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Having lived near Smithtown, I am familiar with Huntington. For me, I get a similar feel here in Prince Willam County. Woodbridge is located in Prince William County. There are two "sides" of Woodbridge. The schools located closer to Route 1 generally perform lower, with the exception of our traditional school, Porter.
A few people have mentioned Lake Ridge and Westridge, which are really just subdivisions within Woodbridge. Lake Ridge is a very large master planned community with three elementary schools and a middle school; all of which are high performing schools. Lake Ridge is an older community and because of its reputation, you will pay more for rentals and home purchases. You do not have to go far for sports teams if you lived in Lake Ridge. Lake Ridge has soccer, t-ball, and flag-football teams. My children actually played for both Lake Ridge Soccer and the county league, PWSI. The advantage of the Lake Ridge teams is that all practices and games are played within the community on our fields. Versus with the county leagues you may have to go cross town. I love the fact that my children have experienced a wide range of sports in Prince William County, including golf and lacrosse. BUT, Bristow from what I here is a very nice newer community within Prince Willaum County. It is about 25 minutes from Woodbridge. You will be able to get more house for your money in Bristow with good schools. Two of our neighbors have moved to Bristow and they love it.
Some people have made posts about Lorton, West Springfield, and Lake Bradock. All of those areas are in another county, Fairfax County. I lived in Fairfax County about 10 years ago, so I feel I am allowed to say that, Fairfax is over rated. I have not found anything that Fairfax County offers that Prince William does not. Fairfax does have some of the highest rated schools in the nation; I do not recall the Lorton, West Springfield and Lake Braddock area schools being on that list. The highly rated Fairfax schools are located in areas that would be at least a 45 minute commute into Woodbridge. Actually the number one high school in the nation is located in Fairfax, TJHS, and students just three weeks ago had their satellite launched into space. Awesome! But that high school, because it is so specialized accepts students from neighboring counties, such as Prince William.
Overall Prince William and Fairfax schools are similar. I prefer Prince William because they have specialty programs. If there is a program that you want your child to be in that another school offers, there is an application process and if accepted your child can go to that school. Currently, buses are provided just for those students.
Us too. It is a great area and the schools are good. I can't imagine why someone working in Woodbridge would choose to move somewhere else that makes them have a commute and costs more for less house/land when there are great affordable areas to live in here.
Hey, as Sergeant Schultz used to say, "I know nuzzing!" Hadn't heard anything good so far about areas within Woodbridge. That would certainly be our preference if it meets our criteria. What is the school district?
Having lived near Smithtown, I am familiar with Huntington. For me, I get a similar feel here in Prince Willam County. Woodbridge is located in Prince William County. There are two "sides" of Woodbridge. The schools located closer to Route 1 generally perform lower, with the exception of our traditional school, Porter.
A few people have mentioned Lake Ridge and Westridge, which are really just subdivisions within Woodbridge. Lake Ridge is a very large master planned community with three elementary schools and a middle school; all of which are high performing schools. Lake Ridge is an older community and because of its reputation, you will pay more for rentals and home purchases. You do not have to go far for sports teams if you lived in Lake Ridge. Lake Ridge has soccer, t-ball, and flag-football teams. My children actually played for both Lake Ridge Soccer and the county league, PWSI. The advantage of the Lake Ridge teams is that all practices and games are played within the community on our fields. Versus with the county leagues you may have to go cross town. I love the fact that my children have experienced a wide range of sports in Prince William County, including golf and lacrosse. BUT, Bristow from what I here is a very nice newer community within Prince Willaum County. It is about 25 minutes from Woodbridge. You will be able to get more house for your money in Bristow with good schools. Two of our neighbors have moved to Bristow and they love it.
Some people have made posts about Lorton, West Springfield, and Lake Bradock. All of those areas are in another county, Fairfax County. I lived in Fairfax County about 10 years ago, so I feel I am allowed to say that, Fairfax is over rated. I have not found anything that Fairfax County offers that Prince William does not. Fairfax does have some of the highest rated schools in the nation; I do not recall the Lorton, West Springfield and Lake Braddock area schools being on that list. The highly rated Fairfax schools are located in areas that would be at least a 45 minute commute into Woodbridge. Actually the number one high school in the nation is located in Fairfax, TJHS, and students just three weeks ago had their satellite launched into space. Awesome! But that high school, because it is so specialized accepts students from neighboring counties, such as Prince William.
Overall Prince William and Fairfax schools are similar. I prefer Prince William because they have specialty programs. If there is a program that you want your child to be in that another school offers, there is an application process and if accepted your child can go to that school. Currently, buses are provided just for those students.
Terrific information, thank you. So what is the high school for Westridge and Lake Ridge? Is that highly regarded? We were just in Smithtown this past weekend for a soccer tournament. What a great area. We really miss it.
My wife just said last night, "I don't want to have to commute again." We have a daughter in competitive gymnastics and there looks like there is a very good gym in Woodbridge, Apollo. We have a daughter in club soccer, still trying to work out who she can play for that is close by. FC Virginia I believe is nearby.
I'll have to pull up the Lake Ridge house rentals and see what I can find.
Terrific information, thank you. So what is the high school for Westridge and Lake Ridge? Is that highly regarded? We were just in Smithtown this past weekend for a soccer tournament. What a great area. We really miss it.
My wife just said last night, "I don't want to have to commute again." We have a daughter in competitive gymnastics and there looks like there is a very good gym in Woodbridge, Apollo. We have a daughter in club soccer, still trying to work out who she can play for that is close by. FC Virginia I believe is nearby.
I'll have to pull up the Lake Ridge house rentals and see what I can find.
Westridge is a community with Lake Ridge, FYI. Maybe they consider themselves separate since they have their own community pool, etc., but I believe they are in the Lake Ridge area. That area feeds into Woodbridge high school which, at last view, was rated a 5 of 10 on the GreatSchools website. You'll get arguments back and forth as to how reliable an indicator that site is, I'm just presenting information. For what it's worth, Osbourn Park, which pulls from area just west of Westridge, is a 7, and I think it's the highest rated HS that serves parts of eastern PWC, even though it is technically located in Manassas.
One note about WestRidge...the way the districts are drawn, students attend Woodbridge middle school which is inconveniently located when compared to Lake Ridge Middle right down the street.
Thomas Jefferson, as mentioned a post above, draws the highest achieving students from all over and is rated a 10, no surprise. Wealthy areas in Fairfax such as McLean, Great Falls, North Arlington, Chantilly, etc. generally boast schools that are 9's and 10's across the board, but it's not easy to afford living there and your commute to Woodbridge would be longer than living in the area itself.
I live in Lake Ridge and can speak best about the immediate area, but the local elementary schools are all rated 7, 8, or 9. Lake Ridge Middle is an 8 and Woodbridge Middle is a 7. It's a small cut below, but you can still get a very good education. The drop off doesn't seem to occur in PWC, according to this site, until the high school level. And if you're willing to deal with commuting from Western PWC, there isn't much of a dropoff at all.
Westridge is a community with Lake Ridge, FYI. Maybe they consider themselves separate since they have their own community pool, etc., but I believe they are in the Lake Ridge area. That area feeds into Woodbridge high school which, at last view, was rated a 5 of 10 on the GreatSchools website. You'll get arguments back and forth as to how reliable an indicator that site is, I'm just presenting information. For what it's worth, Osbourn Park, which pulls from area just west of Westridge, is a 7, and I think it's the highest rated HS that serves parts of eastern PWC, even though it is technically located in Manassas.
One note about WestRidge...the way the districts are drawn, students attend Woodbridge middle school which is inconveniently located when compared to Lake Ridge Middle right down the street.
Thomas Jefferson, as mentioned a post above, draws the highest achieving students from all over and is rated a 10, no surprise. Wealthy areas in Fairfax such as McLean, Great Falls, North Arlington, Chantilly, etc. generally boast schools that are 9's and 10's across the board, but it's not easy to afford living there and your commute to Woodbridge would be longer than living in the area itself.
I live in Lake Ridge and can speak best about the immediate area, but the local elementary schools are all rated 7, 8, or 9. Lake Ridge Middle is an 8 and Woodbridge Middle is a 7. It's a small cut below, but you can still get a very good education. The drop off doesn't seem to occur in PWC, according to this site, until the high school level. And if you're willing to deal with commuting from Western PWC, there isn't much of a dropoff at all.
Ahhh, so there is the rub. Woodbridge HS isn't very highly rated. Was wondering why no one mentioned the HS! I don't know, we "settled" on a decent school district for our last move and have regretted it ever since. We have one in HS and another one will get there eventually. If someone would like to rustle some feathers and give me your opinion on Woodbridge HS I'd appreciate it. Why isn't it ranked very high? Is the problem the mix of students that go there, or something the school isn't doing well? We aren't going to live in Fairfax, we aren't going to TJ. A 25 minute commute isn't the end of the world if we have to end up in Western PWC.
Ahhh, so there is the rub. Woodbridge HS isn't very highly rated. Was wondering why no one mentioned the HS! I don't know, we "settled" on a decent school district for our last move and have regretted it ever since. We have one in HS and another one will get there eventually. If someone would like to rustle some feathers and give me your opinion on Woodbridge HS I'd appreciate it. Why isn't it ranked very high? Is the problem the mix of students that go there, or something the school isn't doing well? We aren't going to live in Fairfax, we aren't going to TJ. A 25 minute commute isn't the end of the world if we have to end up in Western PWC.
What to say...
My kids attended public school up through the 5th grade. I then moved them to parochial school for middle school because our middle school was SO BAD. When it came time for my oldest to go to high school, she really, really, really wanted to go back to public school. She chose Woodbridge H.S. (we aren't zoned for it) and she went into their Fine Arts program. She liked that well enough but the rest of the school left a lot to be desired for her. She is an average math and science student and she was put into the general population for those classes and put into advanced courses for the other. She didn't care for Woodbridge, although she had "fun" there and had plenty of friends. She said there seemed to be very definitive racial issues (some races dominated the lower cafeteria at lunch and so that was off limits for instance), and the regular-level classes were nothing but a bunch of goofing off and disruptions. Her very best friend got into some trouble with the cheerleaders and ended up having some big drama/saga with that and by the end of the year, my daughter was just so done with it and pretty much asked me to move her to a private high school where some of her other friends were going (Paul VI in Fairfax). That was our experience. I will tell you that I know many kids that went through 4 years of Woodbridge and it was absolutely fine. They got great educations, didn't mind the negatives, and went on to great colleges (UVA, Penn State, military academies, et al). So, it is what you make of it. I will say that if you have an "average" student, they might easily fall through the cracks there.
I do hear good things about the high schools in Western PWC and most of that is due to the lack of diversity/racial issues that tend to occur in the the eastern high schools. There is a LOT of diversity, both economic and racial, that exceeds the western part of the county. You have to decide if that's a big deal for you.
My kids attended public school up through the 5th grade. I then moved them to parochial school for middle school because our middle school was SO BAD. When it came time for my oldest to go to high school, she really, really, really wanted to go back to public school. She chose Woodbridge H.S. (we aren't zoned for it) and she went into their Fine Arts program. She liked that well enough but the rest of the school left a lot to be desired for her. She is an average math and science student and she was put into the general population for those classes and put into advanced courses for the other. She didn't care for Woodbridge, although she had "fun" there and had plenty of friends. She said there seemed to be very definitive racial issues (some races dominated the lower cafeteria at lunch and so that was off limits for instance), and the regular-level classes were nothing but a bunch of goofing off and disruptions. Her very best friend got into some trouble with the cheerleaders and ended up having some big drama/saga with that and by the end of the year, my daughter was just so done with it and pretty much asked me to move her to a private high school where some of her other friends were going (Paul VI in Fairfax). That was our experience. I will tell you that I know many kids that went through 4 years of Woodbridge and it was absolutely fine. They got great educations, didn't mind the negatives, and went on to great colleges (UVA, Penn State, military academies, et al). So, it is what you make of it. I will say that if you have an "average" student, they might easily fall through the cracks there.
I do hear good things about the high schools in Western PWC and most of that is due to the lack of diversity/racial issues that tend to occur in the the eastern high schools. There is a LOT of diversity, both economic and racial, that exceeds the western part of the county. You have to decide if that's a big deal for you.
Thanks! You explained it very well and inoffensively, I'd say.
I've lived in Bristow since 2003 and my son is in middle school. I hear great things about Patriot, but as with most of our middle and high schools, they are overcrowded. We toured the building when they finished construction on Patriot (built next to the new ES of T Clay Wood which we loved) and it's impressive. I would go to their website and take a look at the programs they offer. Marsteller MS will get some relief once the Nokesville K-8 school opens, but all the schools are slated to be overcrowded for quite awhile. There is also a number of residential zoning plans in the works for even more housing which will only add to the traffic and overcrowding of the schools.
I will say that I love living here except for the commute. My son has played soccer, flag football and basketball and can't say enough great things about the teams he has been on. We love our neighborhood and all the conveniences located close by. I lived in Fairfax county for many years (and work here) but I like that it doesn't take me 20 minutes to get anywhere on a Saturday just to run a few errands. While Bristow/Gainesville doesn't have big socioeconomic swings, we have our fair share of teenagers doing stupid things.
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I don't know, we "settled" on a decent school district for our last move and have regretted it ever since. We have one in HS and another one will get there eventually. If someone would like to rustle some feathers and give me your opinion on Woodbridge HS I'd appreciate it. Why isn't it ranked very high? Is the problem the mix of students that go there, or something the school isn't doing well? We aren't going to live in Fairfax, we aren't going to TJ. A 25 minute commute isn't the end of the world if we have to end up in Western PWC.
