Best family suburb for Wayne State job (Detroit, Ann Arbor: houses, neighborhoods)

[Coldjensens]

The schools here are generally execellent, especially when comparing to most SO. Cal. Schools. Universities are also outstanding and there are a lot of them given the population of the State.

Detroit Schools are a bit rough and many of the downriver schools are pretty mediochre. Trenton is fairly good. Grosse Ile schools are execellent (the high school is one of a very few to get graded with all "A"s by the State). Wyandotte schools have some serious problems as do Taylor schools. (Detroit has a couple of absolutely execellent schools as well).

Grosse Pointe, Troy, Birmingham, Rochester, West bloomfield, Northville, Novi, South Lyon, Plymouth all have execellent schools. I am not including a dozen or so other really outstanding districts. There are few bad districts in Northern Oakland County. One of the reasons that you have som many great choices in suburbs is becuase most of them have great schools.

Ferndale, Royal Oak, and Sterling Heights have not so great schools. That is part of the reason that they are usually not recommended for fmailies. Farmington has some problems. Southfield is another so-so district. You can get a lot of good data on the internet. Some of the sites charge you to get full access to all the data, but it is less than $50 per year to get access to a couple of the better sites. It is worth it if you can afford it easliy. If not, there is enough free informaiton available to make an informed decision. It took mee about 30-40 hours to collect and compare all of the data on schools for the 30 or so cities that we were considering. School schoice can vary drastically depending on which data you feel is most important.

Data only tells you so much however. I am not aware of any data that covers drug use, sexual prmiscuity, bullying, tolerance, competitive vs. supportive atmosphere, involvment of the administration, etc. Once you have identified some potential communities, you need to go visit. Talk to teachers, students, and parents in the community. Do not go by the statements of only a few. Often someone has some sour grape issue or they are just rose colored glass types. the two extremes tend to be the most outspoken. You need to find a sampling of the people in the middle.

In additional to good test scores, high percentages of graduates going on to college, lots of AP classes (with a high passing rate); you need to figure out what atmosphere you want for your kids. That is where the schools differ more than they do in academics. Huge mega schools like Plymouth Canton offer loads of remarkable programs a great variety of classes, and exposure to loads of different types of people. Small schools (Grosse Ile for example) offer the same outstanding academics, but in a small school atmosphere. Class offerings may be limited, but all of the teachers know all of the students. A student's class structure can be adapted to meet special abilities or needs of the student. The kids almost all know each other (in a big school you can meet someone the first year and then never see them again in any class). Thus, it all depends on what you want for your kids. We wanted the small school/small town atmosphere. However it is easy to understand the appeal of the mega schools with their phenomenoal sports and other competition teams and events, plus huge variety in class offerings. One downside of small schools is that if the kids do not like the teacher on a certain subject, they do not have the option of taking a different teacher for that subject. There is only one.

You need to visit the schools, look at what is offered, talk to some students and get a true feeling for what it is like to attend that school. It is very overwhelming, but it is the only way that you cna make a truely infomred decision. Get to work.

It is a lot of work, but the best investment of your time that you could possibly make right now.
Finally, it might be a good idea to take your children to the schools and let them give you their thoughts. We did not do this and it worked out great anyway, but the older kids (5-8th grade) were a bit mad because they felt that they had no say in the matter.

[djones87]

I would definetly take a look at Grosse Ile. I would estimate communte at under 30mins and you will not have traffic problems heading south as you will with ALL your other options. It is a waterfront community - safe, quiet, excellent schools and there are great bargains to be had for buyers right now.

[hemmie]

Thanks. Can't wait to come visit (depending on what happens with our other option - the other interview is happening as I type...). I've been collecting data from GreatSchools.net, which is a great resource to cross-check with info from here, both quantitative and qualitative from the forum. But great points about information to gather and observations to make in person.

My kids are still so young - they'll be 5 & 3 when we move - that I'm not sure how much they'll resent not having a say, but I will definitely keep their personalities in mind when looking at schools. I'm not even sure yet whether the little one will be in a preschool or not. The older one will definitely go into kindergarten, and we'll want to go the public route. Had we stayed in Los Angeles, I was interested in a bilingual immersion program (Spanish), but I haven't come across an immersion elementary school for this young an age in the area that gets high ratings.

Grosse Ile is very appealing to me! My husband is intrigued but intimidated by the commute, so we'll drive it during rush hour and see

[Coldjensens]

If you do nto have directions for getting around the construction, post here, and someone will help you. I can get you to the Ren Cen but I do not know the best route to WSU. It may be the same. I am not sure. Once the contstruciton is done, the commute will be a lot better.

[stock66]

I lived in Grosse Pointe (plan to move back) and LA. Had lots of gay friends in GP, they were out, about and had no problems. GP tends to have a small town mentality (I mean that in a good way) in that people are very vested in the neighborhood. With Detroit's crime and decay close GPers tend to be most interested in good neighbors that care about their homes, schools, etc. If you are interested in those sort of things I would expect you would fit in quite well.
With kid's in GP it is easy to make friends and get involved. There are lots of programs and they will see their friends at the city parks, shopping in the "village", school and every other activity they join in...again a small town feel.
My kid's went to pre-school through a program at the local high schools (North and South). Certainly not a language immersion but they had a great time and I liked it. It is actually a class for the high schoolers in childhood development (tends to attract those interested in being teachers, etc.) so the ratio of teens to pre-schoolers is about 1 to 1.
I worked downtown and my commute was a snap. I think your husband is right to be hesitant about a Grosse Isle commute. It is a great island but it is an island with limited access. My in-laws were from downriver and I always found the getting to the island rather cumbersome from up north.

[Quemonius]

ColdJ, great advice and right on the money!

[ckhthankgod]

What about communities like Harper Woods, Hazel Park and Farmington/Farmington Hills?

[hemmie]

Thanks! All great info. I'm still in a holding pattern probably for the next week while offers get sorted out (stressful!), but I REALLY appreciate this input.

[queenodessert]

Hi Hemmie, congratulations to your husband on the job! I am also considering taking a tenure-track job at Wayne State, but I would be moving from the other end of the country (New York City). The job itself sounds pretty good but my husband and I are worried about moving to the Motor City... especially since I haven't driven a car in years.

I'm an east coast city girl and I love NYC's diversity, cultural offerings, and the accessibility of safe public transportation at all hours of the day and night. On the other hand, everything here is outrageously expensive and we're tired of barely being able to afford a tiny apartment. We don't have kids yet but we're thinking of starting a family soon.

For those of you familiar with the Detroit area, I'd really appreciate your advice and suggestions on potential places to live either in or around the city. Our list of preferences is pretty similar to Hemmie's, except that we particularly value racial/ethnic diversity & integration and we don't have kids yet so good public schools aren't an immediate concern.

Also, my husband is horrified by the idea of living in a suburban subdivision surrounded by strip malls, chain stores, McMansions, and SUVs... please help me convince him that there are good places to live in the Detroit area for those who prefer urban living to suburban sprawl!

[hemmie]

Hi Queen! We're getting closer to finalizing... and are getting excited about the prospect of moving to the Detroit area. I'm sure others can provide helpful input on what you're asking, but I wanted to weigh in, since I hear you on many of your concerns & priorities!

I'm sure you'll get a MUCH better sense of neighborhoods when you visit, and you'll (and we'lll!) be better able to weigh commute time versus charm etc. However, because of the potential & probable difficulty in reselling real estate within the next 5-15 years in the area, if you are planning to have kids in the relatively near future, I would advise taking schools into consideration. A website I have found to be enormously helpful is Great Schools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community I have been cross-referencing that website with data and qualitative comments from the forum here, as well as pictures from the internet of various neighborhoods to try to get a sense of what areas are like.

I completely agree with your husband about strip malls, chain stores, etc. Lots of ingredients go into "the pot" when determining quality of life, and we've had to really readjust our definition now that we have had kids.