Neighborhoods with good schools near marta

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by Clayton white guy

The Morningside/ Mary Lin/ Springdale Park Elementaries districts in northeast Atlanta are considered some of the best in the metro, not just the City of Atlanta. Inman Middle and Grady High are highly regarded by many of their students and parents, but may have lower ratings on the websites. The City Schools of Decatur (on the east rail-line) is probably the highest rated over-all system (from top to bottom) in the state, but housing values and taxes (to support an independent school system) reflect this, too.

Finding a house for 250K in those areas are impossible.

[jeoff]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Finding a house for 250K in those areas are impossible.

Well, OP said she was looking at a condo, which is probably not impossible, but what is out there is probably not what most people expect for a family of 4. If her husband worked intown, it still might be wort the squeeze. But, working at the airport? Unless you are a total suburbaphobe PTC seems like the obvious choice on a 250k budget and wanting highly rated schools.

[red92s]

The pretty obvious choice here is to move to PTC and tell your family to come to visit you.

[Dkeating]

I've written this many times, but it bears repeating. The Greatschools score at a school like Grady is deceptive, because the student body has many uber-rich kids (who do great in school and go to prestigious colleges) and many disadvantaged kids from poorer neighborhoods (e.g., Bedford Pines) who have a tougher time in school. It's much more socioeconomically diverse than most other APS schools. The average test scores tell you very little because there aren't "average" students there. On a sidenote, it has one of the nicest locations for a high school that I've ever seen.

[JMB412]

A suburbaphobe. Hahahaha!!

I actually really liked PTC. It's so pretty and I loved the paths. My husband and I both enjoy running so I imagine we'd fit in well there. The kids are dying for a golf cart.

I just want to make sure I explore every option and I hate that's its so far from the rest of the family. If kids weren't in the picture, I'd probably be in an apartment in the heart of Atlanta where all of the action is. But, since they come first, I can totally do the suburbs as long as I'm near shopping, restaurants, etc.

Thanks for all of your input. I'm going to keep obsessing. Ahem, researching.

[LovelySummer]

But are you able to meet your 250k requirements? PTC isn't cheap by any means, as you've probably noticed. I'm down there quite alot. The quality of life is quite good, especially for those into outdoor activities as you and your family are.

Originally Posted by JMB412

A suburbaphobe. Hahahaha!!

I actually really liked PTC. It's so pretty and I loved the paths. My husband and I both enjoy running so I imagine we'd fit in well there. The kids are dying for a golf cart.

I just want to make sure I explore every option and I hate that's its so far from the rest of the family. If kids weren't in the picture, I'd probably be in an apartment in the heart of Atlanta where all of the action is. But, since they come first, I can totally do the suburbs as long as I'm near shopping, restaurants, etc.

Thanks for all of your input. I'm going to keep obsessing. Ahem, researching.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by JMB412

Our search continues…

We visited Atlanta this weekend and fell in love with PTC on the south side (husband will be working at the airport). However, we don't want to eliminate the north side completely just yet as we have family in Canton and would be an hour away from them in PTC. Are there any good, safe neighborhoods with good schools (8+ rating) that are near Marta stations? We think that would be his best bet as far as commuting.

I fell in love with a condo in Sandy Springs but the schools seem to be not that great.

Our kids are 7 and 9 and we're hoping to stick to our max budget of 250,000.

Originally Posted by JMB412

A suburbaphobe. Hahahaha!!

I actually really liked PTC. It's so pretty and I loved the paths. My husband and I both enjoy running so I imagine we'd fit in well there. The kids are dying for a golf cart.

I just want to make sure I explore every option and I hate that's its so far from the rest of the family. If kids weren't in the picture, I'd probably be in an apartment in the heart of Atlanta where all of the action is. But, since they come first, I can totally do the suburbs as long as I'm near shopping, restaurants, etc.

Thanks for all of your input. I'm going to keep obsessing. Ahem, researching.

Some important things to note here....

Like many of the other posters have remarked, schools in areas that are close to MARTA access that only have ratings of 7 (just below your desired ratings of 8+) on the Great Schools website like Sandy Springs (in the clusters for North Springs and Riverwood high schools), Dunwoody (in the cluster for Dunwoody High School), Chamblee (in the cluster for Chamblee High School) and Midtown Atlanta (in the cluster for Grady High School) along with the Buckhead area (in the cluster for the new $147 million North Atlanta High School) are still excellent schools with high populations of affluent students and families but may have their ratings and test scores depressed because of the high populations of transient and lower-income students in their respective areas.

This is the case in the aforementioned clusters (North Springs, Riverwood, Dunwoody, Chamblee, Grady and North Atlanta high schools) where there are very large clusters of affordable multi-family housing developments (condos, apartments, etc) that feed large numbers of lower-income and transient students into excellent schools with excellent academic curriculums.

The presence of very large numbers of transient students in highly-rated schools is by no means unusual throughout Atlanta's Northern suburbs (specifically throughout Cobb, North Fulton, North DeKalb and Gwinnett counties) and is should be no cause for alarm because of Atlanta's status as an ultra-diverse metropolitan gateway to the U.S. that attracts newcomers from all over the planet.

Schools like those in the clusters for North Springs, Riverwood, Dunwoody, Chamblee, Grady, North Springs, etc, are great schools whose academic excellence may not necessarily be fully reflected on school ranking websites because of the higher population of transient students at those schools.

The schools in the area where you are looking at a condo (in Sandy Springs in the cluster for North Springs High School) are excellent schools with excellent Math & Science, Arts, Humanities and Career/Tech/Leadership programs....Something that may not be fully reflected in the online school rankings and test scores because of the high population of transient students that are fed into the schools from the very large cluster of affordable multi-family housing in the Sandy Springs area.

North Springs High School Math & Science Academy:
The Math & Science Academy

North Springs High School Visual & Performing Arts Academy:
The Visual & Performing Arts Academy

North Springs High School Humanities Academy:
The Humanities Academy

North Springs High School Career, Technical and Leadership Academy:
The Career, Technical, & Leadership Academy

[Born 2 Roll]

If the OP wants to be closer to family in the Canton area, another idea that the OP could consider is to live in either North Fulton or Cherokee counties, drive to the North Springs MARTA Station and take the MARTA heavy rail line to work at the ATL Airport (and vice versa) during peak traffic periods when traffic is the worst.

Finding a condo or townhome for $250k would likely be a good possibility in North Fulton County (north of Sandy Springs in areas like Alpharetta or Roswell) in areas of excellent schools where the schools' excellence may be much more fully reflected on online school rating websites.

Utilizing MARTA for part of the commute to and from the Northern suburbs during peak traffic hours could enable the OP to spend less time driving in the car if the OP wanted to live closer to family in the Canton area.

[JMB412]

How far is the north springs marta station to Alpharetta/Roswell?

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by JMB412

How far is the north springs marta station to Alpharetta/Roswell?

It's about 8 miles between the North Springs MARTA Station and Roswell and about 9 miles between the North Springs MARTA Station and Alpharetta.