Why is Highland/University Park the Most Expensive Place in Town? (Dallas: sale, home sales)

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by 1957TabbyCat

At least 1300 to 1500 on the old 1600 scale. If your not at least in that area I not impressed. Sorry.
."

You are aware that the only high schools in Dallas that meet that criteria - an AVERAGE SAT score in the 1300-1500 range- are Hockaday, St Mark's, and I believe Cisterican, right????

An average SAT in that range is completely unrealistic for a public neighborhood high school.


The top 1/4-1/3 of HPHS scores in the 1300+ range.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by cyclone8570

I'm not sure why parents focus so much on having their kids attend a "top" school district, when they may be better served by having them attend a "good" school district and putting in extra time throughout their life to teach them and keep them ahead of the game academically.

For high school... In Texas top 10% matters. If you are in a "top" school district with few students, it may be harder for your child to reach this range than if they are in a "good" school district with a large student body. It is critical that said school district offers lots of AP classes though.

Top 10% does matter, yet HPHS routinely sends about 20% of the senior class to UT, including those outside the top 10% and those without alumni connections. Every college in the US is familiar with the top public high schools to judge applicants accordingly. UT is no exception and would likely take a top 50% HPHS grad with a 1250 SAT, a couple of passing AP exams, and 4 years of a solid EC or 2 in the open admissions pool.

[1957TabbyCat]

Originally Posted by cyclone8570

I'm not sure why parents focus so much on having their kids attend a "top" school district, when they may be better served by having them attend a "good" school district and putting in extra time throughout their life to teach them and keep them ahead of the game academically.

For high school... In Texas top 10% matters. If you are in a "top" school district with few students, it may be harder for your child to reach this range than if they are in a "good" school district with a large student body. It is critical that said school district offers lots of AP classes though.

Parents who take the time with thier children may be the reason behind success for many kids.

A good High School curriculum will look alot like a college curriculum. I wish I could find the college prep HS curriculum for Jersey City around 1917. It comes up in articles from time to time.

Some parents are doing just that getting kids to go to a good school vs top, worked for us on oldest child. Quite a few parents are targeting good vs top Public HS's for the payoff.

Anyone wanting to live in Park Cities needs to think long and hard. I sure would not want to pinch pennies to be there, on the other hand if paying 500K and up for a home, way up, would be a walk in the Park, sounds like maybe not such a bad idea.

The average student anywhere including the best public HS's in the metroplex really is not getting a world class education for an increasingly smaller planet.

Not seeing people on Welfare driving luxury calls dropping off foodstamp kids would be a choice benefit and that might be worh paying more to live in Park Cities. But then I am likely paying taxes to subsidize the employees
of many Park Cities people who crave cheap help.

[nakold23]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

You are aware that the only high schools in Dallas that meet that criteria - an AVERAGE SAT score in the 1300-1500 range- are Hockaday, St Mark's, and I believe Cisterican, right????

An average SAT in that range is completely unrealistic for a public neighborhood high school.


The top 1/4-1/3 of HPHS scores in the 1300+ range.

Greenhill is well over 1300 and I believe ESD is also. But we are talking elite (20,000) dollar private schools here. It is unrealistic to expect an average score that high in public schools

[GreyDay]

Originally Posted by cyclone8570

I'm not sure why parents focus so much on having their kids attend a "top" school district, when they may be better served by having them attend a "good" school district and putting in extra time throughout their life to teach them and keep them ahead of the game academically.

For high school... In Texas top 10% matters. If you are in a "top" school district with few students, it may be harder for your child to reach this range than if they are in a "good" school district with a large student body. It is critical that said school district offers lots of AP classes though.

There's more in heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

There's more than just Texas. Wow, I just said it. Shake and Bake. That just happened.

So if you've got a good gpa, good SAT's and strong AP's you can go to a great school, even if you're not in the top 10%.

[synchronicity]

Originally Posted by nakold23

Greenhill is well over 1300 and I believe ESD is also. But we are talking elite (20,000) dollar private schools here. It is unrealistic to expect an average score that high in public schools

Exactly, and (correct me if I'm wrong) those schools have an "admissions" process where they select students, they don't just take everyone who shows up and whose parents write a 20K check.

The aforementioned New Trier has an average ACT of 27.2 and SAT's as TC reported of 1910 on all 3 sections. As noted, in that metric it exceeds HP, yet still falls short of tabbycat's criteria.

If one wants to argue that public schools in general are not doing as good of a job educating today's children as they should, that's one argument. But if one is trying to determine which public school districts are the best, then setting an impossibly high standard and basically saying "none of them are" doesn't help much.

[nakold23]

Originally Posted by synchronicity

Exactly, and (correct me if I'm wrong) those schools have an "admissions" process where they select students, they don't just take everyone who shows up and whose parents write a 20K check.

The aforementioned New Trier has an average ACT of 27.2 and SAT's as TC reported of 1910 on all 3 sections. As noted, in that metric it exceeds HP, yet still falls short of tabbycat's criteria.

If one wants to argue that public schools in general are not doing as good of a job educating today's children as they should, that's one argument. But if one is trying to determine which public school districts are the best, then setting an impossibly high standard and basically saying "none of them are" doesn't help much.

You are correct. The elite private schools (St. Marks, Greenhill, Hockaday, Cistercian) have low acceptance rates that rival many colleges. It is really impossible to find a neighborhood that would have a majority of kids capable of scoring that high on their SATs without any sort of admission process.

I think Public Schools are what the children make of them. If students work hard and focus on academics, they can achieve a high academic standard almost anywhere, but the unfortunate reality is LOTS of children in public schools do not have academics as a primary focus.

[1957TabbyCat]

Originally Posted by aceplace

Unfortunately for that theory, Cockrell Hill is also a landlocked enclave, and is not particularly posh.

That was a small enclave, alot of people did not want to be after the sun went down in years past. It was a white enclave but more respectable white working class well into the 1980's.

The differences is HP was for more affluent classes of people, then spilled over into UP.....I used to think the houses in UP were a joke until the land become valuable and most were torn down.

Alot of of the homes in Cockerell Hill were meant to be lived in for generaltions. Often large lots, and additions on homes for relatives and also for not moving. It tipped over and now is Hispanic Dominated. Former mayor now dead Lynette Strauss? and her cronies pumped some money to push over the last domino too. It would have fallen anyway.

No one was able to jerk the chains of the HP people. It still surprises me to this day as that includes the Feds. The technicality of being small cities helped alot too.

The people running Park Cities have alot more pull and brains then those who were running Cockrell Hill. In Historic context, the people who ran Cockrell Hill could have been small fish in HP. But were large fish in a pond of small fish.

HP and UP would fall slowly if one day they were told that thier school systems were going to be made part of the DISD.

There is an area of Oak Cliff, Kessler Park that has alot of the same kind of houses that original HP had. It has held up rather well, susprising me over the past few decades. People have bought in Kessler Park if they did not need the HP school system or are willing to private school or home school. Also quite a few of the people who kept Kessler Park going are not going to be "producing children anytime soon."

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by 1957TabbyCat

The differences is HP was for more affluent classes of people, then spilled over into UP.....I used to think the houses in UP were a joke until the land become valuable and most were torn down.

WTH?? You must not know the most expensive homes - on acreage- in the Park Cities are in UP's Volk Estates......which was established back in the 1920's. Also, all the homes between the YMCA & the DCC are all in UP. Some goregous creek front lots back in there.

[MckinneyOwnr]

I think he's probably referring to the area north of Lovers. None of those homes are sitting on acreage, in fact a lot of them have even smaller lots than my home.