Both my 7th graders applied to magnet middle schools two years ago and will be applying to magnet high schools next year. All theses magnet schools are on a lottery system and the seats to applicants ratios can vary significantly from one school to another and sometimes also vary somewhat from year to year. I have been able to access some data online and have also spoken directly to the head of magnet programs in our district for other information.
A couple of things to consider or inquire. In our district, there is a minimum assessment score, which weeds out a subset of applicants. There is also priority seating allowed (not really advertised) up to 10% of the seats that is at the discretion of each school/program. These seats are reserved for kids who scored exceptionally on the assessment. There have been times when the assessment for a particular school/program has not been difficult enough to yield a convenient number of superior applicants so that no one got in on priority. For example, if there were 30 seats for a program but 8 kids scored 99 percent on the assessment and many more kids scored 97-98 percent, then the school may choose not to set aside 6 seats for priority students. The interesting thing is that each school and often different programs within each school have varying levels of difficulty as far as their assessments standards. In the program/school that my kids ultimately chose, about 1/3 got in by lottery but less than 10 kids got in off the waiting list so there were several hundred kids who were disappointed.
