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 Once withdrawn, the decision is final and cannot be reversed.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 an applicant 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 an applicant 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.
SEHS programs
- Applicants who received a SEHS offer in the initial round of selections will NOT be waitlisted to any other Selective Enrollment programs. If an applicant's Selective Enrollment offer expires or is declined, they will need to manually join the waitlist once the Rolling Waitlist opens.
- Eligible applicants who do not receive a SEHS offer are automatically placed on the waitlist for any program they qualify for and included on the application. Applicants can also add additional programs to their application as long as they don’t exceed the category limit of 6 programs.
- Waitlists for all SEHS programs are sorted in descending total point order. Applicants are re-sorted as new students join the waitlists. This means that waitlist numbers for SEHS programs can go up and down depending on who joins the waitlist.
- If an applicant receives a SEHS offer but would like to join the waitlist for another program, they will need to first decline the offer in order to join the waitlist for any other program.
- SEHS waitlists will remain active until the 20th day of school. After that time, there are no transfers into SEHS programs for the rest of that school year.
NOTE: SEHS programs do not make many waitlist offers so make sure to think carefully before declining any offers.
Getting a Waitlist Offer
Make sure the contact information in your application is up to date.
- If the program has a seat available, and the student’s number on the waitlist is reached, the person on the contact list 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.
- All waitlist offers will go live at 8 a.m. Once an offer is live, applicants 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 student receives a SEHS waitlist offer, they will be automatically removed from all other SEHS waitlists they are on. It is advisable to only remain on waitlists that you would accept if given an offer.
Adding New Programs to Application
If applicants 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.
- Log into the GoCPS online portal.
- These programs will be sorted by proximity to the applicant’s primary address.
- Add additional programs to your existing application.
