Hanover, MD?

[Anonymous]

Anyone have any insight on this area as far as quality of living, schools, commute, etc? A friend is moving to the area with kids to work in Fort Meade, and her family is considering a move to Hanover. From what we’ve seen of the area, there’s a lot of shopping and dining available, and it seems like a nice area with a lot of different types of homes. It’s split between Howard and Anne Arundel Counties, and while the Anne Arundel part of Hanover seems like a nicer and more interesting place to live than the Howard County part, the schools seem stronger on the Howard County side. They really like a neighborhood in the Anne Arundel part called Somerset at the Villages of Dorchester, which is walkable to shops and dining and has large single family homes. She said people she talked to said most people in Anne Arundel Hanover send their kids to the local elementary school (Hebron-Harman), but send their kids to Chesapeake Science Point Charter school or a private school for middle and high school. We haven’t heard from anyone who lives in the Howard part, but I would assume more send their kids to public middle and high schools there. Would love to hear from people who are familiar with Hanover.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have any insight on this area as far as quality of living, schools, commute, etc? A friend is moving to the area with kids to work in Fort Meade, and her family is considering a move to Hanover. From what we’ve seen of the area, there’s a lot of shopping and dining available, and it seems like a nice area with a lot of different types of homes. It’s split between Howard and Anne Arundel Counties, and while the Anne Arundel part of Hanover seems like a nicer and more interesting place to live than the Howard County part, the schools seem stronger on the Howard County side. They really like a neighborhood in the Anne Arundel part called Somerset at the Villages of Dorchester, which is walkable to shops and dining and has large single family homes. She said people she talked to said most people in Anne Arundel Hanover send their kids to the local elementary school (Hebron-Harman), but send their kids to Chesapeake Science Point Charter school or a private school for middle and high school. We haven’t heard from anyone who lives in the Howard part, but I would assume more send their kids to public middle and high schools there. Would love to hear from people who are familiar with Hanover.

No info on the Howard side, but I worked at Hebron-Harman over five years ago so I’m sure it changed a lot since then. At the time it was an ok school. I really loved working there and a lot of staff had their kids enrolled there which said a lot. It is a large school though. My guess is Howard County the school would be a little better but maybe not enough for the housing costs. Meade Middle and Meade High are both on base if I recall correctly and have a higher percentage of minority students. HHES was truly very diverse when I was there. Overall the kids and families struck me as very normal, down to earth people. It’s definitely a cheaper area than most people on DCUM are from so you’ll probably get mostly rude remarks.

[Anonymous]

My kids go to Meade HS (which is the HS for the Anne Arundel side.) No, it isn't a highly ranked HS and yes, 40+% kids are FARMS, but we have found some great teachers and they have the magnet IB program for the county. They have hired a new principal and almost all new assistant principals for next school year so I am hoping for some improvements. My kids are not in IB, but take a mix of IB/AP classes and play sports for the school. We have been happy enough.

Other option for schools in Anne Arundel are the magnet schools (STEM, performing and visual arts, biomedical engineering, IB) - you lottery into them.