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View Poll Results: Which do you prefer: Belmont or Lexington?
Belmont 37 48.05%
Lexington 40 51.95%
Voters: 77. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 06-16-2016, 03:37 PM
 
16,627 posts, read 29,293,919 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by riblue View Post
I vote Belmont. Lexington has the prestige factor and history. I love the nature in Belmont, the mill pond, Rock meadow, and Audubon. Waverly sq is grittier with triple Deckers and such. Belmont has better mass transit. And all this fuss about schools, is it not what the child puts into school that matters more than anything? A motivated kid with caring parents will do well in most any school system.

What is your opinion/knowledge of the Belmont Public Schools?
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Old 06-16-2016, 04:11 PM
 
Location: North Andover
550 posts, read 673,138 times
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Belmont schools rank 9 out of 10. They are great and I don't see what's the problem with sending a child to Belmont.
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Old 06-16-2016, 05:06 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sal1181 View Post
Belmont schools rank 9 out of 10. They are great and I don't see what's the problem with sending a child to Belmont.

How would you compare them to Lexington schools?
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Old 06-16-2016, 05:48 PM
 
Location: North Quabbin, MA
1,025 posts, read 1,516,000 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by riblue View Post
And all this fuss about schools, is it not what the child puts into school that matters more than anything? A motivated kid with caring parents will do well in most any school system.
I can attest to this, as a product of the Fitchburg schools with a master's degree. The obsessive focus on schools is unhealthy in this state. If you're not a s***bag, your kid probably won't be either, wherever you happen to raise them. In fact I know plenty of drugged out losers raised in Lexington, Groton, Harvard, etc, who had all the privileges in the world and not even necessarily s***bag parents, yet did not turn out fine. But wait many of them are kind of fine because they can squat in their folks' second home in Woodstock Vermont or Newport or on a pretty lake or something. All I'm sayin is nurture and strategically settling in safe and sterile Affluentville can only do so much!

Last edited by FCMA; 06-16-2016 at 05:56 PM..
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Old 06-16-2016, 06:57 PM
 
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
41,940 posts, read 36,716,568 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aries4118 View Post
How would you compare them to Lexington schools?

Less of a reputation as a pressure cooker.

I went to Belmont and it was competitive, but not insane. Out of my class of about 220 there were only three that didn't go directly to four year schools. I wasn't even in the top half of my class (I slacked early on) but still got into BU (I treated this as my safety, but I guess its considered decent now?), Bucknell, Lehigh, and others. Decided on UVM for the specific program, which was a bit of a niche.
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Old 06-16-2016, 08:17 PM
 
17 posts, read 16,789 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by semiurbanite View Post
Crazy. And then there is the reality:

3. Several Somerville and Cambridge elementary schools have non-low income MCAS scores on par and sometimes higher than the average in Lexington.
How do you find out a schools performance controlling for ses? Very interested in this for my town which is generally ranked average+ but most parents I know (admittedly higher ses) are very pleased/involved.
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Old 06-18-2016, 05:08 AM
 
6 posts, read 9,612 times
Reputation: 23
Having looked at both but ultimately deciding on Lexington, I agree that they are closely matched. With respect to hyper-awareness of the quality of the schools, I've heard the same of many other towns as well, so I thinks it's a bit disingenuous to think that mentality exists primarily in Lexington, or that it is a characteristic of most people who live here!

We've been extremely happy with the schools, our kids have had some outstanding teachers but if anything the schools have been a victim of their own success (real or not), as the classes are getting larger than many would like. A recent override, however, will help.

To the OPs original question, Lexington got our vote for its easy access to the town center, the quality of the and bike path, it's numerous conservation areas, fantastic library, and proximity to Cambridge. And yes, the schools were a factor but not the only factor.
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Old 06-18-2016, 08:05 AM
 
24,509 posts, read 17,974,587 times
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I think it depends on how your life is structured. If you work on 128 or up Route 3 in Bedford where getting to Boston is unimportant, I'd take Lexington because of the town center assuming I had the big pile of money to buy walkable to it. If I had to commute to Boston, Lexington doesn't help.
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Old 06-18-2016, 11:28 AM
 
16,627 posts, read 29,293,919 times
Reputation: 7550
Is Lexington's town center seen as more appealing (or better) than Belmont's town center?
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Old 06-18-2016, 09:02 PM
 
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
41,940 posts, read 36,716,568 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aries4118 View Post
Is Lexington's town center seen as more appealing (or better) than Belmont's town center?
Yes, I would say so, its a bit bigger, more historic, and there is a green (maybe two?) where they have events.
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