Your post is from a while back, but since no one answered...Citywides in theory take the top 3% (not 10%, that's district programs), but there are nowhere near enough seats for that, so it's a lottery among the top 1%. A sibling of a child already in the school can get a seat with a top 3% score, called the sibling preference. Plenty of kids in the top 3% are in the district programs or even gen ed due to lack of space in these programs.