[quote=bearishgurl]Stuck, Rhett knew Dingeman was one of the schools because he saw the name of your thread in his toolbar[/quote]

Not so; it was easy to guess. We looked at an awful lot of houses in the Miramar area, and are very familiar with the school boundaries and the relative information of each.

Like the original poster, we had a *major* problem with Miramar Ranch’s bell schedule. Our problem was the reverse – the 7:30 start is just way too early for us, and we’d much prefer a 9:00 start. But, like BearishGirl said, you can always use the after hours program and just adjust (though it makes for a LONG day for your child, and that isn’t so great). In fact, one reason we do not have our child in public schools is that there is the same early start for Doyle (7:30ish), so we have her in a nearby private school.

If the OP is chasing API scores (and less face it, many people do), in 2011 Dingeman was 973 and Miramar Ranch 913. If you look at 2012, Dingeman fell to 959, and Miramar Ranch went up to 928. This really is a wash, all things considered – and in many other scenarios nobody would think twice about a school with a 928.

To address another point of the OP – you need to be careful about the renting trick. Schools that are pushed to the limit in attendance (which I believe Dingeman may be) will look into property tax records (especially for somebody recently denied for a choice transfer), and if they see you own a place nearby, they may ask some difficult questions.

Schools also have a cutoff date for guaranteed enrollment for a given year, and you’d have to check with Dingeman to see what that may be. If they are pushed to the limit, somebody coming in late might get placed in the nearest school with room – and given that Ellen Browning Scripps is also pretty full, I bet that would be (drum roll) Miramar Ranch. So wouldn’t it be ironic if you rented to get into Dingeman, only to be sent to Miramar Ranch?