Watching your friends relocate to the burbs for "schools"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paying for college is a real concern for us. Our oldest is in 5th grade - and we are in a good feeder school. But the reality of saving for and paying for college may drive us to move out of DC.

Are you familiar with the DC Tuition Assistance program? It is a reason many stay and/or move to DC to help pay for college.

It's not nearly as good a deal as paying instate public tuition in md or va though!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paying for college is a real concern for us. Our oldest is in 5th grade - and we are in a good feeder school. But the reality of saving for and paying for college may drive us to move out of DC.

Are you familiar with the DC Tuition Assistance program? It is a reason many stay and/or move to DC to help pay for college.

Yes - I am familiar with this.

Let's pretend my children decide that they are going to William and Mary. I have 3 children so 12 years of tuition.
The difference between In State and Out of State is ~ 20K. (Note - at UVA it is 30K). DC Tag right now covers $10K.

3 children and 4 years of college, it will cost me an additional $120K to live in DC vs moving to VA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paying for college is a real concern for us. Our oldest is in 5th grade - and we are in a good feeder school. But the reality of saving for and paying for college may drive us to move out of DC.

Are you familiar with the DC Tuition Assistance program? It is a reason many stay and/or move to DC to help pay for college.

It's not nearly as good a deal as paying instate public tuition in md or va though!

+1. TAG is a good program, but it doesn't beat instate tuition in a state with multiple good options for public college. You also can't apply it to private colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paying for college is a real concern for us. Our oldest is in 5th grade - and we are in a good feeder school. But the reality of saving for and paying for college may drive us to move out of DC.

Are you familiar with the DC Tuition Assistance program? It is a reason many stay and/or move to DC to help pay for college.

Yes - I am familiar with this.

Let's pretend my children decide that they are going to William and Mary. I have 3 children so 12 years of tuition.
The difference between In State and Out of State is ~ 20K. (Note - at UVA it is 30K). DC Tag right now covers $10K.

3 children and 4 years of college, it will cost me an additional $120K to live in DC vs moving to VA.

Suppose they want to go to UC-Berkeley or Penn State?

[Anonymous]

There are a lot of insufferable people on this thread, but even as a life-long suburbanite, I feel bad for OP's kid whose closest friends keep moving away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paying for college is a real concern for us. Our oldest is in 5th grade - and we are in a good feeder school. But the reality of saving for and paying for college may drive us to move out of DC.

Are you familiar with the DC Tuition Assistance program? It is a reason many stay and/or move to DC to help pay for college.

Yes - I am familiar with this.

Let's pretend my children decide that they are going to William and Mary. I have 3 children so 12 years of tuition.
The difference between In State and Out of State is ~ 20K. (Note - at UVA it is 30K). DC Tag right now covers $10K.

3 children and 4 years of college, it will cost me an additional $120K to live in DC vs moving to VA.

Suppose they want to go to UC-Berkeley or Penn State?

Berkeley is close to impossible to get in.

Why would one go to Penn State instead of one of the best VA or MD schools?

[Anonymous]

I'm still "cool" in Shaw, and pregnant with my first. I get shit all the time for being pregnant and selling out and resigning myself to a life of not going out all the time any more and just general judgement.

But you know what? Now I also have some new friends who are new parents who are really excited for me. Bc what are my options? Hanging with people who truly pity me that I can't have five drinks on a Tuesday? Or figuring it out?

This wave of judgement from others is a daily hangover during any life transition. I'm living it and it really hurts, but big picture? Who cares.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paying for college is a real concern for us. Our oldest is in 5th grade - and we are in a good feeder school. But the reality of saving for and paying for college may drive us to move out of DC.

Are you familiar with the DC Tuition Assistance program? It is a reason many stay and/or move to DC to help pay for college.

Yes - I am familiar with this.

Let's pretend my children decide that they are going to William and Mary. I have 3 children so 12 years of tuition.
The difference between In State and Out of State is ~ 20K. (Note - at UVA it is 30K). DC Tag right now covers $10K.

3 children and 4 years of college, it will cost me an additional $120K to live in DC vs moving to VA.

Suppose they want to go to UC-Berkeley or Penn State?

Berkeley is close to impossible to get in.

Why would one go to Penn State instead of one of the best VA or MD schools?

People who move to NoVa thinking they bought a ticket to a UVa or W&M bargain are going to be sorely disappointed; admission to those schools for NoVa students is unbelievably difficult now.

UVa, for example, takes a third of its students from out of state (UC schools take something like 5% out of staters), and it has to have geographic diversity from within Virginia. Relatively few kids from any given NoVa HS are going to get in, and considering NoVa's explosive growth the competition is fierce. Same for W&M...but it's much smaller than UVa.

There are lots of other good schools in Virginia, and sending kids there at in-state rates is a bargain. But don't move to Arlington there thinking you've eased your kid's path to UVa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paying for college is a real concern for us. Our oldest is in 5th grade - and we are in a good feeder school. But the reality of saving for and paying for college may drive us to move out of DC.

Are you familiar with the DC Tuition Assistance program? It is a reason many stay and/or move to DC to help pay for college.

Yes - I am familiar with this.

Let's pretend my children decide that they are going to William and Mary. I have 3 children so 12 years of tuition.
The difference between In State and Out of State is ~ 20K. (Note - at UVA it is 30K). DC Tag right now covers $10K.

3 children and 4 years of college, it will cost me an additional $120K to live in DC vs moving to VA.

Suppose they want to go to UC-Berkeley or Penn State?

Berkeley is close to impossible to get in.

Why would one go to Penn State instead of one of the best VA or MD schools?

People who move to NoVa thinking they bought a ticket to a UVa or W&M bargain are going to be sorely disappointed; admission to those schools for NoVa students is unbelievably difficult now.

UVa, for example, takes a third of its students from out of state (UC schools take something like 5% out of staters), and it has to have geographic diversity from within Virginia. Relatively few kids from any given NoVa HS are going to get in, and considering NoVa's explosive growth the competition is fierce. Same for W&M...but it's much smaller than UVa.

There are lots of other good schools in Virginia, and sending kids there at in-state rates is a bargain. But don't move to Arlington there thinking you've eased your kid's path to UVa.

Admission to ANY decent college is incredibly difficult now. UVa and W&M are not unique in that regard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paying for college is a real concern for us. Our oldest is in 5th grade - and we are in a good feeder school. But the reality of saving for and paying for college may drive us to move out of DC.

Are you familiar with the DC Tuition Assistance program? It is a reason many stay and/or move to DC to help pay for college.

Yes - I am familiar with this.

Let's pretend my children decide that they are going to William and Mary. I have 3 children so 12 years of tuition.
The difference between In State and Out of State is ~ 20K. (Note - at UVA it is 30K). DC Tag right now covers $10K.

3 children and 4 years of college, it will cost me an additional $120K to live in DC vs moving to VA.

Suppose they want to go to UC-Berkeley or Penn State?

Berkeley is close to impossible to get in.

Why would one go to Penn State instead of one of the best VA or MD schools?

People who move to NoVa thinking they bought a ticket to a UVa or W&M bargain are going to be sorely disappointed; admission to those schools for NoVa students is unbelievably difficult now.

UVa, for example, takes a third of its students from out of state (UC schools take something like 5% out of staters), and it has to have geographic diversity from within Virginia. Relatively few kids from any given NoVa HS are going to get in, and considering NoVa's explosive growth the competition is fierce. Same for W&M...but it's much smaller than UVa.

There are lots of other good schools in Virginia, and sending kids there at in-state rates is a bargain. But don't move to Arlington there thinking you've eased your kid's path to UVa.

Admission to ANY decent college is incredibly difficult now. UVa and W&M are not unique in that regard.

That's true. But in the olden days (when I went to UVa), it was easier to get in from in-state than out-of-state (even if NoVa was still harder than other parts of the state). Today, it's harder to get in from NoVa than pretty much anywhere else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm still "cool" in Shaw, and pregnant with my first. I get shit all the time for being pregnant and selling out and resigning myself to a life of not going out all the time any more and just general judgement.

But you know what? Now I also have some new friends who are new parents who are really excited for me. Bc what are my options? Hanging with people who truly pity me that I can't have five drinks on a Tuesday? Or figuring it out?

This wave of judgement from others is a daily hangover during any life transition. I'm living it and it really hurts, but big picture? Who cares.

SO MUCH THIS! Completely agree and glad you're not letting people like that ruin this life transition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hoping at least a significant percent of the kids in our elementary will stay together for Hardy... the trends are looking good. If not, we're MoCo bound in 4th.

You aren't going to know if your cohort is going to stick together until 5th. I may be reading too much into a short post, but it sounds like you already have one foot out the door - so if you are any indication of the rest of your cohort, the answer is no, you are not going to stick together.

The trends are that more kids are staying for Hardy from the feeders -- if that continues, we'll definitely be staying! It won't be a full cohort but half to a majority fraction of it would be enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm still "cool" in Shaw, and pregnant with my first. I get shit all the time for being pregnant and selling out and resigning myself to a life of not going out all the time any more and just general judgement.

But you know what? Now I also have some new friends who are new parents who are really excited for me. Bc what are my options? Hanging with people who truly pity me that I can't have five drinks on a Tuesday? Or figuring it out?

This wave of judgement from others is a daily hangover during any life transition. I'm living it and it really hurts, but big picture? Who cares.

SO MUCH THIS! Completely agree and glad you're not letting people like that ruin this life transition.

how old are you, 22? I have a very hard time believing anyone actually cares that much that you are pregnant. more likely you are projecting your own insecurities. also you will likely decamp for MoCo the second your kid does not get a PK3 spot at CMI.

[Anonymous]

Op - understanding the power of trends, not necessarily going along but coming to terms with the ramifications is one of the life's hardest lessons. This will repeat through your life in different ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm still "cool" in Shaw, and pregnant with my first. I get shit all the time for being pregnant and selling out and resigning myself to a life of not going out all the time any more and just general judgement.

But you know what? Now I also have some new friends who are new parents who are really excited for me. Bc what are my options? Hanging with people who truly pity me that I can't have five drinks on a Tuesday? Or figuring it out?

This wave of judgement from others is a daily hangover during any life transition. I'm living it and it really hurts, but big picture? Who cares.

SO MUCH THIS! Completely agree and glad you're not letting people like that ruin this life transition.

how old are you, 22? I have a very hard time believing anyone actually cares that much that you are pregnant. more likely you are projecting your own insecurities. also you will likely decamp for MoCo the second your kid does not get a PK3 spot at CMI.

Eh, we are in Shaw (8+ years, now) with two kids in elementary school. They are happily settled at a charter. We will reevaluate if and when we think school isn't going well or if we grow out of our rowhouse (seems unlikely). Until then, living the urban dream.