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I'm just asking a straightforward question. The other factors while important to some people are not really important to my question although I don't mind answering your concerns. For example, I will move after elementary school. I will also take my time finding "the one". I don't have kids yet so it will be a few years. I have some time to look.
You are weighting the individual school ratings too heavily in your decision. Individual schools can vary greatly from year to year depending on how the criteria is weighted. Some of the criteria that changes the ranking might not even matter to you. Since you do not have a child yet, you are at least 5-6 years (minimum) away from using the school. You should buy your SFH in the town with the best commute for you. Once your child is ready for school, years down the line, the ratings will be more accurate. You can always move at that time - before your child starts kindergarten.
You are weighting the individual school ratings too heavily in your decision. Individual schools can vary greatly from year to year depending on how the criteria is weighted. Some of the criteria that changes the ranking might not even matter to you. Since you do not have a child yet, you are at least 5-6 years (minimum) away from using the school. You should buy your SFH in the town with the best commute for you. Once your child is ready for school, years down the line, the ratings will be more accurate. You can always move at that time - before your child starts kindergarten.
Good point. I wonder how wildly it swings. I'm sure Millburn is consistent but a place like Jersey City might be a bigger swing in elementary school quality since it is gentrifying.
Hoboken seems seems not to have a great school district. Seems like the ones I saw in Union City and Paulus Hook are way better.
My top priority is to be close to the city. I know it's only a few more minutes but Summit, Ridgewood, and Westfield are starting to get a little bit farther. I'd like to be 1 hour or less. I think if I basically live right near the train station in Millburn, I'm right on that edge of 1 hour. Same with Glenridge.
Rutherford is interesting though. I'll look into that.
dcb175's post reflected my thoughts. You listed high-end suburban, tree-lined streets alongside a somewhat gritty urban vibe. It's as if you are saying "I want fine dining or pizza, as long as they are both close to the city."
But hey, if you are at that level of flexibility with regards to your living environment, you have lots of choices in New Jersey.
dcb175's post reflected my thoughts. You listed high-end suburban, tree-lined streets alongside a somewhat gritty urban vibe. It's as if you are saying "I want fine dining or pizza, as long as they are both close to the city."
But hey, if you are at that level of flexibility with regards to your living environment, you have lots of choices in New Jersey.
Yeah, I am flexible with everything outside of my initial criteria. In terms of choices, I have only narrowed down to the 4 in my original post plus whatever ideas came out of this thread. If there are more neighborhoods with these unusual pockets of great schools near NYC, that's what I'm looking for. I wonder if I've found them all yet.
I think Rutherford is your best bet. Balance between urban and suburban since you seem to be ok with both. About as close to NYC as you can get with both train and bus options. Schools are pretty much good across the board so if you find something you like you may not have to leave the town at all. I think you'll find once you have kids that sending them to elementary school in one town and then having them go to high school in another is not an ideal situation.
I think Rutherford is your best bet. Balance between urban and suburban since you seem to be ok with both. About as close to NYC as you can get with both train and bus options. Schools are pretty much good across the board so if you find something you like you may not have to leave the town at all. I think you'll find once you have kids that sending them to elementary school in one town and then having them go to high school in another is not an ideal situation.
Good insight. You're saying because of friendships they've formed, it's not good to move?
I think Rutherford is your best bet. Balance between urban and suburban since you seem to be ok with both. About as close to NYC as you can get with both train and bus options. Schools are pretty much good across the board so if you find something you like you may not have to leave the town at all. I think you'll find once you have kids that sending them to elementary school in one town and then having them go to high school in another is not an ideal situation.
When I look at Rutherford, I look at a listing like this, and I scroll down to schools but see they're not highly rated from Kindergarden.
I guess a bigger question is, what is the best way to research schools when Great Schools does not have the data?
Great Schools has a bunch of subjective measures to rate schools. When I was shopping for a home, I would always look at SAT score rankings. If the high school in town is good, then it follows that the elementary schools are good also. There seem to always be outliers with elementary schools. For example, I was told that in my town all the ESL students went to one school regardless of where in town they live. That school scores poorer on standardized tests than the other schools in town. But that's because the ESL students are bring the score down. You wouldn't know something like that unless you talk to people in town, so take Great Schools data with a grain of salt.
Great Schools has a bunch of subjective measures to rate schools. When I was shopping for a home, I would always look at SAT score rankings. If the high school in town is good, then it follows that the elementary schools are good also. There seem to always be outliers with elementary schools. For example, I was told that in my town all the ESL students went to one school regardless of where in town they live. That school scores poorer on standardized tests than the other schools in town. But that's because the ESL students are bring the score down. You wouldn't know something like that unless you talk to people in town, so take Great Schools data with a grain of salt.
You can take SAT scores with a healthy grain of salt, too. Wealthier towns have more money for SAT tutors and instruction. Also, some high schools encourage every student to take the SATs (lowering scores) and others are less encouraging when they know students are not headed to college therefore raising scores
All it takes is a few high scoring or low scoring students to move in or out a school system and skew the results higher or lower. There are even score differences between classes in the same school. My son's high school class had high test scores while the class 1 year older and the class 1 year younger had lower test scores that where beyond the normal variance. These 3 classes all had basically the same learning experience.
FYI - 6 of the top scoring high schools on that NJ SAT list are highly selective county schools that students have to apply and test to get into. The rest of the top 15 are mostly wealthy towns or wealthy regional districts.
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