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We do want to live in the city--preferably, in the loop--however, schools are important to us. However, I'm not against private schools--I just find it ridiculous that Chicago doesn't have excellent public schools in good neighborhoods.
Are there good suburban areas that are in close vicinity to the loop?
It's really only high schools that are the problem. There are good public HS's, but compared to the other ones? Well it's like comparing Harvard to Michigan State. There are good other schools in town, but the high schools are kind of dominated by all the awesome selective enrollment ones.
Anyway, you want to live in the Loop? Eeeek. really? My advice is to not live in the Loop. There are much, much, MUCH better areas to live in. If you want to live close to work, near the Loop, then look at West Loop, River North, Gold Coast, Streeterville or South Loop . The Loop is the Central Business District, meaning it's away from the burbs. The closest suburb is Oak Park which has some good schools, but that's 8 miles away from the Loop.
We do want to live in the city--preferably, in the loop--however, schools are important to us. However, I'm not against private schools--I just find it ridiculous that Chicago doesn't have excellent public schools in good neighborhoods.
Are there good suburban areas that are in close vicinity to the loop?
If you have the resources to live in Lincoln Park or other nice spots inside Chicago that might be a very pleasant way to burn through a salary in the $200k/yr range. It would be quite different trying to have a family in the Loop. Even with unlimited resources you would have to deal with HORDES of office workers, tourists, holiday shoppers and others that really would not enhance your family living.
Once you realize that a commute from Lincoln Park to the Loop is a very tolerable 25 minutes -- W Lill Ave to E Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60604 - Google Maps you will undoubtably be open to reality of nicer housing options, signficantly less complex public schools, and the pleasant life that is available in a walkable train-centric suburb. The appeal of a wide range of dining options, nice shopping, kid friendly streets / parks and great access to City via Metra makes the choice easy. Commute time is identical and Metra trains are nicer -- Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Schedule
Quote:
Originally Posted by ferr0052
We do want to live in the city--preferably, in the loop--however, schools are important to us. However, I'm not against private schools--I just find it ridiculous that Chicago doesn't have excellent public schools in good neighborhoods.
Are there good suburban areas that are in close vicinity to the loop?
From my experience if your kids go to a good solid public elementary school (like Lincoln Park or Belle) they shouldn't have that much of a problem getting into the Magnet college prep schools like Northside, Walter Payton, Lane Tech, Whitney Young or Jones. Also some of these magnet schools (like Northside and Payton) are some of the best, if not the best in the entire state. However, it is a risk nonetheless that your kids might not get into them. However, again, if your kids go to a really solid elementary school and do very well, I certainly don't think it will be that hard to get into of the Prep/Magnet schools.
I want to a crappy Elementary Catholic School, well average is a better term. Yet I got in to Lane Tech and Whitney Young but got rejected from Northside. IMO getting into Northside and Payton is really tough, and those are the two that are scary to get into, because they are the most selective and have small student bodies. But Lane Tech and Whitney are easier to get into because they accept more students.
Just to put things into reference, when I took the test for Lane Tech, there were approxmately 10k applicants (no joke) but only 1k slots. So basically it has an acceptance rate of about 10%. It seems scary, but a lot of those 10k came from medicore to subpar schools. Mostly everyone from Lane Tech attended public schools like Belle, Lincoln Park, Oscar Meyer (dunno if it's still good). The CPS when looking at it's High School applicants knows which are the good elementary schools and what types of students they produce. So having Lincoln Park or Belle as where your child attends helps A LOT. This is no different than having a place like University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign accepting more students from places like Lane Tech, Whitney Young etc than places like Lake View High School or Schurz.
Also some of these magnet schools (like Northside and Payton) are some of the best, if not the best in the entire state.
Yeah, they're usually #1 and #2 in the state. They switch up from time to time. This year, Northside Prep is ranked the 39th best HS in the entire country, and Walter Payton is ranked 41st. Jones Prep is 103rd, Whitney Young is 135th. Lincoln Park is 276th, and Lane Tech is 299th in the nation.
The "winnowing" that happens does tend to leave kids with experience in the top ranked elementary schools in signficantly better position to get into top ranked high schools. The various "selection points" that are supposed to allow for geographic / demographic range of kids is something that is a factor too.
All in all getting into Lane for kids that are well prepared coming out of elementary is probably tougher than getting into Chambana for kids that are equally well prepared coming out a selective high school in Chicago or a desirable suburb. The big difference is that kids coming out of CPS probably have a lot fewer choices "beneath" the various heirarchy of in-state Illinois public universities compared to kids in the desirable suburbs. The guidance staff at Lane has a far tougher task than at a suburb because of shear workload as well as the liklihood that additional hoops are going to have to be jumped through to line up scholarships...
The saddest part of the whole process is that tremendous numbers of kids face increasing leveles of not just "let down" but radically different "life prospects". Kids coming out of the top tiers of Payton or Northside are legitmately in contention for scholarships to Ivy League schools while kids comming out of the next rung down of CPS schools are facing much less wonderful choices and kids unfortunate enough to not get into a selective high school of any kind in CPS face real difficulties in even completing college...
College readiness numbers for even middle of the road suburban public high schools are signficantly better than all but the top tier of CPS schools.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chicagoist123
From my experience if your kids go to a good solid public elementary school (like Lincoln Park or Belle) they shouldn't have that much of a problem getting into the Magnet college prep schools like Northside, Walter Payton, Lane Tech, Whitney Young or Jones. Also some of these magnet schools (like Northside and Payton) are some of the best, if not the best in the entire state. However, it is a risk nonetheless that your kids might not get into them. However, again, if your kids go to a really solid elementary school and do very well, I certainly don't think it will be that hard to get into of the Prep/Magnet schools.
I want to a crappy Elementary Catholic School, well average is a better term. Yet I got in to Lane Tech and Whitney Young but got rejected from Northside. IMO getting into Northside and Payton is really tough, and those are the two that are scary to get into, because they are the most selective and have small student bodies. But Lane Tech and Whitney are easier to get into because they accept more students.
Just to put things into reference, when I took the test for Lane Tech, there were approxmately 10k applicants (no joke) but only 1k slots. So basically it has an acceptance rate of about 10%. It seems scary, but a lot of those 10k came from medicore to subpar schools. Mostly everyone from Lane Tech attended public schools like Belle, Lincoln Park, Oscar Meyer (dunno if it's still good). The CPS when looking at it's High School applicants knows which are the good elementary schools and what types of students they produce. So having Lincoln Park or Belle as where your child attends helps A LOT. This is no different than having a place like University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign accepting more students from places like Lane Tech, Whitney Young etc than places like Lake View High School or Schurz.
Yeah, they're usually #1 and #2 in the state. They switch up from time to time. This year, Northside Prep is ranked the 39th best HS in the entire country, and Walter Payton is ranked 41st. Jones Prep is 103rd, Whitney Young is 135th. Lincoln Park is 276th, and Lane Tech is 299th in the nation.
Lincoln Park ahead of Lane Tech? Wow, that's not usual. Usually Lane Tech comes in right after Whitney Young.
If you want your kid to be surrounded by other kids whose parents are college-educated professionals, and your kid doesn't test well enough to get into the selective-enrollment high schools, then your only real options are the suburbs, private schools, or parochial schools. Chicago has a hole in the school lineup for families in that category.
That said, don't dismiss the selective-enrollment schools out of hand. It's worth it to try to get your kid in. I went to a selective-enrollment high school back east, and it was an incredible experience. Even at public schools in expensive suburbs there are a lot of kids who are barely above average. A school where kids are sorted-in based on test scores and grades has a totally different culture from one where parents can simply buy their way in.
Personally, I'm prepared to pay for private school in the city so I don't have to go into exile in the 'burbs, but I'd love if my kid could get into Northside, Payton, etc, or Illinois Math and Science Academy. Not just for the money but because it's really an experience you can't buy.
If you want your kid to be surrounded by other kids whose parents are college-educated professionals, and your kid doesn't test well enough to get into the selective-enrollment high schools, then your only real options are the suburbs, private schools, or parochial schools. Chicago has a hole in the school lineup for families in that category.
That said, don't dismiss the selective-enrollment schools out of hand. It's worth it to try to get your kid in. I went to a selective-enrollment high school back east, and it was an incredible experience. Even at public schools in expensive suburbs there are a lot of kids who are barely above average. A school where kids are sorted-in based on test scores and grades has a totally different culture from one where parents can simply buy their way in.
Personally, I'm prepared to pay for private school in the city so I don't have to go into exile in the 'burbs, but I'd love if my kid could get into Northside, Payton, etc, or Illinois Math and Science Academy. Not just for the money but because it's really an experience you can't buy.
However, there are elementary schools that are like those as mentioned above. For instance Belle and Lincoln Park are elementary schools that are just as good as those in the burbs. Someone living near Addison and Western could really do it great for their kids. Trust me, going to elementary schools like Belle and Lincoln Park really helps you get into those selective city high schools.
I agree, the experience I had at Lane Tech was absolutely amazing. There is just so much diversity that you experience there. I remember when we would go play in the burbs on the sports teams I was on, all the suburban kids would ridicule us to our face, calling us ghetto (which we were not) and treating us like we were stupid. It shows how burbs can produce close minded people (of course not all). Made them looks really dumb because actually are school academically was at better caliber and on top of that calling us ghetto and what not, we had much more class than they obviously could ever have. Of course this wasn't at every surburban high school but it sure did it happened from time to time.
Going to a diverse, urban school with really smart kids really will make you very tolerant, cultured and accepting of others. It doesn't put you in a bubble.
I have experience with both CPS selective admissions high schools as well as IMSA and some of the nicer private and suburban high schools. The processes that involve more than a cursoury interview do tend to result in a cadre of motivated students that can be quite encouraging however such selections processes are really the exception.
The norm is for schools to review the objective data and make their selection with little regard to the curiousity, motivation, self discipline and attitude of the students. Thus the composition of the class is likely to include a pretty substantial portion of kids who, unless something changes to test their mettle, and not really all that different from kids without as much "on paper" potential...
Not saying that I would not shoot for the best school I could but be prepared for a pretty unimpressive set of classmates in pretty much every setting.
If you want your kid to be surrounded by other kids whose parents are college-educated professionals, and your kid doesn't test well enough to get into the selective-enrollment high schools, then your only real options are the suburbs, private schools, or parochial schools. Chicago has a hole in the school lineup for families in that category.
That said, don't dismiss the selective-enrollment schools out of hand. It's worth it to try to get your kid in. I went to a selective-enrollment high school back east, and it was an incredible experience. Even at public schools in expensive suburbs there are a lot of kids who are barely above average. A school where kids are sorted-in based on test scores and grades has a totally different culture from one where parents can simply buy their way in.
Personally, I'm prepared to pay for private school in the city so I don't have to go into exile in the 'burbs, but I'd love if my kid could get into Northside, Payton, etc, or Illinois Math and Science Academy. Not just for the money but because it's really an experience you can't buy.
(btw what sort of experience leads you to belive living outside the Chicago city limits is akin to exile?)
Last edited by chet everett; 09-06-2012 at 02:39 PM..
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Trust me, living in the "Loop" is foolish...
