Where to move with good schools

[Anonymous]

I’m a finalist for a job that may require me to move my family from Dc somewhere closer to commute into upper Manhattan (nearish to 125th). I have a 4th grader. Hoping to commute until end of school year but likely would need to move everyone thereafter. Not wealthy enough for private school but need a good district that is strong for a gifted student with anxiety.

Thinking about Westchester but I don’t know much about the area or schools so would appreciate the advice! Assuming we can sell our house in DC we’d have around $1.5 -$2mil to buy a new to us house.

[Anonymous]

Bronxville

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bronxville

Excuse the naive question but is Bronxville different from the Bronx?

[Anonymous]

Yes, Bronxville is a town in Westchester, not part of NYC.

Scarsdale is excellent though it can be very competitive, the part that’s zoned for Edgemont is a bit cheaper and still has very good schools. In general with Westchester you need to be very very careful about school zoning because the same town can have multiple villages and school districts covering various bits of it - double and triple check which specific schools a specific address will get you into.

[Anonymous]

(Scarsdale has extensive support for gifted students - lots of math acceleration - but it’s also a bit of a pressure cooker; it’s hard to find one without the other)

[Anonymous]

Bronxville and Edgemont are top districts- as good as any district in DMV. Scarsdale is even a step above but having grown up there, I’d prefer a more low key area where there may be actually non-white/asian person in school and it is not a total pressure cooker. Eg, Pelham, Hastings. Still great college results, school focused, good commute to 125th street, etc. YMMV though

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bronxville and Edgemont are top districts- as good as any district in DMV. Scarsdale is even a step above but having grown up there, I’d prefer a more low key area where there may be actually non-white/asian person in school and it is not a total pressure cooker. Eg, Pelham, Hastings. Still great college results, school focused, good commute to 125th street, etc. YMMV though

I agree with this. At that budget you are the poor folk in Bronxville or Scarsdale and they are pretty homogeneous (Scarsdale is super Jewish (I'm Jewish), Bronxville is very white/non-Jewish), though this has been gradually changing. The river towns like the poster above suggested (Hastings) have very good schools but are more affordable and down to earth. Irvington is also among them.

Larchmont is also a nice town with good schools and a very easy commute. Probably somewhere in between the two groupings above.

I think the Westchester suggestions are far and away the best. But there are also some towns just across the bridge in NJ that have good schools like Closter and Demarest. There are others as well - I know other parts of NJ better so will defer to others rather than guess. However, you would likely be driving from these towns - it is a pretty easy drive but not perfect.

Assuming apartment living in Manhattan is not an option? It seems like given your circumstances the burbs work better, but just throwing it out there. Happy to provide suggestions for good neighborhoods in the city. Though switching schools for fifth grade is tough anywhere, but particularly in city schools.

[Anonymous]

Re Manhattan public schools, I can say from experience that 4th grade with a gifted kid is very tough for that - too late to try for Hunter or NEST+m or whatever, too late to get anything much from other G&T, basically you can a) hope for a good middle school lottery number or b) hope to be one of the lucky 160 to test into Hunter for 7th or c) settle for accelerated math and maybe one other Regents but not much else at a good public middle school (say a zoned D2 one) and focus mostly on 9th grade and the SHSAT.

(But they’re perfectly fine schools if you’re not overly hung up on giftedness/acceleration)

[Anonymous]

If you’re going to move to NYC, do it right. I’d find a district 2 school apartment and enjoy. Your dc will be switching for middle school in a year anyway.

If you can swing private school for a year or two, you could have dc finish elementary and then move to a public for MS. Contact the parents league for openings

[Anonymous]

Or d3

[Anonymous]

If you're going to go the public/private NYC route I would actually recommend going public for elementary - there are zoned elementary schools (PS6 for example) that are easily as posh as anything in Westchester - and then apply to privates for middle school if you don't get a good lottery number.

[Anonymous]

D2 and D3 in Manhattan have plenty of really good gen ed public middle schools. G&T has been diluted and is totally over-rated. I know countless kids from various middle schools in these districts who have gone on to do great at SHSAT schools, Gen Ed HS and private schools. And not just from the best known schools - plenty of gems where your kid can get a great education, be a bit more relaxed and still get into a great high school and thrive.

The issue is that there are few guarantees of getting into one of these schools. Most likely you will get one of them. But it is not for sure. And starting at a school in 5th grade and going through the middle school process would not be fun, and would be hard on a kid. And living in NYC is not for everyone.

I love NYC and I am raising kids here but I'm not sure I would recommend it for a kid coming from the suburbs going into 5th grade - it can be very overwhelming and that is just a hard time to switch. It would almost be easier if they could wait until starting 6th grade, but even then, not sure if I would do that.

[Anonymous]

We have a gifted elementary school student with anxiety and are very happy in Larchmont at our neighborhood public. Easy peasy one stop commute to 125th St. We wanted a district with good academics but also emphasis on arts. We know people with a similar kid who are happy in Pelham. We considered Hastings too but it felt a bit insular.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're going to go the public/private NYC route I would actually recommend going public for elementary - there are zoned elementary schools (PS6 for example) that are easily as posh as anything in Westchester - and then apply to privates for middle school if you don't get a good lottery number.

That’s not a bad idea. But isn’t she on the west side for work, or did I imagine that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:D2 and D3 in Manhattan have plenty of really good gen ed public middle schools. G&T has been diluted and is totally over-rated. I know countless kids from various middle schools in these districts who have gone on to do great at SHSAT schools, Gen Ed HS and private schools. And not just from the best known schools - plenty of gems where your kid can get a great education, be a bit more relaxed and still get into a great high school and thrive.

The issue is that there are few guarantees of getting into one of these schools. Most likely you will get one of them. But it is not for sure. And starting at a school in 5th grade and going through the middle school process would not be fun, and would be hard on a kid. And living in NYC is not for everyone.

I love NYC and I am raising kids here but I'm not sure I would recommend it for a kid coming from the suburbs going into 5th grade - it can be very overwhelming and that is just a hard time to switch. It would almost be easier if they could wait until starting 6th grade, but even then, not sure if I would do that.

I’m the poster who recommended moving to the city. I guess I just don’t understand people who move from a suburb ‘to NYC’ who then move to another suburb. Why not jump in and really experience NY? My extended family (not from NY) all thought I was crazy for raising kids here, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. And we are NYC middle class, not uber wealthy. There are just so many options and experiences your kids will have here that they won’t get anywhere else. Plus no teen drunk driving.