My son got into Stevens and without any preference. This was PS3. We ended up declining.

Kids with preferences who are on the waitlist won a spot at a school that they ranked higher. Simple as that.

Say for example I'm in boundary for Francis Stevens. My older child goes to Ross. I would like my rising PSer to go to Ross too. So I rank Ross #1 on my lottery and put Francis Stevens as #2.

You are OOB for Francis Stevens but put it as your #1 choice. My PSer gets into Ross as OOB w/ Sibling. Therefore, s/he doesn't get into Francis Stevens but rather will be given a numberon on the waitlist.

You get into Francis Stevens OOB with No Preference while I'm waitlisted there. But I'm happy b/c I got into a school I preferred.

See?

Anonymous wrote:OP, I believe the preference status give your chances more weight/increases the odds of being selected only, but non-pref kids can still get in. The odds are just lower.

This is not correct. There are separate lotteries for each preference level. At a high-demand school, the low-preference drawings aren't much of a lottery, you have zero chance.

15:06 is correct. A child can only receive a spot at one school. In the "first run" of the lottery if you will, if student John Smith receives spots in two schools, John will then receive a spot in his highest ranked school and be put on the waitlist at the other school. So if John's parents ranked their in-boundary school lower than another school, the John may well get into the higher ranked school and then appear on the waitlist at John's in-boundary school. Meanwhile, other students with no preference get a spot and it looks like over John. But in reality, John got a spot in a school his parents ranked higher.

OP, I believe the preference status give your chances more weight/increases the odds of being selected only, but non-pref kids can still get in. The odds are just lower.

every student can apply to up to 6 DCPS schools. Each student will only be admitted to 1 DCPS school. The order of priority for the student is the order placed on the form. So, if the first choice school is OOB with no sibling no proximity preference, and the student is admitted, he/she will be placed on the waitlist for all of the subsequent schools. Even if at the lower ranked schools, the student has inboundary or sibling preference.

bottom line: the order in which you input the schools can make a big difference.

I looked at the lottery results for several schools, such as Garrison and Francis-Stevens, and noticed that some of the kids who were accepted had no preference status, yet the waitlists had quite a few preference-status kids. According to the lottery fact sheet, this should not happen. Any idea why that's the case?