About LowellPrep
Old guides call it a lottery. It is not. We help families read the current rules.
LowellPrep is EduAvenues guidance for San Francisco families applying to Lowell High School for Grade 9.
Here's what you're up against.
Picture early November. Your eighth grader has grades on file, a Star test coming in January, and a December deadline that is earlier than every other SFUSD high school deadline.
Many online guides still call Lowell a lottery school. For 2027-28, SFUSD publishes a merit-based method with three bands, and it says there is no waitlist and no appeal.
None of that means your student is not ready. It means the useful thing is a calm read of what SFUSD has actually published, with the dates and criteria in one place.
What Lowell publishes
- The last day to apply to Lowell for Grade 9 is December 11, 2026: 5pm online, or close of business at the Enrollment Center for paper applications. SFUSD says it will not be possible to apply after that date.
- There are three bands, or qualification methods. About 70 percent of admitted students come through Band 1, about 15 percent through Band 2 and about 15 percent through Band 3. Every student is assessed for all three bands.
- There is no waitlist or appeal process for Lowell, no sibling tiebreaker, and the regular high school tiebreakers do not apply. All students must meet the admissions criteria to enroll.
- Lowell admits students on merit for 2027-28, using the three-band system. Older guides that describe a lottery are out of date. The SFUSD Band Summary says its band data comes from merit-based admission.
Photo: Goodshoped35110s, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
We went through this. That's why we built it.
Growing up in Fairfax County, I applied to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, and my parents signed me up for a prep program. The instructor had never set foot inside TJ. There were 30 students in a single classroom, almost no feedback on our writing, and templates that had nothing to do with the real application. On test day, we realized we had been preparing for something else.
My friend Vishnu was right there with me, in the same classroom, with the same feeling that families deserved something better. We talked about it all through high school and into college. Vishnu passed away far too young, but his conviction never left me. EduAvenues carries his belief forward: if you are going to do this, do it right, and do it for the families who need it most.
So we built what should have existed.
After UVA's McIntire School of Commerce and five years in financial services, including time at Goldman Sachs and at Evergreen by Alpine Investors in private equity, I walked away because this mattered more. I also served on the Board of Directors of the TJHSST Partnership (Endowment) Fund. This isn't just work for me. It's personal.
San Francisco families deserve that same clarity. This site follows SFUSD's own pages, shows where each fact comes from, and says plainly when something is not published. For help with your own student's situation, start with the EduAvenues high school admissions page.
Today our instructors include graduates of schools like Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, Columbia, and UVA, and our team has spent more than a decade helping families through selective admissions. Meet the EduAvenues instructors.
And we built it to fit into your family's life. Lessons are online and self-paced. Prep should work around school, sports, music, and family dinners, not replace them.
Neil Kothari
Co-Founder of EduAvenues®, TJHSST graduate
Then and now
What we actually changed.
Prep taught by people who had never studied the school's application.
Lessons built from Lowell's own published requirements, last checked November 5, 2026.
Thirty students in a room and almost no feedback on writing.
Instructor feedback on your student's own writing, with line-by-line notes.
Templates that made every essay sound the same.
Notes that keep your student's own voice and push for real, specific stories.
Rigid class schedules that took over weekends.
Online and self-paced, so prep fits around school, activities, and family time.
Google Reviews
What families say about EduAvenues.
Reviews from families across EduAvenues programs, shown as they were written on Google.
These are Google reviews of EduAvenues from families in our programs for many schools. They are not reviews of Lowell.
EduAvenues results
Results from EduAvenues programs.
- 5.0
- Google ratingEduAvenues Google profile, covering every EduAvenues program
- $22M+
- in scholarshipsEarned by EduAvenues college-admissions students in the most recent cycle
- 10+
- years of admissions prepEduAvenues instruction and feedback, across programs
- 100+
- selective high school admits per cycleEduAvenues TJHSST program, each of the last four cycles
“He loved your courses because you always had clear explanations for not only 'how' but also 'why.' Thank you for providing detailed feedback with patience and time.”
“The feedback was really helpful. I felt that after each set, I was able to improve a lot.”
These results and reviews come from EduAvenues programs for other schools and services. They are not Lowell admissions results, and no program can promise admission.