Anonymous wrote:No one that can afford a W neighborhood chooses an RM neighborhood.

I did.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:RM is obviously a great school with much to offer but if you can afford Whitman, you should move there. Whitman is a much better crowd. Nothing against RM and its crowd but there is a reason why the put the IB there and not at Whitman or Churchill.

+1

You take the IB program out of RM and it falls below schools like Quince Orchard which have better neighborhoods, communities and more school spirit.

This actually isn't true. Show me the math that proves this. The SAT scores are actually right on par with QO when you remove IB (at least this was the case when I ran the numbers last year...it's in a thread somewhere buried in DCUM).

For what it's worth, here is the post I was referring to above. It's the rankings based on SAT score, with IB removed from RM. (Someone had posted the average SAT score of the IB students (130 kids, avg of 2160), which was then used to derive the non-IB average score.)

When I do the math, I get that RM's non-magnet kid's score is 1643. So now, using the At A Glance sheets, let's compare the 1643 score to that of the other MoCo schools, to see where RM would fall if it didn't have the IB magnet. Oh look, QO and RM are next in line, right after the "W" schools, BCC, Poolesville and Damascus. So, as we can see, RM hardly becomes a "bad" school: (note, in the list below there are other schools with magnets, like Blair, which I did not bother to recalculate without the magnet kids...this was merely to analyze RM's non-magnet standings.)

Whitman: 1900
Poolesville: 1891
WC: 1838
Wootton: 1836
WJ: 1747
Blair: 1729
BCC: 1711
Damascus: 1700
QO: 1651
RM: 1643
Magruder: 1598
Sherwood: 1588
Northwest: 1577
Rockville: 1569
Watkins Mill: 1566
Blake: 1555
Einstein: 1544
Clarksburg: 1531
Springbrook: 1495
Seneca Valley: 1477
Paint Branch: 1466
Gaithersburg: 1442
Northwood: 1440
Kennedy: 1404
Wheaton: 1383

For what it's worth, the national average is 1497....so overall, MoCo is doing pretty darn well.

Anonymous wrote:No one that can afford a W neighborhood chooses an RM neighborhood.

This is factually incorrect.

In case anybody wondered, here are the RM boundaries: http://gis.mcpsmd.org/ServiceAreaMaps/RichardMontgomeryHS.pdf

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one that can afford a W neighborhood chooses an RM neighborhood.

Many do actually. Being around nice people trump school ranking.

+1 and being in a cluster that is diverse -- racially and SES -- is important to us, a biracial family. Plus, there are issues that are distinct to wealthier schools, and I just don't want my kids exposed to those issues so much. We came from a very wealthy district in another state. We didn't want to be in another district like that.

You obviously don't know my neighbors.

Anonymous wrote:No one that can afford a W neighborhood chooses an RM neighborhood.

You can look at the housing market and know that this is simply not true. Wootton cluster starts around 6-700 for a SFH. There are many homes priced at and above this price in RM cluster, and they have no problem selling.

Anonymous wrote:No one that can afford a W neighborhood chooses an RM neighborhood.

Many do actually. Being around nice people trump school ranking.

No one that can afford a W neighborhood chooses an RM neighborhood.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Julius West the feeder to RM is a great schools 9. 20-25% of the RM magnet is from Julius West each year! I can't compare to QO's neighborhoods because I am certainly not familiar with all of them, but my RM neighborhood is great. We could easily afford a W school but would not consider moving.

You go with great schools opinions to decide where you live?

Any W school is better as well as the real estate investment.

No obviously I don't..if that is what I cared about I would live in the Whitman district.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Julius West the feeder to RM is a great schools 9. 20-25% of the RM magnet is from Julius West each year! I can't compare to QO's neighborhoods because I am certainly not familiar with all of them, but my RM neighborhood is great. We could easily afford a W school but would not consider moving.

You go with great schools opinions to decide where you live?

Any W school is better as well as the real estate investment.

Not the PP, but obviously if greatschools were all that mattered, PP would be in a 10 cluster W school. Clearly, PP is not hung up on ratings. Though, such a rating (9) does indicate that JW is in no way a "failing school".
When looking for an investment, sure, W schools are great. But with the way parts of Rockville are really up and coming, there is such an opportunity to get in at a lower price, make a great profit later, esp in the RM neighborhoods with the urban/walkable trends and metro access.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:RM is obviously a great school with much to offer but if you can afford Whitman, you should move there. Whitman is a much better crowd. Nothing against RM and its crowd but there is a reason why the put the IB there and not at Whitman or Churchill.

+1

You take the IB program out of RM and it falls below schools like Quince Orchard which have better neighborhoods, communities and more school spirit.

This actually isn't true. Show me the math that proves this. The SAT scores are actually right on par with QO when you remove IB (at least this was the case when I ran the numbers last year...it's in a thread somewhere buried in DCUM).

Anonymous wrote:Julius West the feeder to RM is a great schools 9. 20-25% of the RM magnet is from Julius West each year! I can't compare to QO's neighborhoods because I am certainly not familiar with all of them, but my RM neighborhood is great. We could easily afford a W school but would not consider moving.

You go with great schools opinions to decide where you live?

Any W school is better as well as the real estate investment.

Anonymous wrote:Julius West the feeder to RM is a great schools 9. 20-25% of the RM magnet is from Julius West each year! I can't compare to QO's neighborhoods because I am certainly not familiar with all of them, but my RM neighborhood is great. We could easily afford a W school but would not consider moving.

+1 We *chose* to live in RM. We could've bought in a W cluster and chose not to.

Julius West the feeder to RM is a great schools 9. 20-25% of the RM magnet is from Julius West each year! I can't compare to QO's neighborhoods because I am certainly not familiar with all of them, but my RM neighborhood is great. We could easily afford a W school but would not consider moving.

Anonymous wrote:RM is obviously a great school with much to offer but if you can afford Whitman, you should move there. Whitman is a much better crowd. Nothing against RM and its crowd but there is a reason why the put the IB there and not at Whitman or Churchill.

+1

You take the IB program out of RM and it falls below schools like Quince Orchard which have better neighborhoods, communities and more school spirit.