Options within 45 mins of College Park

[Anonymous]

The easiest commute with good schools is North Laurel in Howard County. Check out Gorman Crossing Elementary School.

[Anonymous]

I'm a UMD faculty member with kids at University Park Elementary School. PP is right that St. Jerome's and Holy Redeemer are the closest K-8 parochial schools, and then Dematha and Seton are the high schools (though we also know kids at Bishop Macnamara and St. Anselm's Abbey).

I will say that I have UMD colleagues with kids (in public school) in Takoma Park, Bethesda, Ellicott City, Columbia, and Frederick. I definitely think I have the best quality of life, and my kids are doing fine, but my colleagues ferociously defend their decisions to live further out and commute (while also complaining that we can't possibly have a meeting at 9am or 3:30pm because the traffic is soooo bad).

[Anonymous]

If not living near the university, live along the MARC train line.

[Anonymous]

Berwyn Heights-family I know there walks to Holy Redeemer and the college park metro. It’s a lovely little neighborhood tucked behind Baltimore Ave and walkable to UMD

[Anonymous]

PG County has great Catholic schools in the region, probably better than the overcrowded MoCo schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bethesda is very expensive and that commute is a pain on the beltway. My budget was 1.2-1.3 in Bethesda and I was priced out

We live in Bethesda (near Kensington) and while some houses in our neighborhood cost more than 1.2-1.3, others are still far less. Spouse works at UMD and has found a schedule where the commute is usually 20-25 minutes because it's a reverse commute. It's longer at busier times of day, but still within the 45-minute goal of OP. We're very happy with our MCPS schools (Walter Johnson High School cluster).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PG County has great Catholic schools in the region, probably better than the overcrowded MoCo schools

We live in MoCo and send our kid to dematha in pg

[Anonymous]

University Park
Takoma Park
Greenbelt
Bowie
Mt. Rainier
Hyattsville

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it would be crazy not to live in College Park/Hyattsville, especially if you’re Catholic and open to Catholic schools.

University Park, downtown Hyattsville, Mount Rainier, even Cheverly. There are other nice neighborhoods in CP too.

I don’t understand why on earth you would commute so far for marginally higher scoring public schools. Your quality of life will be so much lower and the schools might not even work out anyway. Why do you think there are so many private schools in Montgomery County?

A lot of people on dcum are scared of PG county because they feel it’s not wealthy enough, but I mean from University Park your DH could walk to work and you can walk to a Whole Foods, a Trader Joe’s and a Target, Busboys and Poets, really good tacos, etc etc etc. Your kids can go to the highly regarded public ES, navigate the charters and magnets, or to St Jerome’s.

I think the parochial elementary in univ park is not able to offer sibling admission guarantee right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My spouse will be starting at UMD College Park in the fall (I work remote) and we are exploring neighborhoods within a 45 minute commute to UMD. We have 2 kids in elementary school, and are looking for solid publics with parochial as an option. We are planning to rent for the first year or two with a budget around 4500/month. We are considering the following:

Severna Park
Columbia
Crofton
Bethesda
North Chevy Chase
Silver Spring

Anything we are leaving out? Thanks

Not sure how far $4500 will get you there, but Kensington has good public schools and a strong Catholic school community. Lots of threads on here about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a UMD faculty member with kids at University Park Elementary School. PP is right that St. Jerome's and Holy Redeemer are the closest K-8 parochial schools, and then Dematha and Seton are the high schools (though we also know kids at Bishop Macnamara and St. Anselm's Abbey).

I will say that I have UMD colleagues with kids (in public school) in Takoma Park, Bethesda, Ellicott City, Columbia, and Frederick. I definitely think I have the best quality of life, and my kids are doing fine, but my colleagues ferociously defend their decisions to live further out and commute (while also complaining that we can't possibly have a meeting at 9am or 3:30pm because the traffic is soooo bad).

My spouse works at UMD and we love in Columbia. Maybe because we started out in MoCo, and at one point he commuted to Nova, but he doesn’t find the commute/traffic bad at all. Plenty of meetings before 9 and after 3:30.
Our kids are in public school, parochial would not have been an option for us.
We did consider University Park when we moved from MoCo over a decade ago but ultimately decided to live closer to family who were already in Columbia.

[Anonymous]

I live in Cheverly and commute to College Park 3-5 days a week. It’s a super easy drive.
The local catholic school is St Ambrose (preK -8th). Kids also go to the local elementary the various specialty programs.
Kids who go to catholic schools tend to go to DeMatha, Seton or McNamara.
I drive through UP a couple of mornings a week and there seem to be a lot of kids walking to the elementary school and to College Park Academy. There are also high school kids waiting for school buses which I am assuming is for ERHS.
UP is lovely, Cheverly is a lower cost option with a similar neighborhood feel. When the retail at the Hospital Hill development comes through you will even have the highly sought after coffee shop.

[Anonymous]

Without a budget, how can we recommend? I commuted to College Park for 7 years and lived/live in Olney and chose Olney because of its affordability and because public schools were ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a UMD faculty member with kids at University Park Elementary School. PP is right that St. Jerome's and Holy Redeemer are the closest K-8 parochial schools, and then Dematha and Seton are the high schools (though we also know kids at Bishop Macnamara and St. Anselm's Abbey).

I will say that I have UMD colleagues with kids (in public school) in Takoma Park, Bethesda, Ellicott City, Columbia, and Frederick. I definitely think I have the best quality of life, and my kids are doing fine, but my colleagues ferociously defend their decisions to live further out and commute (while also complaining that we can't possibly have a meeting at 9am or 3:30pm because the traffic is soooo bad).

I live in Frederick because my spouse works there, and I avoid in person meetings after 3:30 due to the commute (but am there and ready to go at 7 AM). Yes of course living where you work gives you a higher quality of life, but don't be judgy about people who don't, sometimes people can't find two jobs in the exact same DMV neighborhood or suburb, ESPECIALLY in academia where every search is national!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a UMD faculty member with kids at University Park Elementary School. PP is right that St. Jerome's and Holy Redeemer are the closest K-8 parochial schools, and then Dematha and Seton are the high schools (though we also know kids at Bishop Macnamara and St. Anselm's Abbey).

I will say that I have UMD colleagues with kids (in public school) in Takoma Park, Bethesda, Ellicott City, Columbia, and Frederick. I definitely think I have the best quality of life, and my kids are doing fine, but my colleagues ferociously defend their decisions to live further out and commute (while also complaining that we can't possibly have a meeting at 9am or 3:30pm because the traffic is soooo bad).

I live in Frederick because my spouse works there, and I avoid in person meetings after 3:30 due to the commute (but am there and ready to go at 7 AM). Yes of course living where you work gives you a higher quality of life, but don't be judgy about people who don't, sometimes people can't find two jobs in the exact same DMV neighborhood or suburb, ESPECIALLY in academia where every search is national!

That said, if I could pick with a much higher budget than I currently have, I'd live in Hyattsville, University Park, or one of the SFHs in Greenbelt. But I can't afford it so Frederick it is!