The Woodlands High School vs. The Woodlands College Park (Houston: buying a house, safe area)

[Soccernerd]

I’m asking for a coworker. They She has 4 children who are elementary and middle school aged. She is going to be working at ExxonMobil at 45 and Grand Parkway, and her husband will be working at Halliburton near IAH. They would like to be as close to 45 as possible, but they’ll be working from home some days. She has narrowed her options to TWHS and TWCPHS. She is open to other options particularly to areas between their two places of employment. They have a budget of 400,000.
Her questions are:
Is there a difference academically or culturally between the two schools?
Is it worth buying an older house near McCullough that is in one of the closest neighborhoods to 45 zoned to TWHS?
Is it worth buying a house along FM 1488 in Woods of Jacobs Reserve? It seems kind of isolated, and there’s still of lot of undeveloped land. Will this area currently zoned to TWCPHS likely be rezoned in the future?

[Houston parent]

College Park is a very solid school, but TWHS is typically rated more highly. However, understand that the competition at TWHS is going to be so fierce that finishing with a top 10% class ranking will be challenging. The competition to make any sports team or even the band will also be tough. On top of that, TWHS is huge - not everybody likes a giant school. For those reasons, you might consider College Park.

[Soccernerd]

Thanks I’ll pass this on. My coworker was wanting a good school district close to her and her husband's offices but was wondering if it was worth buying an older house farther from 45

[Celiene61]

Depends on what type of students their children are. The most important issue is to graduate in the top ten percent of the class ranking, so as to pursue the Texas university of their choice.

Woodlands schools are competitive, but just keep this in mind....imagine trying to get your kids into St. John or some of the other private schools in Houston proper, where you are up against legacy candidates and east coast prep school candidates.

This is not meant to be snarky, nor passive aggressive....not at all. I lived out in The Woodlands for nine years prior to moving into the Greater Uptown area ( Tanglewood) and the parents in the Woods stress themselves out over these issues too often.

If their children are gifted, or extremely academic students, perhaps The John Cooper School ( which is said to be the sister academy to Kincaid in the Memorial area) would be a consideration. Look into scholarships, etc to some of the private schools.

BTW, it has been nine years since I resided in Carlton Woods, but I was privy to the mindset amoung the parents....they felt that College Park was the better campus, has that changed?

[Soccernerd]

I think the whole reason why they are thinking about The Woodlands is that it’s close to ExxonMobil and is a manageable distance to Halliburton and IAH. I might just encourage her to make a C-D account (but she doesn’t want a ton of Internet accounts or something).

They’re not wanting an insanely high performing school (public or otherwise) but do want schools that are challenging and have an honors program. I’ll have to ask if she'll consider private schools.

Are there decent, affordable private schools that are in a safe area around FM 1960 or otherwise between their places of employment?

[Texascrude]

Originally Posted by Soccernerd

I think the whole reason why they are thinking about The Woodlands is that it’s close to ExxonMobil and is a manageable distance to Halliburton and IAH. I might just encourage her to make a C-D account (but she doesn’t want a ton of Internet accounts or something).

They’re not wanting an insanely high performing school (public or otherwise) but do want schools that are challenging and have an honors program. I’ll have to ask if she'll consider private schools.

Are there decent, affordable private schools that are in a safe area around FM 1960 or otherwise between their places of employment?

Have they looked at homes in 77386? Depending on their budget, they could look at Spring Trails, Harmony, Woodson's Reserve, or Benders Landing. It's all zoned to Conroe ISD (same as the woodlands), and will be zoned to the new high school opening this year. Easy access to 99 and the Hardy, about 5 minutes to the XOM campus.

[3dogsnokids]

The size difference between college park and TWHS is negligible- mostly because TWHS has their 9th grade on a different campus, while it is only a 9th grade center on the same campus for College Park.

Also, if they do look in 77386- be careful, as some of that zip code will stay at Oak Ridge North, which is not rated very highly.

[Houston parent]

BTW, Conroe ISD has the Academy of Science & Technology that shares the College Park campus. It is a separate program and has competitive admissions:


Our Campus - Academy of Science and Technology

[Houston parent]

The Woodlands HS main campus serves grades 10-12 (9th grade is in a separate campus) and has 4,362 kids The Woodlands High School - Conroe ISD


College Park HS serves grades 9-12 and has 2,889 kids The Woodlands College Park High School - Conroe ISD I don't think that includes the 280 Academy of Science & Technology students, however.


TWHS has 1,454 kids per grade, while College Park has 722 kids per grade. Both large schools, but TWHS is much larger.

[Soccernerd]

Thank you all for your responses.

My coworker said that she’ll be looking at houses in the southern part of TWCP boundaries and the new Grand Oaks High School. She doesn’t really want to do private schools but might consider them.