Check your child's lottery number
MySchools gives every applicant a random lottery number. Enter your child's to see how it compares with other students' numbers, and what that means for admissions.
How the lottery number is used
- Schools fill seats one priority group at a time. Applicants in a higher group, for example students who are zoned for the school or who have a sibling there, are offered seats before anyone in a lower group.
- Inside each priority group, when there are more applicants than seats, applicants with better lottery numbers get offers first. A better number never moves your child into a higher group, and you cannot change it.
- Some programs rank applicants in other ways. At screened programs, auditions and the specialized high schools, the lottery number only breaks a tie, if it is used at all.
- Numbers are random, and lower is better: a number that starts with 0 comes before one that starts with f. We place your child's number using its first eight characters, which decide its order in the draw.
- Your child gets one number per admissions process each year, and the same number is used at every program in that process.
How to find schools your child is likely to get into
Whether a number is good enough depends on the school. What matters is how many applicants in your child's priority group got offers there last year. With a free account and your child's profile, we show, for elementary and middle schools, your child's priority group, how many in that group got offers last year, and how this number compares.