Moorestown, Maple Shade, Mount Laurel, Delran (private schools, move to, budget)

[fifi507]

I found a place in a small set of apartments/condos called Winstead Village in Moorestown. It's in (seemingly) a very nice residential neighborhood and is made up of about 40 apartments. No pool, workout center, etc, but it's 1000 sq ft with a full size washer/dryer, dishwasher, new appliances, etc. so looks like a nice place. Thanks for all of the comments and direction.

[cynnnabun]

Originally Posted by ElizNJ

We used to rent in Mt. Laurel and purchased a home in Delran. They are both very nice, but Mt. Laurel is much larger and more spread out than Delran. If you are going to be renting, my advice would be to stay away from the apartment "complexes" especially Hunters Glen (Delran) and Fox Meadow (Maple Shade). There are some very nice condos and townhomes in the area that you can rent. Personally, I don't see anything nice about Maple Shade and would stay away from there. Moorestown is a lovely place, however pricier than the others. Also check out Palmyra and Cinnaminson.

I have lived in Maple Shade and Cinnaminson, and I would take Maple Shade over Palmyra ANY day. I would absolutely never send my daughter to Palmyra schools. There is nothing wrong with Maple Shade.

[frankgn87]

Id put it in this order. Moorestown, Cinnaminson, Mt Laurel, Delran and maple shade. Nothing is wrong with any of the towns .. they are all very nice.

[knicksin8]

Originally Posted by mike0421

Lenape, Seneca and Shawnee are rated only behind Berkeley Heights and Haddonfield when it comes to school rating in the state.

How come Lenape, Seneca, and Shawnee are rated as mediocre on the NJ Monthly HS rankings? The rankings do not seem to reflect the excellence you speak of.

[MoorestownResident]

Originally Posted by AKF

Can anyone give me any input on any of the above places?

Thanks!

I would rank:

1. Moorestown
2. Mount Laurel
3. Delran
4. Maple Shade

ML and Delran are very close, but I'd give the nod to ML on overall school quality.

[HubCityMadMan]

I would definitely rate Delran above Maple Shade. Nothing wrong with Maple Shade, but very blue collar. Delran and the others are more white collar.

[NJGOAT]

Originally Posted by knicksin8

How come Lenape, Seneca, and Shawnee are rated as mediocre on the NJ Monthly HS rankings? The rankings do not seem to reflect the excellence you speak of.

You have to look at how the rankings are compiled. They often have odd weighting factors that make one school worse then another when they are very much equal academically. One example is that they give huge credit to small class sizes and low teacher:student ratios, which means actual academic measures carry less weight then these "administrative" measures.

For instance, Gloucester City is an Abbott District, which means the state classifies it as among the worst. No one in the area considers Gloucester City a good school district. Yet, on the NJ Monthly rankings they are in the top 200 because they have small class sizes, good teacher:student ratios, etc. It is ranked higher then schools like Kingsway Regional, which absolutely destroys Gloucester City (it is academically tied with schools in the top 100) in every objective measure, but has large class sizes and higher student:teacher ratios.

Overall, the NJ Monthly rankings are interesting to look at from their statistical data (if you go to their site you can actually download the individual datasets and sort them and examine them), but I would NOT consider their place rankings a very good measure. They also go out to many decimal places in their scoring so you can have a school ranked 150 be very nearly statistically tied to one ranked 50, yet they assign each a "ranking".

Overall, you want to ask peoples opinions and then look into some of the grading sites like greatschools to get a general picture.

[volpster31]

Originally Posted by frankgn87

Id put it in this order. Moorestown, Cinnaminson, Mt Laurel, Delran and maple shade. Nothing is wrong with any of the towns .. they are all very nice.

i agree 100% with frank with this order

[NJTomatoguy]

I bought my house here in Maple Shade 12 years ago. Best thing I ever did.
Reasonable taxes(compared to where I came from in central jersey)
Small town feel
Everything I need in a short distance. Shopping/mall/Home Depot/Lowes
Fenced yard, 4 car driveway
Street is plowed in the winter-not all streets are.
4 miles to 295 and turnpike
Works for me..

[sdprncs24]

Can someone tell me about how long it would take to drive from either of these cities to Pascataway, NJ? My boyfriend will be working in Philly and we are looking for an area that is somewhat central to both. I realize these are closer to Philly but I wonder just how bad the traffic and commute might be. I work from 8-5.

Thank you!