CH vs Hillsborough (Raleigh, Durham, Cary: renting, chapel, house)

[findingmesomeday]

Or more precisely:

East Chapel Hill HS vs. Cedar Ridge High School.

Anyone familiar with both? Pros and cons?

[toot68]

The general consensus is that Chapel hill schools are excellent, and Orange county are good. Chapel Hill schools have better resources, particular for kids with extra needs. You'll see more economic diversity in Orange county. When we moved this year, we considered both, and the difference in the quality of the schools was not a sufficient concern for us that we had to live in Chapel Hill (we have a 2 year old and one on the way, and made the move assuming we are sinking roots for the next 20 years). Both my wife and I have doctorate degrees and work at Duke and UNC, she went to public school and I went to private...its our feeling that parents make the education, and thus our kids will get an excellent education at orange county schools, and be able to move from their to wherever they want to go next. So we picked where we lived based on the house, neighborhood, commute and price. And wound up between Durham and Chapel Hill in a cool rural neighborhood on an acre of land surrounded by woods, with a creek and hiking trails, in New Hope Elementary school district.

My advice is to decide if Cedar Ridge is going to be a good place for your kids. If not, then focus on Chapel Hill school district. If so, then decide what other factors are most important to your family (living in the country, lots of acreage, price, lots of neighbors, commute, proximity to shopping, not needing a car, etc).

[findingmesomeday]

Toot68, thanks for the feedback. I also noticed that Orange Co schools seem to do very well--not too much of a difference between CH schools. My oldest is in HS which is why I'm focused on the HS right now. In addition to the school, our goals are to be able to buy a house within a year (we had to sell ours here in MA do to finanical constraints and are renting) and I see that happening more quickly in Hillsborough. Also, the things I like about where I live now: small town (about 9K pop) small HS (about 900 pop), quaint town center, etc., seem to be found more in Hillsborough than Chapel Hill. The economic diversity of CH or Hillsborough is going to be greater than where I live now. Metrowest Boston suburbs tend to be very homogenous. We are used to a bit of space, but no longer have a burning desire for 1-2 acres of land which is common here. However, I'd like a lot size bigger than the norm that you find in Cary.

Next after researching the HS, I guess is looking at the feeder schools since we have one in MS and one in elementary.

The one possible big drawback to Hillsborough is the fact that if my husband is able to find a job (Please, if there is a God, let it happen quickly....), he'd most likely be in Raleigh and that might be a bit of a hike.