which HS (Oakton, Madison, Mclean) our family should choose

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, can you increase your budget? I know higher interest rates probably lowered your budget.

I had a friend move to NOVA a few years ago with a 800-900k budget. They ended up getting a brand new townhouse in Ashburn. Her budget was getting her old houses she did not want to live in in any decent neighborhood in FCPS. I think she was looking at Vienna and Oakton and got priced out. Then she looked at Fairfax and ultimately chose Ashburn. Home prices have gone up substantially since she moved here before 2020.

The nice thing about Loudoun is that the residents are much younger with more kids nearby. And the houses are newer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, can you increase your budget? I know higher interest rates probably lowered your budget.

I had a friend move to NOVA a few years ago with a 800-900k budget. They ended up getting a brand new townhouse in Ashburn. Her budget was getting her old houses she did not want to live in in any decent neighborhood in FCPS. I think she was looking at Vienna and Oakton and got priced out. Then she looked at Fairfax and ultimately chose Ashburn. Home prices have gone up substantially since she moved here before 2020.

The nice thing about Loudoun is that the residents are much younger with more kids nearby. And the houses are newer

An area with a large percentage of the population under 18 and a limited commercial tax base will never have great schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, can you increase your budget? I know higher interest rates probably lowered your budget.

I had a friend move to NOVA a few years ago with a 800-900k budget. They ended up getting a brand new townhouse in Ashburn. Her budget was getting her old houses she did not want to live in in any decent neighborhood in FCPS. I think she was looking at Vienna and Oakton and got priced out. Then she looked at Fairfax and ultimately chose Ashburn. Home prices have gone up substantially since she moved here before 2020.

The nice thing about Loudoun is that the residents are much younger with more kids nearby. And the houses are newer

It's also overly Indian from Asia

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say McLean pyramid, but the school system has neglected all the buildings, and everything is overcrowded. The irony is that the county focuses on making the poorly performing school look nice and expanding by neglecting the better and the wealthier schools to support equity. We plan to go private. The only reasonable option is Langley high pyramids if you don't mind being that far out. Everything else is a 3rd world dump, either the student body at the poorly performing schools or the buildings of the highly performing schools.

+1.

The post to which you responded was horseshit. McLean could benefit from an addition and renovation but the school is great and the notion that FCPS is either high-performing dumps or renovated low-performing schools is contradicted by relatively recent renovations of schools in high-performing pyramids (for example, Longfellow MS, Langley HS, Oakton HS, Thoreau MS, and now Cooper MS).

If you want to make the case that McLean deserves an upgrade you can make that argument. Or if you want to steer people away from McLean to your school and want to harp on McLean’s facilities, go for it. But stop trotting out the conspiracy agenda because it’s just silly.

If you have any questions look at the school board they are far left loonies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:


The nice thing about Loudoun is that the residents are much younger with more kids nearby. And the houses are newer



An area with a large percentage of the population under 18 and a limited commercial tax base will never have great schools.

The culture wars in that county are the worst in the state. Avoid, OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Really appreciate all the inputs!
I added Woodson and Chantilly to my list but has some concern about the size of the high school. I do see a lot trailer classrooms from map. Mclean will be a stretch for me even I am going to buy a townhome there. The housing px is crazy! Oakton does seem to have a good balance of everything: new facility, diversity, expensive but not super crazy home px.

OP - Oakton is best per your requirements - it has substantial Asian population and can accommodate any level of academics and clubs/extracurricular activities. The top group of kids at Oakton is very interchangeable with the top group of kids at McLean or Langley etc... plus the school is post-renovation and has enough students that class schedules are not limited no matter what each of your 4 children will choose for the course selections. Langley has more limitations for scheduling. Plus the Asian grocery stores (5+ within 2-4 miles of driving) and shopping is much better around Oakton as well as the variety of housing options. You can't go wrong with Oakton.

+1. Never had issues with course selection at Oakton. Good diversity. Difficult to make sports teams though if that is important to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Really appreciate all the inputs!
I added Woodson and Chantilly to my list but has some concern about the size of the high school. I do see a lot trailer classrooms from map. Mclean will be a stretch for me even I am going to buy a townhome there. The housing px is crazy! Oakton does seem to have a good balance of everything: new facility, diversity, expensive but not super crazy home px.

OP - Oakton is best per your requirements - it has substantial Asian population and can accommodate any level of academics and clubs/extracurricular activities. The top group of kids at Oakton is very interchangeable with the top group of kids at McLean or Langley etc... plus the school is post-renovation and has enough students that class schedules are not limited no matter what each of your 4 children will choose for the course selections. Langley has more limitations for scheduling. Plus the Asian grocery stores (5+ within 2-4 miles of driving) and shopping is much better around Oakton as well as the variety of housing options. You can't go wrong with Oakton.

+1. Never had issues with course selection at Oakton. Good diversity. Difficult to make sports teams though if that is important to you.

Oakton and some housing options are also close to the Vienna Metro Station for trips into the city. Metro rail is often easier than driving and parking in the city.

Madison HS is also close to the Vienna Metro.

Many new excellent Asian restaurants are opening up in the vicinity, in the City of Fairfax, Vienna, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We need some insights about high school district choice. which HS (Oakton, Madison, Mclean or other schools) we should choose?

We are an Asian family and moving from a southern state(like GA and NC). We finally decided to move to DC area to seek better public school and a bigger metro area because we can mostly work from home(just need to travel to the office once a quarter or something like that). We used to live in the NYC suburb for about 4 yearsbut never wanted to go back to NYC area again. We have 4 kids: one 8th grader, one 5th grader and the other two still in preschool and kindergarten. Our family combined income is around $420k and it is likely this is what we can make for next few years. I work in the accounting consulting area and my wife works for a bank.

My 8th grader son will pursue the STEM especially the computer science related. He is not very social and needs some time to ramp up in the new school so we hope there are a diversified group he can easily fit in. He does swimming and tennis for sports. I am not too worried for my other three kids since they are very social and can very easily make new friends.

We excluded Langley since we don't feel comfortable putting my kids in such a wealthy area. We are just average professionals earning wages. We still consider Mclean since we feel like the diversity seems better. I also heard Oakton is a wealthy district too but not sure what "Wealthy" means? We probably just want to spend 850-900K on the future house(we will rent for the first year).

We are east Asian and lived in NYC previously . We are in Mclean and there are many East Asian kids and enough that they do not feel uncomfortable. Hope Chinese school is around the corner and a 8 min drive and also Taiwanese Chinese school is a 5 min drive. The chesterbrook Taiwanese church is close to the feeder middle school and there are two Korean churches around. It is also 10 min drive to HMART and Great Wall food stores and then a 10 drive to eden center for Vietnamese food and good fortune store

[Anonymous]

^ The McLean schools are great and there’s a significant East Asian community but it’s very hard to find a single-family house with enough space for four kids under $900K.

[Anonymous]

The nice thing about Oakton is the boundaries are a little screwy, which means you have more housing options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The nice thing about Oakton is the boundaries are a little screwy, which means you have more housing options.

Yes definitely very weird boundaries! They have been saying for many years that Franklin Farm would be rezoned for South Lakes but it has never happened. Franklin Farm is definitely one of those screwy ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The nice thing about Oakton is the boundaries are a little screwy, which means you have more housing options.

But then a lot of the houses zoned to Oakton are nowhere near the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The nice thing about Oakton is the boundaries are a little screwy, which means you have more housing options.

But then a lot of the houses zoned to Oakton are nowhere near the school.

This is really not a factor. Is it a pain sometimes to pick up your kid? Yes, but you get used to it after a while. Carpools are your friend. And now they have plenty of parking for seniors, even some juniors this year got spots. When your kids are gone you won't care! Pick what works for you long term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The nice thing about Oakton is the boundaries are a little screwy, which means you have more housing options.

Yes definitely very weird boundaries! They have been saying for many years that Franklin Farm would be rezoned for South Lakes but it has never happened. Franklin Farm is definitely one of those screwy ones.

Part of Franklin Farm goes to Chantilly. Chantilly is really the closest for most of Franklin Farm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The nice thing about Oakton is the boundaries are a little screwy, which means you have more housing options.

But then a lot of the houses zoned to Oakton are nowhere near the school.

This is really not a factor. Is it a pain sometimes to pick up your kid? Yes, but you get used to it after a while. Carpools are your friend. And now they have plenty of parking for seniors, even some juniors this year got spots. When your kids are gone you won't care! Pick what works for you long term.

Of course it is a factor. If you live in the western part of the district your kid is going to school in the same direction as the AM rush and coming home in the same direction as the early PM rush.