Living in Golden Valley (or elsewhere) with kids (Minneapolis, Eagan: renting, buying a home)

[Kebinminn]

I know some kids who have graduated some Cooper and some that are still there. All are doing very well. From what I understand Cooper is massive and the kids just stick with their groups. If you're an IB / honors student then that's who your friends will be, pretty much the same as high school always has bee. FWIW the grads I know one is premed the other is getting a BA at the U, I think computer something or other. The girl I know who is still there came from a small private school, quickly made friends and is IB/honors. She is also doing well, I often see her and her friends around and they seem nice enough - just regular high school kids. Plus, there's also Armstrong in Robbinsdale schools.

With that I know last year Hopkins schools had a lot more National Merit Scholars than Robbinsdale schools did.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by srsmn

See? Straight from the horse's mouth. Thank you, Slig!

Whatever, it is 10 miles from my office in Eagan to the East Bank of the U of M Campus, it takes someone 25 minutes to drive that off-peak times, they shouldn't be on the road holding up traffic.

[srsmn]

Originally Posted by golfgal

Whatever, it is 10 miles from my office in Eagan to the East Bank of the U of M Campus, it takes someone 25 minutes to drive that off-peak times, they shouldn't be on the road holding up traffic.

Well, it's less than ten miles from my parents' house at the western edge of GV to the East Bank, so I guess you've proven my point...

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by srsmn

Really? Because from my days in Hopkins, I don't remember Cooper having a particularly bad reputation. It wasn't as good as our reputation, but we went there for sporting events and such and never felt like we were going to get shot at.

Maybe reputation should be taken to mean "personal perception" in this thread?

In a metro area full of A+ schools, even an A school is going to have a "bad" reputation. I think that's the situation that we're hearing a bout with Cooper.

I'm sure it's still a very good school, and I suspect there is no disadvantage at all sending one's kids there, but people in the US love Top 10 lists and such and tend to worship the rankings from various magazines, so...

Addition: I'm a product of Hopkins schools as well, and I don't remember Cooper being a bad school when I was growing up, but our focus tended to be on Edina and Minnetonka, anyway. And (in my case) our Hopkins internal rival Eisenhower HS. Robbinsdale simply wasn't on the radar in many respects.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by golfgal

Whatever, it is 10 miles from my office in Eagan to the East Bank of the U of M Campus, it takes someone 25 minutes to drive that off-peak times, they shouldn't be on the road holding up traffic.

Just to throw out another example, a coworker of mine took classes at the U of M east bank after work. She'd go from our office in Eagan, 494 westbound to 35W and take that into campus. I would say that this is probably the most logical route, albeit traffic usually sucks. Anyways, she was constantly complaining that the commute would take her 30 minutes up to an hour on bad traffic days.

From my experience if you want to commute to the U of M East bank there are other better options than the Eagan area.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Slig

Just to throw out another example, a coworker of mine took classes at the U of M east bank after work. She'd go from our office in Eagan, 494 westbound to 35W and take that into campus. I would say that this is probably the most logical route, albeit traffic usually sucks. Anyways, she was constantly complaining that the commute would take her 30 minutes up to an hour on bad traffic days.

From my experience if you want to commute to the U of M East bank there are other better options than the Eagan area.

That isn't even close to the most "logical" route from Eagan, try going 55 to the Crosstown or 35E to Ayd Mill and over to 94 and cut your commute in 1/2 vs taking the farthest possible route from Eagan through some of the worst traffic in the cities-I see how that makes sense.

[StilltheSame]

Vote for St. Louis Park - hey why not?

[srsmn]

Originally Posted by golfgal

That isn't even close to the most "logical" route from Eagan, try going 55 to the Crosstown or 35E to Ayd Mill and over to 94 and cut your commute in 1/2 vs taking the farthest possible route from Eagan through some of the worst traffic in the cities-I see how that makes sense.

Ok, Golfgal, here's the deal: little slip-ups I would just ignore, but you seem to be consistently wrong about this type of thing, big-time. And I don't think that it is flat out ignorance; I think that your bias for some parts of the metro are so strong that you will actually ignore facts in order to prop them up over other parts of the metro. Why you dislike GV and why in God's name you think that it is a difficult commute from GV to anywhere in Minneapolis is beyond me, but in the interest of putting this to rest, I took the liberty of actually tracking your suggested route from Eagan-- vs. the route one would take from GV-- to the East Bank of the UofM.

I plotted the route from the airport, where 55 meets 62, because I did not want to pick a random spot in Eagan. According to your route, you will spend 4 miles on the Crosstown before you get to the ramp for 35W northbound. Then, you spend 7.1 miles on 35W before you get to the U.

That's a grand total of 11.1 miles that you are spending on the Crosstown and 35W ALONE. It does not take into account how long you spend on 55 getting to the Crosstown, or how far it is from your home/office/et al to 55.

From General Mills, at the westernmost border of the city, it is a little over a ten mile trip and takes 17 minutes (with much of it spent on 55 and Highway 100). That includes the time you spend just getting to 394. If you live closer to the highway, like my parents do, it's even easier:

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1pn=Gen...52587#initPgSt

I really, really, really do not know how you justify your statement that Woodbury or Eagan is an easier commute to GV, and why you stand by it even though it has been made clear by other posters that that is not the case. The only conclusion that I have been able to draw from this thread is that your hatred for GV is as irrational as your hatred for the core cities themselves. The rest is pretty much a head-scratcher to me...

To the OP: Please don't let Golfgal's pretensions about knowing what she is talking about keep you from moving wherever you want to. GV would be a great choice for you, from what I have inferred from your post. New Hope, Crystal, Robbinsdale, SLP, or Plymouth could all be great fits, too.

[mmhl]

In a metro area full of A+ schools, even an A school is going to have a "bad" reputation. I think that's the situation that we're hearing a bout with Cooper.

Test scores are not everything, but they do say something about the over all academics of a given school. Cooper is rated a 4 out of 10. Hopkins is rated 10 out of 10. Woodbury is rated 10 out of 10. Wayzata is 9 out of 10. You can't say this isn't worth noting.

To the OP: Please don't let Golfgal's pretensions about knowing what she is talking about keep you from moving wherever you want to. GV would be a great choice for you, from what I have inferred from your post. New Hope, Crystal, Robbinsdale, SLP, or Plymouth could all be great fits, too.

SRSMN- why personal attacks? Are other people (aside from you?) not allowed to have opinions? I think your bias against the suburbs is just as strong as anyone's bias against the cities. Golden Valley is a nice place, but we can share thoughts just like you can, correct?

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by golfgal

That isn't even close to the most "logical" route from Eagan, try going 55 to the Crosstown or 35E to Ayd Mill and over to 94 and cut your commute in 1/2 vs taking the farthest possible route from Eagan through some of the worst traffic in the cities-I see how that makes sense.

Crosstown to what? You'd could take Crosstown to 35W which depending in what part of Eagan you're in would take about the same amount of time as taking 494, or you'd take it to 77 which will take you to the westbank and then go across the river on Washington Ave or one of the other nearby bridges. I take the 55 to 77 route because it makes sense from where my office currently is and since I live right in between I can stop at home before heading up to class. The issue is that there are tons of stop lights on Cedar Ave and you're likely to get caught at several of them, plus you're going through residential neighborhoods and the speed limit drops to 35mph where 77 ends. On the most ideal day, which means not getting any red stop lights, not getting jammed at Lake Nokomis and very light traffic and you could probably get to the west bank in around 25 minutes...however, it definitely doesn't always work out that way. Going to the East bank is a little further than that so you can tack on another 5 minutes or so depending on how many lights you hit. It isn't the worst commute in the world by any means but don't try to make the argument that it's an ideal commute. From my house in Minneapolis I can get to either campus in 10 minutes on a variety of routes. There are tons of good neighborhoods within 10-20 mins from campus that would be far more ideal than the sluggish Eagan commute. We all know you have an infatuation with district 196 schools and that Eagan, Rosemount, Apple Valley, Lakeville, etc. but that's just your own personal preference. Most people on here (myself included) aren't impressed by those areas. I think it's good you provide your own personal insight and experiences but please don't sugar coat and try to sell your opinions off as the only valuable opinion because it's simply not the case.