What's it like living in Takoma, DC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Live in Takoma, DC on the DC/MD line and mostly love. No one checks your passport in Takoma Park. Have a charming bungalow, but our street is loud, so we have only started porch-sitting during COVID. Kids are in an excellent walkable charter school, but IB MS/HS is a bid of a cluster-f. If we strike out in the lottery, we might rent a studio in Takoma Park, and airbnb our house to utilize TPMS/Blair. We would have to do the math on how many nights we would need to stay in the studio to claim in-state status. Takoma, DC still has a lot of boomers, but there are tons of young families, too.

If you're considering that, why not just rent in boundary for Wilson/JR? Legally you could live in boundary for the first month of 9th grade, then move home and keep your enrollment until graduation. Many people on DCUM find that policy loop hole distasteful, but still better than actual residency fraud and/or moving a family of teens into a studio.

TPMS + Blair have so many more opportunities like their top-rated magnet programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t speak to Takoma DC but Takoma Park, MD definitely has the neighborly feel with kids playing. I don’t know why people prefer to live in Takoma DC when Takoma Park has better schools and is so charming with a community feel.

Less expensive and maybe they are doing privates or just don’t care if their kids go to bad schools.

Takoma Md? Most people I know there are simply in denial about the school quality more so than not caring

The schools are among the best in the state. I believe the academic teams at the MS/HS win almost every contest and include members of the US math and physics olympiad. Anyway, both my kids went through the MS and high-school STEM magnets. These make the elite privates look sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Live in Takoma, DC on the DC/MD line and mostly love. No one checks your passport in Takoma Park. Have a charming bungalow, but our street is loud, so we have only started porch-sitting during COVID. Kids are in an excellent walkable charter school, but IB MS/HS is a bid of a cluster-f. If we strike out in the lottery, we might rent a studio in Takoma Park, and airbnb our house to utilize TPMS/Blair. We would have to do the math on how many nights we would need to stay in the studio to claim in-state status. Takoma, DC still has a lot of boomers, but there are tons of young families, too.

If you're considering that, why not just rent in boundary for Wilson/JR? Legally you could live in boundary for the first month of 9th grade, then move home and keep your enrollment until graduation. Many people on DCUM find that policy loop hole distasteful, but still better than actual residency fraud and/or moving a family of teens into a studio.

TPMS + Blair have so many more opportunities like their top-rated magnet programs.

Yeah what if you can’t get into the magnet? Regular Blair versus Wilson/JR? If OP is in a charter now, they’re not going to be viable candidates for MCPS magnets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Live in Takoma, DC on the DC/MD line and mostly love. No one checks your passport in Takoma Park. Have a charming bungalow, but our street is loud, so we have only started porch-sitting during COVID. Kids are in an excellent walkable charter school, but IB MS/HS is a bid of a cluster-f. If we strike out in the lottery, we might rent a studio in Takoma Park, and airbnb our house to utilize TPMS/Blair. We would have to do the math on how many nights we would need to stay in the studio to claim in-state status. Takoma, DC still has a lot of boomers, but there are tons of young families, too.

If you're considering that, why not just rent in boundary for Wilson/JR? Legally you could live in boundary for the first month of 9th grade, then move home and keep your enrollment until graduation. Many people on DCUM find that policy loop hole distasteful, but still better than actual residency fraud and/or moving a family of teens into a studio.

TPMS + Blair have so many more opportunities like their top-rated magnet programs.

Yeah what if you can’t get into the magnet? Regular Blair versus Wilson/JR? If OP is in a charter now, they’re not going to be viable candidates for MCPS magnets.

I looked it up and for my kid's cohort Blair has the highest average SATs of any HS in Moco, and before you say that's the magnet it isn't since that's 's mostly Asian. Also, anyone who meets the pre-reqs can take the rigorous magnet courses in the 11th and 12th grades.

[Anonymous]

Could we go back to the topic of the question - living in Takoma DC - and not comparing it to Takoma MD? Some of us like the whole general area of Takoma/Takoma Park, but plan to stay in DC, and don't care about TP schools. I am seriously considering looking for a place in Takoma. The poster's questions are good ones.