Possible relocation to the St. Johns County area (Tampa, University: chapel, homes)

[snuffybear]

Originally Posted by Robyn55

I think you're confusing people who are "house rich" - buying houses they can barely afford with borrowed money - with people who are really rich.

Also - when it comes to PVB Blvd. - well some of the people I know who lived there were doctors - at places like Mayo. Earning maybe $300k - if that. Nicely upper middle class - but hardly rich.

Perhaps you can hum a few bars when it comes to the kids of really rich people here whose kids go to Ponte Vedra High School? My local neighbors who are doctors and lawyers and the like are sending their kids to Bolles. Robyn

Is this some sort of competition Robyn? SOME people are house-"rich" (actually it's called "house poor" if they have a huge mortgage) but some own those houses outright.

Yes, a lot of professionals like drs and lawyers like private schools. But there are many, many doctors' kids in PV public schools too.

Honestly, I could care less, as long as they are nice people.

[marylandmom2011]

UF and FS are fine state schools, nothing special. No one in New England who is investing in private prep school wants their kids to attend a state school, they are usually back ups. That was my point, I expected more "dots" at the southern Ivy's or at least private colleges. The prep school in JAX has more than one full time college counselor on staff so that made it even more surprising.

I know Bolles is in PVB so it is a local school to you. When I discussed our move to JAX with the school placement coordinator (who attended Deerfield Academy) in CT he relayed to me that we would not be happy at Bolles. Bolles has a certain reputation outside of FL.

And yes I know wealthy parents who send their children to public high schools.

[jwolfer]

Originally Posted by marylandmom2011

UF and FS are fine state schools, nothing special. No one in New England who is investing in private prep school wants their kids to attend a state school, they are usually back ups. That was my point, I expected more "dots" at the southern Ivy's or at least private colleges. The prep school in JAX has more than one full time college counselor on staff so that made it even more surprising.

I know Bolles is in PVB so it is a local school to you. When I discussed our move to JAX with the school placement coordinator (who attended Deerfield Academy) in CT he relayed to me that we would not be happy at Bolles. Bolles has a certain reputation outside of FL.

And yes I know wealthy parents who send their children to public high schools.

Just curious what is this certain reputation? Sounds so scandalous.

New England is far from here, many of the parents went to schools in the Southeast. There is not the number of legacy students as in CT, NY or NJ. Kids might not want to go to another part of the country for school. I would venture to say that the number of kids going to New England Colleges from fancy schools in Kansas City or Denver would be similar to Jacksonville.

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by marylandmom2011

UF and FS are fine state schools, nothing special. No one in New England who is investing in private prep school wants their kids to attend a state school, they are usually back ups. That was my point, I expected more "dots" at the southern Ivy's or at least private colleges. The prep school in JAX has more than one full time college counselor on staff so that made it even more surprising.

I know Bolles is in PVB so it is a local school to you. When I discussed our move to JAX with the school placement coordinator (who attended Deerfield Academy) in CT he relayed to me that we would not be happy at Bolles. Bolles has a certain reputation outside of FL.

And yes I know wealthy parents who send their children to public high schools.

You didn't get accurate information. The main Bolles campus - the high school - isn't in PVB. It's in San Marco. There are 2 prek-5 campuses - one in PVB and one in San Marco. The middle school - 6-8 - is in a completely different part of town - on Bartram Road. I think that's Arlington (but am not sure). I am not quite sure how the middle school campus wound up where it is.

I've known/met some parents/kids who've been happy with Bolles. Others who weren't. But I could say the same about other schools as well. All schools are different - all kids are different. For example - one friend of mine whose daughter was at Nease (before Ponte Vedra High School opened) - was so unhappy with the "fast" crowd her daughter was a part of there that she yanked the kid out of Nease and sent her to a Catholic school (even though she was Jewish!). She thought her daughter needed the discipline. So I would take all the anecdotal evidence you hear with several large grains of salt.

Since you live here now - why not just check out all the schools/neighborhoods you might be interested in? See if they're a good fit for your kids. Robyn

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by snuffybear

Niche is pretty superficial in their ratings...this is not an official source.

What is the Florida source for the school ratings that they use to claim #1?

Florida Department of Education. Robyn

[jwolfer]

Originally Posted by Robyn55

You didn't get accurate information. The main Bolles campus - the high school - isn't in PVB. It's in San Marco. There are 2 prek-5 campuses - one in PVB and one in San Marco. The middle school - 6-8 - is in a completely different part of town - on Bartram Road. I think that's Arlington (but am not sure). I am not quite sure how the middle school campus wound up where it is.

I've known/met some parents/kids who've been happy with Bolles. Others who weren't. But I could say the same about other schools as well. All schools are different - all kids are different. For example - one friend of mine whose daughter was at Nease (before Ponte Vedra High School opened) - was so unhappy with the "fast" crowd her daughter was a part of there that she yanked the kid out of Nease and sent her to a Catholic school (even though she was Jewish!). She thought her daughter needed the discipline. So I would take all the anecdotal evidence you hear with several large grains of salt.

Since you live here now - why not just check out all the schools/neighborhoods you might be interested in? See if they're a good fit for your kids. Robyn

I think that in olden days when Bolles was a boys school Bartram was the girls school.

The fast crowd at the exclusive schools can be pretty fast. They have money for the good drugs LOL.

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by snuffybear

UF is considered both a "public ivy" (top public universities) and a "best value" school. However, it IS a huge state university with 50-some thousand students...much bigger than most/all private/ivy league universities.

When push comes to shove, UF is a great deal. So even though many apply to highly competitive colleges, they often end up staying in-state due to the reasonable tuition (especially with Bright Futures). And, heck, some of those private school parents spent a lot on private high school.

There are smart kids here, there are smart kids in the northeast, in the midwest and west. I agree with the above poster about 1) science being better here (Daily, not supplemental in elementary school and more hands-on and challenging in middle school; and 2) music and the arts (and even PE) being more comprehensive in the northeast than in FL. Instrumental music (band and orchestra) started in 4th grade up north. Spanish started in 3rd grade. ALL students took Art, Music and PE EVERY year thru 8th grade. FL has made cuts to these areas and/or perhaps never offered instrumental music in elementary.

The top public school kids do just as well as the top kids in private schools, getting into the same levels of colleges. Sure, a small private school is nice, the question is whether it is worth the transportation and cost involved.

I went to a pretty big school - Cornell - so I don't have any issues with how big UF is. Note that Cornell and UF are both "land grant" universities. And while all the schools at UF are "public" - Cornell is a mix of public and private (they even have different tuition rates):

Cornell University: Private or Public? | Alive Campus

UF is a very competitive school these days. The average SAT scores of the kids who are admitted these days are higher than those in my class at Cornell were.

It is impossible to overemphasize the role that money is playing when it comes to college admissions these days. Many colleges - including many private ones that aren't even particularly good - cost a bloody fortune today. Parents are increasingly unable to cough up the money - and students are increasingly leery of taking on huge amounts of debt to finance their educations. Also - more schools are courting parents/students who can and will pay these huge amounts of money and don't need financial assistance (a family member of mine ran into this - IIRC - at Stanford). Your ability to write a big check every year may help your kid get into a school as much as your kid's "community service hours".

Also - I don't know about other states or other professions - but going to UF/UF law school will help your legal career as much if not more than going to a place like Yale. There is an awful lot of networking and "good old boy" stuff that goes on. So I guess kids/parents have to consider where a kid is likely to wind up - and what the kid might want to do.

Again - to get back to the money - I'll give you one eye-popping comparison. When I graduated from Harvard Law School in 1971 - tuition was $1750. And room and board and food and misc. expenses probably brought the annual total to something like $3000-3500. Today - tuition is $57200. And those other expenses bring estimated annual costs to about $85000:

Cost of Attendance | Harvard Law School

How crazy is that? Robyn

[Robyn55]

Originally Posted by jwolfer

I think that in olden days when Bolles was a boys school Bartram was the girls school.

The fast crowd at the exclusive schools can be pretty fast. They have money for the good drugs LOL.

I never thought of Nease (which is where my friend's daughter went) as being that exclusive . Robyn

[snuffybear]

Originally Posted by Robyn55

I went to a pretty big school - Cornell - so I don't have any issues with how big UF is. Note that Cornell and UF are both "land grant" universities. And while all the schools at UF are "public" - Cornell is a mix of public and private (they even have different tuition rates):

Cornell University: Private or Public? | Alive Campus

UF is a very competitive school these days. The average SAT scores of the kids who are admitted these days are higher than those in my class at Cornell were.

From google -
Cornell has 21,850 students
UF has 51,725 students


Agree UF is competitive (attracts many competitive out of state students that want to go to college in FL!)...but Cornell has gotten more competitive also.

[snuffybear]

Originally Posted by marylandmom2011

UF and FS are fine state schools, nothing special. No one in New England who is investing in private prep school wants their kids to attend a state school, they are usually back ups. That was my point, I expected more "dots" at the southern Ivy's or at least private colleges. The prep school in JAX has more than one full time college counselor on staff so that made it even more surprising.

I know Bolles is in PVB so it is a local school to you. When I discussed our move to JAX with the school placement coordinator (who attended Deerfield Academy) in CT he relayed to me that we would not be happy at Bolles. Bolles has a certain reputation outside of FL.

And yes I know wealthy parents who send their children to public high schools.

Which schools are the "southern Ivys", and good private colleges in the southeast?

And what is the Bolles reputation? Mostly a sports oriented prep school? (I think that is the reputation in FL).