I lie in DC and have a child close by and a child who has to travel 25 minutes to school, but its the right school for her. As they get older it makes a huge differences. It is so much easier for my close-by child to attend after school and evening events and now that there are late night dances that is much easier as well. His friends live all over, but some are close and some are far. My other child, on the other hand, has no friends nearby and its always a hassle when she has to be there late or in the evening. We are happy with each school for each child, so we make it work, but if you can be close by it is so much better.

We recent moved from Arlington and our children all go to private schools in DC. We tried for years to make it work - but we were finally worn down and bought a place in DC. Now we couldn't be happier - it's so much easier to carpool, have playdates, have some of your neighbors actually have kids who go to the same schools as yours, etc.. We loved Arlington, but logistically it was tough having their schools and all their activities in DC. I rarely hosted playdates since I had to do the pickups and drop-offs in order to entice their friends to have playdates with Virginians. So if you're at all considering sending your children to schools in DC - then I highly recommend you stay in DC or Bethesda if you must move out of the city.

I'm not one of the PPs who has said anything negative about VA, but if you attend private school in DC, you will encounter that attitude of no one ever wanting to cross the bridge (we lived in VA, and while we were there, we experienced that attitude from our DC and MD friends many times). And yes, you can definitely get to St. Pat's and GDS lower school faster from some points right over the bridge in VA than you can from MoCo. However, it's quicker to get to the the vast majority of private schools in DC from MoCo. And VA has some great privates (Potomac, Langley), but based on sheer number, there are more privates in MoCo. You'll also find more MoCo families in the DC private schools than VA kids. I don't know if that's due to proximity or if the Virginians are happier with their public schools. From what I've heard, the Arlington public elementary schools sound more impressive than our public elementary schools so perhaps.

Anonymous wrote:I caused a riot on here once when I posted that I could be at St. Pat's in 7 minutes at rush hour from my home in Arlington. GDS is under 10. Some Virginia neighborhoods are seriously close to NW, a fact which the MD crowd in particular cannot stand.

And our taxes are lower, too, with better public services. Talk about adding injury to insult.

Yes, but you still have to cross the bridge to go to.... Virginia.

I caused a riot on here once when I posted that I could be at St. Pat's in 7 minutes at rush hour from my home in Arlington. GDS is under 10. Some Virginia neighborhoods are seriously close to NW, a fact which the MD crowd in particular cannot stand.

And our taxes are lower, too, with better public services. Talk about adding injury to insult.

I have no idea the hostility from the MD people..DC is obvious as they can't use public so they want no competition for spots but MD..come on. We have had zero problems with playdates..in fact our house is sought after for playdates as we have some room out back..which I realize is harder to come by in the district. I also can say that MD can be hard to get to with traffic. For us..we are right over Chainbridge and even with traffic..that bridge is a snap but trying to cross over traffic to MD can be dificult. That being said..we drive to MD all the time as we don't want to be jerky like some of the people on this thread.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Virginians will lie and say it isn't a factor. It is. Either buy a bigger place in DC or MD or suffer long drives, lack of social activities and a general daily sense of "is this reall worth it".

ITA. If you're considering privates in DC, don't move to Virginia. Your kid will never have a playdate in his/ her own home.

Nonsense. My dd is at NCS. We live in Arlington. This has NOT been an issue at all.

Traffic from Maryland is so bad that it can definitely take longer than it does from North Arlington. Sure, if there is an accident on the bridge, it can be an issue. But that rarely happens.

She has classmates from way down in Alexandria. We don't judge them either!

Anonymous wrote:The Virginians will lie and say it isn't a factor. It is. Either buy a bigger place in DC or MD or suffer long drives, lack of social activities and a general daily sense of "is this reall worth it".

ITA. If you're considering privates in DC, don't move to Virginia. Your kid will never have a playdate in his/ her own home.

Also depends and if and where you work. Chose school right by work so I can get away to volunteer more often. Being able to work later on days when there are after school activities at school is a good thing. Then it is easier to get off early for after school activities near home.

The Virginians will lie and say it isn't a factor. It is. Either buy a bigger place in DC or MD or suffer long drives, lack of social activities and a general daily sense of "is this reall worth it".

It's important, esp. as your kids get older. The closer you are, the easier it is to arrange carpools and playdates. When they're older and they have late sports practices, rehearsals, etc., plus several hours of HW each night, the commute can be a horrible time-suck. Also, before they start driving and you still need to pick them up late on weekend nights, it's nice if they live closer to school -- where most of the kids live and hang out. Once they do start driving, it's nice if they're only driving a short distance and not on the Beltway.
Finally, a note to PP -- kids still do play yard to yard in our n-hood and teens roam from house to house. In fact, the kids who live farther away come to our n-hood to do that b/c they like the freeedom.

Actually if you live in Arlington or McLean border you may be closer than most MD..it is sort of the little secret. Most Va people,don't use privates because public is good. I can make it to school in ten minutes and with traffic 15. I like the DC privates better than the Va privates. Several people in my neighborhood good to the same DC private.

I think proximity is definitely a factor. When we were looking at schools, we ruled out looking at anything too far. However, even in the close-in suburbs you will have many options. We live in Chevy Chase, MD. Within 15 minutes in rush hour, we could get to Sidwell, the Cathedral Schools, NPS, Sheridan, Maret, Norwood, Landon, Holton, Primary Day, GDS, Lowell. We have kids on our block who attend 5 different private schools in D.C. and 2 in Bethesda. I do think living in close-in MoCo is more convenient to more private schools than living in NOVA since most DC privates are in upper NW.

Depends on how you view proximity. We live In NVA and travel to DC for school. It has been zero issue. Take us 15 max to get there and the school we attend has kids from MD and part of DC that take same amount of time or longer. Is it as close as our public...no but we knew that going in and were okay with it. The friend issue is also not a problem. Our kids are involved with after school activities at school and they have some sort of social thing each weekend. It is a different world than when I grew up..no one just runs around and plays yard to yard after school.

DH and I are considering private schools for our DS, who is only 2 now. We're also ready to move out of our smaller home in DC into something a bit bigger close in. Since DS is so young, and private school admission is so competitive, we really have no idea where he might go. As I said, wherever we move, it'll be close in to keep our commute down, so we likely won't be *that* far, but the schools are spread out enough that it seems unlikely we'll end up very close (as compared to the local public, for instance). Since I also don't have a child in school, I'm not really even sure how much it matters to be close to any school (that is, how often we'll be going to and from to the school) although I think we're likely to drive DC at least in the early years for drop-off and pick-up.

For those with kids in private school, is proximity or lack thereof a big deal? I'm kind of thinking it's likely one of those things you have to give up when you do private, especially since many privates aren't K-12 anyway, plus siblings often do not go to the same school (we'd like to have one more child). How much of a hassle is it? Did it impact your decision on where to go to school, or conversely, where to live?