Buying a House/Raising Kids/Education in DC vs. MD vs. VA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:We picked Maryland because you get better value for money for a home purchase and you get to live in pretty leafy historic neighborhoods

UMD is better than UVA if your kid wants to study STEM instead of becoming a lawyer or something

Sorry, but Va Tech is better.

But your kids have to live in the sticks, 4 hours away from DC, and go to school with the same kind of people who nominated Corey Stewart.

Except that the areas surrounding Blacksburg all voted for Clinton: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/upshot/election-2016-voting-precinct-maps.html#11.80/37.240/-80.388

Do some research before you post stupid things on the internet.

Sorry, still hickville.

And College Park is a gem? I wouldn't expect DC to move to Blacksburg permanently. Presumably, he would be on campus studying most of the time anyway, and not traveling far enough away to hang out with the hicks.

You remind me of the idiots I run into when I go back home to NY. Last time I was there, a guy on Long Island told me how much it must suck to live in the south and showed me a lot of pity. Dude looked like he could've starred in some show about the Jersey Shore, and though he'd never been to D.C., he claimed to know a lot about it.

That poster can yell “STEM” until he’s blue in the face, but Maryland is a generic campus in a ratty suburb in a trashy county. Going there is like four more years at a high school in Rockville, just in a worse location.

Haha, bitch. Maryland is an awesome school. Keep on hating. Glad your kids had the chance to apply to UVA and sorry they didn't get in

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We picked Maryland because you get better value for money for a home purchase and you get to live in pretty leafy historic neighborhoods

UMD is better than UVA if your kid wants to study STEM instead of becoming a lawyer or something

Sorry, but Va Tech is better.

But your kids have to live in the sticks, 4 hours away from DC, and go to school with the same kind of people who nominated Corey Stewart.

Except that the areas surrounding Blacksburg all voted for Clinton: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/upshot/election-2016-voting-precinct-maps.html#11.80/37.240/-80.388

Do some research before you post stupid things on the internet.

Sorry, still hickville.

And College Park is a gem? I wouldn't expect DC to move to Blacksburg permanently. Presumably, he would be on campus studying most of the time anyway, and not traveling far enough away to hang out with the hicks.

You remind me of the idiots I run into when I go back home to NY. Last time I was there, a guy on Long Island told me how much it must suck to live in the south and showed me a lot of pity. Dude looked like he could've starred in some show about the Jersey Shore, and though he'd never been to D.C., he claimed to know a lot about it.

That poster can yell “STEM” until he’s blue in the face, but Maryland is a generic campus in a ratty suburb in a trashy county. Going there is like four more years at a high school in Rockville, just in a worse location.

Your true color is showing. You just need to put the white hood on and you are in the perfect place.

[Anonymous]

VA may have better schools, but MD has more diversity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:VA may have better schools, but MD has more diversity.

Please let's be reasonable here. VA doesn't have better schools. At the end of the day, Fairfax and MCPS and Loudoun and Howard county schools are pretty equivalent.
VA definitely has more universities and some good ones for sure so if OP is hoping to get in state tuition providing that her children would want to go to a school in VA, then yes, VA would be a plus.

[Anonymous]

Objectively, NoVa has far more good public secondary schools than Maryland, and Virginia has better in-state options than Maryland as well. Add to that a much stronger local economy and NoVa is eating suburban Maryland's lunch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Objectively, NoVa has far more good public secondary schools than Maryland, and Virginia has better in-state options than Maryland as well. Add to that a much stronger local economy and NoVa is eating suburban Maryland's lunch.

Objectively? I'm sorry to rain on your parade but you are wrong on the secondary schools. You are right on the in-state options. In terms of jobs, yes VA has more jobs but nothing is stopping people from working where they want to work. It's definitely possible for someone to work in VA and live in Moco. Lots of people do it. Nova would be a great place for a family to live but so is Mont. county. And so is DC. Let's just stop trying to outdo and put down each other. It's not a good look and arguing over such things when all 3 areas are clearly very interconnected and dependent on one another is just childish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Virginia has multiple strong schools for kids at every level, including an excellent community college feeder to the public universities if your children need more time to mature academically after high school. If your child is outstanding in the college process UVA or William and Mary are top notch schools. If they are into science or engineering Virginia tech is another great option. If they are a bit less academic schools like George Mason, JMU or VCU are decent schools and could be a good fit. Your inlaws are completely correct about the breadth and depth of instate university options.

These are all good points - especially about the advantages of a superb community college system; that's also great for kids that want to do summer school and be home for the summer. That said, I think you overstate the difference between MD and VA. Montgomery College is fully comparable to NoVa CC, for sure. For STEM, College Park has more offerings and probably an edge over VT. Even in the social sciences, because it's more of a research institution than UVA, there are some real advantages. The small liberal arts college with in state tuition that William & Mary and, basically, UVA offer is a very attractive option, but is kind of a "many are called, few are chosen " thing (and the same kid from the NoVa suburbs that gets into W&M will get into Amherst, Dartmouth, etc and will come from a family that finds those hard to turn down). BTW, on MD liberal arts colleges- all my DS's classmates at St Mary's got into top graduate programs in their field. It's less prestigious than W&M (if, happier kids, I think) but is definitely doing an equally good job at making them competitive for grad/professional school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:We're staying put in the city in an analogous situation. We bought in 2011 and with basement rental income we pay off most of our mortgage. We can comfortably afford two private school tuitions whereas in the neighborhoods mentioned by OP we would struggle. Giving the DCPS/charter lottery one last chance next year!

Conceivable we may move as we get a couple more promotions and could then comfortably live in upper NW or Bethesda or Arlington but not until then. Current HHI is $400k and potential to go up to $700k in next 4 or 5 years.

OP, most people make your choice to flee to the burbs as oldest approaches K. The ratio is shrinking as (1) commuting from burbs only gets worse with suburban sprawl, poor infrastructure, (2) more people, especially dual earners with jobs in/near the city choose city vs. suburb tradeoff, and (3) suburban school systems decline. Take a look at PARCC scores for top MCPS and DCPS and same demographics often have better scores in DCPS.

This. This gets lost in these discussions. Apples to apples demographic comparisons reveal comparable scores.

No, it doesn't. Different PARCC tests.
One is customized to MD standard, the other to DC standard.
DC standard is not that strong.

This, 100%.

The whole point of PARCC is to test the Common Core and get away from testing to each individual state's standards.

[Anonymous]

Montgomery County for sure. Superior in every way.

[Anonymous]

My experience is MoCo does a significantly better job w/critical thinking skills. FCPS does a better job teaching math. FCPS doesn't really want "critical thinkers", it's not valued by the mind-set of the military. Math, however, is taught very well in FCPS as well as physics, chemistry at FCPS not just TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're staying put in the city in an analogous situation. We bought in 2011 and with basement rental income we pay off most of our mortgage. We can comfortably afford two private school tuitions whereas in the neighborhoods mentioned by OP we would struggle. Giving the DCPS/charter lottery one last chance next year!

Conceivable we may move as we get a couple more promotions and could then comfortably live in upper NW or Bethesda or Arlington but not until then. Current HHI is $400k and potential to go up to $700k in next 4 or 5 years.

OP, most people make your choice to flee to the burbs as oldest approaches K. The ratio is shrinking as (1) commuting from burbs only gets worse with suburban sprawl, poor infrastructure, (2) more people, especially dual earners with jobs in/near the city choose city vs. suburb tradeoff, and (3) suburban school systems decline. Take a look at PARCC scores for top MCPS and DCPS and same demographics often have better scores in DCPS.

This. This gets lost in these discussions. Apples to apples demographic comparisons reveal comparable scores.

No, it doesn't. Different PARCC tests.
One is customized to MD standard, the other to DC standard.
DC standard is not that strong.

This, 100%.

The whole point of PARCC is to test the Common Core and get away from testing to each individual state's standards.

Yes, PPs totally made that up out of whole cloth. For whatever immature reason, they just can't stand that there are also smart kids in DC.

[Anonymous]

FCPS has the most good to great pyramids. No other school system comes remotely close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS has the most good to great pyramids. No other school system comes remotely close.

uh huh. Sure dahling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Objectively, NoVa has far more good public secondary schools than Maryland, and Virginia has better in-state options than Maryland as well. Add to that a much stronger local economy and NoVa is eating suburban Maryland's lunch.

No it doesn't. MD has far more good public secondary schools than VA. That is why MD is always ranked in the top 5 ( #3 this year and #1 in the last 4 previous years). VA NEVER even ranked in the top 5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're staying put in the city in an analogous situation. We bought in 2011 and with basement rental income we pay off most of our mortgage. We can comfortably afford two private school tuitions whereas in the neighborhoods mentioned by OP we would struggle. Giving the DCPS/charter lottery one last chance next year!

Conceivable we may move as we get a couple more promotions and could then comfortably live in upper NW or Bethesda or Arlington but not until then. Current HHI is $400k and potential to go up to $700k in next 4 or 5 years.

OP, most people make your choice to flee to the burbs as oldest approaches K. The ratio is shrinking as (1) commuting from burbs only gets worse with suburban sprawl, poor infrastructure, (2) more people, especially dual earners with jobs in/near the city choose city vs. suburb tradeoff, and (3) suburban school systems decline. Take a look at PARCC scores for top MCPS and DCPS and same demographics often have better scores in DCPS.

This. This gets lost in these discussions. Apples to apples demographic comparisons reveal comparable scores.

No, it doesn't. Different PARCC tests.
One is customized to MD standard, the other to DC standard.
DC standard is not that strong.

This, 100%.

The whole point of PARCC is to test the Common Core and get away from testing to each individual state's standards.

The PARCC test is customized to each state/jurisdiction standards.