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We are a family of 5. Our kids are 11, 8 and 5 years old. Currently, we are living in Northern VA (Loudoun County). Why are we moving? Well for a couple of reasons.
1. Schools/Universities. Living in Cary/Raleigh area will give my kids the opportunity to attend tier 1 universities with excellent programs. Not paying for room and board would be a plus for us parents. In addition, the acceptance rate for NC residence are above or close to 70% for these universities, is this true?
2. Able to afford a single family home.
Can someone please shed some light on the schools in Apex/Holly Spring area? Any areas/schools to avoid?
Is Raleigh area considered to be recession proof? Meaning .. for example, the DC area has a lot of government contracting jobs, can I say the same thing about Raleigh area? How is the job market currently? To be more specific, I'm a data engineer. Are there many opportunities for my line for work?
My current job gives me the flexibility to live any where within the US. But I would like to be in an area that is growing in tech in case if I need to work somewhere else in the future.
For the people who lived in the DC/Northern VA area, anything that I need to be aware of? difference in services (in general), property taxes (house and cars (if any)), diversity, additional expenses I'm not aware of, hurricanes, insurance, etc?
You don’t seem to have much if any familiarity with this area. What’s drawing you here? Since this isnt the US capitol of course the job market isn’t entirely as driven by government contract jobs.
There are multiple threads about the school system here. I suggest doing a search into threads that have “wcpss” in them. There is a a LOT to learn. It’s certainly not superior to NoVa schools. All of the towns you mention are safe and family friendly which is why people are flocking here. We are on county schools here just like NoVa.
I’m not sure what you mean by not paying room and board unless you plan to have your kids commute to college but you are then limiting your kids to NC State and UNC (State requires freshmen to live on campus). Both are very competitive for kids from Wake County - particularly UNC. Two years ago a girl at a local HS got into Harvard but not UNC. The acceptance rate for those schools for kids from Wake County is more like 10%.
I am not sure most areas are recession proof. Certainly an area with a booming population and three world class universities churning out grads is at risk of having too many people and not enough jobs if/when the economy tanks.
In addition, the acceptance rate for NC residence are above or close to 70% for these universities, is this true?
You may have confused the fact that around 80% of UNC and NC State students are FROM North Carolina with the acceptance rates. Both are pretty highly selective universities with less than 25% of applicants accepted, overall. I'm not sure of the in-state acceptance rate, but it is much lower than 70%. I have seen 40% online, but that seems high to me. Living in NC is no guarantee that your student will be accepted. 74% of UNC applicants are in the top 10% of their high school class and score above 1310 on the SAT. Average high school GPA is around 4.6.
UNC is a great school and NC State is as well. The whole University of North Carolina system is good, but those are the top two. Would not count on your kids living at home. I don't think either UNC or NC State has much of a commuter school culture. Maybe UNC-Charlotte? It used to at least, but it has grown so much in the past 10 years or so and lots of kids live on campus now.
Virginia has excellent universities, too. I wouldn't move for that reason alone. UVA and UNC are very much alike.
I'm sure you will be able to afford a single family home somewhere in the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and points in between) or the outskirts of the Triangle, but the real estate market here is craaaaazy. Houses sell before they even hit the market. Apple just announced they are coming to the area and that will send real estate up even higher. This is one of the hottest destinations for folks to move to and has one of the hottest real estate markets as well.
Schools in the Apex/Holly Springs area like the rest of Wake County are county-based. With all the new people moving to the area Wake County is building new schools at a pretty fast clip and every time a new school gets completed the schools are rezoned, so where your child starts elementary school may not be where they end up finishing elementary school. There are LOTS of threads on schools in Wake County. Do a search on WCPSS (Wake County Public School System) and you will find enough reading to keep you going for quite awhile.
I wouldn't say the area is recession proof, but it has been booming for awhile now and is a good location for tech jobs.
Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
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Originally Posted by poppydog
You may have confused the fact that around 80% of UNC and NC State students are FROM North Carolina with the acceptance rates. Both are pretty highly selective universities with less than 25% of applicants accepted, overall. I'm not sure of the in-state acceptance rate, but it is much lower than 70%. I have seen 40% online, but that seems high to me. Living in NC is no guarantee that your student will be accepted. 74% of UNC applicants are in the top 10% of their high school class and score above 1310 on the SAT. Average high school GPA is around 4.6.
UNC is a great school and NC State is as well. The whole University of North Carolina system is good, but those are the top two. Would not count on your kids living at home. I don't think either UNC or NC State has much of a commuter school culture. Maybe UNC-Charlotte? It used to at least, but it has grown so much in the past 10 years or so and lots of kids live on campus now.
Virginia has excellent universities, too. I wouldn't move for that reason alone. UVA and UNC are very much alike.
I'm sure you will be able to afford a single family home somewhere in the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and points in between) or the outskirts of the Triangle, but the real estate market here is craaaaazy. Houses sell before they even hit the market. Apple just announced they are coming to the area and that will send real estate up even higher. This is one of the hottest destinations for folks to move to and has one of the hottest real estate markets as well.
Schools in the Apex/Holly Springs area like the rest of Wake County are county-based. With all the new people moving to the area Wake County is building new schools at a pretty fast clip and every time a new school gets completed the schools are rezoned, so where your child starts elementary school may not be where they end up finishing elementary school. There are LOTS of threads on schools in Wake County. Do a search on WCPSS (Wake County Public School System) and you will find enough reading to keep you going for quite awhile.
I wouldn't say the area is recession proof, but it has been booming for awhile now and is a good location for tech jobs.
This would be the best summary IMO as a guy who moved from NoVA (Arlington) to the Triangle last year (different demographics tho.)
I would not say the area is recession proof but I talk to a lot of tech employees who have pointed out all the tech industry coming to the area (concentrated offices in Durham.)
Personally, I don’t think there is enough of a difference in the university system between NC and VA to go through a move on that basis.
I’m not sure what you mean by not paying room and board unless you plan to have your kids commute to college but you are then limiting your kids to NC State and UNC (State requires freshmen to live on campus).
Worth noting that NC State specifically mentions living at your parents if they are within 15 miles of campus as something considered during an appeal of the first-year dorm requirement.
As a parent of a 20 yr old and a 17 yr old I can tell you that few kids that age want to live with their parents. Might be that ramamni's do, but they would be the outliers.
Worth noting that NC State specifically mentions living at your parents if they are within 15 miles of campus as something considered during an appeal of the first-year dorm requirement.
Yes but they strongly discourage it at open house sessions and as poppydog pointed out there's not a huge commuter culture. And I"m sure a lot of kids who've been stuck in their rooms doing remote school this year are REALLY looking forward to getting out of their houses. My son's classes are all remote, but we're letting him live on campus so he can get at least SOME college experience.
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