nyc high school lottery advice
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By Joyce Szuflita
I have been getting many queries about the implications to a list now that there is information about an individual's lottery number. Knowledge is power, but incomplete information is almost worse than no information at all.
As you likely know, the deadline for high school applications has been moved back to March 11.
By now you may have all seen that the DoE has assigned lottery numbers before the deadline, even though it states on the website that "Each applicant receives one random number for the admissions match, which happens after the application period closes." que sera sera.
If you have not seen your lottery number yet and you want to: go to your MY SCHOOLS account and click on the link to "edit Profile".
Just this week NEST+M has added a online admissions activity. I recommend that you double check the schools' websites and MY SCHOOLS entries for the schools on your list to make sure that you have satisfied all last minute requirements.
Here is the DoE's explanation of the lottery aspect of admissions. Read all the tabs. They aren't long.
Here is how to decipher the lottery number.
Here is a description of how the algorithm works. Watch them both, they are very clear and well described although it takes a minute to get into the meat. video #1, video #2
My advice doesn't change now that we know the numbers, because the lottery is only a part of the match. It is a tie breaker when there are more people with equal priority who want a limited number of seats. We don't have enough data about all the variables to be able to celebrate or throw in the towel. Yes, there are over 60,000 people in this process, and in your own echo chamber of your limited community - everyone likes the same schools, but you don't know most people. There are many neighborhoods where families have never heard of the schools you love. There are many people in those neighborhoods who love schools you have never heard of. There are people who don't want to go to the schools that you love, because they are too far away or they don't feel welcome. 4300 ish students will get offers to the Specialized HS. 740 ish students will receive offers to LaGuardia separate from their regular placement. They will also have applied to the schools you love. Not everyone is ranking the schools the way you are. The App:seat numbers reflect anyone who has put the school on their app, anywhere. There are too many variables in play to predict your particular outcome.
Even though there have been changes in the 10 months since this article in the Columbia Journalism Review came out, it is still very interesting and very relevant.
My advice.
List 12 programs.
Be mindful of the Applicant:Seat ratios. If you have taken the SHSAT with good practice scores (500ish or above), have prepared a solid audition or art portfolio and/or are receiving free or reduced price lunch, you can be slightly less conservative with your list. I suggest that you have no more than 6 schools on your list that are 20:1 or higher in the App:Seat ratio. Mind you, the DoE says that 10:1 is a highly risky choice, so I am being VERY generous.
Do not list more than one 6-12th grade option (unless you currently attend that school and will list it on your app). The number of seats available to students from outside the school are wildly limited no matter what the app:seat ratio says. That number includes the currently attending students. They are all guaranteed seats if they want them, so the App:Seat number is useless.
There is little time between now and the deadline to create an art portfolio or audition materials, but whether your child wants to be an artist later in life or not, these schools provide a solid college prep option where your child can do well academically, along with having some interesting and inspiring arts based experiences. They don't participate in the DiA and sometimes have smaller App:Seat ratios.
Keep DiA schools to an absolute minimum unless you fall within that category.
"But that is 'every' school!"
It is not. Out of the 400 schools in NYC, 42 of them have the DiA. I counted them and you can too, here. Either find some schools out of the 358 that don't have the DiA or consider some of them that also have low App:Seat ratios. They exist.
A word about the DiA
73% of the students in NYC are economically disadvantaged.
The DiA is a priority, not a mandate or a quota. I did a quick search the other day for a couple of schools, their current DiA priority % (not greatly changed from their 2021 DiA priority %) and their last two year's actual numbers. We have to do better.
Millennium Brooklyn (DiA 66%) 19/20: 41% 20/21: 39% (this school used only their grade/test score rubric)
iSchool (DiA 66%) 19/20: 40% 20/21: 44% (this school used an online activity in their rubric)
Bard M (DiA 50%) 19/20: 42% 20/21: 39% (this school used an assessment/interview in their rubric)
Bard Q (DiA 73%) 19/20: 47% 20/21: 55% (this school used an assessment/interview in their rubric)
Manhattan Hunter Science (69%) 19/20: 61% 20/21: 66% (this school used an essay in their rubric, but they have been more diverse historically for all the years that I have followed them)
Audition and essay schools.
The lottery numbers are always used as a tiebreaker. So if the auditions are being batched ranked, there may be a lottery factor in there. I think that if they do come into play, they will have a much smaller impact than at a screened school that uses grades only. The audition schools and schools that require an essay or activity will have a much narrower and more subjective ranking of students even if they are batch ranked.
There are many great schools out there where your child can do well. This is the truth. If you lived in the suburbs, you would have 1 option. It would be good for your child or it wouldn't but it would be your only option. What was your high school experience? I would hazard a guess that half of you who went to your well respected neighborhood, one size fits all, programs didn't love it. This process is stressful and you can't leverage much other than your own research. What you get here is a wild amount of opportunity. It can be paralysing. This placement is not a prize for good work. It is an opportunity for further growth; as an academic, and an artist, and a human being. Working hard in anticipation of recognition or reward is setting your children up for wild disappointment in life. When the prize does come, it is often an empty experience. What is valuable? The actual knowledge, skills and self esteem that comes from doing a job well. No matter where they end up, no one can take that from them. It is hard for a teenager (or any of us) to really believe that when one feels disappointment. I am no paragon. I am as proud and competitive and needy as anyone, but I also realize that in pretty much every situation that I have gotten the thing I wanted, that was the coveted option, it came loaded with an equal amount of stuff that turned out to be not so great. The real treasures in my life came from the unexpected turn or the runner up option. Maybe it was because my expectations were lower, or maybe I was just misguided about the value of the prize.
Best of luck to you all.
