My kid is not in Group 1, what do I do now?!!!
/By Joyce Szuflita
Updated Sept. 5, 2023
I just got a great email from Elissa Stein (High School 411) about priority groups and it inspired me to write this. If you use the code JOYCE10 she will give you a little discount on her subscription.
There are many, many quality schools that are not “screened” schools. There are Ed Opt and Audition and Open programs. There are also screened schools that are larger or flying under the radar that take kids past Group 1, and screened schools that have an essay or test component that don’t prioritize the “Group” in their rubric.
This process is not a lottery. It is a match and there are lots of wrinkles to it. Random numbers are in there, but they are not the only thing to consider either.
Priority Groups
Some programs give admissions priority to specific groups of applicants before others, such as to students who live in a specific borough, or continuing middle schoolers in a 6-12th grade, or for Diversity in Admissions (DiA) students, or applicants in a screened program's group/tier based on grades.
Screened School Groups (or Tiers)
This year (2022) the City has redesigned the Screened Schools’ “Groups”. Look here for the details.
A lot of people assume that you have to be in Group 1 to get into a screened school. We don’t know that. It is likely that most, if not all, of the seats at the MOST popular, tiny, screened schools will go to those kids but, those same people are also likely to be interested in several other tiny popular schools, and bigger schools, and audition schools, AND also the Specialized HS, so they will get placements at a variety of other places as well.
If you are in Group 2 and not DiA (which many of those schools prioritize), what to do? You won’t get what you don’t ask for. Would I load my list with those tiny, crazy popular schools? No. Might I put one or two favorite schools in there? I would consider it, if my random number was good, and my list was very thoughtful and moderately conservative in all the other ways. If I was in the DiA, would I risk a listing, if I wasn’t in Group 1? Being DiA certainly doesn’t guarantee you a seat. The school prioritizes a certain percentage seats to you and they work down the Groups within that priority, as well. I would try, as long as the rest of my list was also thoughtful and conservative. We may know more next year with experience. The story of the first non DiA person from Group 2 who gets a seat in one of these very popular schools will be on everyone’s lips. Could it happen? Who knows.
Random Numbers
Everyone has a random number. If you have a MY SCHOOLS account, you should be able to see it in your profile. The first two characters (numbers or letters are telling). Go here to decipher them.
It is natural that people are focusing on their “lottery numbers”, but those are mostly important for “Ed Opt” and “Open” schools, which rank primarily by the random numbers. For Screened schools, for example, a person with a very “bad” lottery number who was also in Group 1 would be ranked higher for a screened school, than a person in Group 2 with a very good number. The lottery numbers have little to no impact on Audition programs. They are not used at all in Specialized HS placement.
For ED OPT schools, that accept 1/3 students who have high grades. 1/3 with grades in the middle, and 1/3 with lower grades. All three groups have an equal chance. You can find your “high/medium/low” levels on your MY SCHOOLS profile. Currently, all private school students are ranked in the middle while the DoE is collecting their grades from their schools. Those 3 ED OPT groups are much wider than the 4 Screened groups. Within those levels, the lottery number is the tie breaker. And it is always worth remembering that there will be people in all groups who are getting seats in other programs that they prefer, so your “bad” lottery number, may not be so bad as things shift around.
The beauty of this system is its huge size and variety of options.
If all schools were lottery (and they are not), then a bad number would be bad for all of them, BUT you would have a large variety of people prioritizing lots of different schools close and far, schools of different sizes, schools with all kinds of different programs that appealed to them.
Happily, the system is even more complex, so it gives lots more opportunity. Some people like the same schools, but most people like a wide variety in different order, that have different admissions criteria AND different priorities, in different places with different sizes. The lottery is just a tie breaker. The Groups are just a small priority. It is complicated, but you can do this.
Make a robust list of different kinds of schools, with different sizes, with different admission criteria, with different APP:SEAT ratios, with different priorities. The random numbers are a factor, but they are not your fate. Then rank your list in true preference order.
