Maybe that PP was on to something when she asked about the possibility of the system getting overloaded on the lottery deadline by last minute entries, since it seems like there are a quite a few people who are JUST NOW ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW THE LOTTERY WORKS.

Anonymous wrote:Is our In Bounds school supposed to be one of our picks or is it a given? And if we do have to pick it, where are we supposed to rank it?

Are you talking about PS/PK or higher grades? If higher grades then you do not need to enter the lottery at all since you are guaranteed enrollment at your IB school. If you are talking about PS/PK, no one can answer what school you are "supposed" to pick or where you should rank it. As everyone has been saying...you should rank your 6 picks (or however many you choose to try for) in accordance to your true preferences after everything is factored into your decision-making (academics, before/aftercare, demographics, logistics, administration, etc.).

Is our In Bounds school supposed to be one of our picks or is it a given? And if we do have to pick it, where are we supposed to rank it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of people willing to commute I guess? Seems like a lot of lists have schools from numerous quadrants.

I agree. So many of these lists have schools all over the place. I had to pick my kids up right after school on Capitol Hill and drive them across town a couple times in the last couple weeks. We didn't get to our destination in NW until 4:10 after driving for 45 minutes and we were all fried. And that was even before rush hour really got underway. I cant imagine doing that every day, twice a day.

I think lists are going to move in September once these families start doing the twice a day commutes to the schools they've gotten into. NW to Capitol Hill is a bear any time of day, a nightmare during rush hour.

Some of us work closer to other schools or plan to use metro, split pickup/drop off with a spouse, etc to avoid the nightmare. DC attends a charter across town and mom (me) does drop offs and dad does pickups. It doesn't faze me at all.

Yeah, I live in upper NE, work in SW and many of my picks were on the way to work for me. Also, I'm hoping to move this summer (I rent) and am open to moving closer to wherever we end up getting in (also applying to several charters). I walk DC to school now, then hop on the Metro to get to work. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can stay car-free next year, but we'll see.

Here is a link to the FAQs, which has a pretty good breakdown of the process: http://dcps.dc.gov/DCPS/Files/downloads/Learn-About-Schools/Preschool%20and%20Pre-K/2013%20PSPK%20Lottery%20FAQ_.pdf.

To reiterate, ranking a school #1 does not mean you are only competing against others who ranked in #1, and conversely, ranking a school #6 does not destroy your chances of getting in. Here is a quick example. The process is automated, but this is a step by step breakdown of what happens:

Let's say your picks were as follows:

Janney
Murch
Mann
Lafayette
Key
Barnard (IB)

I intentionally chose the first five as schools that will only admit IB students in the initial lottery. Random numbers are generated for your child at each school as follows:

Janney - 5
Murch - 200
Mann - 3
Lafayette - 19
Key - 7
Barnard (IB) - 84

Hooray! Things are looking pretty good…until you consider that anyone with a preference will be placed first. Even though you had great numbers at Janney, Mann, Lafayette and Key, you will inevitably be pushed out by those with preference, who get placed first. Your good numbers will help get you good spots on the waitlist, but won’t get you in, and wouldn’t have no matter how you had ranked the schools. Even though your child was #84 at Barnard, only three children ahead of him (#1-83) had IB preference. Therefore, he ends up being #4 on the Barnard accepted list. He gets waitlisted at the first five schools based on his original lottery numbers. The process is automated, and you don't see all the steps above - you just get notification that he is waitlisted at the first five and admitted at Barnard.

Alternatively, if you had ranked Barnard as #1, he would have been #4 on the Barnard accepted list and that would have been it.

The change in waitlist procedure will have the effect of more students who end up attending their IB school...Which im sure is a calculated decision by DCPS. In previous years families would have ranked their IB last because they knew they could count on a top waitlist number based on IB status. No more. So more families will now rank their IB first for fear of losing the most logistically convienient option. I know that's our case...we're IB for Barnard so we ranked it first. So unless we get into a charter we want more we'll likely be at Barnard this fall. However, I do not think DCPS did a good job advertising this very significant change in waitlist procedure and for this first year I think there will be many families who will be dismayed after the fact that their IB safety option is not available to them.

Guys, you're over-thinking this. Lotteries for each school are and have always been run independently - think drawing lottery tickets out of separate bowls if that helps - (first IB kids, then sibling-pref kids, then the rest). Everybody gets an entirely separate ranking for each of their choice, be it "in" or a position on the waitlist. Simply, those who get in somewhere (say into their 4th choice) will not be kept on any lists (neither "in" nor waitlist) for their 5th and 6th choice. That's all there is to it.

Or for those who've done this in the past, maybe easier to understand like this: As in the past, if you happen to draw several "in", you'll get the highest ranked of those "in". However, different from the past is that you won't even be put to the back of the waitlist for the lower ranked choices, as was the case in the past.

Anonymous wrote:Can someone post a link to the lottery procedure? Is there any significance to the order other than that you will not be placed on the waitlist of schools you ranked below the school where you got in?

For example, is the lottery run for each school with all the people who put it as #1, with the losers being placed on the waitlist, and then it's run again with people who placed it at #2 who haven't gotten in anywhere else starting at #101 on the waitlist, etc.?

That's a logical question, but the answer is no. The ranking does not impact the weighting of a choice -- only the priorities (IB, sib, proximity, etc) impact the weighting and the rest is randomly selected. If you are inbounds for a school and rank it last your choice will have the same weight as someone IB who ranks it first. Every entrant with your priority will be randomly selected and slotted (followed by each priority group with OOB no preference last). DCPS will review each slotted seat and drop all of the lower ranked schools from the list (not waitlist, but drop). The difference involves the higher choices. The IB entrant who ranks it first and gains a space will be slotted in that IB. The IB who ranks it 6th would be slotted initially (though not notified) but only be offered a seat if none of the higher 1-5 choices gain a set. If any other selection gets a seat, the #6 IB would be dropped from the IB school and removed from the waitlist.

In other words, if you get a high enough lottery slot for a seat IB but also gain a high enough lottery slot for a seat at a higher ranked choice you'll probably never know if you would have gained the IB seat or not -- you'll just get slotted at the highest ranked place.

Can someone post a link to the lottery procedure? Is there any significance to the order other than that you will not be placed on the waitlist of schools you ranked below the school where you got in?

For example, is the lottery run for each school with all the people who put it as #1, with the losers being placed on the waitlist, and then it's run again with people who placed it at #2 who haven't gotten in anywhere else starting at #101 on the waitlist, etc.?

I don't really understand your question, PP. What happens is that a random lottery number is assigned for each child. Based on this lottery number (and any preferences), you will be assigned a slot at a school, starting from school #1, down to school #6. If you get a spot (say, at #2), you remain on the waitlist for any schools you ranked higher (i.e. #1), but are not included at all on the lists of schools you ranked lower (i.e. #3-6). If you put your IB school as #6 and get in at any of your #1-5 schools, you will not get a spot at #6, and will not even be on the waitlist. Therefore, you should rank the schools in the order you really want. In previous years, it was a strategy to put your IB school as #6 just to see if you could get in elsewhere. If you did get into #1-5, you would still be at the top of the waitlist for #6 and very likely to eventually get in. This is no longer the case. In your example, if you listed Bancroft as #1 and Barnard (IB) as #2 and got into Barnard, you'd still be on the waiting list at Bancroft, but not on any other schools' waiting lists.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Sorry, PP. I don't think you understand the changes made to the waitlist procedures this year. If you get in a school you will NOT be given ANY spot on the waitlist at any of the other schools ranked BEHIND the school you got a spot. You'll only be on waitlists of schools ranked AHEAD of the school you got a spot at. I think there will be many families who are shocked to learn they don't have any chance of getting a PreK/P3 program cause they got in somewhere higher.

Just to reiterate, this is indeed a significant change. It should affect your rankings (the logic's the same), but it should affect your thinking about the options and how sure you want to be about those rankings. In the past, it wasn't unusual for parents to rethink their list as phone calls trickled in ("oh, maybe I like this better after all"). Newly, you just simply won't get such calls because you won't be on any of the waitlists below the option that comes through for you, if and when it does.
One ranking consideration that may be worthwhile in the face of this: if you're truly indifferent between two options, place the likelier below/behind the less likely to increase your chance to give it another chance to think.

Devil's advocate. What happens if space runs out for your IB school that you like and the school that you are in love with falls through? What I'm reading, the parent should put Bancroft ahead of Barnard( IB) , right? If the lottery picks Barnard, hypothelicaly the kid will not be no. 15 (just a random spot) on Bancrofts wait list or will not be on any wait list?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PK4:

Ross
Lafayette
Brent
Janney
Murch
SWS

Are you in bounds anywhere? If not, where are you planning to send DC?

Nice way of putting it.

PP here. We're already in a decent charter, so I thought I'd shoot for the moon this year. Fully expecting to not get in anywhere.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PK4:

Ross
Lafayette
Brent
Janney
Murch
SWS

Are you in bounds anywhere? If not, where are you planning to send DC?

Nice way of putting it.

Anonymous wrote:PK4:

Ross
Lafayette
Brent
Janney
Murch
SWS

Are you in bounds anywhere? If not, where are you planning to send DC?

PK4:

Ross
Lafayette
Brent
Janney
Murch
SWS