Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 07:41     Subject: Suburban MD Prestige Rankings

I've lived in VA, MD, and DC in 8 distinct neighborhoods. Am familiar with so many more because my business is working with clients out of their homes.

"Normal" Potomac/Churchill is the best place we've ever lived and I wouldn't want to live or send my kid to school anywhere else after experiencing it.
Anonymous
Post 09/16/2025 07:26     Subject: Re:Suburban MD Prestige Rankings

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:NoNone in Chevy Chase village is even aware of Mds college situation.

I’m in Rockville and my 529s are fully funded for private colleges. I don’t care about the UMD situation: that is a middle class concern


But you live in Rockville and are a saver, a saver via a government program no less. Can you say you are totally middle class without saying you are middle class?
Anonymous
Post 09/15/2025 21:01     Subject: Re:Suburban MD Prestige Rankings

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:NoNone in Chevy Chase village is even aware of Mds college situation.

I’m in Rockville and my 529s are fully funded for private colleges. I don’t care about the UMD situation: that is a middle class concern

Ya well my DD got a full ride to Harvard so you can take your fully funded 529s in Rockville (probably east of the pike side) and shove it.
Anonymous
Post 09/15/2025 14:36     Subject: Re:Suburban MD Prestige Rankings

Anonymous wrote:NoNone in Chevy Chase village is even aware of Mds college situation.

I’m in Rockville and my 529s are fully funded for private colleges. I don’t care about the UMD situation: that is a middle class concern
Anonymous
Post 09/14/2025 21:11     Subject: Suburban MD Prestige Rankings

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What about Bowie?


So terrible you can't even get anyone to comment on it.


So glad the people on this thread don’t care to know anything about Bowie. We’d rather continue to live in peace and enjoy our part of the county.
Anonymous
Post 08/06/2025 12:36     Subject: Suburban MD Prestige Rankings

Anonymous wrote:What about Bowie?


So terrible you can't even get anyone to comment on it.
Anonymous
Post 08/04/2025 18:27     Subject: Re:Suburban MD Prestige Rankings

NoNone in Chevy Chase village is even aware of Mds college situation.
Anonymous
Post 08/04/2025 08:14     Subject: Suburban MD Prestige Rankings

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:“Prestige” and “Maryland” are antonyms.


OMG, you are so right! Nothing is more prestigious than a ranch house in Pimmit Hills or a McMansion in McLean!

There’s a reason the most prestigious schools and country clubs are in MD and not VA.


There is a literally a small sliver of Montgomery County that isn’t depressing and low rent. That’s it. PG County and Howard County can’t compete with Loudoun or Fairfax on any metric. Wealth, schools, crime. Anything.

And all the colleges besides UMD and Johns Hopkins are crappy. If you can’t afford private and your kid can’t get into UMD you’re out of luck. Meanwhile Virginia has UVA, William & Mary, VTech, GMU, VCU, James Madison…ie, all schools you’d want your kid to go to before Towson.


The people who actually have prestige could not care less about in state college options, dear.
Anonymous
Post 07/27/2025 21:35     Subject: Re:Suburban MD Prestige Rankings

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Instead of "prestige," don't you just mean richest?

These places do not hold "prestige" to me. The top ones are just where rich people live or people who inherited a lot of generational wealth...

There's also the race aspect. The "top ones" are the whiter areas, so this list is basically saying (according to one poster) that POC live in the "sh-t" areas.

Really nice.

I'm sure your mom would be proud. lol Well, I guess this is what your parent taught you to do...



This 1000%. Unreal. fwiw I live in one of the areas perceived as prestigious and let me tell you the way i think of it based on empirical data is legalized prostitution and ppl with generational wealth gotten by unknown means. Would love to see a ranking based on character, work ethic, virtues around inclusion, etc


Again, if places like Wheaton and Montgomery Village were incredibly nice but just being slighted because of the demographics of these areas, the people who are in the same demographic cohorts would move back there when they acquired wealth and got jobs as doctors, lawyers, CEOs, etc. The people who “make it” out of these neighborhoods are never moving back and moving to the more prestigious neighborhoods listed in this thread. Your virtue signaling and idealism doesn’t change that.
Anonymous
Post 07/27/2025 15:28     Subject: Suburban MD Prestige Rankings

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Lol, now is it possible to do a prestige ranking on the MCPS high schools?


Good idea. Here's the more ideal ranking for the schools if you gonna consider the prestige by it's current boundary area.

Tier 1:
- Winston Churchill
- Walt Whitman
- Poolesville
- Bethesda-Chevy Chase
- Wootton

Tier 2:
- RM
- Clarksburg
- Northwest
- Einstein
- Blair
- WJ

Tier 3:
- Damascus
- Sherwood
- Magruder
- Blake
- Quince Orchard

Tier 4:
- Northwood
- Wheaton
- Gaithersburg
- Paint Branch

Tier 5:
- Rockville
- Watkins Mill
- Kennedy
- Springbrook


Are those prestige by a housing or school ?

Nobody considers Churchill the best high school and while BCC has some great areas in it it also has droves of apts and a chunk o low income silver spring dragging it down. What makes Whitman…Whitman is that it has almost exclusively million dollar and up SFHs


Housing.


Yah I’m not sure Potomac can compete with Bethesda housing. There are a few palatial estates but by quantity and total value close in Bethesda is way better. Only thing holder BCC back from value is all the apartments. Churchill has lots of normal areas and not to mention Scotland.

Is this meant to be a racist dog whistle? The Scotland neighborhood is a perfectly normal area. What is your problem, dude?


Thanks for this PP
Anonymous
Post 07/27/2025 13:46     Subject: Re:Suburban MD Prestige Rankings

Anonymous wrote:Instead of "prestige," don't you just mean richest?

These places do not hold "prestige" to me. The top ones are just where rich people live or people who inherited a lot of generational wealth...

There's also the race aspect. The "top ones" are the whiter areas, so this list is basically saying (according to one poster) that POC live in the "sh-t" areas.

Really nice.

I'm sure your mom would be proud. lol Well, I guess this is what your parent taught you to do...



This 1000%. Unreal. fwiw I live in one of the areas perceived as prestigious and let me tell you the way i think of it based on empirical data is legalized prostitution and ppl with generational wealth gotten by unknown means. Would love to see a ranking based on character, work ethic, virtues around inclusion, etc
Anonymous
Post 07/27/2025 00:15     Subject: Re:Suburban MD Prestige Rankings

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This thread is created by and for non natives. People who move here from small towns or poor states come here and need validation about where they live, people who are from this area realize that each area has something unique and special to offer the overall DMV. I wish you climbers would go back to your original states, or at the very least, stop trying so hard! Geesh!


How's living in Wheaton, lol?


I actually like Wheaton. I've been a resident there since 2003 and recently since the 2010's we've seen a huge wave of immigrants (mostly Hispanics who are from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala).

The houses are more smaller there and while I would agree there are some sketchy areas, it really isn't bad unless you're going alone at night or you're somewhere around the Westfield mall. I would honestly assume it's just affluent people who say it looks say poor because it doesn't look clean or it's very poverished and I'd disagree. The interiors of many houses there look great, some are a bit antique than others.


What's the concern around the Wheaton mall? I'm in that area with my kids frequently-- is there something I should be aware of?
Anonymous
Post 07/15/2025 05:35     Subject: Re:Suburban MD Prestige Rankings

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This thread is created by and for non natives. People who move here from small towns or poor states come here and need validation about where they live, people who are from this area realize that each area has something unique and special to offer the overall DMV. I wish you climbers would go back to your original states, or at the very least, stop trying so hard! Geesh!


How's living in Wheaton, lol?


I actually like Wheaton. I've been a resident there since 2003 and recently since the 2010's we've seen a huge wave of immigrants (mostly Hispanics who are from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala).

The houses are more smaller there and while I would agree there are some sketchy areas, it really isn't bad unless you're going alone at night or you're somewhere around the Westfield mall. I would honestly assume it's just affluent people who say it looks say poor because it doesn't look clean or it's very poverished and I'd disagree. The interiors of many houses there look great, some are a bit antique than others.


When someone says Wheaton is terrible, I would only assume they probably listen to Fox News.


If Wheaton is so awesome why don’t prices reflect that? I assure you these people living in $3M homes in Bethesda and Spring Valley don’t all watch Fox News and would never want to live, shop, or eat in Wheaton.

At a certain point you can’t fool the market. There is a reason SFH homes in Wheaton like this one are $650,000 within walking distance to the Metro:

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Silver-Spring/2609-Fenimore-Rd-20902/home/11006776

You know why this area is cheaper than Bethesda or places on the Orange Line in Arlington where this house would go for 2x to 3x as much this close to a metro stop? Because people don’t want to:

Have their daughters abducted by men in tinted sedans
https://www.fox5dc.com/news/14-year-old-girl-escapes-attempted-abduction-in-wheaton.amp

Get bleach sprayed in their eyes going to mall
https://wjla.com/news/crime/wheaton-mall-montgomery-county-police-department-2-suspects-teens-violence-assault-woman-bleach-clorox-police-video-assault-video-maryland-crime-mall-assault-silver-spring-maryland

Or have their grandmother assaulted and robbed outside of a grocery store
https://mocoshow.com/2023/03/16/police-investigating-assault-and-robbery-of-elderly-woman-at-giant/

Wanting to be as far away as possible from uncivilized crap like this is a perfectly understandable human impulse and why people pay millions of dollars to be far, far away.





https://mocoshow.com/2025/03/29/police-investigating-early-morning-shooting-in-bethesda-two-injured/

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2022/12/14/teen-sentenced-to-40-years-in-prison-for-bethesda-target-stairwell-murder/

https://www2.montgomerycountymd.gov/mcgportalapps/Press_Detail.aspx?Item_ID=46076#:~:text=The%20preliminary%20investigation%20has%20revealed,to%20the%20Cheltenham%20Detention%20Center.

https://www.fox5dc.com/news/bethesda-business-owner-followed-from-dc-in-attempted-carjacking

https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2025/06/bethesda-shopping-center-responds-to-a-rash-of-vehicle-breakin-ins/


May go to Wheaton to shop at Costco and that’s it.
Anonymous
Post 07/15/2025 05:34     Subject: Suburban MD Prestige Rankings

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:“Prestige” and “Maryland” are antonyms.


OMG, you are so right! Nothing is more prestigious than a ranch house in Pimmit Hills or a McMansion in McLean!

There’s a reason the most prestigious schools and country clubs are in MD and not VA.


There is a literally a small sliver of Montgomery County that isn’t depressing and low rent. That’s it. PG County and Howard County can’t compete with Loudoun or Fairfax on any metric. Wealth, schools, crime. Anything.

And all the colleges besides UMD and Johns Hopkins are crappy. If you can’t afford private and your kid can’t get into UMD you’re out of luck. Meanwhile Virginia has UVA, William & Mary, VTech, GMU, VCU, James Madison…ie, all schools you’d want your kid to go to before Towson.

We are all entitled to our opinion. I would not live in VA.
Anonymous
Post 07/15/2025 05:33     Subject: Suburban MD Prestige Rankings

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Tier 1:

Chevy Chase
Somerset
Potomac
Bethesda

Tier 2:
Takoma Park
North Bethesda
Kensington
Nicer parts of Silver Spring (Woodside area, Rock Creek Forest etc.)
Rockville

Tier 3:
Olney
Gaithersburg
Further out Silver Spring

Tier 4:
Wheaton
Aspen hill
Germantown
Montgomery village


You missed number one. Travilah

OMG the money in Travilah is crazy. The houses massive. It is a subset of Potomac but it is all big ass mansions.


I would not consider living way out there in a huge home tier anything. Too far out. Isolated. Gburg. Too far out to get to anyplace interesting.