Grew up outside of Columbia, Moved away, and coming back home! (Cayce: neighborhood, purchase)

[ocsanders]

I grew up outside of Columbia, in Cayce actually, seemingly many ages ago. I graduated from Brookland-Cayce High School in '94, went to Duke University, moved to NY and am looking to return "home" at the end of this year.

SO. MUCH. HAS. CHANGED. My husband is from Philadelphia, went to Stanford and is very liberal. I consider myself to be pretty liberal. But at the end of the day, I'm still a Southerner at heart and my liberal compared to the rest of the world is quite, well, conservative. But I digress...

When I graduated from B-C, I was in a class that had extremely smart students. We dispersed across the country but stuck mainly to the east coast to attend UPenn, Harvard, Duke, UVa, USC Honors, Emory, and so on and so on. From what I've heard, B-C is NOT the place to send your kids these days.

I've heard similar things about Irmo High School.

My thoughts lean towards Lexington or Dreher for the most part. But I wanted to inquire more about the Lake Carolina area. I tried to do a search, but I'm getting all sorts of odd results.

Here's the thing, I will be attending graduate school, and my husband is a math teacher. We'd be looking to purchase a home for under $200,000 in a neighborhood that is family/kid friendly, progressive (for the area), and multicultural. Anyone have any thoughts on the schools in/around Lake Carolina vs. Lexington?

[T L Edwards]

The Lake Carolina neighborhood is part of the Richland 2 school district and some of the highest rated schools are located there.

[waccamatt]

I'd definitely say Dreher; I'd rather live in-town any day of the week.

[Brandon Hoffman]

Any of the 3 will be quite comparable IMO. Would you rather be more in town, big suburb, or small town feel?

Lexington will be getting a new HS in the next few years FWIW. Blythewood is a very sought after school now also. Check them out.

[ocsanders]

Thanks all.

I think we need in-town or big suburb...small town feel would be too much culture shock for my DH. Will look into Blythewood as well.

[Brandon Hoffman]

Then look at NE Columbia (Richland 2) or in town zoned for Dreher.