last year. Three kids a few years earlier.

Last year they had 247 matches, this year only 163. I wonder why.

Because they decreased the number of students they wanted to accept. Every year they turn away far more students than they accept.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lol at Banneker and McKinley being some kind of prize.

Who said they were? There are indeed selective schools, but people who haven't sent kids there know very little about the quality of their teaching and how challenging or not they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, for (hopefully) the last time: McKinley Tech does not now and has never, in recent memory, maintained a waitlist. That's not how it works.

They waitlisted one kid last year. Three kids a few years earlier.

Last year they had 247 matches, this year only 163. I wonder why.

These are clearly unusual cases. They do not regularly maintain a waitlist. It's not part of the mix of their school admissions in a consistent way like it is in the lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lol at Banneker and McKinley being some kind of prize.

Among public and charter high schools, Banneker is ranked in the top 100 in the nation by USNWR. The only other DC area high schools in the top 100 are Thomas Jefferson and SWW.

Some may not agree with the USNWR rankings, but the metrics are objective and transparent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, for (hopefully) the last time: McKinley Tech does not now and has never, in recent memory, maintained a waitlist. That's not how it works.

They waitlisted one kid last year. Three kids a few years earlier.

Last year they had 247 matches, this year only 163. I wonder why.

Because they decreased the number of students they wanted to accept. Every year they turn away far more students than they accept.

Well, that's hard to know. We don't know how many students they would have been happy to accept but who matched elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, for (hopefully) the last time: McKinley Tech does not now and has never, in recent memory, maintained a waitlist. That's not how it works.

They waitlisted one kid last year. Three kids a few years earlier.

Last year they had 247 matches, this year only 163. I wonder why.

Because they decreased the number of students they wanted to accept. Every year they turn away far more students than they accept.

Well, that's hard to know. We don't know how many students they would have been happy to accept but who matched elsewhere.

We also know, because they've told us, that some students apply to McKinley Tech and are not offered rejection, and some of those were interviewed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, for (hopefully) the last time: McKinley Tech does not now and has never, in recent memory, maintained a waitlist. That's not how it works.

They waitlisted one kid last year. Three kids a few years earlier.

Last year they had 247 matches, this year only 163. I wonder why.

Because they decreased the number of students they wanted to accept. Every year they turn away far more students than they accept.

Well, that's hard to know. We don't know how many students they would have been happy to accept but who matched elsewhere.

We also know, because they've told us, that some students apply to McKinley Tech and are not offered rejection, and some of those were interviewed.

Should be "are not offered admission."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, for (hopefully) the last time: McKinley Tech does not now and has never, in recent memory, maintained a waitlist. That's not how it works.

They waitlisted one kid last year. Three kids a few years earlier.

Last year they had 247 matches, this year only 163. I wonder why.

Because they decreased the number of students they wanted to accept. Every year they turn away far more students than they accept.

Well, that's hard to know. We don't know how many students they would have been happy to accept but who matched elsewhere.

Also, the school itself has told students that they turn away far more students than they accept. Unless they are lying, that's one data point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, for (hopefully) the last time: McKinley Tech does not now and has never, in recent memory, maintained a waitlist. That's not how it works.

They waitlisted one kid last year. Three kids a few years earlier.

Last year they had 247 matches, this year only 163. I wonder why.

Because they decreased the number of students they wanted to accept. Every year they turn away far more students than they accept.

Well, that's hard to know. We don't know how many students they would have been happy to accept but who matched elsewhere.

Also, the school itself has told students that they turn away far more students than they accept. Unless they are lying, that's one data point.

That's nice, but what I really want to know is how many *of those who completed the application process* would have been accepted had they not matched elsewhere.