Friday Marks Deadline for ‘GoCPS’ High School Applications

Chicago Public Schools students are quickly approaching winter break, but some eighth-graders may have a little homework left to finish before the end of the week.

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Friday marks the deadline to edit or submit all high school applications through “GoCPS” – the district’s new consolidated application program. Online applications will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. Friday night, while paper forms are due by 5 p.m.

With GoCPS, students will fill out one application, rank their school choices and receive a maximum of two offers – one each from a selective and non-selective school.

Students and families are currently able to activate their GoCPS accounts and create online profiles. This site shows which high school programs students are eligible to apply to based on standards including test scores, grades and available seats.

Students can apply to up to 20 schools and rank their top choices – including any neighborhood, charter or contract schools. They are then matched based on their ranking preferences, qualifications and the results of a random lottery.

After the first round of offers are made, families have two-and- a-half weeks to either accept or decline one of them.

If they choose to reject those offers, students would go through the process a second time and receive new offers. If those too are rejected, the student would be placed in their neighborhood school with the option to apply for a transfer within the first 20 days of the school year.

GoCPS also features details about high schools and the dozens of individual programs that previously required individual applications. The district also says this process will help schools better prepare for the first day of classes, as they will know how many students have accepted an offer sooner than in years past.

Following Friday’s deadline, students will begin being matched with high schools and receiving offers this spring. The first round of offers will be made available in March, followed by the second round in May. Students then have until June to make their final decision.

This is the first year the school district is using the GoCPS program. For more information on deadline dates or the application process itself, visit to go.cps.edu.

Contact Matt Masterson: @ByMattMasterson[email protected] | (773) 509-5431


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