How school offers, waitlists, and the lottery number work

You ranked your programs, the deadline passed, and one offer came back. This guide explains what happened in between, the matching algorithm that picked your offer, the random number that broke the ties, what later rounds and waitlists do, and why none of it changes the one rule that matters most: rank in your true order of preference. The mechanics here are the same across the main NYC Public Schools processes (Kindergarten, middle, and high school); the exact dates and round structure vary by grade, so always confirm the specifics for your process on the official source.

How it works in 60 seconds

• The main NYC Public Schools match uses deferred acceptance, a student-proposing algorithm that returns a single best offer: your highest-ranked program that could still admit you.
• Because that algorithm is strategy-proof, ranking honestly is the optimal move, there is no advantage to gaming the order.
• A random number breaks ties only within a priority group, when a program has more applicants than seats. It never overrides priorities or admissions methods.
• You're automatically waitlisted for every program you ranked above your offer, and accepting your offer never hurts that waitlist position.

One application, one best offer

When you submit your ranked list, NYC Public Schools runs everyone's lists through one citywide matching algorithm. It tries to place your child at your first choice; if that program is full of higher-priority applicants, it tries your second choice as if it were your first, and so on down your list. The result is a single offer, the highest program on your list that could still admit your child given everyone else's lists, priorities, and seats.

This is the deferred-acceptance algorithm (the Gale–Shapley student-proposing match). "Deferred" because no placement is final until the very end: a program holds your child tentatively and can drop them if a higher-priority applicant turns up in a later step, which is exactly what lets the algorithm keep working its way up everyone's true preferences. One run, one best offer.

Why honest ranking is the optimal strategy

The single most useful fact about this main match is that it is strategy-proof: there is no way to do better by listing schools in any order other than your genuine preference. (This guarantee is about the main match; the specialized high schools run a separate ranked process of their own.) Ranking a long shot first can never cost you a program you'd otherwise have gotten, because the algorithm only ever moves you down your list to the next choice, and you stay waitlisted at everything above your offer. Conversely, leaving a school you love off your list, or burying it to "save" a spot, can only cost you. Rank what you actually want, in the order you actually want it.

The random number, what it does, and what it doesn't

Once you start an application, your child is assigned a random number (you'll sometimes see it called a "lottery number", it's a long string of digits and letters, visible in MySchools). It exists to settle one specific situation: when a program has more applicants in a priority group than it has seats, the random number decides who gets the seat. That's it.

A few things parents routinely get wrong about it:

• It's one number per process, per cycle, and it's reused. Your child gets a single random number for, say, the high-school process this year, and the same number is applied at every program in that process. It is not a fresh draw at each school during the match (waitlists can work differently, see below).
• A separate process or grade gets its own number. Apply to a different process (for example, a specialized-high-school process alongside the main match, or a future grade) and that process has its own random number.
• It only breaks ties within a priority group. It never lets a lower priority group jump ahead of a higher one, and it has no effect at all on screened, audition, or other admissions methods until you reach a tie inside the same group.
• You can't change or improve it. Where the number starts (closer to 0 is earlier; numbers starting with later letters are further back) is luck, not something you act on. It's assigned once and you cannot re-roll it.

Rounds, what happens after the main match

The main round of the match produces the offers most families act on. What happens after that depends on the grade:

• 3-K and Pre-K have a later second round of offers, a fresh round that fills programs still holding seats after the main offers, for families without a placement or who want to keep looking.
• Kindergarten, middle, and high school don't use a second ranked application. After the single main offer, any further placement comes through waitlists (with a supplemental admissions step at high school if needed), not a new ranked round.

Because the exact windows shift cycle to cycle, don't rely on last year's pattern, confirm what your grade's process looks like this year on the official source.

Waitlists, how they actually move

When offers are released, your child is automatically placed on the waitlist for every program you ranked above your offer. Get your third choice, and you're waitlisted at your first and second, no extra step required. (You can also add waitlists for programs you didn't originally rank.)

The rule that saves families the most stress:

• Accepting your offer does not hurt your waitlist position. NYC Public Schools advises accepting your offer by the deadline to secure that seat, doing so does not affect your chances of a waitlist offer to a program you prefer. Accepting locks in a real seat while you wait.
• You can only hold one offer at a time. If a waitlist offer comes through and you accept it, it replaces your current offer. So you're choosing between them, never stacking them.
• Waitlists move through the spring and summer as families make final decisions and seats open up. A program contacts you directly if it can make a waitlist offer; keep checking MySchools, because movement continues well after the initial offer date.
• A far-back random number doesn't always follow you onto a waitlist. For the initial match, your number is reused across the process, but some programs (open and Educational Option) draw a new random number for their waitlist, while screened programs keep your original one. So a weak match number isn't necessarily your standing on every waitlist. MySchools doesn't show this, so treat waitlist odds as genuinely uncertain.

You are not penalized for being on many waitlists, and being waitlisted is not an offer, it simply means that program is full for now and may reach you if a seat frees up.

What most parents miss

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Common questions

Should I rank a long-shot school first, or will that waste a spot? Rank it first if it's truly your top choice. The main NYC Public Schools match uses a student-proposing deferred-acceptance algorithm, which is strategy-proof, ranking a long shot first can never cost you a school you would otherwise have gotten, because you're automatically waitlisted at every program you ranked above your offer. Always rank in your true order of preference.

What is the random or "lottery" number, and can I change it? It's a single random tiebreaker assigned to your child once you start an application, one number per process per cycle, reused at every program in that process. It only breaks ties within a priority group when there are more applicants than seats; it does not override priorities or admissions methods, and you cannot change or improve it. A separate process or grade gets its own number.

Does accepting my offer hurt my chances on a waitlist I prefer? No. You are automatically on the waitlist for every program you ranked above your offer, and accepting your offer secures that seat without affecting your waitlist position. NYC Public Schools advises accepting your offer by the deadline even while you wait. If a waitlist offer comes through, accepting it replaces your current offer, you can only hold one offer at a time.