Life After the Lottery

Great Hearts Academies January 18, 2023

Next Steps for AZ Enrollment Lottery

Today was an exciting day for many families as they watched the LIVE broadcast of the Great Hearts Arizona Enrollment Lottery with anticipation as enrollment priority was assigned to their child’s application for the next school year at Great Hearts. We hold the lottery every year when we receive more applications than there are seats available at our academies. Anyone who applied for the 2023-2024 school during the open enrollment period was entered in the lottery. Now that the lottery has taken place, you may be asking yourself, “Now what?”

Offers will go out by 4:00 PM today, so make sure you are checking your email inbox.  The written offer will include directions of what you will need to do next to accept the offer.  You will want to make sure that you accept the offer as soon as you can before it expires.  If you don’t receive an offer email, that means you have been placed on the waitlist. You can check your waitlist status at any time in the Parent Portal. Please keep in mind that some of our applications will have priority placed on them, so your place on the waitlist can fluctuate.

Behind the scenes of AZ Enrollment Lottery Live FeedIf you do not receive an offer today, Arizona Enrollment Manager, Stephanie Eck, wants to remind families to not get too discouraged with being placed on the waitlist. “Offers will continue to go out until all our seats are filled for the 2023-2024 school year. You may get an offer 2 weeks from now or 2 months from now.” Eck said to continue to check your email regularly for a possible offer. “No matter where you are at on the waitlist, your position could jump up quickly.  Our academy office managers will do their very best to get offers out as soon seats become available.”

If you are on the waitlist, especially for an academy with an exceptionally long waitlist, we encourage you to consider applying to a Great Hearts academy nearby or even consider Great Hearts Online as a virtual option.  Sometimes waitlists are heavier in certain grade levels or certain campuses.  If you are willing to make the drive, we would like to encourage you to apply to multiple Great Hearts academies.  You will receive the same quality classical liberal arts education from a dedicated faculty at any one of our schools throughout the valley.

Now that the Enrollment Lottery Livestream has concluded, there are several ways you can reach out with questions about enrollment or the waitlist. You can use the “live chat” feature on our website at greatheartsarizona.org to virtually chat with a staff member.  You can also call 602-438-7045 extension 351 where we have a phone bank on hand to answer your questions. Eck said that the phone bank can often get busy, especially on the day of the lottery.  She suggests going on the Parent Portal and opt into TEXT to receive text messages for updates.

Congratulations to all the families who will be receiving offers today.  This is an email that could change the life of your child and your family.  For those on a waitlist, do not lose heart. Please know that all of us here at Great Hearts are grateful that you have chosen us for your child’s education. We are cheering you on as you go along the journey, and we truly hope to welcome you into one of our academies very soon.

Do you have a story or know of a story that you would like to see featured at Great Hearts?  Please contact jmoore@greatheartsamerica.org.

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