How It Works
Applicants accept or decline waitlist offers via their GoCPS account. Make sure all contact information is up to date on the GoCPS account in order to be notified of waitlist offers.
- Waitlist seats are only offered if the program has not met its capacity.
- The amount of time you are on a waitlist will vary by program and waitlist number.
- Applicants can withdraw from the waitlist if they no longer wish to be considered. Once withdrawn, the decision is final and cannot be reversed. If an applicant later decides to rejoin the waitlist, they will NOT get their old waitlist place back.
- Once a waitlist offer has been accepted, any previously accepted offer will be automatically declined and offered to the next applicant in line.
Choice programs
- If your child received a Choice offer, when the waitlist opens, they will be automatically added to the waitlists of programs that were ranked higher than the program to which they received an offer.
- If your child did not receive a Choice offer, they will be automatically waitlisted for all programs on their application for which they meet the eligibility requirements.
- Waitlist seats are offered based on the priority preference groups, if applicable. For instance, if a seat is declined by a student in a program’s proximity category, that seat will be offered to the student who is first in line on the proximity waitlist.
- When students join the Rolling Waitlist, they are joining the end of the existing Choice waitlist.
- Choice waitlists will remain active until the beginning of the following January.
SEES programs
- Applicants who received a SEES offer in the initial round of selections will NOT be waitlisted to any Selective Enrollment programs in the category for which the offer was received. If an applicant's Selective Enrollment offer expires or is declined, they will be able to add themselves to a waitlist in the same program category.
- Applicants who did not receive a SEES offer for a program they tested for are automatically placed on the Rolling Waitlist for any program they qualify for and included on the application. Applicants would also be able to add additional programs to their application as long as they don’t exceed the category limit. (test score minimums).
- Waitlists for all SEES programs are sorted in descending total point order. Applicants are re-sorted as new students join the waitlists. This means that waitlist numbers for SEES programs can go up and down depending on who joins the waitlist.
- SEES waitlists will remain active until the 20th day of school. After that time, there are no transfers into SEES programs for the rest of that school year.
Getting a Waitlist Offer
- If the program has a seat available, and the student’s number on the waitlist is reached, the parent/guardian will be contacted by our office. You may also receive a phone call or email from the school making the offer but this is not guaranteed. Make sure the contact information in your application is up to date.
- Waitlist offers will go live at 8 a.m. Once an offer is live, families will have two business days to accept or decline the offer before it expires and goes to the next student on the waitlist.
- Log into your GoCPS account to see your waitlist offer. All waitlist offers expire at 8 a.m. after two business days. A business day does not include Saturdays, Sundays, or holidays. For example, an offer extended on a Friday at 8 a.m. would not expire until the following Tuesday at 8 a.m.
- Expired offers cannot be re-offered. If you allow an offer to expire or decline that offer, you will need to re-join the waitlist to be considered for that program again.
- If an applicant accepts a waitlist offer, they will remain on the waitlist for any CHOICE program on their application that is ranked higher than the program from which they received the offer. If a waitlist offer was from the program the student ranked third, for example, they would then be removed from the waitlists of their fourth and lower ranked programs, but would remain on the waitlist for their first and second ranked programs.
- If a student receives a SEES waitlist offer, they will be automatically removed from all other waitlists in the same category. It is advisable to only remain on waitlists that you would accept if given an offer.
Adding New Programs to Application
If families are not satisfied with the selection results or did not receive an initial offer, they can still select additional programs to apply to once the Rolling Waitlist process opens.
- Families can log into their GoCPS accounts and see eligible participating programs.
- These programs will be sorted by proximity to their home.
- If the program only has a few seats and/or selects students based on descending points, the applicant will be able to join the waitlist.