Commuter nightmare- any options that you would consider?

[Anonymous]

The commute to MacArthur will be way too much. But if you're able to pay for multiple Lyfts a week, then ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw a post on the MacArthur thread that a student commutes from Anacostia, so I hope your daughter makes friends who also live by you all. It will make the commute better for her!

Let's not mistake that Hillcrest is a beautiful neighborhood!

DCUM is a strange place OP.

OP here! Thank you for this! It really is so strange… as a first time resident of DC and while I am familiar with many schools in dc becuase of friends or work affiliates I certainly wasn’t as prepared when I entered the lottery 8 months ago.

If you had posted for advice to DCUM 8 months ago, we would have helped you figure out something better. Now you’re in a literally impossible situation. The only solution is to switch your DD to Eastern and let her get there on her own and keep other DD in Stokes; or hope your younger DD gets into Stokes East End and you have the time to do both drop offs and work.

OP here… I applied to multiple schools for each of the children in close proximity to eachother… what better would have been figured out 8 months ago?
For my 10th grader who is currently waitlisted at Latin and truth… was ineligible for Banneker and Walls.
My youngest who is waitlisted at GDS, Hyde and several others what would you have suggested differently?

If you had asked here 8 months ago prior to the lottery *everyone* would have told you it was an astonishingly bad plan to depend on the lottery instead of IB choices. If you had asked prior to buying your home in Hillcrest we would have told you that unless you were willing to send kids IB it was a bad idea.

what we would have told you is, rent IB where you can send both your kids.

Got it… just wasn’t willing to spend upwards of 8500 on rent. My kids are accustomed to their own rooms and space and I wasn’t shifting on that. I can afford private transportation and based on some of the feedback I still have a few good options. I’m grateful for the folks who came and put their heads together on what makes sense for where I am now

Uber to MacArthur has got to be like $75 bucks/day so there goes an extra $1500/month. Maybe you could get her her drivers license and she drives herself.

also you could have rented a house zone for acceptable schools in Silver Spring or Arlington. But apparently it seems you just wanted to “buy a big house” so here you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw a post on the MacArthur thread that a student commutes from Anacostia, so I hope your daughter makes friends who also live by you all. It will make the commute better for her!

Let's not mistake that Hillcrest is a beautiful neighborhood!

DCUM is a strange place OP.

OP here! Thank you for this! It really is so strange… as a first time resident of DC and while I am familiar with many schools in dc becuase of friends or work affiliates I certainly wasn’t as prepared when I entered the lottery 8 months ago.

If you had posted for advice to DCUM 8 months ago, we would have helped you figure out something better. Now you’re in a literally impossible situation. The only solution is to switch your DD to Eastern and let her get there on her own and keep other DD in Stokes; or hope your younger DD gets into Stokes East End and you have the time to do both drop offs and work.

OP here… I applied to multiple schools for each of the children in close proximity to eachother… what better would have been figured out 8 months ago?
For my 10th grader who is currently waitlisted at Latin and truth… was ineligible for Banneker and Walls.
My youngest who is waitlisted at GDS, Hyde and several others what would you have suggested differently?

If you had asked here 8 months ago prior to the lottery *everyone* would have told you it was an astonishingly bad plan to depend on the lottery instead of IB choices. If you had asked prior to buying your home in Hillcrest we would have told you that unless you were willing to send kids IB it was a bad idea.

what we would have told you is, rent IB where you can send both your kids.

Got it… just wasn’t willing to spend upwards of 8500 on rent. My kids are accustomed to their own rooms and space and I wasn’t shifting on that. I can afford private transportation and based on some of the feedback I still have a few good options. I’m grateful for the folks who came and put their heads together on what makes sense for where I am now

Uber to MacArthur has got to be like $75 bucks/day so there goes an extra $1500/month. Maybe you could get her her drivers license and she drives herself.

also you could have rented a house zone for acceptable schools in Silver Spring or Arlington. But apparently it seems you just wanted to “buy a big house” so here you are.

This is also a good option. If you aren't committed to being in the DC border, there are places in the suburbs that are just as close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw a post on the MacArthur thread that a student commutes from Anacostia, so I hope your daughter makes friends who also live by you all. It will make the commute better for her!

Let's not mistake that Hillcrest is a beautiful neighborhood!

DCUM is a strange place OP.

OP here! Thank you for this! It really is so strange… as a first time resident of DC and while I am familiar with many schools in dc becuase of friends or work affiliates I certainly wasn’t as prepared when I entered the lottery 8 months ago.

If you had posted for advice to DCUM 8 months ago, we would have helped you figure out something better. Now you’re in a literally impossible situation. The only solution is to switch your DD to Eastern and let her get there on her own and keep other DD in Stokes; or hope your younger DD gets into Stokes East End and you have the time to do both drop offs and work.

OP here… I applied to multiple schools for each of the children in close proximity to eachother… what better would have been figured out 8 months ago?
For my 10th grader who is currently waitlisted at Latin and truth… was ineligible for Banneker and Walls.
My youngest who is waitlisted at GDS, Hyde and several others what would you have suggested differently?

If you had asked here 8 months ago prior to the lottery *everyone* would have told you it was an astonishingly bad plan to depend on the lottery instead of IB choices. If you had asked prior to buying your home in Hillcrest we would have told you that unless you were willing to send kids IB it was a bad idea.

what we would have told you is, rent IB where you can send both your kids.

Got it… just wasn’t willing to spend upwards of 8500 on rent. My kids are accustomed to their own rooms and space and I wasn’t shifting on that. I can afford private transportation and based on some of the feedback I still have a few good options. I’m grateful for the folks who came and put their heads together on what makes sense for where I am now

Uber to MacArthur has got to be like $75 bucks/day so there goes an extra $1500/month. Maybe you could get her her drivers license and she drives herself.

also you could have rented a house zone for acceptable schools in Silver Spring or Arlington. But apparently it seems you just wanted to “buy a big house” so here you are.

A big house wasn't a requirement, it's that I have multiple children with large age gaps and I was trying to be mindful of that. I have an older daughter with a lot of health concerns and so I needed to think about that as well.

I can't go into a ton of detail but we needed to be in DC for other reasons so that outskirts wasn't an option. We came from a great school district in MD, the 10th grader is actually super excited about driving...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw a post on the MacArthur thread that a student commutes from Anacostia, so I hope your daughter makes friends who also live by you all. It will make the commute better for her!

Let's not mistake that Hillcrest is a beautiful neighborhood!

DCUM is a strange place OP.

OP here! Thank you for this! It really is so strange… as a first time resident of DC and while I am familiar with many schools in dc becuase of friends or work affiliates I certainly wasn’t as prepared when I entered the lottery 8 months ago.

If you had posted for advice to DCUM 8 months ago, we would have helped you figure out something better. Now you’re in a literally impossible situation. The only solution is to switch your DD to Eastern and let her get there on her own and keep other DD in Stokes; or hope your younger DD gets into Stokes East End and you have the time to do both drop offs and work.

OP here… I applied to multiple schools for each of the children in close proximity to eachother… what better would have been figured out 8 months ago?
For my 10th grader who is currently waitlisted at Latin and truth… was ineligible for Banneker and Walls.
My youngest who is waitlisted at GDS, Hyde and several others what would you have suggested differently?

If you had asked here 8 months ago prior to the lottery *everyone* would have told you it was an astonishingly bad plan to depend on the lottery instead of IB choices. If you had asked prior to buying your home in Hillcrest we would have told you that unless you were willing to send kids IB it was a bad idea.

what we would have told you is, rent IB where you can send both your kids.

Got it… just wasn’t willing to spend upwards of 8500 on rent. My kids are accustomed to their own rooms and space and I wasn’t shifting on that. I can afford private transportation and based on some of the feedback I still have a few good options. I’m grateful for the folks who came and put their heads together on what makes sense for where I am now

Uber to MacArthur has got to be like $75 bucks/day so there goes an extra $1500/month. Maybe you could get her her drivers license and she drives herself.

also you could have rented a house zone for acceptable schools in Silver Spring or Arlington. But apparently it seems you just wanted to “buy a big house” so here you are.

A big house wasn't a requirement, it's that I have multiple children with large age gaps and I was trying to be mindful of that. I have an older daughter with a lot of health concerns and so I needed to think about that as well.

I can't go into a ton of detail but we needed to be in DC for other reasons so that outskirts wasn't an option. We came from a great school district in MD, the 10th grader is actually super excited about driving...

So you are self-employed yet had to be in DC proper? And made this decision on the Hillcrest house because you wanted your kids to have their own rooms and you also wanted rooms for kids who are over 18? I dunno lady. You chose to prioritize a lot of things over your minor children’s schools and the amount of time you spend commuting every day. So I guess you have to live with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw a post on the MacArthur thread that a student commutes from Anacostia, so I hope your daughter makes friends who also live by you all. It will make the commute better for her!

Let's not mistake that Hillcrest is a beautiful neighborhood!

DCUM is a strange place OP.

OP here! Thank you for this! It really is so strange… as a first time resident of DC and while I am familiar with many schools in dc becuase of friends or work affiliates I certainly wasn’t as prepared when I entered the lottery 8 months ago.

If you had posted for advice to DCUM 8 months ago, we would have helped you figure out something better. Now you’re in a literally impossible situation. The only solution is to switch your DD to Eastern and let her get there on her own and keep other DD in Stokes; or hope your younger DD gets into Stokes East End and you have the time to do both drop offs and work.

OP here… I applied to multiple schools for each of the children in close proximity to eachother… what better would have been figured out 8 months ago?
For my 10th grader who is currently waitlisted at Latin and truth… was ineligible for Banneker and Walls.
My youngest who is waitlisted at GDS, Hyde and several others what would you have suggested differently?

If you had asked here 8 months ago prior to the lottery *everyone* would have told you it was an astonishingly bad plan to depend on the lottery instead of IB choices. If you had asked prior to buying your home in Hillcrest we would have told you that unless you were willing to send kids IB it was a bad idea.

what we would have told you is, rent IB where you can send both your kids.

Got it… just wasn’t willing to spend upwards of 8500 on rent. My kids are accustomed to their own rooms and space and I wasn’t shifting on that. I can afford private transportation and based on some of the feedback I still have a few good options. I’m grateful for the folks who came and put their heads together on what makes sense for where I am now

Uber to MacArthur has got to be like $75 bucks/day so there goes an extra $1500/month. Maybe you could get her her drivers license and she drives herself.

also you could have rented a house zone for acceptable schools in Silver Spring or Arlington. But apparently it seems you just wanted to “buy a big house” so here you are.

A big house wasn't a requirement, it's that I have multiple children with large age gaps and I was trying to be mindful of that. I have an older daughter with a lot of health concerns and so I needed to think about that as well.

I can't go into a ton of detail but we needed to be in DC for other reasons so that outskirts wasn't an option. We came from a great school district in MD, the 10th grader is actually super excited about driving...

So you are self-employed yet had to be in DC proper? And made this decision on the Hillcrest house because you wanted your kids to have their own rooms and you also wanted rooms for kids who are over 18? I dunno lady. You chose to prioritize a lot of things over your minor children’s schools and the amount of time you spend commuting every day. So I guess you have to live with it.

Also you could have rented a 4 bedroom house zoned for Hill schools or even in Glover Park for between 4-5k. There are several listed on Zillow.

[Anonymous]

I would say MacArthur only works with driving or private transport. You will never see your child if they commute 3 hours a day. They will most likely be late to school often because buses and metro are unreliable. I have a friend who teaches at an application school and unfortunately the commute for some kids leads them to be 30-45 minutes late every day. That is a big deal in HS.

Also if your kid wants to go to a trade school and skip traditional college, save her thr commute and transfer to Eastern.

[Anonymous]

maybe add and map out John Francis, Ross, Oyster Adams (spanish immersion), Amidon, Van Ness, pretty much anything thats not in Brookland. you can maybr drop your daughter off at a location along the way where the bus becomes much more manageable.

[Anonymous]

Yikes this thread got really nasty. If this is how people "help" I hate to see how you treat enemies.

Lots of judging and really nasty tones. You don't have to respond.

[Anonymous]

I really think Eastern is a good option from what I’ve heard from friends with older kids! If your child does the IB program, that’s almost a school within a school, so don’t judge based on just stats/info about Eastern broadly.
Maybe at least call Eastern and ask about process for entering IB?

And everybody else can shut right up. There are reasons people need to be in DC! Her custody agreement might have changed and now requires it! Her child might need to be on a Medicaid waiver and DC is the best place for it! Or all manner of other reasons! You don’t know everything about a person from 3 paragraphs so maybe stop being know-it-alls, sheesh.

[Anonymous]

The negative responses here are way too much. Pipe down if you don’t have anything productive to say, people.

My one (productive) quibble with the above advice about Thomson is that the drive to MacArthur is easier on the highway than cutting across downtown. I would prioritize schools for your younger near the highway.

[Anonymous]

10th grader drives herself as soon as that becomes possible is a solid solution. The drive isnt too bad if its not round trip. Still move thr 4th grader closer if possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The negative responses here are way too much. Pipe down if you don’t have anything productive to say, people.

My one (productive) quibble with the above advice about Thomson is that the drive to MacArthur is easier on the highway than cutting across downtown. I would prioritize schools for your younger near the highway.

But what other schools near the highway have a viable middle school path (quality + commute) and a short waitlist? Maybe Watkins? If this were the initial lottery and not post-lottery adds I would say Hyde-Addison, Key, Stoddert, John Francis, Thomson, Watkins.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I think Watkins is the best bet to add.

[Anonymous]

Beers is on short waitlists. I think Beers and getting the oldest to a point where she can drive herself is the best solution.