Getting into Lowell

Lowell is the one San Francisco public school that admits on your student's academic record, and it does it in bands. Applying means listing it on the SFUSD application, filing a Lowell application of its own in December, and writing an essay at school in January. For a district student that's little extra, since the Star scores Lowell uses come from the test they take in school anyway. A student from a private, parochial, or charter school takes the Star at Lowell instead, in January. Only Band 2 asks for more.

Band 1

Band 1, around 70% of admissions, is decided on middle-school grades and the district's Star assessment, and nothing else. The grades only count English, math, social studies, and science, and only from three semesters: both of seventh grade and the first of eighth. That last semester carries as much weight as the other two combined. These are largely straight-A students with strong test numbers. If that's your student, this is the path they're on.

Band 2

Band 2, around 15% of admissions, is the fuller review for students whose numbers alone wouldn't clear the Band 1 bar. The floor is a 3.0 GPA in the four core subjects and a 60th-percentile average on the Star.

A committee looks for what grades can't show: hardship the student has worked through, a death or illness in the family, leadership and what they contribute outside class. Family circumstances count too — public housing, government aid, learning English. The student gets two chances to make that case in writing, the Lowell application and the January essay.

No one applies to a band. The district checks each student for Band 1, then Band 2, then Band 3, and collects the writing from everyone up front, so your student writing the essay says nothing about where they'll land.

Band 3

Band 3, the remaining 15% of admissions, looks more like Band 1 than Band 2. It uses the same grades and Star scores, and it's set aside for students from schools that have historically sent few to Lowell. No committee, and the writing goes unread. A student clears an academic floor, and their principal puts the nomination forward. The district redraws the list of Band 3 schools each year and publishes it.