Anonymous
02/05/2026 22:09
Subject: Incoming PK3 Hill/NoMa families – share your tentative rankings
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:OP, you gotta ask yourself "Do I want a language school and if so which languages?" And "Do I want Montessori?" That will help you narrow down your list.
Steer away from Shining Stars Montessori, it's a hot mess and narrowly avoided closure. CHML is also a hot mess.
List your IB, SWS if you're into that, and then the less-competitive DCPS schools such as JOW, Miner, and Peabody. Chisholm if you're into Spanish. To fill out the end of your list with less competitive schools, consider Langley and Two Rivers (can't believe I'm saying that, used to be Langley was rock bottom and Two Rivers had 400+ kids on the waitlist).
You can use this dashboard to assess your chances as an OOB non-sibling and eliminate schools where you truly don't stand a chance. https://enrolldcps.dc.gov/node/61
Also consider schools that may be near your commute. Many people list Thomson for that reason.
The matches by preference section does not include waitlist offers. A school could be making "no preference" offers off the waitlist, but there's no way to see that directly in the data.
One decent way to approximate is to look at matches by preference for PK4. If more than a couple matches are going to IB students, it's likely that some IB students were left on the waitlist for PK3 and OOB chances for PK3 are nil.
Using this data set can also shed light on it. If the number of waitlist offers exceeds the number of waitlisted students with a preference, then you stand some chance. https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay
Anonymous
02/05/2026 21:59
Subject: Incoming PK3 Hill/NoMa families – share your tentative rankings
Anonymous wrote:OP, you gotta ask yourself "Do I want a language school and if so which languages?" And "Do I want Montessori?" That will help you narrow down your list.
Steer away from Shining Stars Montessori, it's a hot mess and narrowly avoided closure. CHML is also a hot mess.
List your IB, SWS if you're into that, and then the less-competitive DCPS schools such as JOW, Miner, and Peabody. Chisholm if you're into Spanish. To fill out the end of your list with less competitive schools, consider Langley and Two Rivers (can't believe I'm saying that, used to be Langley was rock bottom and Two Rivers had 400+ kids on the waitlist).
You can use this dashboard to assess your chances as an OOB non-sibling and eliminate schools where you truly don't stand a chance. https://enrolldcps.dc.gov/node/61
Also consider schools that may be near your commute. Many people list Thomson for that reason.
The matches by preference section does not include waitlist offers. A school could be making "no preference" offers off the waitlist, but there's no way to see that directly in the data.
One decent way to approximate is to look at matches by preference for PK4. If more than a couple matches are going to IB students, it's likely that some IB students were left on the waitlist for PK3 and OOB chances for PK3 are nil.
Anonymous
02/05/2026 21:40
Subject: Incoming PK3 Hill/NoMa families – share your tentative rankings
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Sometimes it's because the needs of their older child are driving the family's decisionmaking. Say the oldest kid starts out at their IB, School 1, and maybe it isn't great. Then they're able to lottery into Two Rivers or SWS or something that's better than School 1. So then the younger kid starts PK3 at School 2. But then, the family starts to think about middle school! And/or they realize the upper elementary at School 2 isn't that great. So they want to switch to, say, a Stuart-Hobson feeder. So they lottery all their kids in the hopes that one will get in and confer sibling preference on the others. And if they're successful in doing that, they'll probably move all of their kids to keep them together. So that's how the younger kid and the third kid end up switching schools when they're still pretty young.
This is a good illustration. It sounds exhausting but it’s not unusual.
I mean, not everyone goes through that. It's just an example. If you're lucky enough to get into a school with a good middle, or if you don't care about middle because you don't plan to live here at that time, then no need for all the hopping around. But when you're only changing school and not moving house to a whole different town, it's not as big a deal to the kids. They'll probably have friends at all different schools.
If you do like Montessori, I believe Lee (Brookland campus) is the best one within a reasonable drive of the Hill. Inspired Teaching could get your kids through 8th so it's worth looking into for that reason alone. Yes the drive sucks, but hopping around schools kinda sucks too...
Anonymous
02/05/2026 21:29
Subject: Incoming PK3 Hill/NoMa families – share your tentative rankings
Anonymous wrote:Sometimes it's because the needs of their older child are driving the family's decisionmaking. Say the oldest kid starts out at their IB, School 1, and maybe it isn't great. Then they're able to lottery into Two Rivers or SWS or something that's better than School 1. So then the younger kid starts PK3 at School 2. But then, the family starts to think about middle school! And/or they realize the upper elementary at School 2 isn't that great. So they want to switch to, say, a Stuart-Hobson feeder. So they lottery all their kids in the hopes that one will get in and confer sibling preference on the others. And if they're successful in doing that, they'll probably move all of their kids to keep them together. So that's how the younger kid and the third kid end up switching schools when they're still pretty young.
This is a good illustration. It sounds exhausting but it’s not unusual.
Anonymous
02/05/2026 20:50
Subject: Incoming PK3 Hill/NoMa families – share your tentative rankings
OP, you gotta ask yourself "Do I want a language school and if so which languages?" And "Do I want Montessori?" That will help you narrow down your list.
Steer away from Shining Stars Montessori, it's a hot mess and narrowly avoided closure. CHML is also a hot mess.
List your IB, SWS if you're into that, and then the less-competitive DCPS schools such as JOW, Miner, and Peabody. Chisholm if you're into Spanish. To fill out the end of your list with less competitive schools, consider Langley and Two Rivers (can't believe I'm saying that, used to be Langley was rock bottom and Two Rivers had 400+ kids on the waitlist).
You can use this dashboard to assess your chances as an OOB non-sibling and eliminate schools where you truly don't stand a chance. https://enrolldcps.dc.gov/node/61
Also consider schools that may be near your commute. Many people list Thomson for that reason.
Steer away from Shining Stars Montessori, it's a hot mess and narrowly avoided closure. CHML is also a hot mess.
List your IB, SWS if you're into that, and then the less-competitive DCPS schools such as JOW, Miner, and Peabody. Chisholm if you're into Spanish. To fill out the end of your list with less competitive schools, consider Langley and Two Rivers (can't believe I'm saying that, used to be Langley was rock bottom and Two Rivers had 400+ kids on the waitlist).
You can use this dashboard to assess your chances as an OOB non-sibling and eliminate schools where you truly don't stand a chance. https://enrolldcps.dc.gov/node/61
Also consider schools that may be near your commute. Many people list Thomson for that reason.
Anonymous
02/05/2026 20:19
Subject: Incoming PK3 Hill/NoMa families – share your tentative rankings
this is pretty easy. list your IB, SWS (unlikely but at least citywide), JOW, Miner, Peabody (unlikely but not impossible), Appletree(s), maybe Wheatley, maybe Langley, maybe Chisholm at Springarn, in your personal order of preference.
Anonymous
02/05/2026 20:00
Subject: Incoming PK3 Hill/NoMa families – share your tentative rankings
go look at the prek3 lottery numbers on myschool and you will pretty quickly get a sense of where you wont get a spot oob (and its most schools). yes sure you can list it since you can list 12 schools. but if you live in noma you arent getting a prek3 spot at most of the hill schools.
Anonymous
02/05/2026 19:35
Subject: Incoming PK3 Hill/NoMa families – share your tentative rankings
Sometimes it's because the needs of their older child are driving the family's decisionmaking. Say the oldest kid starts out at their IB, School 1, and maybe it isn't great. Then they're able to lottery into Two Rivers or SWS or something that's better than School 1. So then the younger kid starts PK3 at School 2. But then, the family starts to think about middle school! And/or they realize the upper elementary at School 2 isn't that great. So they want to switch to, say, a Stuart-Hobson feeder. So they lottery all their kids in the hopes that one will get in and confer sibling preference on the others. And if they're successful in doing that, they'll probably move all of their kids to keep them together. So that's how the younger kid and the third kid end up switching schools when they're still pretty young.
Anonymous
02/05/2026 17:23
Subject: Incoming PK3 Hill/NoMa families – share your tentative rankings
Lots of kids can’t get into PK3 without a sibling at the most sought after Hill schools (used to be even more true when the ECE population on the Hill was higher), so transfer in PK4 or K to where they always wanted to go.
Some folks try out a thing with a commute in ECE (immersion, for instance, which is not so convenient to the Hill) and then bail because it’s not what they expected or, even more likely, because of the commute and their IB school being good enough (increasingly true of most Hill schools).
Other families start at their IB they know isn’t their long term plan (for instance, lots of Miner families end up at Ludlow; lots of Peabody families switch to Brent or Maury rather than head to Watkins).
Sometimes a school just doesn’t work out or your realize your priorities in PK3 (great playground!) suddenly seem less important.
Some folks try out a thing with a commute in ECE (immersion, for instance, which is not so convenient to the Hill) and then bail because it’s not what they expected or, even more likely, because of the commute and their IB school being good enough (increasingly true of most Hill schools).
Other families start at their IB they know isn’t their long term plan (for instance, lots of Miner families end up at Ludlow; lots of Peabody families switch to Brent or Maury rather than head to Watkins).
Sometimes a school just doesn’t work out or your realize your priorities in PK3 (great playground!) suddenly seem less important.
Anonymous
02/05/2026 12:07
Subject: Incoming PK3 Hill/NoMa families – share your tentative rankings
Also because sometimes what people want, or think they want, for PK is what they want for upper elementary and middle. Two Rivers for example.
Anonymous
02/05/2026 12:05
Subject: Incoming PK3 Hill/NoMa families – share your tentative rankings
Hill and NOMA people who live in the most desirable school boundaries (for example, Maury) or least desirable school boundaries usually do switch schools sometime in the PK and early elementary years. That is because almost all spots at desirable schools in PK3 get taken by in boundary kids. For some schools, like Maury, it is hard to get into PK even if you live in boundary if you do not have sibling preference. So you start somewhere else and then join Maury by K. If you live in an undesirable school boundary, it usually takes a few years to get into a nearby more desirable school in the lottery. That is why people switch schools a lot.
Anonymous
02/05/2026 11:59
Subject: Incoming PK3 Hill/NoMa families – share your tentative rankings
It's not the norm because a PK3 spot at a good school can be hard to obtain on the Hill. Lots of people would have done PK3 at their K school if they could have.
Anonymous
02/05/2026 11:57
Subject: Incoming PK3 Hill/NoMa families – share your tentative rankings
You should provide your list.
Anonymous
02/05/2026 11:56
Subject: Incoming PK3 Hill/NoMa families – share your tentative rankings
Once upon a time we had a lottery "swami" who made incredible predictions based on lists.
Anonymous
02/05/2026 11:54
Subject: Incoming PK3 Hill/NoMa families – share your tentative rankings
Is this a thing ... are people willing to share their draft or final lists? Probably most helpful for others if you include the top 1-2 factors you're prioritizing (location, commute, specific program, etc.) and any preference privileges (IB, sibling, etc.), followed by how you're thinking about your list so far.
I'm asking in part because I've talked to 10+ current DCPS parents at this point - and it might be total coincidence but - so far only one family has a kid attending K+ in the same school where they started PK3. Is that the norm? We've done some open houses and not getting too attached to any one school because of the odds...
I'm curious to hear from folks in the same boat, entering lottery for first time this year.
I'm asking in part because I've talked to 10+ current DCPS parents at this point - and it might be total coincidence but - so far only one family has a kid attending K+ in the same school where they started PK3. Is that the norm? We've done some open houses and not getting too attached to any one school because of the odds...
I'm curious to hear from folks in the same boat, entering lottery for first time this year.