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Wow, not one wait-list position changed this morning across 5 SEES and 7 Choice programs. Seems weird? Anyone else see any movement for that rolling wait-list opened this morning? Maybe it’s only after this first round goes out that numbers change
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It’s early and the rolling waitlist just opened. I’m guessing there are a lot of families that haven’t actually re-added their kids to the waitlists if they let offers expire. I don’t know how many students actually do the later exams and join the waitlist at this point in the year.
Not sure when of the offers start going out now that rolling waitlist has begun. I feel like in the past it’s been Tuesdays and Fridays so maybe as soon as tomorrow?
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Oh that makes sense. I think I remember seeing Tuesday’s and Fridays too. Thanks for replying!
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We actually moved two spots backwards. Did that happen to anyone?
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How much do lottery magnet schools tend to move vs SEES and magnet clusters? We’re new to Chicago and #7 and #8 on two in the top 5. TIA
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Hi
Any one on waitlisted for skinner north kindergarten tier 4? can you please share the waitlist number and score please?
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Also, my daughter took the SEES Assessment on 7-April. We can’t apply for RGS yet, still waiting for scores.
Any idea when that’ll happen?
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My son has scored 233.8 points( 99.5% in reading and 97% in math). He has been offered our second choice which is going to be a hard commute for us. wanted to checkin if the kindergarten waitlist for tier 4 at Skinner North moves? and also if someone with this score has gotten into skinner north via waitlist last year or so?
Thanks
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Last year one offer was made from
WL in T4. The total points (cut off score) last year was different that this year, so you can’t compare. Your score looks pretty strong, maybe others in t4 who already got the offer can share their score to give you an idea how close you are to those who got in. The main question: do you have a plan B if you don’t get an offer from SN, will you regret declining current offer? Good luck! -
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Based on experience from last year under the new waitlist format, is the Kindergarten waitlist expected to move much for schools such as Carnegie, Morton, and Lenart?
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Why I don’t see any movement in waitlist? I thought some people on the waitlist are going to be given an offer.
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Anyone got an offer yet?
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I just got an offer for a choice school. It was a reminder to go remove myself from the choice school waitlists as I had forgotten. From previous years, I remember the waitlist numbers not moving until the day after spots were sent out. If a spot was offered today, the waitlist numbers should change in the morning. Offers tend to go out between 10 to 11am.
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Tier 4 SN Waitlist #2, 233.8
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I think at least Morton moves a lot since it’s new and people worry about trying a new program. I have no personal experience, but my sense from reading last years’ thread is that there’s a lot of movement on waitlists for K for schools that are not on the near north/northwest side (minimal Bell, SN, Edison movement but good movement elsewhere).
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No offer and no waitlist movement for us today either. Maybe this Friday first offers go out?
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I have been very confused with performance across the different classical schools and was wondering if there are any parents that may be able to offer some advice / share their experience.
Based on Kindergarten SEES entry testing, it looks like schools such as Bronzeville, Decatur, McDade, Poe, Skinner, etc. all have relatively tight min scores in the 190-220 range (https://cdn.bfldr.com/MXCD21SV/as/mkmrqmsqm385h9k6wg8kc4kn/OAE_GoCPS_626408_SEESPointTotals_EN_V1).
However, when looking at US News report on student proficiency over the long term, there seems to be significant disparities across the schools.
Schools like Skinner North and Decatur are at the 80-90% proficiency level, but schools like Bronzeville, McDade, Poe all hover in the 50-60% range. Is this a reflection of the schools that cause the gap to widen over time? If so, what are the drivers? Quality of teachers, amount of school resources, something else?
Poe: https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/illinois/poe-elementary-classical-school-238012
McDade: https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/illinois/mcdade-elementary-classical-school-237329
Skinner: https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/illinois/skinner-north-elementary-school-233903It was also interesting to see like neighborhood schools such as Lincoln Elementary have proficiency scores in the 70%+ range. It seems odd to me that a neighborhood school with broad intake / no testing requirements would perform better than classical schools that had an intake of selective, high performing students. Would it suggest that Lincoln does a better job of turning B/C students into A students, or perhaps McDade/Poe actually cause A students to slip to B/C students?
Would this suggest we would be better off sending our child to Lincoln Elementary instead of McDade or Poe?
Sorry to ramble and I’m sure I’ve made some incorrect assumptions somewhere. Going through this for the first time with our child and would really appreciate any advice from the community!
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I called CPS since a lot of people on here were talking about no movement, and another poster above said they hadn’t received results of the Spring testing yet. Got me curious.
Turns out, no selective enrollment offers will go out until May. Date TBD (or at least person I talked to didn’t know) but it will be after the Spring RGC test results come out.
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Thanks for the update. We had our WL spot at Galileo go down 6 spots, but had our sport at NTA RGC go up 2 and Lenart not move at all.
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I think people will see their waitlist position move higher as people add themselves to more waitlists for SEES. Probably not everyone added when it opened yesterday.
For choice schools, they are making offers starting today.
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From OAE: To ensure fairness for all applicants, the Office of Access & Enrollment will not make any Selective Enrollment Elementary School (SEES) offers until spring testing families have had the opportunity to view their scores and join waitlists.
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Hi curious did you end up joining the waitlist and what number waitlist are you for skinner north?
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thank you. Score breakdown please Reading vs Math
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thank you for sharing your composite score. Could you please share your kids score Math score and Reading separately? Really appreciate it.
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what has changed in the waitlist process? Kindly advise
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My daughter on #2 at Edison Tier 2 WL for (K) does she make it. this is our first time so excited Any idea how much it moves? Thank you.
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We’re #1 listed at Beaubien and #5 at McPherson for first grade. The neighborhood school is Coonley. Debating what should we do. Would love McPherson since it’s closer, but not sure if it the list will move.
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Thanks! Any insight on timing for this?
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We have accepted offer from another school but our kid has the same composite classical score of 233.8. I am wondering how multiple kids can have same classical score. Just curious
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It said “some time in May”, my prediction by the end of the next week, but who knows.
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anyone knows of parents who will be decline skinner north? Tier 4 kindergarten offers?
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Hiya! Our rising second grader was waitlisted #2 at Beaubien and #3 at McPherson. Do they have an actual chance at getting in to either school?
Last year’s waitlists (different rankings) seemed to have little-to-no movement. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge with these schools?
Thank you in advance!
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We are trying to see where our kid would fall in the waitlist for Skinner north kindergarten admission if we decline our current offer. Could someone please share your kids individual Math and English score and waitlist number. Would be a huge help because if we decline we don’t have a backup school option.
thanks
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@confused parent If you’re asking the community for help, it would be really helpful to also share your scores/tier. This way, others can better understand your situation and offer more meaningful guidance.
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RGC 222.5/ Classical 226 Tier 3 admitted to McPherson and declined
#3 WL at both Edison and Bell, hope this helps! Added Pritzker, then removed bc was curious, and was #2
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Hi,
My daughter is a rising second grader also hoping to get into McPherson. She’s #1 on the waitlist and will likely accept. We’re counting on it for a couple reasons.
My son is at McPherson now (4th grade RGC). He got in late in the summer before 2nd grade. They clearly had quite a bit of movement, as there were several new students that year and each subsequent year. I’d approximate that there were about 5 new kids in his class each year because of either movement or expanded class size. This year, many of the students were transferred in during the first week of school, so a lot of this can happen quite late.
McPherson has gotten much more popular, so I have a feeling it’s tougher to get a spot, but I still have a feeling there would be at least 3 spots that open up each year.
Unless our daughter’s waitlist number changes after the spring test takers are added, we think it would be a lock. I hesitate to say this because I wouldn’t want to steer you wrong, but I have a feeling you stand a very good chance. Good luck and maybe our kids will be in the same class!
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our kids classical score is 233.8. Reading 99.5 percentile and Math 97 percentile. tier 4 kindergarten. Accepted Decatur
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If you look at the cut scores for skinner north, 233.8 is the cut score for kindergarten tier 4. Therefore you would likely be at the top of the tier 4 waitlist since you’re right at the cut score.
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The cutoff for T4 is 238.8, so you would be 5 points below cutoff score – IMO it’s too risky.
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If you were at the cutoff score as CPS parent said, then you had a solid chance to be at the top of the WL list.
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We took a similar risk when one of ours was top of waitlist at both Skinners, but a magnet we loved just down our street was backup.
The risk was do we wait for the nearby (1 mi) Skinner to open a seat for our tier, or accept the invite from the other Skinner (25 mi drive across two expressways). We accepted the invitation in hand. Last year’s admissions data shows we wouldn’t have received an invite to the Skinner close to us, there were no more waitlist invites that went out.
Being T4, you need someone to decline their T4 invite AND for no spring testing student to have jumped ahead of you in T4. OR you need four families to decline their rank seat, which would then be issued to the next on the waitlist for T1, T2, T3, T4 in that order. And priority, so they say, goes to the lowest tiers which also have fewer enrolled students vs the other tiers.
To me that’s a giant risk.
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Oh woops! I was looking at skinner instead of skinner north.
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and we knew exactly where we were on waitlist, with a backup, with an invite in hand…
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Same exact score for my kid (except 99 math and 98 reading) and was #2 on SN Waitlist before I took us off!
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Tier 4 to clarify!
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I know one decline, tier 4
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so you are not on waitlist anymore @ new cps mom?
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also what is your individual score for reading and math? that would really help us decide. thank you so so much
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@pa what was your score last year? Since we were WL 1 last year and we got the offer. We had a cut off score
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Are there new offers going out today?
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not for me, we’re on the WL #1 tier4 keller
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just had an interesting conversation with the office of access and enrollment. i was told selective enrollment offers are currently on hold because spring testing results are still being processed. someone else posted this here, i know – i’m just confirming that again. when i asked about spring testing (it was NOT an option when we applied in the fall), i was told the decision to offer this additional testing opportunity was made early this year. applicants will be folded into the existing waitlists as their results are processed. we might see selective enrollment waitlist movement next week. seems like quite the mess. i was told the office might send out an email with additional clarification. i wish we could have known spring testing would be an option for the 2026-27 academic year. i definitely would have waited.
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I find this quite unfair as we chose the last appointment that was available (February) to give our daughter as much time to develop and prepare, in late march after seeing how quickly she advanced in reading and math since she completed her evaluation for kindergarten we would joke that if only we had a couple more weeks. She would have had the opportunity to score much higher. Now we’re seeing that we have to wait for parents who applied and had their child take the assessment during a much later date, and their scores will place their child in the current waitlist and possibly knock down the children who took the assessment during the original window, and some of those children could be one waitlist spot away from getting into their top choice. This does not seem right.
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i completely agree. i’m really disappointed. we asked if our child might have been able to re-test in the spring (had we known the opportunity was there) and were told no – applicants could only test one time per application cycle. our son’s birthday is two days before the CPS cutoff, meaning he was a young 4 during fall testing and he’ll still be 4 years old when kindergarten starts this year. we’re really frustrated.
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we were told that in the fall, yes, but after seeing how this application cycle and admissions process has been managed i don’t feel terribly compelled to take their word for it.
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this waitlist system is a nightmare
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Quick question I think I know the answer to but has been bugging me.
We moved down on the waitlist to the top two schools (Bell and Edison). We have zero faith that she will get into either of those at this point.
Would there be any advantage to making McPherson her top choice? She’s #1 on the waitlist, and at this point, we really want this to happen. Or, will she get an offer if/when a spot opens regardless?
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No need, you’d get the spot no matter what, there’s never a need to rank kn anything other than your actual preference order.
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Have to agree here. This is a major point. I think K entry is too early for gifted in an ideal world. And single subject acceleration starting in 5th grade seems far too later. The only reason I can think of for single subject acceleration being so late is the requirements are based on IAR testing, which seems to only start in 3rd grade?
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How did you not made it in the first round if you had the cut off score? Did you decline a spot at other school and rejoined the waitlist for skinner north?
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There can be ties. If there’s one seat left and multiple students with the same score (let’s say 238.8), it goes to a tiebreaker. In this scenario, 238.8 becomes the cutoff score, but some students with that score (the ones that lost the tiebreaker) end up waitlisted or offered a school they ranked lower.
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Meeting the cutoff doesn’t guarantee a spot. There are only 50 seats: 30% go to rank, leaving ~35 seats split across tiers, so each T gets only 8–9 spots. When multiple students have similar scores, CPS applies tiebreakers: first comparing math scores over reading, and then using a lottery if needed.
In our case, we didn’t receive an offer even with cutoff score, but we knew it will place us top/high on the waitlist. That’s why IMO being 5 points below the cutoff (and having math score lower than reading) is quite risky. -
thank you! what tier were you?
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T4
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Just to give you perspective: the NewCPS mom had the same overall score as your child, but a higher math score, so she ranked above and was #2. Since she removed herself, you’d now be #2 on the waitlist.
That’s a strong position, but you’d still need at least 2 of the ~9 Tier 4 offers to decline (which does happen: historically T4 gets at least one WL offer), or for #1 to accept another school (also likely). So it’s worth trying, but only if you have a solid backup (neighborhood or private), like we did.
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Spring testing folks would join as well. secondly like you said more kids might have the same score, may be with 98 math and 99 reading.. still may not be #2 on the list… thoughts?
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I wouldn’t do it, you have a great offer in your hands. Next year SN will have 6 extra spots – you can always try again if you don’t like your current school/or commute is too long. Our situation was different, we had a private school lined up and didn’t count on any offer.
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makes sense. thank you!
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My last thought: if you decide to go for it, I wouldn’t worry too much about spring applicants, it’s a much smaller pool (probably up to 20 kids) compared to the thousands who apply in the fall.
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thank you so much! we will just stick with Decatur. OAE mentioned on Friday, skinner north hasn’t come back with any open slots as of now. which means even WL 1 might not move. Thank you so much!
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Congratulations! That sounds like the right call. Your child will do amazing there
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Wow I did not know they even offer a spring testing! That’s definitely not fair, though my child still got 99.9% on both reading and math and very high on gifted scores too, but this whole system is not fair.
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Thanks for sharing, so what does this mean? They haven’t released any second round offers until they get the spring testing results? Thanks!
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1. Does anyone know any family declining an offer from SN or SW tier 4 from the initial round of offerings?
2. We are thinking to decline an offer and join a waitlist for another school. Can we still do that? Did they offer second round offerings yet?
Thanks! -
Not too late at all, no offers have gone out for SEES yet. With your scores, you will be at the top of any waitlist. That said, add yourself to the waitlist before or on the same day spring results are released, before the first round of offers goes out.
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I had called OAE on Friday and they said SN has no opening as of now.
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1. Someone above noted that one T4 offer at SN will be declined. Historically, SN and SW T4 waitlists see about one or two offers come through. Last year SW had more than 1 offers from a waitlist.
2. Not too late at all — no offers have gone out for SEES yet. With your scores, you will be at the top of any waitlist. That said, add yourself to the waitlist before or on the same day spring results are released, before the first round of offers goes out. -
May I ask what tier you are in and your final decision on SN vs Hawthorn? Thanks!
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No, I did not join the waitlist for SN, I took the offer from Edison
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Has your waitlist number for SN changed as of today? Thanks!
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Have they declined already?
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also were they ranked or via tier admission because rank decline would go to tier 1.
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I would you ask OAE if someone declines a rank seat, can it go to a rank seat qualifier or would it go to T1/2/3/4? Since you qualify for a rank seat as well.
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Hi,
I am super confused. I called the OAE to ask about the waitlist process and what happens if someone from tier 4 declines an offer. They said it is equally distributed in all tiers. If a tier 4 student declines it’s not a guaranty it would come back to tier 4. If there are 4 acceptances form tier 4 and 2 from tier 1/2. It would go to those tiers which has lower acceptance. It’s just so confusing. Anyone knows the exact process here?
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What I heard from OAE this morning is that if someone who received a tier offer declined their seat, then it would go to the corresponding tier; if someone who received a rank seat declined their offer then it would go to the tier that has the least tier acceptance. I feel like whenever I call in the representative told me something different lol, I wonder if they all have the same understanding lol.
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You should email them – they are really good in responding and explaining everything
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There’s 3 openings T SN. I talked to the principal recently.
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This is what they responded to us for waitlist. Hope this helps
Good afternoon,
Thank you for reaching out. We cannot guarantee that you would receive a new offer to a program once a seat has been declined. Please be advised that many schools make more initial offers than they have available seats, as they anticipate a certain percentage of families will not accept. For example, a school may issue 28 kindergarten offers for only 25 available seats. If 27 of those initial offers are accepted, the program would still be over its class size cap of 25 even if you were to decline your seat. In this scenario, the program would be at capacity and no waitlist offers would be extended at all.
There are many variables that impact waitlist movement for selective enrollment programs, and these factors are dynamic and subject to change at any time. Because of this, our office does not provide likelihood estimates and cannot make predictions about individual student results.
I hope this helps provide some additional clarity, but if there is anything else we can assist with, please let us know!
Sincerely,
Office of Access and Enrollment
Equity. Access. Customer Service. -
Over-offering would explain why it’s not as simple as a declined tier 4 offer always going back to tier 4 (but also probably not a nuance the front line reps are necessarily all familiar with). If SN made 53 offers (they did last year), but they only have 50 seats, not all the declined offers are returning back to their tier…because some of the seats that were offered in the initial round are not being opened again.
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which tier again?
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On the training they said similar to what chimom300 said. Tier offers stay in tier until that tier list runs out or all spots in that tier are full. Rank seats cycle through tiers starting at tier 1 since (as shown in foia data posted here by others) tier 1 and 2 are generally under represented.
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Openings for which grade?
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We have no offers and are waitlisted #6 for Bell. when will the offers be extended any idea? any chance for 6 to clear? Advice: To those who have an offer keep it because there are so many who didn’t get any. good luck!
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