We had MV as our #1 choice three years in a row. Matched this year and completely unimpressed- will be going back to the lottery with a new #1 choice for language immersion.

PK3 we applied everywhere. Got into a non-immersion charter.

PK4 we applied to one immersion charter that was walkable from our house to keep our options open. Did not get in. Probably wouldn't have taken a spot even if we did get in.

K we didn't play the lottery.

It's been two years but we were really happy where our child ended up and only listed one school on the lottery for PK4. We were shocked when we got in and, in even more of a coincidence, know a family who received one of the few PK4 spots that opened up at the school we left and they've been extremely happy as well.

PK3 list was extensive and got into a bottom choice but it was a convenient location and good experience. PK4 list had only two schools because realized how much being in or close to our neighborhood meant to us and that the first school would be pretty good at least for a few years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We ended up happy at our PK3 school and mainly just played the pk4 lottery out of morbid curiosity and a weird sense of competition (that I would never admit at a cocktail party).

Wow, good to see that you're preventing legitimate matches for students who really need to get out of their current school just to appease your sense of curiosity.

She's not preventing legitimate matches if she turns the spots down.

+1. Play away, PP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We ended up happy at our PK3 school and mainly just played the pk4 lottery out of morbid curiosity and a weird sense of competition (that I would never admit at a cocktail party).

Wow, good to see that you're preventing legitimate matches for students who really need to get out of their current school just to appease your sense of curiosity.

She's not preventing legitimate matches if she turns the spots down.

Anonymous wrote:We ended up happy at our PK3 school and mainly just played the pk4 lottery out of morbid curiosity and a weird sense of competition (that I would never admit at a cocktail party).

Wow, good to see that you're preventing legitimate matches for students who really need to get out of their current school just to appease your sense of curiosity.

We ended up happy at our PK3 school and mainly just played the pk4 lottery out of morbid curiosity and a weird sense of competition (that I would never admit at a cocktail party).

PK4 this year - I think we'll be a little more judicious/realistic about commute, but given that we are not happy about where we are, we'll still fill all 12 slots.

In our first year, we had a bad draw, got into our IB school (choice #12), and were happy there. In the second year, as a result, we just applied to a handful of schools that were "dream" schools, no safeties or middle-tier schools.

DD is in 1st this year and our list will be somewhat different. All schools less appealing than our current option were dropped when we got in. But now that she's in real elementary school, we're disinclined to move her again before middle school, and ideally not before high school. So we're only listing schools that are strong through 5th, most of which go through 8th or have good feeder patterns.

Not much difference. Commute weighed heavily in our choices and as none of our choices moved, the list was the same.

DC will be in K next year and we will probably not enter the lottery. If we do, we're no longer interested in immersion when those schools were at the top of our list before. If he had been accepted before, I'm sure it would have been fine and we would have put in the necessary supplementing, but our priorities have changed.

Very different. We are happy at our school but will try for something closer to the house.

I'm particularly interested in the differences in your pk3 list vs. pk4 list, but other observations would be interesting as well.