Mont Co Schools vs Fairfax Co Schools- opinions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How would you define a "Maryland person" VS a "Virgina person"?

Marylanders are more liberal, Virginians more conservative. But I liked the true diversity of Northern Virginia better than the clumpy diversity of Montgomery County.

Marylanders aren't too fond of all those bridges. ALL those bridges!

[Anonymous]

FYI, the agony here is not in choosing an excellent school district, or an affordable home, or a walkable, enjoyable urban lifestyle. It's finding a realistic combination of 2 out of 3.

Welcome to Washington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Realistically, there are two or even three Montgomery Counties, and it's best to decide which one interests you.

Close-in Western Montgomery County (Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomac) is as good a school system as you'll find anywhere.
Close-in Eastern Montgomery County (Lower silver spring) has spotty elementary schools, moderate middle schools, and the school-within-a-school at Blair. Magnet is great, high school is okay.
Northern Montgomery County (Rockville, Gaithersburg) is a very strong system, though so inconvenient to DC that it's not the place to be unless your jobs are in the suburbs or you want to spend all of your time in the car.

For the NOVA poster who went to Duke: yes, the NOVA schools are good, but Duke is a southern school and it makes sense that Virginia would be well represented there. I went to Brown (in Rhode Island) in the 90s and it felt like 1/2 of my class went to Churchill (in MoCo).

Which brings up another question for OP: are you more of a "Maryland Person" or a "Virginia Person?" You can find a great education in either place, but they are different places, even though Nova is not the "real Virginia."

Gee, PP, thanks for making me feel good about where I live and teach.

[Anonymous]

I've looked at both Fairfax Co and MoCo and I guess it would come down to the better commute to your job and if you could afford to be in the cluster you want for the house in your price range. If you need more space, I think you would do better in Fairfax County. Like you mentioned, there is Burke, we were looking at the Woodson cluster (in Annandale) - there just seemed to be more in our price range, with more square footage in Fairfax County. However, one big concern was school boundaries. There was one area we were looking at in Fairfax County that could have gone to one of three H.S and of the three, only one had really good test scores, one was marginal, the other - very iffy. In one case, literally the houses on the other side of the street went to the other H.S. The house prices were pretty much the same (about $450,000 when we looked 4 years ago) no matter which cluster. Where we are in Montgomery County we are fairly certain the boundaries won't move on us and the elementary school and middle school are within walking distance. If for some strange reason they closed a school - the other options nearby are equally as good. So back to why we moved to MD when we could have had more space in Fairfax County for the same money - DH is a MD person. Both of us are from other places - but he went to college in MD and liked it better than VA. We were also nervous about the boundaries where we were looking in VA. We felt like you could throw a dart to figure out which school (and such differing quality) and these homes were close to $500,000 - not chump change in my world. Someone also mentioned the bridge thing. Don't laugh. After literally having one way into D.C and one way out for so many years in VA (the 14th street bridge) - it was so nice to have alternate routes into D.C. from MD. I've taken 16th street from my doctor's office in Silver Spring, I've taken CT Ave/Rock Creek Park, I've gotten real fancy and figured out the infamous Canal Road/Clara Barton that I heard so much about for years. Not to say I get anywhere any faster - but I feel like I have options.

I think with schools - both my DH and I have the same thought - it's easy to find schools to help the high achiever - you have GT, magnets, honors classes, IBs etc. You can also find schools that have the extra resources to help children that really need the extra reading help, ESL, disability, etc. Especially with no child left behind - the school has a vested interest in making sure all the groups make a passing grade on the test. It's finding a school that can really get the child somewhere in the middle to reach his/her potential that is the challenge. I don't know that I've found that her in MoCo or would find that in Fairfax. It's really going to come down to how motivated our child is and how motivated his/her teachers are to go the extra mile and we just don't have a crystal ball to know that.

[Anonymous]

I agree with pp : FF Co schools are consistently better. They are also much more diverse, truly diverse in a way that MoCo schools are not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How would you define a "Maryland person" VS a "Virgina person"?

Marylanders are more liberal, Virginians more conservative. But I liked the true diversity of Northern Virginia better than the clumpy diversity of Montgomery County.

Please elaborate. "Clumpy diversity" is new to me. Are you saying that NOVa is racially, socially, ethnically, religiously and economically diverse (unlike the rest of Va, which is conservative), whereas MoCo is segregated, ie. certain areas are mostly white and wealthy, and others are mosty poor and minority?? But MoCo people vote Democrat, and NoVa people vote Republican? Having trouble sorting it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Realistically, there are two or even three Montgomery Counties, and it's best to decide which one interests you.

Close-in Western Montgomery County (Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomac) is as good a school system as you'll find anywhere.
Close-in Eastern Montgomery County (Lower silver spring) has spotty elementary schools, moderate middle schools, and the school-within-a-school at Blair. Magnet is great, high school is okay.
Northern Montgomery County (Rockville, Gaithersburg) is a very strong system, though so inconvenient to DC that it's not the place to be unless your jobs are in the suburbs or you want to spend all of your time in the car.

For the NOVA poster who went to Duke: yes, the NOVA schools are good, but Duke is a southern school and it makes sense that Virginia would be well represented there. I went to Brown (in Rhode Island) in the 90s and it felt like 1/2 of my class went to Churchill (in MoCo).

Which brings up another question for OP: are you more of a "Maryland Person" or a "Virginia Person?" You can find a great education in either place, but they are different places, even though Nova is not the "real Virginia."

Gee, PP, thanks for making me feel good about where I live and teach.

I'm that PP. I live in Woodmoor. Love the community, love the people, love my adorable house and garden, but no I don't think that the schools compare to Bethesda, Chevy Chase, or the best of Fairfax. I don't think that any of my neigbhors think that our middle school compares to what kids in Bethesda or Potomac get. That doesn't mean that they're bad, but the poster wanted to know which are best, and although this part of Silver Spring is a great place with adequate schools, I don't have any illusions that I'm getting what those neigbhorhoods are getting. Then again, you can get a home there for $425k and live very happily with a reasonable mortgage, where a Bethesda house would cost twice as much.

[Anonymous]

We decided on the City of Falls Church Public schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the NOVA poster who went to Duke: yes, the NOVA schools are good, but Duke is a southern school and it makes sense that Virginia would be well represented there.

I am the Duke poster, and like I said, I am not from NoVa - I'm from Texas. (If it matters, I now live in the District and my DC does not go to public school.) Furthermore, I am not in real estate. I really have no dog in this fight.

Duke is a national school. We can debate the particulars of the U.S. News methodology, but not whether it's a regional vs. national school. Long Island and Greater New York were probably better represented than NoVa, but from there the competition was pretty hot with affluent suburbs of Chicago, Houston, areas of California and Florida, and of course New England, etc. There were well-educated students from all over the country and the world.

My observation was merely that of the DC area, at this particular competitive school, the students from private schools in DC and well-regarded public schools in Virginia tended to really shine. I know there were students from MoCo too. They merely weren't as numerous, or as visible as excellent students. My conclusion, based on my experience is that if you can stand out in the Fairfax and/or Arlington schools you can probably stand out among the brightest students in the country, if not the world.

Give me a break! My sister-in-law went to Duke from a public MoCo school, and she must have "shined" enough there to gain acceptance to both Duke and JHU's medical schools. What nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Your SIL is one person. Who got accepted to two graduate programs.

Just how, exactly, does that contradict the PP's observation?

[Anonymous]

My post was in response to Mr Duke and his rambling about Va kids being the ones who would stand out and get in. Surely you could follow that.

And hmmmm. It would be odd for her to be more than "one" person...but thank you for pointing that out with--bold type (just learn how to use the bold? Good job)

Pp, what did you really add of value?
Oh yeah, nothing.

[Anonymous]

I realize this simple concept is difficult for you to follow, so I'll clarify. Perhaps repetition will help.

Once more: the fact that your SIL (one person = one single data point) got accepted to a couple of graduate programs does not in ANY way contradict the observations made over a 4 year period. Among those observations was that in general NoVa students outshine Maryland ones.

In other words, for all you know for every ONE Marylander such as your sister, perhaps FIVE Virginians were accepted to programs of equal or greater competitiveness. Perhaps TEN. Perhaps ONE HUNDRED. We do not know. We simply don't have enough information. It is not part of the summary.

Do you get it now?

[Anonymous]

I graduated from Woodson after spending my first three hs years at a Montgomery County HS. My son currently attends Frost MS and will go to Woodson as well.

I think both school systems are excellent and you really cannot go wrong either way. My huge complaint about Fairfax County in general is that they teach to test. My son spends a ridiculous amount of time "prepping for" and learning the SOL materials. I feel like every few weeks they are going over SOL material and not working on actual class work or projects. Most of other parents in the neighborhood have that same complaint. It does hurt the child academically when they are constantly taking time out to review, study, memorize material that is known to be on a test. School funding money is tied to SOL scores and Fairfax Co Schools takes that very seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I realize this simple concept is difficult for you to follow, so I'll clarify. Perhaps repetition will help.

Once more: the fact that your SIL (one person = one single data point) got accepted to a couple of graduate programs does not in ANY way contradict the observations made over a 4 year period. Among those observations was that in general NoVa students outshine Maryland ones.

In other words, for all you know for every ONE Marylander such as your sister, perhaps FIVE Virginians were accepted to programs of equal or greater competitiveness. Perhaps TEN. Perhaps ONE HUNDRED. We do not know. We simply don't have enough information. It is not part of the summary.

Do you get it now?

Not. Difficult. To. Follow. At. All.

Perhaps... it's 1,000 Marylanders for each ONE Virginian. Go figure.
But, alas, we will never know.

p.s. It was SIL. Read much there in VA, smarty pants?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the NOVA poster who went to Duke: yes, the NOVA schools are good, but Duke is a southern school and it makes sense that Virginia would be well represented there.

I am the Duke poster, and like I said, I am not from NoVa - I'm from Texas. (If it matters, I now live in the District and my DC does not go to public school.) Furthermore, I am not in real estate. I really have no dog in this fight.

Duke is a national school. We can debate the particulars of the U.S. News methodology, but not whether it's a regional vs. national school. Long Island and Greater New York were probably better represented than NoVa, but from there the competition was pretty hot with affluent suburbs of Chicago, Houston, areas of California and Florida, and of course New England, etc. There were well-educated students from all over the country and the world.

My observation was merely that of the DC area, at this particular competitive school, the students from private schools in DC and well-regarded public schools in Virginia tended to really shine. I know there were students from MoCo too. They merely weren't as numerous, or as visible as excellent students. My conclusion, based on my experience is that if you can stand out in the Fairfax and/or Arlington schools you can probably stand out among the brightest students in the country, if not the world.

Give me a break! My sister-in-law went to Duke from a public MoCo school, and she must have "shined" enough there to gain acceptance to both Duke and JHU's medical schools. What nonsense.

New poster here--just have to point out that just because Duke is a national caliber school, does not mean that it attracts students from Maryland at the same rate it attracts students of the exact same caliber that reside in Virginia. Anyone who's lived in the metro area for 10+ years knows that maryland residents are more likely to consider themsevles "northerners" and virginia residents are more likely to identify with the south. This does not apply across the board of course. However, I'm pretty certain these preferences would impact college choices. I suspect that the top caliber Montgomery county students are much more likely to go to north for college (I can think of a few schools that might be as good as Duke).