Moving from Australia to DC ... Guidance please

[Anonymous]

We will be paid a good accomodation allowance. My children will be aged 5, 11 and 13. I have read much of this forum and am most concerned about the public school system for the 13 year old.

Is a 13 yo high school (born 1998)?

I gather the location of our home is paramount in order to attend better schools.

Can anyone advise where I should commence looking for rental properties?

[Anonymous]

*If* my math is right, a child born jan. - aug. of 1998 will usually enter 8th grade this fall, while a child born sept,-Dec. of 1998 will usually enter 7th grade (plus I'm not sure if all jurisdiction use Sept 1 as the cut off still, or if some use later dates).

Generally 6th, 7th and 8th grade are what we call "middle school" and 9th-12th grades are high school.

A lot can depend on commute patterns-- you want to live somewhere that's it's not awful to get to and from work, so if you give us a sense of where work is that might help.

Generally I like the Bethesda area, which is in MD just over the line from DC, but there are plenty of nice places to live with good schools.

[Anonymous]

Welcome! I'm from Australia too! Your choices for school are either to stay in DC and do private school or live a little further out in MD or VA.

We've had a couple of rental properties here - one we got from Craigslist. Another from a work bulletin board (does your work in DC have something like that?).

Good luck with the move.

[Anonymous]

My husband will be working in Washington DC. However, when we visited DC last year we found the metro quite efficient, granted we didn't try peak hour.

My son is born in 1998 December. we will be commencing our posting in 2012, however I am trying to get a feel for what we are in for. We still have to wear our private school fees whilst we are working in the US, ouch!

It appears that my eldest will be in middle school which is comforting based on what I've read about the high school situation. we do not get an allowance for schooling, so will have to opt into the public system. If all goes pear shaped, I will engage a maths and english tutor for the eldest two and hope for the best!

Our post is less than 12 months.

we are excited, our eldest children however...hmmm.

[Anonymous]

Do not get too worked up about all the blather on this site about "the best" schools and "bad schools."

First decide which region you are looking at living in based on cost and commute. Once you have selected DC, VA, or MD, and identified whether you are looking at public or private schools, then the people on this board can give you advice. But, rest assured that you CAN find good neighborhoods and good schools in all three areas.

You will get lots of advice that the only schools worth considering are in the traditionally respected neighborhoods (i.e. Bethesda/Potomac in Md., McLean/North Arlington in Va.). There are LOTS of other options. Don't buy into the hype that your child will suffer if they go to a middle of the road school.

[Anonymous]

My children both achieve good results, I guess I'm more concerned about the social aspects. Given they will stand out with Aussie accents, I know there are no guarantees in that respect. I've been looking at rentals in the Chevy House area and notice that mostly apartments are available. they seem quite small, we're used to living in a largish home with a big back yard.

The only reason I started looking there is because we shopped in the area when we visited.

[Anonymous]

The Aussie PP here. If you want to stay pretty close in to DC and be close to a metro stop, you'll probably like the Tenleytown/AU Park area.

Saying that, getting a decent home to rent around here is quite hard - well, hit or miss. Keep looking, though, and you'll find something.

[Anonymous]

Don't worry too much about your children standing out with Aussie accents. Can't speak for MD, but the schools in North Arlington and McLean commonly have kids who have lived all over the world. The schools are very good, and it's a quick/easy commute into DC. If you're looking at places that are metro accessible, that's more easily done from Arlington than McLean.

The board tends to skew slightly MD (more posters I think). Bethesda/Potoma in MD roughly equals No. Arlington/McLean in VA. Base it on your commute and then the feel you want for an area. You really can't go wrong with any of those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My children both achieve good results, I guess I'm more concerned about the social aspects. Given they will stand out with Aussie accents, I know there are no guarantees in that respect. I've been looking at rentals in the Chevy House area and notice that mostly apartments are available. they seem quite small, we're used to living in a largish home with a big back yard.

The only reason I started looking there is because we shopped in the area when we visited.

If you liked that, try north Arlington. Similar in terms of shopping, plenty of parks, good schools and rental houses. Bigger yards are in North Arlington area and into McLean.

And of course much farther out, but the commute is bad.

[Anonymous]

I like your vocabulary and use of colloquialisms. I wish you were going to be my neighbor.

[Anonymous]

Bethesda/Chevy Chase/NW DC is lousy with antipodeans in general, and Australians in particular.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bethesda/Chevy Chase/NW DC is lousy with antipodeans in general, and Australians in particular.

Eh?

[Anonymous]

Virginia close in tends to have more folks with military focus as the Pentagon is there as are the many major corporations that service the military MD close in on the N and NW side tends to have more National Institutes of Health focus. Republicans tend to pick Virginia, Democrats tend to pick DC or Maryland to the N and NW. Many houses in all locations are rented out by other families who go overseas for their own postings. There is a list of houses available that is kept by the US State Department for example. If you know anyone who works there, they can get info for you. There are probably a number of other listserv type boards that are more focused on the international community. Ideas folks?

[Anonymous]

I find it interesting that political preference has influence on place of residence. I'm not aware of any of my friends or most of my families political views. I guess I need to brush up on US politics, the two majors here are so similar now it's hard to differentiate between them.

I've continued to look at rental properties and believe the apartments are too small for a family of 5.

[Anonymous]

Not sure where you are moving from in Oz but I was quite shocked by how high the rents are (and I moved from London!). If it is any help, as an indication, we are renting a nice (but not huge) 3 bedroom home in Bethesda East for $3000 per month. It takes less than 10 mins to walk to the metro and the Crescent Trail is only 100m away (my husband LOVES the cycle commute into DC).

One factor you might need to consider at some stage relates to schooling and whether your children may need additional tutoring if they are to maintain their current level in some subjects especially since they will reintegrate into the Australian system after a year. I understand that the Australian and NZ schooling systems may be more advanced in some subjects at the same grade level. This is only based on a few conversations so may not be correct.