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We are a young family looking to move to Summit, NJ. We are coming from Bergen County where it is very diverse and want to move to a town with younger parents, fun downtown and some diversity.
What is the general atmosphere in Summit, NJ ?? How involved are the SAHM and PTO?
Are neighbors generally open to making new friends or are they closed off?
Do parents let their kids play on the playgrounds after school or are the first graders all rushed off to extra curricular activities??
Will you find crunchy granola types in Summit who let their kids play in the dirt until they're covered head to toe? =)
Also, is there really a big difference in the elementary schools in Summit? I hear there is one very bad one.
How accepting of asians are the majority non-asians? I'm coming from Tenafly which is almost 30% asian. Although Bergen County is very diverse even with ESL and immigrants, the school standards are kept very high. Is this the same case in Summit?
Moving to a less than 10% asian town is new to us and we would like any helpful input.
Also, perspective from minority posters would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
We are also considering Westfield, Millburn and Scotch Plains but Summit is at the top for schools and available real estate.
Last edited by enchantingrace; 09-22-2016 at 08:58 AM..
We are a young family looking to move to Summit, NJ. We are coming from Bergen County where it is very diverse and want to move to a town with younger parents, fun downtown and some diversity.
What is the general atmosphere in Summit, NJ ?? How involved are the SAHM and PTO?
Are neighbors generally open to making new friends or are they closed off?
Do parents let their kids play on the playgrounds after school or are the first graders all rushed off to extra curricular activities??
Will you find crunchy granola types in Summit who let their kids play in the dirt until they're covered head to toe? =)
Also, is there really a big difference in the elementary schools in Summit? I hear there is one very bad one.
How accepting of asians are the majority non-asians? I'm coming from Tenafly which is almost 30% asian. Although Bergen County is very diverse even with ESL and immigrants, the school standards are kept very high. Is this the same case in Summit?
Moving to a less than 10% asian town is new to us and we would like any helpful input.
Also, perspective from minority posters would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
We are also considering Westfield, Millburn and Scotch Plains but Summit is at the top for schools and available real estate.
Have you checked into New Providence ?Nice town and good schools .
We are a young family looking to move to Summit, NJ. We are coming from Bergen County where it is very diverse and want to move to a town with younger parents, fun downtown and some diversity.
What is the general atmosphere in Summit, NJ ?? How involved are the SAHM and PTO?
Are neighbors generally open to making new friends or are they closed off?
Do parents let their kids play on the playgrounds after school or are the first graders all rushed off to extra curricular activities??
Will you find crunchy granola types in Summit who let their kids play in the dirt until they're covered head to toe? =)
Also, is there really a big difference in the elementary schools in Summit? I hear there is one very bad one.
How accepting of asians are the majority non-asians? I'm coming from Tenafly which is almost 30% asian. Although Bergen County is very diverse even with ESL and immigrants, the school standards are kept very high. Is this the same case in Summit?
Moving to a less than 10% asian town is new to us and we would like any helpful input.
Also, perspective from minority posters would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
We are also considering Westfield, Millburn and Scotch Plains but Summit is at the top for schools and available real estate.
You said "I hear there is one very bad one" regarding a school in Summit. You heard wrong. There is no bad school in Summit. Elementary school rankings are questionable because there is no one uniform test that is given the same level of attention like the SAT is given at the high school level. With that said, the one Summit school that ranks lower than the others has more minorities, mostly Hispanic. How accepting of Hispanics are you? Or do you want to be around a disproportionately high number of Indians?
On another note, crunchy/granola types will not be found in significant numbers in any of the Union County suburbs. Try Montclair or maybe Maplewood in Essex.
Summit is a great district but it is not better than Millburn, which is the gold standard. Westfield has an edge over Summit in the main rankings, but to be honest the real world difference with Westfield is negligible. I like WF over Millburn because the WF sports teams and extracurriculars do better, but I have to concede Millburn has a higher SAT average, notwithstanding Westfield High School doing better in the national Newsweek polls. Scotch Plains is a good district by the way, but a notch below the others.
If I knew the "very bad school" was labeled that for the diversity I probably wouldn't have mentioned it. It was more of a concern for bad principal or jaded teachers ect.
I prefer more diversity since it's a better life view than living in a bubble.
What do you mean by disproportionately high number of indians ? Is there a big indian population in any of these towns? (I don't mind if there is.) That means take out is somewhere close by.=)
Where do you think you get the most for your money real estate wise? Our budget is up to 1.2 million.
I haven't checked New Providence because of transportation... I was looking into towns with a direct line to NYC or close to it.
There are some direct trains from/to New Providence (and Murray Hill) during rush hour, although Summit has more. Westfield and Scotch Plains (Fanwood) do not have direct trains during rush hour, although this is less of an issue if you're commuting downtown via PATH.
If you're considering Scotch Plains and/or are commuting downtown then you may as well add Cranford to the list.
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