moving to columbus help! (Upper Arlington, Dublin: apartments, home, new construction)

[donia82]

hi every one!

I am currently in Pittsburgh and will be moving to Colmbus in July. My husband will be working at Ohio state university. I also have 2 boys in elementary.
I am looking for a 2 bedroom apartment or town home in gated community with different amenities.
My questions are:

Which area do you recommend? I am thinking between Grand view and Upper Arlington, so what do you think?
What are the best elementary schools in those area?
Do you recommend any of the gated communites in those areas?

I am totally opened to any other suggestions or recommendations to help me make a better decision.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[captainclipper]

Both Grandview and Arlington have excellent public schools, great amenities (restaurants, shopping, public libraries), and are very close/accessible to OSU and downtown.

Another option to look at, but further away from OSU is Bexley, which is east of downtown.

What is the appeal to you of a gated community?

[donia82]

Thanks of your reply , i have been searching on line and i found gated communities like the Quary, the farm among others to be very appealing to me. I like the idea of having swimming pools , green areas and play room so the kids could have fun.

Well, i contacted The Farm , and they said that the area it is located in is Dublin, is this a nice area?

[2 Da Beach]

Dublin is a great area.. Schools are are top notch.. Upper Arlington is nice and good schools. Check out The Wellington school in Upper Arlington, private school. Bexley is surrounded by ghetto. Grandview is similar to Upper Arlington.

[donia82]

Wow, thanks, that reallly helped!.
so do you recommend or have any idea about the Edward's properties, I am checking the Farm and the rest of their properties there in Dublin, Did any one here deal with them?
Also I am interested in public schools for elementary grade 1 and 4, any recommendations?

[ohioaninsc]

Edwards Communities are one of the best in the area. I have a friend who lives in The District over there in the same area The Farms are in. The District is new construction and some of the buildings are still being built.
Charlston Park and Orleans are 2 others in that same area and are all part of Edwards. The only amenity those apartments lacked imo and why I chose a different Dublin area apt to call home was none of the units have a Fireplace...while obviously summer time you won't need one, it's really nice to have here in winter.

Dublin Schools are one of the best around...

[donia82]

thanks for your reply, it is really helpful...I checked the schools assigned for the farm and the Orchard..it turned to be Gables elementary school..so is it a good school?. ...it is under the columbus city school districit

[ohioaninsc]

I'm actually surprised that's not Dublin schools...or at least Hilliard schools, being that it's right off Hayden Run Rd...
I'm not sure how good that school is as I don't have children.

As a whole, Dublin schools are going to be better than Columbus schools. And there are plenty of good apt complexes inside Dublin as well although commute to campus may bump up to 20-25 minutes.
I'm in Britton Woods which is Dublin schools and is just another mile or 2 further from the campus and it's in Dublin Schools...

[bflynn]

You can use GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community to check the ratings of schools in the areas you are interested in. Its been very helpful to us in our search.