Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You might want to do a search for similar posts on this forum - there are some great discussions. Otherwise, I can tell you about the best school districts in Union and Morris county, which are the two areas I have done most of my research (both have towns with a short to medium commute to Manhattan):
Union:
- Westfield (shorter commute, higher housing costs)
- Summit (shorter commute, higher housing costs)
- New Providence
- Berkeley Heights
- Mountainside
- Cranford (although maybe not as strong as the others listed, at least based on test scores)
Morris:
- Chatham
- Madison
Also, Millburn/Short Hills and Livingston have top schools (Essex County?). Check out NJ Monthly for the top NJ high school list - this is where I started. There are also several great school districts in Bergen County, which I don't know as much about.
Good luck!
Emily
Well, my brother-in-law's son whose Physics Science League Team of Piscataway won over that of ALL the schools mentioned above! His FBLA Business Plan team competion won #1 in New Jersey, and I just read the itenery, there are 10 students from Piscataway High school, each of NJ #1 in their FBLA events, going to Chicago to represent New Jersey to compete nation wide end of June.
If your kids play football, Piscataway High School is also top or close to top depending on which year.
If your kids play instrument, Piscataway High School Orchestra won many top awards in various Music Festivals.
If your kids would like to take advantage of Rutgers University facilities like my brother-in-law's two sons playing at Rutgers Sinfornia Orchestra and Rutgers Youth Orchestra.
Commute wise, both Dunellen Train Station and Edison Train are very convenient to NYC.
Piscataway also offer NO COST, FULL DAY preschools, for more info can call 732 572-2289x2561 or Piscataway Schools
Acording to City-Data, Piscataway has 50% white, 25% Asian ...etc so is a well mixed township so any culture in this town is well respected and understood...
I have heard good things about Ridge and Watchung HS and the commutte is reasonable. If your well enough off, I would take a hard look at the private school Pingry. I believe its close to Martinsville. Had three cousins that went there, very positve learning experience. All three did very well in college(Yale,Princeton and Boston College.) I only wish I can send my kids there. Good Luck.
I have heard good things about Ridge and Watchung HS and the commutte is reasonable. If your well enough off, I would take a hard look at the private school Pingry. I believe its close to Martinsville. Had three cousins that went there, very positve learning experience. All three did very well in college(Yale,Princeton and Boston College.) I only wish I can send my kids there. Good Luck.
My brother-in-law's kids have been going to Murray Hill Chinese School Murray Hill Chinese School Web Site that run every Sat 12:30 to 3:30 at Watchung Regional High School. The school was filled of garbages in past dozen years till recently they got a property manager who was laid off Lucent District Manager for 20 years. His team was fantastic, NO MORE trash! It is now like Lucent Murray Hill campus.
Also, the former Principal of MHCS just elected to be Board of Education member, so school should be moving up... Besides, this high school just got brand new expansion and huge auditorium called Performing Arts Center, very luxury.
If your kids going to Pingry, you should know that they have two campuses, lower grades in Short Hill. Also, you should have saving of $300,000 in bank for each kid, or you want to be sure you never lost your job.
I know someone with 3 kids going to Pingry, after rich dad lost his job at Wall St, his wife had no choice to do real estate sales, since once the kids got used to expensive environments, and make all their friends, it is very very hard to get them out. But is $20,000 to $30,000 a year tuition you can afford? and afford for many years?
My brother-in-law's son's classmate Dave wanted to go to Georgetown (#4 in Foreign Policy and #1 at graduate school FP) whose sister just graduated from Piscataway High School and now at Princeton Univ... So, if your goal is for your kids going to famous univ like Princeton Univ, Cornell Univ (his neighbor's two kids both graduate from Piscataway High School and go to Cornell), or Hardvard Univ (his FBLA teammate's sister graduate from Piscataway and Harvard Univ) ..., Pingry is not a must.
My brother-in-law after visiting Pingry, he came back to Piscataway and lobby for years to have Piscataway School District to model after Pingry. For example, if you go to Schor School, no more trash on campus, all grass are all damn green, all parking lot have been redone and repaved. many honor programs and societies started, and Enrichment programs kicked off ...etc. All 10 Piscataway schools have built brand new classrooms, and Piscataway High's brand new building, auditorium, will soon be ready ...
If you have $300,000 extra to spend before college at Pingry, how much more money you need to have to spend for college, graduate schools?
My brother-in-law was very savvy to use the fund to buy each of his kid a condo, so that when they are small, the rent can help pay childcare and early learning, when they go to college, the rent can help pay tuitions, and after they graduated, they will have their condo to call home. You can see when his kids graduated and start working, many other peer would start working about buying a condo, paying back student loan, paying mortgage, car loan, all his kids will not have those hassel. It is what he called "generation planning"; you don't burn out your resource right at current generation; you make $100,000? great! save it and buy yourself a home first. When you got more saving? don't burn it, buy a condo for your kid.
I have to disagree about Saddle River. It's one of the wealthiest towns in the country, so you'd think it would have outstanding schools, but it does not. Saddle River, despite its millionaires and celebrities, has very low property taxes so I guess maybe there's not money to build/have better schools. There's no high school there (SR citizens go to private schools or to Ramsey or Allendale) and the elementary school, Wandell, is very small and doesn't give a good education. My two friends who went there didn't realize it at the time but their schooling was a joke-- they got to go on some expensive trips to Canada and Mystic, CT, but they didn't learn much in the classroom and the teachers were lazy. That was about a decade ago, so maybe things have improved, but I know property taxes have not increased so I don't see how.
You might want to try private schools if you can afford it, although my friends went to Catholic private high schools in the area and also agree that their high school education was nothing to brag about.
Doesn't Saddle River go to Northern Highlands? This is a good school, no?
[quote=yummum;838622]Dear MNladdy,
Dear MNladdy,
My husband is also considering a relocation from London to NY. I would be very interested in any information you manage to assimilate on good schools, there have been a lot of helpfull responses but quite a spread of areas. My chn are pre-schoolers but like you feel education is of paramount importance.
Thanks in advance. Yummum
Yummum,
My husband and I were in a similar situation 6 years ago. My husband’s job brought us from London to NY. We live in Basking Ridge Somerset County and absolutely love it here. We moved to BR 2 years ago because of the schools . We made up a list of top 25 schools in NJ and spent a few weekends driving to the different towns.
BR Schools are very good. High school is in the Top hundred in the country and top 12 in New Jersey. My kids are 3 & 4 and attend a private preschool in town (not too expensive). They go for 3 ½ hours a day. They love it. There are a few Brits in Basking Ridge and Bernardsville (town 5 minutes from Basking Ridge).
Basking Ridge is a Family friendly town. Lots of activities for kids. Nice parks and a very nice Library . There are 2 train stations in BR, Lyons and Basking Ridge and one in Millington (another town next to Basking Ridge). My husband commutes to NY (Wall street).
I guess houses are expensive but nothing like in London. Coming from London, it didn’t seem too expensive to us. You will get a lot more house and land space for your money that’s for sure.
If you have any questions, you can email me at obain2@yahoo.com.
New Jersey magazine rated the top ??? school systems. You might look for this issue. I think they do it every year.
Watch out! that rating is very misleading ...
As I said in other thread, my Citibank colleague's daughter got top #1 in NJ French competition when she was at a catholic school in Hoboken, and later they moved to East Brunswick, and therefore East Brunswick got that honor, but the Hoboken school has been the place her daughters spend many years to start with. That is to say, if your kid want to be good with French education, you go to Hoboken, NOT East Brunswick.
Another example is that Mongomery rank high, but thats because many good students transfer to their high school that have been "well educated" by other good school district, NOT that they have been educated from Mongomergy school system. e.g. Chu's daughters both graduated from Mongomery High and got in Princeton Univ, but they spent almost all their education in Hillsborough till last year or two when family bought a new bigger house at Mongomery. So, in the ranking Mongomery took all the credit that Hillsboro spent the effort on from K to 9 or 10th grade.
One more vivid example, my brother-in-law's kid's FBLA teammate may have to transfer to Mountain Lakes since parents moved there. But Piscataway schools educated him from K to 11th grade and their team got NJ #1 this time and will represent NJ to Chicago compete nationwide. So, next year Mountain Lake may take the "free" honors that Pisctaway educated TOP business students. His sister graduated from Piscataway High and got into Harvard Univ. and very likely he will be admitted into Harvard or the same level of school. If he moved to Mountain Lake, that honor would be taken from Mountain Lake High.
My brother-in-law's kid got full score on SAT and close to full on SAT II Biology and Chemistry, and he went to Piscataway schools from K to 11 now, that is to say, he already getting education from very best school system. He recently received invitation from Harvard Univ to appy for, so, to certain extend, I think the ranking was misleading ...
But keep in mind, the #1 FBLA Business Plan Competition winner team this year is at Piscataway High School. (my brother-in-law's son and his classmate) So are other 10 events. Only Montville High School got more winners than Piscataway High this year ...
So, why NJ Magazine does not reflect it on their ranking? That is to say most of their top 100 schools' FBLA Teams all lost to Piscataway High Schools ...
Also, Edison's JP Stevens High got #1 in Science League Competition on Chemistry this year, that is also tells you that ALL NJ Magazine's top 100 schools' Chemistry team all beaten by Edison's JP Stevens High.
For Physics Science League Competition, Middlesex County Science at Edison got #1 this year 2007. That is also tells you ALL 100 top high schools by NJ Magazine were also behind this high school in Edison ...
But keep in mind, the #1 FBLA Business Plan Competition winner team this year is at Piscataway High School. (my brother-in-law's son and his classmate) So are other 10 events. Only Montville High School got more winners than Piscataway High this year ...
So, why NJ Magazine does not reflect it on their ranking? That is to say most of their top 100 schools' FBLA Teams all lost to Piscataway High Schools ...
Also, Edison's JP Stevens High got #1 in Science League Competition on Chemistry this year, that is also tells you that ALL NJ Magazine's top 100 schools' Chemistry team all beaten by Edison's JP Stevens High.
For Physics Science League Competition, Middlesex County Science at Edison got #1 this year 2007. That is also tells you ALL 100 top high schools by NJ Magazine were also behind this high school in Edison ...
because a couple of excellent students who excell in a narrow field does not make a whole school good. this kind of thinking is as foolish as people who pick colleges based on how well their sports teams perform. there is more to the equation than winning a competition that involves a handful of kids
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
