On a Monday morning in mid-March, Liz Le nervously logged into her computer and clicked through a series of webpages, checking to see if her daughter had been admitted to San Francisco’s most prestigious public high school.

“It was stressful,” Le said. “And we were very, very happy that our daughter got into Lowell High School.”

Every spring, families across San Francisco await the Unified School District’s enrollment results. This year, 2,271 students applied to Lowell, 1,036 were admitted, and 650 are expected to accept the offer. Unlike the lottery-based system used by most other schools in the district, Lowell admissions are determined through a unique and complex process.

Long considered one of the top public high schools on the West Coast, Lowell looks at grades, test scores, essays, and socioeconomic background to decide who gets a spot. The process has long been one of San Francisco’s most hotly debated education issues, especially after a short-lived switch to a lottery system during the pandemic, which triggered a political firestorm.

Although often misunderstood as purely “merit-based,” Lowell actually admits students through three pathways, with nearly 30% accepted through routes that do not require near-perfect academic records.

About 70% of Lowell students are admitted based only on grades and test scores — known as Band 1. Le’s daughter, an eighth grader at Presidio Middle School, has competitive grades and likely entered through Band 1, which primarily represents straight-A students.

“My philosophy as a parent is, you getting a C or below is not OK,” Le said. “Are you really trying your best?”

But to get into Lowell, even a couple of Bs could be a deal-breaker. The Band 1 admissions focus heavily on seventh- and eighth-grade report cards, as well as a standardized test given to all SFUSD, charter, and private school students every January. A student with two Bs might struggle to meet the cutoff.

“For Band 1, most students have all A’s,” said Vicky Keston, an education consultant. “However, with a very high test score, you can still get in with one B.” The maximum Band 1 score is 89 points, with recent cutoffs hovering over 82.

Not every student has a spotless academic record, but they still have a shot at Lowell through Band 2 and Band 3 admissions, which require an essay or attendance at the “right” middle schools. Each pathway, known among families and teachers as a “golden ticket” to Lowell, accounts for about 15% of the incoming class.

Every applicant must submit an essay, but it plays a crucial role for Band 2 students, as it allows them to explain challenges or family circumstances that affected their school performance. The essay can also help students who may not test well but have shown leadership and resilience outside the classroom.

“Band 2 is probably the fairest part of the system,” Keston said. However, it makes the process much more complex, involving essays evaluated by a middle school site committee and a districtwide Lowell admission committee, which together assign scores to applicants.

Le believes her older son, a sophomore at Lowell, was admitted through Band 2 two years ago. She said his academic records were “messed up” during the pandemic, but he wrote an essay about overcoming family hardships.

Terry Abad, executive director of the Lowell Alumni Association, said he once participated in essay review and scoring efforts to make the process as fair as possible across middle schools. Today, the committees are believed to be composed entirely of SFUSD employees.

Band 3 is a lesser-known admissions pathway designed to boost Lowell admission for students from underrepresented middle schools. Ironically, the list includes some prestigious private schools, such as Town School for Boys, one of the city’s most expensive and the alma mater of Mayor Daniel Lurie.

Students from Willie Brown Middle School receive priority treatment under Band 3. As long as they meet certain academic requirements, they are guaranteed admission to Lowell. According to district data, about 20 students from Willie Brown were admitted to Lowell this year. The Lowell Alumni Association has been working with Lowell students to provide tutoring and application assistance to Willie Brown students.

Lowell is known for its Asian-majority student body and low enrollment of Black and Latino students, and its admission process has long been a target for reforms.

In 2020, a progressive-majority school board decided to replace Lowell’s merit-based system with a lottery — a move that attempted to address concerns about equity and racism on campus but angered Asian American communities. It helped spark a nationally watched recall movement and a lawsuit. A court overturned the decision, restoring Lowell’s merit-based process.

Orlando Leon, a Chinese American Lowell alum from the 1990s whose son was admitted this year, said he values and appreciates the school’s culture of academic rigor. He said the Asian community’s drive to attend Lowell reflects deep cultural values, as it’s part of the immigrant story — families coming to the U.S., looking for better opportunities and lives.

“It was important to be in a competitive classroom,” Leon said. “It pushed me to challenge myself more.”

Both Le and Leon said they considered private school options if Lowell didn’t work out because they prefer the certainty of a known admissions process over the random chance of lottery-based placement elsewhere in SFUSD.

But Leon emphasized that it’s important to find each kid’s best fit.

“I’m sure everyone wants an excellent education,” Leon said. “But not everyone wants Lowell.”