Trying to decide which school district to buy home in (i.e. our first, but forever home)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems like your child would be academically advanced (your profile makes me believe that) and magnet school is no gurantee. MoCo is in the decline path for advanced learners in general public school. If the path is not reversed, in 10 years things would be pretty bad.

WTH?

Do not take offense, but see what the OP wrote. I have highlighted the portion of the parent's profile (that I mentioned) which contributes to academic success of students in school. Most people get it wrong, when they think profile is tied to something other than parents availability and comittment.

My husband and I have a 9 mos old and planning to expand our family.

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What we are looking for is a top notch school, very strong focus on academics, but diverse as well. I had bad experiences being bullied as I am South asian and attended a very non-diverse high school and do not want my daughter to face what I did. Both of us are in science-related fields, but we want her to choose any field she wishes, but be the best in that field (as I'm sure most parents do). We don't know how our daughter will be academically, so I want a school that will motivate her to excel, but if she has struggles, will be willing to help her out and work with her (this goes for es, middle and high schools). I do not want her to go to a school where if she does struggles, she will be ignored or bullied.

No offense taken. My "WTH" comment was based on your (huge) supposition about OP's child, based on nothing. I see nothing in anything she wrote, or in what you highlighted, that suggests that her child would be academically advanced - nothing at all.

Ok, so she is looking for a top school (who isn't?), she and her DH work in science-related fields (professionals, including in the sciences, are a dime a dozen in this area), she wants her child to excel (don't we all?). None of that suggests that her child is "academically advanced." Nothing.

We only know a little about OP herself, and what she wants for her child.

[Anonymous]

^^^PP here. Also, her child is nine months old. Nine months.

How could anyone, including OP herself, know whether her infant is "academically advanced"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^PP here. Also, her child is nine months old. Nine months.

How could anyone, including OP herself, know whether her infant is "academically advanced"?

I am not the PP, but lets get back to topic.
Where would you buy a home? Is the MCPS the right school district for someone looking to buy a new home?

[Anonymous]

OP, you can find people who love their MCPS schools and others who detest MCPS. I tend to think the balance favors the fans, and house prices here would support that, but that doesn't mean it is automatically the best choice for you. I've asked on these boards about comparing MCPS with VA schools - say Fairfax or Arlington. The top rungs of each seem to be reasonably equivalent (and they all seem to have the same problems, overcrowded classrooms) but ultimately no assessment is totally objective and few of us if any have direct experience in both systems. In buying a house you need to weigh other factors as well - commute, family, neighborhood, etc. You can get a great school in either MD or VA (one caveat, TJ may be almost unique, but the Montgomery Blair magnet has a great rep too. In any case, don't buy solely for a magnet possibility since there is no guarantee your child will get in)

[Anonymous]

Fwiw, most people move after 5-7 years, statistically. I would take the pressure off to find your forever home. Choose a home you can afford with a good elementary school and diversity.

[Anonymous]

We moved here a few years ago from out of state and are in the Churchill cluster. Elementary is Wayside and middle school is Hoover. Wayside is a very desirable elementary in Potomac (we did not know that) and there are some more affordable neighborhoods that feed into it (of course, it is all relative -- the houses are still pretty pricey). The school has families from all backgrounds and is very diverse.

[Anonymous]

PP - We moved to MoCo and deeply regret it. With the exception of the most expensive areas (Potomac, Bethesda, and Chevy Chase) the schools are mediocre and I they don't live up to the hype. We are having to scramble to get our kids into special programs to ensure they don't have to go to mediocre ES any longer than they have to. Yes, if you have 700K or more to plunk down on your house then you should be fine. The rest of us our screwed, however.

If I could do it all again, we would have moved to Fairfax County. I'm a die hard Marylander, so it takes a lot for me to say that. Not only do I think we'd have gotten a better value for our property taxes in terms of local schools, the quality of their state colleges and universities is WAY better than anything Maryland has to offer.

[Anonymous]

Don't assume schools in Chevy Chase, etc., are not mediocre. In our experience, they teach to the test and do nothing to teach critical thinking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fwiw, most people move after 5-7 years, statistically. I would take the pressure off to find your forever home. Choose a home you can afford with a good elementary school and diversity.

If you can plan ahead, why not? Moving schools is hard on a kid.

[Anonymous]

if you are lib you will be happier in maryland over virginia

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello everyone!
My husband and I have a 9 mos old and planning to expand our family. Having recently moved to the Maryland area, we are now looking at homes in the Rockville/Potomac/Bethesda area to settle down in. Many of these homes are a bit out of our price range, but since interest rates are at an all time low and homes in these areas are a bit cheaper than they have been, we would like to go ahead and purchase a home that we plan on staying in until our child graduates high school or possibly for the rest of our lives.

Since a lot of these homes are out of our price range, we would need to work extra, borrow from relatives etc. but feel it may be worth it in the long run, as interest rates and homes prices will most likely go up in the next 10 yrs or so, which would bring us to the same situation we are in now anyway.

What we are looking for is a top notch school, very strong focus on academics, but diverse as well. I had bad experiences being bullied as I am South asian and attended a very non-diverse high school and do not want my daughter to face what I did. Both of us are in science-related fields, but we want her to choose any field she wishes, but be the best in that field (as I'm sure most parents do). We don't know how our daughter will be academically, so I want a school that will motivate her to excel, but if she has struggles, will be willing to help her out and work with her (this goes for es, middle and high schools). I do not want her to go to a school where if she does struggles, she will be ignored or bullied.

So the following are my questions:
1) Which school district is the best for what we are looking for? Wooten, Winston Churchhill, Walter Johnson or Walt Whitman?
2)Do you think these school districts will change much in terms of rankings (as some school districts in Columbia, etc have) in the next 10 yrs or so?If so, it may not be worth it to purchase a home right now
3) Is it true that students graduating from these 4 schools have less of a chance getting into top notch/Ivy-league schools than schools that are ranked lower?
4)How does richard montomery compare to the above schools? we have found homes in that area to be a bit more affordable.

Any advice/feedback would be appreciated re: these schools and buyinhg homes in this area as we would like as much info as possible before making this huge financial decision for our family.Thank you all in advance!

we went through the same decision a couple of years ago - and have a similar profile. Bottom line - if you don't want or can't afford housing in the w-schools in mcps or think mcps is going downhill for GT students, you could go to fpcs - they still have a gt track from grades 3-8 and then in high school your child could choose all the hard courses with the smarter kids. In fcps, since there is a slicing off from grades 3-8 in every pyramid, you don't have to worry tremendously to pick the districts with the most expensive land or houses. From the south asian / diversity point of view, if you want the best pyramid with a lot of indian kids, pick any elementary school that feeds into rachel carson middle school in oak hill, va - zip code 20171 - and you will be in the majority of the population and have a very solid set of peers with competative tj admissions. the other top schools that send kids to tj as a proxy for excellent academics are longfellow in mcclean, (+ kilmer in vienna, rock run in chantilly) - any of those pyramids will get you there.

it's quite a simple decision once you expand the decision to include fcps

[Anonymous]

your kid is 9 mos and you are asking about being admitted to an ivy? wow

[Anonymous]

Both of us are in science-related fields,

I wasn't the PP who assumed the OP's child would be academically advanced but I agree with the assumption. Most people in scientific fields have academically advanced kids with high IQs. Science and math are not strongly promoted in US education from elementary school though college. No one majors in math or science for the fun of it. The students who choose these areas are more gifted in these subjects. Everyone else ends up in business, marketing, English, communications etc and onto law if they are smart but not particularly great at anything else

The OP didn't specify whether she was 1st, 2nd or 3rd generation South Asian/American just alluded that she went to a US school with no diversity. 1st and 2 nd generation parents tend (statistically) to follow more cultural norms of emphasizing hard work, academic rigor, and prep/assist/sometimes push their kids academically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if you are lib you will be happier in maryland over virginia

Northern Virginia is pretty liberal these days - especially Fairfax County and Arlington. Not to the same degree as MD, but NoVa is not the same as the rest of Virginia.

[Anonymous]

How much juggling and stress MCPS parents have to go through to provide for their kids appropriate education! Would not it be nice if the required GT services were available in the home school?

Plan to show up at the GT forum on March 22 at Magruder HS. See thread http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/221871.page for details.

Post your comments and questions at GTA site http://www.gtamc.org/2012-gt-forum before hand.