British Mom moving to HP/UP/PH or Lakewood?? Help! (Houston: fit in, credit)

[HockDad]

Lakewood is not a good fit for Hockaday, ESD, Greenhill, or St. Marks. The commute would be a pain, plus you would have very few classmates that live close to your house.

As for the community feel between park cities and PH, if your kids go to private school, I would expect that a majority of your social circle would be other private school parents, regardless of whether you live in the PC or PH. If you have kids in both public and private, I would expect that you would float between the circles.

I go back to my original statement, if you feel the need to buy, in your circumstances, the Park Cities is a very safe choice.

[Lakewooder]

Lakewood is farthest from Hockaday and St. Mark's -- I mean it's doable, like 30 minutes probably, but Preston Hollow is closest. However, they don't have the sense of community that Lakewood has...I'm sure they probably look down on Lakewood in fact. You may find it ironic that this pleases some of us in Lakewood to no end. We are different and they don't understand. "Dallitude" is comic to us, since we have the most natives and don't suffer from that affliction (there are a few ringers).

Don't be misled - the majority of people in 75214 choose public school and that is growing (enrollment up 200 in middle school and 250 in high school over the last three years). So you do have a back-up with Long and Woodrow, which by-the-way, have the only International Baccalaureate programs in DISD. I know of a couple who recently transfered to Woodrow from Greenhill, and supposedly half the sophomore class of a local private school jumped ship for our school.

Of course if you are into the prestige thing, don't choose Lakewood.

[anonperson]

St. Marks, Hockaday and Greenhill are not the only option in town. Certainly, if you have to send your kids to a top private school, live in North Dallas/Preston Hollow as that is closest to these three private schools (and you'll have to as it has significantly worse public schools than Lakewood and Park Cities). Otherwise, give serious consideration to Lakewood and Park Cities, both of which are closer in to town and boast great public schools and fantastic communities. Regarding public schools, Park Cities is probably consistently better top to bottom of class, whereas Lakewood is probably stronger on the very top end (boasting strong Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate offerings, as well as partnerships with prestigious DISD magnets). I think you will know where you belong if you spend a little time in each neighborhood. Our vote is Lakewood, but we're probably more laid back than your average Preston Hollow/Park Cities person. They're all nice areas, so you can't go wrong with any of them. Good luck, and welcome to Dallas.

[HockDad]

Originally Posted by anonperson

St. Marks, Hockaday and Greenhill are not the only option in town. Certainly, if you have to send your kids to a top private school, live in North Dallas/Preston Hollow as that is closest to these three private schools (and you'll have to as it has significantly worse public schools than Lakewood and Park Cities). Otherwise, give serious consideration to Lakewood and Park Cities, both of which are closer in to town and boast great public schools and fantastic communities. Regarding public schools, Park Cities is probably consistently better top to bottom of class, whereas Lakewood is probably stronger on the very top end (boasting strong Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate offerings, as well as partnerships with prestigious DISD magnets). I think you will know where you belong if you spend a little time in each neighborhood. Our vote is Lakewood, but we're probably more laid back than your average Preston Hollow/Park Cities person. They're all nice areas, so you can't go wrong with any of them. Good luck, and welcome to Dallas.

This is the first time that I have heard that Lakewood is better at the top than HP. It must come as a surprise to the 12 NMSF at HP compared to how many at Lakewood? I don't know how many Lakewood had, but DISD (which includes Lakewood for the OP), with thousands and thousands of seniors, had 14? (including those kick butt DISD magnets). My guess is that Lakewood probably had no more than 1-2 NMSFs. DISD is a subpar district, and Lakewood is the star of that district. It is a great neighborhood, and I love it, but the schools are no where near HPISD.

[anonperson]

NMSF's are not the best metric for comparing schools, and it wouldn't be appropriate to compare NMSF's across these two schools in any event since Woodrow is a small 3A and HP is a large 4A.

My point is that if you actually looked at the grades/SAT at the top end of Woodrow and at the top end of HPHS, you would see that they're very similar. Additionally, the kids at the top of both schools will be going to the same universities and have the same options (and that's what really matters right?). That's my point.

I already noted that the middle and bottom of Woodrow can't compete with HPHS, and that's for obvious reasons (Woodrow pulls in kids from outside of Lakewood where they don't have the socioeconomic advantages of Lakewood or the Park Cities).

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by HockDad

This is the first time that I have heard that Lakewood is better at the top than HP. It must come as a surprise to the 12 NMSF at HP compared to how many at Lakewood? I don't know how many Lakewood had, but DISD (which includes Lakewood for the OP), with thousands and thousands of seniors, had 14? (including those kick butt DISD magnets). My guess is that Lakewood probably had no more than 1-2 NMSFs. DISD is a subpar district, and Lakewood is the star of that district. It is a great neighborhood, and I love it, but the schools are no where near HPISD.

Thanks for beating me to it! What a laugh!!! Woodrow's top students being superior to HP's. Hahaha!!!

Anonperson, HP has had 39 NMSF in the last 3 graduating classes vs 1 for Woodrow. The best thing about comparing a "small 3A" school to a "large 4A" is to look a the percent of class making NMSF. For Woodrow, it's about .1% vs 2.5% for HP. An "average" US high school has .5% of class named NMSF so not only does Woodrow significantly lag HP, it's about 80% below average.

NMSF is the best way to compare stregnth of class since none of the other AP / SAT / ACT results are reported by class rank/ percentile. How else can we statistically prove that Woodrow is better than HP? What do you propose, anonperson??

One subjective thing we can examine is where the top 2 grads from HP and Woodrow have matriculated since that is published in the DMN each summer. Here are the lists for the past few years:

Woodrow- Yale, UC-San Diego, NYU, SMU, Southwestern, Duke, Wellseley, Northwestern

HP- Harvard x 2, Princeton, Columbia, Yale, Brown, SMU, Clemson

HP is sending 75% of top grads to Ivy schools/ T20 and Woodrow is sending 12% to Ivy and only 50% to T20 schools. You can't use the economics reason to explain Woodrow's low Ivy matriculation since Ivies are free for families making <$60k and only 10% of income as tuition for incomes between $61-160k.

I just point the top student matriculation records out as you said the top students were ending up at the same schools ("which is really what is important") but in fact, the vast majority of even the top Woodrow students aren't ending up at the same schools.

[HockDad]

I respect your opinion, but I just disagree. If you compare the top 30 kids at WW and the top 30 kids at HP, you would see a huge difference between academic achievement and where they are going to college. WW is the best of the DISD schools. It might even be better than Lake Highlands (although I doubt it), but it is not HP. There are many reasons to pick WW- you want ethnic diversity, you want economic diversity, you want your kids to be a star, you love the community, etc. However, the top 30 kids at WW are not NMSFs (which I do consider the best way to compare schools) nor are they going to top 25 colleges. It is no surprise that the top schools in DFW (St. Marks, PESH, Greenhill, Hockaday, HP) all have very good NMSF numbers and their top students matriculate to top 25 schools.

[Lakewooder]

And, there we have it, my point has been proved: derisive "Dallitude"!

[HockDad]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

And, there we have it, my point has been proved: derisive "Dallitude"!

Lets be clear, I think Lakewood is great. Further, I agree that PH has far less community feel than Lakewood. And, I don't live in the Park Cities. But it was a silly statement made by the poster, and if you think calling her out for saying that the top kids at WW are "consistently better" than the top kids at HP, then I certainly have a Dallitude.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

And, there we have it, my point has been proved: derisive "Dallitude"!

Oh, chill out Lakewooder. It's not "Dallitude" to suggest that glorious Lakewood ranks behind HPHS in academics. It's common fact. And I haven't seen anyone show statistics that prove Woodrow's top kids are academically superior to HP's....

Did you even read the past above where I complimented Lakewood as having the most neighborhood oriented community (vs school oriented in HPISD or PH) of the three choices?