Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Urbana/new market/etc are highly educated/mostly liberal/lacks diversity but growing area of frederick.

The schools reflect that.

Otoh - I’m surprised Richard Montgomery is so low. Even if you don’t do IB/magnet the school is very good.

I know a ton of people in Urbana and they love it.

You are surprised it is so low because GS doesn't accurately reflect the "school within a school" experience for UMC kids going to those schools. It's like that for other schools in MoCo (e.g., Blair). It's not what GS is measuring.

Actually you are right I’ve never looked at those rankings so true the rankings are not a good measure.

Anonymous wrote:Urbana/new market/etc are highly educated/mostly liberal/lacks diversity but growing area of frederick.

The schools reflect that.

Otoh - I’m surprised Richard Montgomery is so low. Even if you don’t do IB/magnet the school is very good.

I know a ton of people in Urbana and they love it.

You are surprised it is so low because GS doesn't accurately reflect the "school within a school" experience for UMC kids going to those schools. It's like that for other schools in MoCo (e.g., Blair). It's not what GS is measuring.

Urbana/new market/etc are highly educated/mostly liberal/lacks diversity but growing area of frederick.

The schools reflect that.

Otoh - I’m surprised Richard Montgomery is so low. Even if you don’t do IB/magnet the school is very good.

I know a ton of people in Urbana and they love it.

We live in Frederick but I have friends whose kids go to New Market. I think it is probably much whiter than Rockville, if that matters to you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you working? You do NOT want to have a commute on 270 south...no school choice is worth that hell.

One parent in Bethesda, one parent in Baltimore with family/friends around Frederick and Rockville areas.

What about Howard County?

One of you needs to get another job. Unless the one job has generous work from home policy

OP, another vote for Howard County. You’ll get commutes under an hour for both of you. Columbia was basically created for couples like you and has a lot of amenities. Less than/right around a half hour to Rockville and then about 40 minutes to Frederick on weekends. Easy hops into Baltimore and DC as well. The 270 commute is truly brutal.

As you figure out mortgage options, if that appeals, remember that HoCo’s jumbo threshold is lower than that for MoCo and Frederick County.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you working? You do NOT want to have a commute on 270 south...no school choice is worth that hell.

One parent in Bethesda, one parent in Baltimore with family/friends around Frederick and Rockville areas.

What about Howard County?

One of you needs to get another job. Unless the one job has generous work from home policy

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you working? You do NOT want to have a commute on 270 south...no school choice is worth that hell.

One parent in Bethesda, one parent in Baltimore with family/friends around Frederick and Rockville areas.

What about Howard County?

Anonymous wrote:My suggestion would be to visit the schools or talk to parents. Don’t base anything on the good schools rating.

We don't have anyone that we know in New Market. I've researched about their principal and don't see anything outstanding, hence the surprise.
How would I approach the parents in the area I don't know?

People that I asked seem to like RM but the reviews are bad on Zillow, also surprisingly.

Anonymous wrote:Where are you working? You do NOT want to have a commute on 270 south...no school choice is worth that hell.

One parent in Bethesda, one parent in Baltimore with family/friends around Frederick and Rockville areas.

Where are you working? You do NOT want to have a commute on 270 south...no school choice is worth that hell.

It’s all demographics. New Market is a new area of development with higher than average incomes.

Anonymous wrote:Much of New Market and Urbana are quite affluent as well.

Agree - to start with, Richard Montgomery has a 20% FARMS rate. That's actually better than average for Montgomery County, but Oakdale High in Frederick is 8%. That's about the same level as Walter Johnson and BCC, two schools in Bethesda that are viewed as highly affluent.

Much of New Market and Urbana are quite affluent as well.

My suggestion would be to visit the schools or talk to parents. Don’t base anything on the good schools rating.

We are deciding between Frederick area and Rockville (both in Maryland) In Frederick are we found good schools 9 out of 10 in New Market. Rockville is close to work and overall is more busy area but the RM school is 5 out of 10. What is up with that. The school all the way in the country appears to be better than school that in affluent area in Rockville. I am puzzled. Never heard anything special about Frederick area schools.

Anyone has any suggestion?

What would you choose?