I guess I don't see number #1 and #89 and necessarily all over the place. If the higher number is for an oob school that you have no preference, you could easily be further back, or if other numbers drawn before you happen to have had more interest on that school. So many schools have huge wait lists...if you are #1 and then #200, thats enough of a convincing difference.

I HOPE that things are being done properly but it seems like 90% of people have all of their numbers in the same overall place and thats just suspect.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I completely agree that its odd that peoples numbers are always grouped in the same general realm at all the schools they have applied. What I am not seeing on these boards, from our neighbors, or from our lottery history, are people that have say a single digit wait list number at one school and a 400-something number at another. Every one's numbers are either good, middle or crap. All of them, which isn't logical if there is a totally separate drawing for each school.

Here's why: Instead of drawing lottery numbers separately for each school, DCPS is drawing your child's lottery number (randomly) but then going down your school choice list and filling you in. So, if you get picked early, you are all set. If you get picked late, you are in the 400's everywhere. It has to be what is happening, there is just no other explanation.

Yes, this has been explained. It is exactly how it is done. If your child is the 1st number drawn, then he/she will get the highest available numbers for every school applied.

I don't think this is true. My dd is #1 on the WL at one school, #89 at another, etc. Numbers are all over the place -no preference at any of the schools.

Anonymous wrote:I think they are probably just really lucky.

There are strange things that happen.

I have a friend whose kid got into SWS this year, and they live a block away from the new site. So part of me wonders, did they secretly do some kind of proximity preference?

Two years ago, my twins had waitlist numbers which followed each other at 3 of the six schools (19 and 20, 59 and 60, and 25 and 26). That seemed so strange that that happened randomly.

Take off the aluminum foil hat -- we live across the street from SWS, only put in for it in the lottery, and have double-digit WL number. I don't think DCPS is sophisticated enough to add a proximity preference when there isn't (currently) one. And the school is only in charge once they receive the WL from DCPS.

I just checked this our with a few other Tracking #s. it's true there are plenty of kids who get high on one school and low on others. Eg. 9738. 200+ no pref. for Ross. 30s no pref. for Brent.

The proposition that dcps assigns one random ranking number and applies to all your choices can't be right. For eg in the PS lottery this year we ranked in the 50s for Maury (top 10 for those with no preference) and in the bottom 10 (out of 400+) for Cap Hill Mont @Logan. On the basis of this its clear to me that they assign a separate ranking number for each school on your list. If some folk seem to get all good or all bad rankings, that's just random.

Sorry, conspiricists. The lottery is conducted separately for every grade at every school. Waitlists are shorter this year because of the new policy, so numbers "feel" closer together.

I was 22 and 128 WL. Pretty random to me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we were #8 on the WL at our top 3 choices...

And shown many seats did each offer?

0,0,3

so that means you were 8, 8 and 11. Were they your only waitlist numbers? seems fishy if they were.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we were #8 on the WL at our top 3 choices...

And shown many seats did each offer?

If they were her/his top 3 choices, how ever many seats they have, being #8 for THREE top choices (combined with OP seeing someone else 7, 7, & 8) just does not sound fully "random".

Oops, I'm getting my threads confused. But point still stands: that just seems to hard to swallow as random.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we were #8 on the WL at our top 3 choices...

And shown many seats did each offer?

0,0,3

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we were #8 on the WL at our top 3 choices...

And shown many seats did each offer?

If they were her/his top 3 choices, how ever many seats they have, being #8 for THREE top choices (combined with OP seeing someone else 7, 7, & 8) just does not sound fully "random".

Anonymous wrote:we were #8 on the WL at our top 3 choices...

And shown many seats did each offer?

we were #8 on the WL at our top 3 choices...

Anonymous wrote:Its random. Random can mean anything. Just put in a variety of tracking numbers and you'll see. It also depends on other factors: how many others applied, how many were accepted, what were your preferences. It may seem like you random numbers are the same but they are probably very different. Even if you are #1 on two waitlists it would mean you were #63 at one school and #5 at another.

This.

Plus if you look at the other thread with results you will see lots of people with numbers all over the place.

Its random. Random can mean anything. Just put in a variety of tracking numbers and you'll see. It also depends on other factors: how many others applied, how many were accepted, what were your preferences. It may seem like you random numbers are the same but they are probably very different. Even if you are #1 on two waitlists it would mean you were #63 at one school and #5 at another.