Yu Ying waitlist hypothesis

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:If it makes anyone feel better, I applied to Yu Ying for my three year old, but we'll go there only if we don't get in anywhere else. I don't have any interest in him learning Chinese and would rather not have my son in a language immersion school of any type. But we would definitely go there over at least one of my in-boundary options (Raymond). Any of my other 11 schools I would probably prefer over Yu Ying. I hear it's a great school, but I think just not for us.

Not that I can't see someone feeling this way, but it's pretty clear you are making this post up if you put YY down as one of your 12 lottery choices... glad you will not be taking up a spot there if you have zero interest in being there.

You would think if someone is going to makeup a scenario, they would make is vaguely plausible. Dumb

I read it as her having put down 11 preferable-to-YY schools PLUS Raymond on her common application, for a total of 12.

I'm the original poster - who was not so interested in Yu Ying. I applied to my 12 schools in the lottery plus every school that didn't participate in the lottery (5 I think) - just trying to get in somewhere. I think what's sad about the lottery is that you aren't choosing a school. The idea that this is choice is nuts! Sure, it would be wonderful if only parents interested in their child learning to speak Chinese applied to Yu Ying. But as long as the school you get is based purely on chance, I'm going to maximize my chances and apply to as many schools as possible. I guess the silver lining for those specifically interested in Yu Ying might be that as long as I get into somewhere else (other than Raymond) I'm not going to be using my spot on the waiting list, and someone else can have it.

I'm sure that there are many parents who want to go to Yu Ying and nowhere else if they can help it, that still applied for 12 schools in the common lottery. The sad thing is that all parents who care probably applied for almost the same 12 schools. It's probably only our in-boundary safety schools that differ.

Ok, that part is understood. But I'm going to guess that since you have almost no interest in YY, you did not sleep out or jump to apply right at 8:00am on the day the applications were due. Is that correct? If so, the only way you'd be in a position to take a spot anyway is if you get one of the random lottery spots, which is an actual spot. Unless you were one of the first to apply, your waitlist spot isn't going to get you anything, so you're not taking anything from anyone who really wants to be there unless you get in in the actual lottery.

I still wish you luck, but I was in your position last year and simply did not apply to schools we knew we really didn't want. It just seemed like bad karma to take a spot we knew we'd jump from later at a school that was so hard to get into. I'd never do that at a language immersion school. And we did have a choice at an immersion school, but since it wasn't the one we wanted, we didn't take it (we found out we didn't think it was a good fit after we applied).

You are right! I didn't know anything about the time stamp, so if I don't get in I guess I won't get a good wait list spot. The common lottery stresses there is no benefit to applying early and I didn't realize YY is different. And as I said, if I get in to another school I really like I won't keep my spot at YY, so someone else can have my spot. As for applying to schools that aren't really wanted... well, it's all chance, I feel like I'd be doing a disservice to my child to not apply to as many schools as I'm able to. If it really were a CHOICE I would actually choose only schools i really wanted. Meanwhile, I'm sure there are some YY fans that applied to schools I want my kid to go to, and I don't blame you. We are all trying to have good options.

[Anonymous]

Good luck! Last yr they had ~35 prek4 spots and ~600 applications. Went ~19 on the waitlist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it makes anyone feel better, I applied to Yu Ying for my three year old, but we'll go there only if we don't get in anywhere else. I don't have any interest in him learning Chinese and would rather not have my son in a language immersion school of any type. But we would definitely go there over at least one of my in-boundary options (Raymond). Any of my other 11 schools I would probably prefer over Yu Ying. I hear it's a great school, but I think just not for us.

Not that I can't see someone feeling this way, but it's pretty clear you are making this post up if you put YY down as one of your 12 lottery choices... glad you will not be taking up a spot there if you have zero interest in being there.

You would think if someone is going to makeup a scenario, they would make is vaguely plausible. Dumb

I read it as her having put down 11 preferable-to-YY schools PLUS Raymond on her common application, for a total of 12.

I'm the original poster - who was not so interested in Yu Ying. I applied to my 12 schools in the lottery plus every school that didn't participate in the lottery (5 I think) - just trying to get in somewhere. I think what's sad about the lottery is that you aren't choosing a school. The idea that this is choice is nuts! Sure, it would be wonderful if only parents interested in their child learning to speak Chinese applied to Yu Ying. But as long as the school you get is based purely on chance, I'm going to maximize my chances and apply to as many schools as possible. I guess the silver lining for those specifically interested in Yu Ying might be that as long as I get into somewhere else (other than Raymond) I'm not going to be using my spot on the waiting list, and someone else can have it.

I'm sure that there are many parents who want to go to Yu Ying and nowhere else if they can help it, that still applied for 12 schools in the common lottery. The sad thing is that all parents who care probably applied for almost the same 12 schools. It's probably only our in-boundary safety schools that differ.

Question - did you apply early to YY (right when the lottery opened) to get a good time stamp?

On your last point, I doubt very much our lists are similar. We had to rule out a whole swath of charter schools for location, and as a result we ended up putting a bunch of DCPS on the our list that we really liked when we toured, but they have no cache on DCUM.

Wow - two rivers would be quite the commute for you. Do you or does your spouse work near there? I am always surprised when people apply to both Cal city and Two Rivers -- obviously similar schools, just geographically far apart.

My mom lives in Takoma DC and watches our infant son...I drive past Cap City on the way to her place. Then I work at Union Station and pass Shaed Elementary on the way (will be the home of Inspired Teaching). I work at Union Station and Two Rivers is right by there. So actually Cap City, Inspired Teaching and Two Rivers are all convenient. My commute is Petworth-Takoma-Union Station (40 minutes, not as bad as it sounds).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Good luck! Last yr they had ~35 prek4 spots and ~600 applications. Went ~19 on the waitlist.

Yu Ying's process has always confused me. How many kids get in via lottery? The WL only comes into play after the lottery, so for 19 kids to have come off the WL must have meant that 19 lottery winners turned down their slot. Seems unlikely to me or am I missing something?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was announced as a possibility so yes there were people in line for PreK 3. The very 1st person in line wanted PreK 3.

We applied online for PK3. They told us at the first open house they might have a class. Our time stamp was 8.10, so probably no chance for us.

Time stamp is very silly in the computer age.

If you had to sleep on the doorstep overnight that would really separate the serious from the non-serious. Having an online application timestamp allows non-serious to compete against serious and it's basically random (internet speed, luck of the page-loading draw, how fast can you type, etc).

For any of these more unusual language schools to really flourish they will eventually need to move to test-in or some other process. I can't imagine trying to teach in mandarin to a class that included a bunch of random students with no interest in chinese, no support for the language at home. This is definitely not a put-down for YY, which sounds excellent - it just doesn't seem a good fit for a city-wide random lottery.

The time stamp ensures there are no random students with no interest in Chinese. Parents do wait overnight. Every family that gets in wants to be there and is willing to put in the work. That's the intent of the application procedure.

I don't see why -- it's really easy to log on to an application website at 8am in your pajamas. All it takes is knowing in advance when the applications open. It doesn't require any dedication and minimal seriousness. It's really not effective at screening out people who don't care about YY, and it certainly isn't effective at screening for chinese being spoken in the household which at the end of the day is the most important factor!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it makes anyone feel better, I applied to Yu Ying for my three year old, but we'll go there only if we don't get in anywhere else. I don't have any interest in him learning Chinese and would rather not have my son in a language immersion school of any type. But we would definitely go there over at least one of my in-boundary options (Raymond). Any of my other 11 schools I would probably prefer over Yu Ying. I hear it's a great school, but I think just not for us.

Not that I can't see someone feeling this way, but it's pretty clear you are making this post up if you put YY down as one of your 12 lottery choices... glad you will not be taking up a spot there if you have zero interest in being there.

You would think if someone is going to makeup a scenario, they would make is vaguely plausible. Dumb

I read it as her having put down 11 preferable-to-YY schools PLUS Raymond on her common application, for a total of 12.

I'm the original poster - who was not so interested in Yu Ying. I applied to my 12 schools in the lottery plus every school that didn't participate in the lottery (5 I think) - just trying to get in somewhere. I think what's sad about the lottery is that you aren't choosing a school. The idea that this is choice is nuts! Sure, it would be wonderful if only parents interested in their child learning to speak Chinese applied to Yu Ying. But as long as the school you get is based purely on chance, I'm going to maximize my chances and apply to as many schools as possible. I guess the silver lining for those specifically interested in Yu Ying might be that as long as I get into somewhere else (other than Raymond) I'm not going to be using my spot on the waiting list, and someone else can have it.

I'm sure that there are many parents who want to go to Yu Ying and nowhere else if they can help it, that still applied for 12 schools in the common lottery. The sad thing is that all parents who care probably applied for almost the same 12 schools. It's probably only our in-boundary safety schools that differ.

Question - did you apply early to YY (right when the lottery opened) to get a good time stamp?

On your last point, I doubt very much our lists are similar. We had to rule out a whole swath of charter schools for location, and as a result we ended up putting a bunch of DCPS on the our list that we really liked when we toured, but they have no cache on DCUM.

Hmm, that's interesting. I just figured most of the charters that have a good reputation everyone is applying for - Cap City PCS, Inspired Teaching, Two Rivers, Mundo Verde, LAMB, Yu Ying, EL Haynes, Bridges, Stokes, Apple Tree and Lee Montessori (yes, I mixed common lottery with schools that aren't). I feel like most parents probably applied to all of these...I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect most of those schools are on most lists. Basically there weren't 12 charters that seemed excellent, so I filled out my 12 with DCPS schools that are close (Powell, West, Raymond). I know some parents might be limited by proximity, but living in Petworth and working downtown means most of the schools in the city east of the park are reasonable options.

I live EOTP and work downtown and tried a bunch of th commutes to th above schools and had to rule a bunch out. The hardest for me was inspired teaching and lee--IT was my favorite school but there was bumper to bumper traffic going to downtown from there. Cap City was awful, too, and both north and east of us--the complete opposite direction from work. I strongly disliked Appletree, so didn't apply there, and by far the worst open house I went to was Haynes, so skipped that too.

I think me and my friends are probably putting a lot more weight on commute than you are.

Yes, I think commute is important and will lead to very different lists even if we all agree on quality (and we probably don't agree exactly). I cannot imagine living in Ward 3 and attending a Capitol Hill school, for example, no matter how good it is. I think one reason for the popularity of some of the central DC schools (east of the park but still in northwest) is that they are accessible from many neighborhoods and with many commutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:also to the PP who said they would think it's fine to put their kid in for PS-3 and Pk-4 and then move when they got another spot, you realize you are also disadvantaging the kid who gets in at Kindergarten and couldn't get in earlier as well as the whole class. He or she could have had two full years of Chinese language immersion in school. Starting at ground zero in K is harder and hurts the whole class because it drags down the overall proficiency when you have a bunch of kids with no exposure to the language starting two years later.

We are a current YY family and I have to say the one thing that made me nervous when we toured the school was to see lots of students--including those in upper grades who were mostly speaking in English. They clearly understood the teachers but they weren't speaking Chinese. We hope that PS and PK immersion will make a difference here, since there are almost no native speakers at the school, but that will be all that much harder if people put their kids in for a year or two of free school and then pull out later.

I had always assumed this about YY but I've never seen solid numbers. Can you quantify this? A previous poster (this thread, I think?) seemed to suggest that 30% of the students are asian or a mix with asian, which I assumed meant chinese in this context. How many native speakers would you say there are?
.

[Anonymous]

Asian can mean japanese, korean, indian, etc. Asia is a large continent. Also, just b/c someone is of Chinese or mixed Chinese descent does not mean the person speaks or knows any Mandarin.

Yu Ying like all charters cannot screen/test-in for language or anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Good luck! Last yr they had ~35 prek4 spots and ~600 applications. Went ~19 on the waitlist.

Yu Ying's process has always confused me. How many kids get in via lottery? The WL only comes into play after the lottery, so for 19 kids to have come off the WL must have meant that 19 lottery winners turned down their slot. Seems unlikely to me or am I missing something?

No, actually it doesn't mean that. I was in the top 10 on the WL at another very highly in-demand charter. We didn't get a call at all all summer until close to the first day of school when we got the call. By then we'd gotten into our #1 school and we were set, so we turned it down. I know for a fact that that very in-demand charter called at least another 4 people before they got someone who took the spot (we knew the people who said yes and what # they were). This means they moved at least 6 people down the list for one spot.

So going to #19 doesn't mean 19 people in the original lottery turned it down. It could have been 5. Although in YY's case specifically, I'm going to guess that at least 10 people of the 35 offered said no, just because of how quickly the waitlist moved early on. Sadly for those further down, I doubt it will have that many no's this year.

[Anonymous]

Also, there could have been a few students who'd said they were re-enrolling from the previous year who didn't return or withdrew right before the new year started, and that would open more spots as well to the waitlist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Asian can mean japanese, korean, indian, etc. Asia is a large continent. Also, just b/c someone is of Chinese or mixed Chinese descent does not mean the person speaks or knows any Mandarin.

Yu Ying like all charters cannot screen/test-in for language or anything else.

Yes, thanks for the explanation of US census categories. That's why I wrote "in this context". Doubt there are too many Indians seeking YY enrollment, but who knows.

Is there a YY parent who can guesstimate the % of YY kids who speak chinese at home with at least one native speaker?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asian can mean japanese, korean, indian, etc. Asia is a large continent. Also, just b/c someone is of Chinese or mixed Chinese descent does not mean the person speaks or knows any Mandarin.

Yu Ying like all charters cannot screen/test-in for language or anything else.

Yes, thanks for the explanation of US census categories. That's why I wrote "in this context". Doubt there are too many Indians seeking YY enrollment, but who knows.

Is there a YY parent who can guesstimate the % of YY kids who speak chinese at home with at least one native speaker?

Just checked the demographics - it is 72% black, white and hispanic, and the rest asian or "two or more races". So it would appear that 72% do not speak chinese at home, and maybe some of the remaining 28% do...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was announced as a possibility so yes there were people in line for PreK 3. The very 1st person in line wanted PreK 3.

We applied online for PK3. They told us at the first open house they might have a class. Our time stamp was 8.10, so probably no chance for us.

Time stamp is very silly in the computer age.

If you had to sleep on the doorstep overnight that would really separate the serious from the non-serious. Having an online application timestamp allows non-serious to compete against serious and it's basically random (internet speed, luck of the page-loading draw, how fast can you type, etc).

For any of these more unusual language schools to really flourish they will eventually need to move to test-in or some other process. I can't imagine trying to teach in mandarin to a class that included a bunch of random students with no interest in chinese, no support for the language at home. This is definitely not a put-down for YY, which sounds excellent - it just doesn't seem a good fit for a city-wide random lottery.

The time stamp ensures there are no random students with no interest in Chinese. Parents do wait overnight. Every family that gets in wants to be there and is willing to put in the work. That's the intent of the application procedure.

We have no real interest in Chinese but I logged in at 8:00am. If I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it right. It was no harder or more painful for me to log in at 8:00am then it would be have been for me to log in at 9:30. Now if they made the log in at 3:00am or insisted that applicants stay in line overnight then they might have discourged me.
As it is, if we get in to our JKLM for PK we would turn down Yu Ying in a heartbeat. Yu Ying is just one of many back-up choices for us.

[Anonymous]

We have no real interest in Chinese but I logged in at 8:00am. If I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it right. It was no harder or more painful for me to log in at 8:00am then it would be have been for me to log in at 9:30. Now if they made the log in at 3:00am or insisted that applicants stay in line overnight then they might have discourged me.
As it is, if we get in to our JKLM for PK we would turn down Yu Ying in a heartbeat. Yu Ying is just one of many back-up choices for us.

So what time stamp did you get and for which grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was announced as a possibility so yes there were people in line for PreK 3. The very 1st person in line wanted PreK 3.

We applied online for PK3. They told us at the first open house they might have a class. Our time stamp was 8.10, so probably no chance for us.

Time stamp is very silly in the computer age.

If you had to sleep on the doorstep overnight that would really separate the serious from the non-serious. Having an online application timestamp allows non-serious to compete against serious and it's basically random (internet speed, luck of the page-loading draw, how fast can you type, etc).

For any of these more unusual language schools to really flourish they will eventually need to move to test-in or some other process. I can't imagine trying to teach in mandarin to a class that included a bunch of random students with no interest in chinese, no support for the language at home. This is definitely not a put-down for YY, which sounds excellent - it just doesn't seem a good fit for a city-wide random lottery.

The time stamp ensures there are no random students with no interest in Chinese. Parents do wait overnight. Every family that gets in wants to be there and is willing to put in the work. That's the intent of the application procedure.

We have no real interest in Chinese but I logged in at 8:00am. If I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it right. It was no harder or more painful for me to log in at 8:00am then it would be have been for me to log in at 9:30. Now if they made the log in at 3:00am or insisted that applicants stay in line overnight then they might have discourged me.
As it is, if we get in to our JKLM for PK we would turn down Yu Ying in a heartbeat. Yu Ying is just one of many back-up choices for us.

Exactly. They want the people who want Yu Ying more than anything else and who are committed to staying.

Enjoy your JKLM.