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I'm currently renting in the village of Scarsdale and am looking to buy a home within the next 6 months. My kids are still preschool age, but I'm hoping to buy and stay until they graduate high school. I'm certainly impressed by the school district here, but haven't found a perfect house yet. I was considering expanding my search to Larchmont/Mamaroneck and just want to check in here to get generally impressions on how the two high schools compare. Obviously a lot will change in 10 years, but since I'm new to the area I don't really know much to base my decision on. Anything I should know about differences in these two districts?
I go to Scarsdale HS and I love it. I can't imagine a better school system to be in. Mamaroneck is also a good school. I'd say we're about even, Scarsdale's probably better... We're basically rivals in just about everything.
If I had kids and they were to grow up in one of the two, I'd go with Scarsdale.
Our average 2007 SAT scores were about 150 points higher than Mamaroneck's. But there's always more to a school than SAT scores.
The districts are on par with one another, overall, with an edge in raw academic performance and enrichment going to Scarsdale. What is important to note in Mamaroneck, is that the elementary schools are good, but Chatsworth and Murray are the better performers of the four in Mamaroneck Union Free.
Mamaroneck is a much more diverse high school, with a large hispanic population. There are very clearly defined working class neighborhoods in Mamaroneck.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bmwguydc
The districts are on par with one another, overall, with an edge in raw academic performance and enrichment going to Scarsdale. What is important to note in Mamaroneck, is that the elementary schools are good, but Chatsworth and Murray are the better performers of the four in Mamaroneck Union Free.
Central elementary school is also very good. Mamaroneck Avenue severely lags behind the other 3; at Mamaroneck Avenue a large percentage of children come from newly immigrated families and their academic achievment lags behind through High School
As others have said, schools similar except for Mamnk immigrant population. This dilutes average performance, skews statistics and misleads those basing their conclusions on all the published info in magazines, school profile lists, etc. The situation is similar to the Horace Greeley (Chappaqua) vs Fox Lane (Mt Kisco, Bedford, Pound Ridge) story. The kids of affluent, well educated parents will do well in either place. If you're an immigrant with english issues the odds are against you. And, despite what every Scarsdale family would have you believe, while almost every kid in Scarsdale does go someplace, most don't actually end up at in the Ivy League. They just make themselves sick trying to get there.
Conclusion: Make your decision based on where you and your kids would feel more comfortable socially. Much has been posted on respective pros/cons of these towns, cultural generalizations, etc. Up close they're very different.
I go to Scarsdale HS and I love it. I can't imagine a better school system to be in. Mamaroneck is also a good school. I'd say we're about even, Scarsdale's probably better... We're basically rivals in just about everything.
If I had kids and they were to grow up in one of the two, I'd go with Scarsdale.
Our average 2007 SAT scores were about 150 points higher than Mamaroneck's. But there's always more to a school than SAT scores.
There is certainly a lot more to schools than SAT scores, Mamaroneck has a more economically diverse community than Scarsdale. This makes a difference, wealthier people are more likely to afford tutors to prep their kids. Mamaroneck's average SAT scores are good despite their diverse population, it will be much higher and perhaps even be higher than Scarsdale if the diversity factor is ignored.
Mamaroneck is a much more diverse high school, with a large hispanic population. There are very clearly defined working class neighborhoods in Mamaroneck.
There are also clearly defined working class neighborhoods in Scarsdale and other places like Rye for example. Bronxville is perhaps one village that does not have such neighborhoods.
As others have said, schools similar except for Mamnk immigrant population. This dilutes average performance, skews statistics and misleads those basing their conclusions on all the published info in magazines, school profile lists, etc. The situation is similar to the Horace Greeley (Chappaqua) vs Fox Lane (Mt Kisco, Bedford, Pound Ridge) story. The kids of affluent, well educated parents will do well in either place. If you're an immigrant with english issues the odds are against you. And, despite what every Scarsdale family would have you believe, while almost every kid in Scarsdale does go someplace, most don't actually end up at in the Ivy League. They just make themselves sick trying to get there.
Conclusion: Make your decision based on where you and your kids would feel more comfortable socially. Much has been posted on respective pros/cons of these towns, cultural generalizations, etc. Up close they're very different.
Go with Mamaroneck. Most parents choose Scarsdale because the they think it's a one way ticket to the Ivy League. It's not, nor is any school district. Plenty of Scarsdale grads end up in "B" and "C" colleges because they just happen not to be academic and/or they don't work hard.
While Scarsdale is a pressure cooker, Mamaroneck is not because of it incredible economic diversity. In the same class you will have a child of an investment banker, a cop and a recent Mexican immigrant.
The SAT stat is meaningless. Scarsdale will always have the highest SAT scores in the county because just about every Scarsdale parent is a college grad, and the parents have chosen Scarsdale because it is the "best" district. In Mamaroneck that is far from the case.
Plenty of really smart, hardworking kids in great schools wind up in B and C colleges because college admissions are shockingly competitive now.
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