Would you move for Deal and J-R?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids like yours do well at Deal and JR, as do some special needs kids (depends on the exact flavor of special needs).

Think about how many cars you own or want to own. In our walkable NWDC neighborhood, many families with 2-4 drivers (including teens) have 0-1 cars. Not all DC neighborhoods are that walkable, and some suburban neighborhoods are somewhat walkable.

Think about colleges. UMD and UVA/VT are better than UDC, and cheaper if you’re in-state, but if the kids want to go anywhere else, you’re probably better off (or at least no worse off) applying from DC.

Think about school culture. Deal and JR are definitely not the “pressure cooker” type school you can find in the suburbs. If you want that type of school, don’t move here. If you don’t want it, Deal/JR can be a good option.

This is good advice that I can second. NWDC schools are not very good, but they are "fine." You have to decide if that's ok for your kids. (We did, and I do have some regrets...) I would also seriously think about moving to MD or VA for in-state school options. I wish my husband had agreed to look outside of DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's hard to say. Basically most of the JR and Deal neighborhoods are as suburban as the close in VA and MD suburbs and lack any real urban flavor anyway, and the suburban schools are generally better, so if it were me I'd just leave the city. The one exception I can think of is Mt Pleasant.

My impression is that most people who move to Ward 3 for schools, especially by elementary, don't really see city amenities, transit, or walkability as priorities.

But I'd love to hear from people who do care about those things and moved to Ward 3 for schools: what sold you on Ward 3 over any of the MD and VA suburbs?

We certainly saw all of those things as priorities and chose a neighborhood in upper NW that offered that and good schools (Conn Ave. corridor near Van Ness metro). We have bus and Metro, can walk to schools, stores, etc. We like living in DC; we never considered VA or MD.

We visited some friends in Van Ness this week and my early elementary schooler described it as "the town" because it's so much quieter and less dense than what he's used to.

It seems like there are several Metro-accessible neighborhoods in MD and VA with urbanism on par with Cleveland Park/Van Ness/Tenleytown, but maybe I'm missing something?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No I would move to VA in a good pyramid and then get the state school option too over Deal and JR.

I sent my JR kid to Virginia alone. He is working on getting in state for GM transferring from Nova. He got 30 credits transferred from JR. Paying out of state for Nova is not bad at all for one year.
He got his DL, his car, his health insurance, voting, and work all in Virginia separate from parents in DC.

Doubt it’s gonna work. But good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids like yours do well at Deal and JR, as do some special needs kids (depends on the exact flavor of special needs).

Think about how many cars you own or want to own. In our walkable NWDC neighborhood, many families with 2-4 drivers (including teens) have 0-1 cars. Not all DC neighborhoods are that walkable, and some suburban neighborhoods are somewhat walkable.

Think about colleges. UMD and UVA/VT are better than UDC, and cheaper if you’re in-state, but if the kids want to go anywhere else, you’re probably better off (or at least no worse off) applying from DC.

Think about school culture. Deal and JR are definitely not the “pressure cooker” type school you can find in the suburbs. If you want that type of school, don’t move here. If you don’t want it, Deal/JR can be a good option.

This is good advice that I can second. NWDC schools are not very good, but they are "fine." You have to decide if that's ok for your kids. (We did, and I do have some regrets...) I would also seriously think about moving to MD or VA for in-state school options. I wish my husband had agreed to look outside of DC.

What are your regrets?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No I would move to VA in a good pyramid and then get the state school option too over Deal and JR.

I sent my JR kid to Virginia alone. He is working on getting in state for GM transferring from Nova. He got 30 credits transferred from JR. Paying out of state for Nova is not bad at all for one year.
He got his DL, his car, his health insurance, voting, and work all in Virginia separate from parents in DC.

Doubt it’s gonna work. But good luck.

Side note, figure out how PhD students get in state tuition. They are (or were) required to set it up for their second year (its all funny money anyway because they usually have tuition paid for and a stipend, but it does help with departmental accounting).

[Anonymous]

We moved back to DC two+ years ago after being in the west coast. We wanted to be close in and looked at Arlington and Bethesda but many good elementary didn’t feed to good middle or HS or vice versa. We are in ward 3. My 6th grader is at Deal now after two years at our in bounds elementary which they found more rigorous than our private school on the west coast. So far so good at Deal. We may not do JR but my kids love being able to walk to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We moved back to DC two+ years ago after being in the west coast. We wanted to be close in and looked at Arlington and Bethesda but many good elementary didn’t feed to good middle or HS or vice versa. We are in ward 3. My 6th grader is at Deal now after two years at our in bounds elementary which they found more rigorous than our private school on the west coast. So far so good at Deal. We may not do JR but my kids love being able to walk to school.

Your kids must have attended one lousy private school on the west coast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids like yours do well at Deal and JR, as do some special needs kids (depends on the exact flavor of special needs).

Think about how many cars you own or want to own. In our walkable NWDC neighborhood, many families with 2-4 drivers (including teens) have 0-1 cars. Not all DC neighborhoods are that walkable, and some suburban neighborhoods are somewhat walkable.

Think about colleges. UMD and UVA/VT are better than UDC, and cheaper if you’re in-state, but if the kids want to go anywhere else, you’re probably better off (or at least no worse off) applying from DC.

Think about school culture. Deal and JR are definitely not the “pressure cooker” type school you can find in the suburbs. If you want that type of school, don’t move here. If you don’t want it, Deal/JR can be a good option.

This is good advice that I can second. NWDC schools are not very good, but they are "fine." You have to decide if that's ok for your kids. (We did, and I do have some regrets...) I would also seriously think about moving to MD or VA for in-state school options. I wish my husband had agreed to look outside of DC.

Our friends who send their kids to public schools in close-in DC suburbs describe many of the same issues facing Deal/JR. Oftentimes the issues sound worse.

[Anonymous]

I would take the Kalorama Triangle portion of Adams Morgan (OA) or neighborhoods along CT or Wisconsin Ave that feed to Deal over Mt Pleasant. I have never understood all the Mt Pleasant praise. Geographically it feels like an isolated little island with a tiny main drag penned in by chaotic Columbia Heights. Of course, it is nice to be right on the park but to me that seems to be the sole benefit. Parts of it are quite far from metro, etc.

[Anonymous]

It seems like the main benefit of Mt Pleasant is getting to feel morally superior for living EOTP but still feeding to Deal. But again, even within that framework, I’d much rather live in Adams Morgan than Mt Pleasant!

[Anonymous]

***Kalorama Triangle Adams Morgan feeds to OA for middle, not Deal, but still feeds to J-R

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's hard to say. Basically most of the JR and Deal neighborhoods are as suburban as the close in VA and MD suburbs and lack any real urban flavor anyway, and the suburban schools are generally better, so if it were me I'd just leave the city. The one exception I can think of is Mt Pleasant.

My impression is that most people who move to Ward 3 for schools, especially by elementary, don't really see city amenities, transit, or walkability as priorities.

But I'd love to hear from people who do care about those things and moved to Ward 3 for schools: what sold you on Ward 3 over any of the MD and VA suburbs?

We certainly saw all of those things as priorities and chose a neighborhood in upper NW that offered that and good schools (Conn Ave. corridor near Van Ness metro). We have bus and Metro, can walk to schools, stores, etc. We like living in DC; we never considered VA or MD.

We visited some friends in Van Ness this week and my early elementary schooler described it as "the town" because it's so much quieter and less dense than what he's used to.

It seems like there are several Metro-accessible neighborhoods in MD and VA with urbanism on par with Cleveland Park/Van Ness/Tenleytown, but maybe I'm missing something?

Yes, it is less dense than some neighborhoods, more dense than others. DC has lots of different neighborhoods and experiences. You seem to want me to explain why it’s “better” than MD or VA, but all I can say is that we didn’t want to live in MD or VA. We wanted to live in DC and found a neighborhood that meets all of our needs, including schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems like the main benefit of Mt Pleasant is getting to feel morally superior for living EOTP but still feeding to Deal. But again, even within that framework, I’d much rather live in Adams Morgan than Mt Pleasant!

The rowhouses there are really, really large and in mostly good shape. I get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No I would move to VA in a good pyramid and then get the state school option too over Deal and JR.

Same. I have a couple friends who moved IB for Deal-JR in the upper ES grades only to move again to MoCo for BCC. They complained about lack of MS challenge and chaos and lack of transparency at Deal, particularly in the grading of assignments. Later on, they reported that the Bethesda middle schools their kids attended by 8th grade were much better run, no comparison. My Arlington friends seem fairly happy with 7th and 8th grade middle school "intensified" (honors) classes in English, science and social studies at all public middle schools, with super accelerated math options. DCPS doesn't have that system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No I would move to VA in a good pyramid and then get the state school option too over Deal and JR.

same, and I live IB for Deal/J-R.