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Admissions Process
Lottery Process
If there are fewer applicants than seats available for a magnet program, all eligible applicants are offered placement.
If there are more applicants than seats available for a magnet program, placements are made through a random lottery selection process following priority placements. A random lottery is conducted by school and grade for each magnet program.
Applicants who either did not complete the application or assessment process are disqualified and not entered into the lottery process.
Elementary and Middle School magnet programs – If the number of applicants exceeds the number of seats available, seats are first filled with priority placements and then a random lottery is conducted to fill all remaining seats and to generate a waitlist.
High School magnet programs – If the number of applicants exceeds the number of seats available, seats are first filled with priority placements. Next, a random lottery of applicants who earn a total evaluation score of 80% or higher will be conducted to fill available seats and to generate a waitlist. Finally, a random lottery will be conducted in order of descending total evaluation scores (79%, 78%, 77%, etc.) to fill available seats and generate a waitlist.
Notification
All applicants receive email notification of their admissions status from BCPS Magnet Programs.
Magnet admission decisions for elementary and middle school applicants will be released by January 9, 2026 (date subject to change).
Magnet admission decisions for high school applicants will be released by February 20, 2026 (date subject to change).
Parents must accept or decline the seat offer electronically by the identified deadline or the offer will be revoked.
Once initial seat offers have been accepted or declined, unfilled seats will be offered to students on the program’s waitlist.
Parents receiving placement offers from the waitlist have three (3) business days to respond. Failure to respond will result in forfeiture of the seat, and the placement will be offered to the next student on the waitlist.
Waitlists
Only students who applied by the application deadline and meet the qualification requirements for a magnet program can be placed on a waitlist. When there are more applicants for a magnet program than there are seats to accommodate them, a random lottery selection process is used to fill the available seats and create a waitlist for the program. Placement on the waitlist means, as a result of the random lottery process, the child was not selected for initial placement. If a student who was offered admission declines the placement, the unfilled seat can then be offered to students on the waitlist. Waitlists are maintained until the close of business on the last day of the first quarter of the school year for which admission is sought.
Applicants placed on a waitlist will receive a waitlist number. The waitlist number indicates the child’s position on the waitlist. Unfilled seats are offered to students in ascending order of the waitlist number, starting with the student who has waitlist number 1.
Beginning in late March, parents can log into the application site to see their child’s current wait list status.
If your student is on a wait list, please be sure to inform BCPS Magnet Programs of any change in email address or phone number. Changes can be provided by email at [email protected] or by phone at 443-809-4127.