Wichita Collegiate School & Koch Industries

[MeandMyFamily]

I live in Wichita and work for Koch. I relocated a few years ago with my family and have no regrets. If you can track down an index for affordable housing in cities nationwide, I'm sure you'll find Wichita high on that list. And more specifically, you will find many suitable homes in the general area of Koch and Collegiate in your price range.I don't have much to tell you about Collegiate other than they seem to have a very good reputation. My children attend the poorly rated public schools, but I've been very pleased thus far. As for the individual above who commented about Koch poorly, I'm not sure of the basis for most of their statements. Koch employees do work hard by some standards, but I wouldn't call them unreasonable by any means. Especially if you're coming from a larger or 'faster paced' city (I don't mean that as pretentious as it sounds, I came from one of those cities and all I can say is "good riddance.") And they compensate their employees for their sacrifices. If that constitutes treating their employees like crap then I guess Koch is guilty as charged. More importantly, I recommend getting a copy of Charles Koch's book. If his philosophies are lost on you, I might suggest looking elsewhere for employment.Good Luck and welcome to Wichita.

[Cymballine]

I graduated from Wichita Collegiate six years ago. it prepared me for college very well, and most of the teachers are excellent. Socially, though, it was very often brutal. The environment was very cliqueish, and the clientele by and large consisted of the wealthiest families in Wichita (many of whom seeming to think that this fact bestowed upon them super-human status). The neighborhoods in the WCS area are generally regarded as some of the most upscale in Wichita (i.e Country Place, Lakepoint, Foliage Estates). I grew up about a mile west of WCS in a charming, moderately priced neighborhood that was very safe.

[spaderluva]

i agree with cymballine, i also graduated from wcs. wcs is a great school, but the students can be stuck up and your child may feel out of place if you don't have a lot of money. there are many affluent families that send their kids here and each building is named after a family that donated greatly to the school. Charles Koch sent his kids their (the upper school is named after him), so it is good. make sure you get your kid a nice car, many of the kids have bmws, volvos, ect.

[nfrench]

We relocated to Wichita 16 months ago after a short stint in Phoenix, but we are from Chicago. We LOVE Wichita. You get all the amentities of large cities, without the hassles. My husband has an additional 2 hrs and 20 minutes in his day. We have neighbors who work for Koch and similiar companies. They acknowlegde the easier pace of work/life here. You definitely will not be working crazy long hours like the big cities, but at a company like Koch will pay you well and expect you to work hard for them. I do not think you will be diappointed about the work/life balance here.
As far as my thoughts and places to live and send to school. We wanted to be in Wichita for several reasons and we have no regrets abut where we bought. Our neighborhood borders Colliegiate. But we do see in hindsight that we could have spent a lot less on a home. People from Kansas are very conservative with the money and it has been a nice change for us. Colligiate has a great reputation, we decided not to send our son there, we choose a smaller school, just k-8. Many of my neighbors go to St. Thomas k-8, Kapun 9-12, Colligiate and Independent. We go to Holy Cross. We liked their test scores, size of school and it was much cheaper then the rest of the schools. We figure we will save our money for middle school and high school. I have met several grown-ups who transfered into Colligiate in Jr.high or high school and they did just fine. Anyway, many of our neighbors gor to Colligiate and we were told we had to go there. What e have come to realize from everything we have heard, is that many parents to not find the value in the lower school, preschool through 5th grade, but definitely see it from Jr. High up, one reason being jr high is when they start taking Latin. There are a lot of great neighborhoods to choose from. You will easily be able to hit your target range for a home. If you are considering Colligiate, than do not move out to Andover. Their taxes are high, homes expensive and people really move there for the schools. Which you might not need. So why pay for it? Let meknow if you have any questions. I tried to think of everything.