Wichita Collegiate School & Koch Industries (Andover, Ford: house, neighborhoods, buyers)

[RaulMansour]

Considering a move to Wichita. Never been there and don't know much about it. Are there nice neighborhoods within a reasonable drive to Wichita Collegiate School and Koch headquarters (in the $235,000 to $275,000 range)? What areas would you recommend?

Anyone know the current tuition for Wichita Collegiate School? I'm expecting about $15,000. Is it considered the top school there?

Any other advice for a Wichita newcomer would be welcome too. Have a spouse and one child.

I would appreciate any comments. Many thanks!

[geekychick]

Wichita Collegiate School is very good as well as any of the Catholic schools. The neighborhoods are very nice in that area like Tallgrass. It takes 20 minutes to get to KOCH from Andover, they have nice neighborhoods, Collegiate is about 10-15 minutes away and they have a new top of the line YMCA and Dillions Marketplace(above avg grocery store)

[crazyma]

Unless you are trying to impress someone,or have high faluting tastes, LOL, you can get a decent house in Wichita , near Koch and Col. for way less than 235k-275k.... heck I will sell you mine less than that!
As always I recommend the NE side of town, east of Oliver and north of Kellog, that area is close to Koch and private schools. We've been here 2 yrs and it is a somewhat refreshing change from Atlanta and Miami.
Don't know a lot about the schools, but Col. is pretty pricey- okay, I reckon if that is your thang.

Nice thing about here is you can live cheaper and bank some money....or blow it and live high

good luck!

[RaulMansour]

Originally Posted by crazyma

Unless you are trying to impress someone,or have high faluting tastes, LOL, you can get a decent house in Wichita , near Koch and Col. for way less than 235k-275k.... heck I will sell you mine less than that!
As always I recommend the NE side of town, east of Oliver and north of Kellog, that area is close to Koch and private schools. We've been here 2 yrs and it is a somewhat refreshing change from Atlanta and Miami.
Don't know a lot about the schools, but Col. is pretty pricey- okay, I reckon if that is your thang.

Nice thing about here is you can live cheaper and bank some money....or blow it and live high

good luck!

Thanks for the input. Definitely not trying to impress anyone. Just trying to get a sense of how far the dollar goes there. I drive a Ford...With that says, I do have a budget of $275,000 max and I have no idea about the area so I was just trying to get a sense. Also, I have only 1 child so private school is something I can swing...Any idea of the tuition?

[Samantha S]

Originally Posted by RaulMansour

Any idea of the tuition?

No, but they make it pretty easy to ask questions:

Wichita Collegiate School[Contacts]

[crazyma]

Hey Raul, according to Petersons, COl tuit. is around 12,500- not sure if that is up to date or what grade levels. Independent may be around 9000. There are several private schools over here on the east side, parochial, Christian,etc.
You can certainly get a pretty decent house here...we could have gone up into the high 300ks but found very suitable for half.
If you do want to buy a house- watch out for 'specials', as I understand a added 'tax' the builders pass on to the buyers. Older neighborhoods don't have them, or are close to being paid off. Can really throw the monthly payment higher on new builds.

[RaulMansour]

Originally Posted by crazyma

Hey Raul, according to Petersons, COl tuit. is around 12,500- not sure if that is up to date or what grade levels. Independent may be around 9000. There are several private schools over here on the east side, parochial, Christian,etc.
You can certainly get a pretty decent house here...we could have gone up into the high 300ks but found very suitable for half.
If you do want to buy a house- watch out for 'specials', as I understand a added 'tax' the builders pass on to the buyers. Older neighborhoods don't have them, or are close to being paid off. Can really throw the monthly payment higher on new builds.

Thanks to everyone for responding

Anyone have any insight on Koch? Quality of life / culture there? Thx

[Sco]

Koch has a horrible reputation as a place to work, they treat their employees like crap and the turnover rate is ridiculous. Wichita does not have very many jobs and Koch takes advantage of this lack of competition and treats people accordingly. You can expect long hours with a complete disregard for any work/life balance, small or non existent raises and office politics and management that you would expect to find in a 3rd world sweatshop.

I would be very hesitant to uproot my family and move to Wichita if the only reason was a job at Koch. Without a compelling reason like being close to family in the area and a strong Plan B, I would not even consider it.

[RaulMansour]

Originally Posted by Sco

Koch has a horrible reputation as a place to work, they treat their employees like crap and the turnover rate is ridiculous. Wichita does not have very many jobs and Koch takes advantage of this lack of competition and treats people accordingly. You can expect long hours with a complete disregard for any work/life balance, small or non existent raises and office politics and management that you would expect to find in a 3rd world sweatshop.

I would be very hesitant to uproot my family and move to Wichita if the only reason was a job at Koch. Without a compelling reason like being close to family in the area and a strong Plan B, I would not even consider it.

Sco - thanks for the information. Anyone else have thoughts on this?

[geekychick]

A friend of my husband works at Koch and yeah, they work pretty hard. Long hours.