Dickerson vs. Dodgen Middle Schools (Atlanta, Dunwoody: house, transfer, to buy)
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Hey I understand where you are coming from. I grew up in an NYC suburb (Essex Fells, NJ) and spent many years as a NYC resident . I have really done my research regarding schools. (I think rainy has too) I think if your child attends Walton, Pope or Lassiter in terms of college really there will be no difference. In fact in terms of class rank.......Pope and Lassiter may be better. My neighbors Pope kids have gone on to UVA, Brown, GA TECH, Yale, Cornell.............etc, Any choice in these three high schools will work. Find the neighborhood or place here that works best for you and your family. We like it here. Honestly I don't find it that much different than Northern NJ in terms of schooling, access to culture and shopping etc.......the one difference is the people are very very friendly and helpful (oh yeah and the houses are newer). Best of luck to you.
You're not the first to say that about rank. As one of my friends put it, if your kid is a genius, he will do fine at Walton. May not be number one, but will still probably get into whatever college he wants as long as he's is in the top 10th-20th percentile because of Walton's reputation (I think that school reputation still plays a factor when it comes to college admissions). If your kid is not the next Einstein, then Pope or Lassiter might be better because he can still stand out or even be valedictorian because of less competition (Pope/Lassiter folks, please do not take that as an insult in any way). Anyway, I appreciate you folks (sorry, I am never going to say "yall") telling me where your neighbors' kids who didn't go to Walton went because that was exactly the information I was trying to get from the schools themselves.
pulmcc-
You have done your HW! Walton is known to be best for the kids at either the top or the bottom of the educational spectrum (great for the kids who excel, and they have good resources for kids with special needs) but it is possible for the kids in the middle to get a bit lost in the crowd. But Walton does well with placement of their kids in great colleges. That is one of the benefits of the school, as you already know.
You're not the first to say that about rank. As one of my friends put it, if your kid is a genius, he will do fine at Walton. May not be number one, but will still probably get into whatever college he wants as long as he's is in the top 10th-20th percentile because of Walton's reputation (I think that school reputation still plays a factor when it comes to college admissions). If your kid is not the next Einstein, then Pope or Lassiter might be better because he can still stand out or even be valedictorian because of less competition (Pope/Lassiter folks, please do not take that as an insult in any way). Anyway, I appreciate you folks (sorry, I am never going to say "yall") telling me where your neighbors' kids who didn't go to Walton went because that was exactly the information I was trying to get from the schools themselves.
pulmcc, I think you're imagining the above. I've lived in East Cobb over seven years, and I just don't see this big distinction. The Walton area has a bit richer population and correspondingly higher average test scores, but the difference is not significant. A good student will do about the same in any of these schools, because the schools are pretty similar - individual performance will depend on the student's abilities and how he or she uses them.
By the way, the majority of contributors to this thread are northern transplants. You don't need to "y'all" us.
To the poster, however, who plans to commute to Piedmont Hospital, I would suggest you not live up near Lassiter or Pope. That would be a bit of a commute to have to deal with, especially if you are on call.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jym626
You are just going to have to trust me on this one, kaday. I will try not to take offense at your unnecessary comment. I would rather not disclose personal information, but I am quite familiar with the schools and the schools system (and the commute from Cobb to Fulton county), and I have been here for almost 30 years. I have a lot of knowledge and experience that someone who is a comparatively recent transplant would not.
As for commuting to Northside, there is still a fair amount of traffic to deal with if one is having to come down Shallowford or Sandy Plains or Hwy 92 to get through Cobb to Pill Hill. Even with the widening of Johnsons Ferry Rd and Abernathy, it can still be a challenge.
jym626, your comments to kaday have struck me as quite condescending. Her response was mild and reasonable.
About the commuting questions, your comments seem confused. No poster on this thread mentioned Piedmont Hospital. Regarding the commute to Northside Hospital, are you alluding to the large road construction project for widening J. F. and Abernathy, that just recently got under way? I don't know how you can foretell what the traffic situation will be like when the project is completed. During construction, it's certainly not fun. (I commute on this route.)
For commuting to Northside Hospital from East Cobb, of course the commute is better the further south you reside. For Kennestone (the other hospital mentioned in this thread), the commutes from the Walton, Pope and Lassiter areas look about the same in distance, but as to the traffic, I couldn't say.
Wasn't intending to be condescending. Just informational. It is a shame someone said something unkind at Sope Creek (post 19), and there are excellent resources here to provide intervention for kids with reading disorders, and I do hope she got the services she needed (post 21). That was the intent of my message. The sentiment was meant in a positive way. If it came across in a tone that wasn't intended, sorry about that. Kaday's comment, however was intentional. Mine was not.
Kaday (post # 29) mentioned Northside Hospital just a few posts back. Someone else mentioned Buckhead a few pgs back. I thought I recalled Piedmont, but might have read the discussion about the different hospitals and then the comment about Buckhead and remembered it incorrectly later (projected Piedmont into my thoughts because of all the discussion about the hospitals and then the mention of Buckhead). Either way, the commute to Buckhead would be similar to Piedment.
Yes, I am referring to the current construction on JFR, and past commmutes on these roads from Cobb to Fulton Cty. If I could predict the future, I'd buy a lottery ticket Do you recall the traffic on JFR before they widened the Cobb side? It took 45-60 minutes to go from E. Cobb to Sandy Springs. That was a horror. Remember when some frustrated commuter shot out the traffic light at Riverside? These past few years it hasn't been as bad, but it could still take over 1/2 hr to travel this route. Hopefully the current widening will improve that.
People who travel on Hwy 92 from the N. Cobb/Cherokee area have talked about the time it took to travel to the Holcomb Bridge Rd area. I imagine with the widening of those roads (92-Woodstock Rd-Crossville Rd-Holcomb Bridge) it is better, but still, in bad weather or if there is an accident, the travel can be no fun. If a person lives in the Sandy Plains/ Shallowford area (Lassiter) they might travel that route to get to the Northside area , and the commute could be a challenge. That was to the poster moving here from CT, I believe, not the one who will be working at Kennestone. I can see how that might be confusing.
I should just clarify with Sope Creek that the comment on my child (the adminstrator did not know there was any issue with my child) was only one of factors that turned me off....I mentioned a few but trust me there is a long list. I don't really do things half way.
You are just going to have to trust me on this one, kaday. I will try not to take offense at your unnecessary comment. I would rather not disclose personal information, but I am quite familiar with the schools and the schools system (and the commute from Cobb to Fulton county), and I have been here for almost 30 years. I have a lot of knowledge and experience that someone who is a comparatively recent transplant would not.
As for commuting to Northside, there is still a fair amount of traffic to deal with if one is having to come down Shallowford or Sandy Plains or Hwy 92 to get through Cobb to Pill Hill. Even with the widening of Johnsons Ferry Rd and Abernathy, it can still be a challenge.
Sorry. I really did not mean to be offensive. I was just curious.
Do you know that very few ivies and many top 20 private schools give merit based scholarships anymore? Most have gone to need based only and are very generous with families that have lower incomes. However, that means that most middle class families are stuck.
It is not surprising that Walton would have more students end up at private colleges and universities. There are more upper income parents who can more easily afford the tuition at such schools. There are examples like this across the metro area.
In GA, students with a 3.0 earn the HOPE scholarship which waives tuition and some (a shrinking some) fees. (a little book money has been thrown in as well, but I expect that will be gone soon) For most middle class families, the cost of college matters a lot.
Many, many top students in GA now end up at UGA or Tech (they have always ended up at Tech, even before the HOPE.) Some are even venturing to the honors programs at places like Georgia College and University. Given the number of students that want to go to graduate school, it is hard to turn down the HOPE for most families.
My experience, as a parent who has gone through the college process with a child, is that much of this process is numbers driven. GPA matters, the rigor of the courses matter, standardized test scores matter. For some schools rank does matter. Ever since US News started ranking colleges, colleges and universities have had to care a little more about class rank because that is one of the factors in the US news formula.
I actually think that what admissions officers are looking for is whether your student took the most rigorous coursework available at their high school and how they did in those classes. I can't tell you how many times we have heard this from admissions representatives.
People in the Northeast often think about college differently than many southerners. In my experience, southerners are less likely to chase prestige. (I am a lifelong southerner.) When my oldest was going through this process, I can't tell you the number of people I met who didn't want their kids going further away then X number of hours. I know many kids who won't consider schools outside the south because of the weather and these are good students.
lastminutemom,
The Ivies have never given merit aid, just need-based aid. That's not a change. What has changed, as you said, is that top schools like Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Stanford have significantly changed their FA policies, giving more $$ to middle and lower income families in the form of grants (not required to pay back) rather than aid (loans) so that these students will not be saddled with debt. For example, here's Yale's policy: Yale Cuts Costs for Families and Students | Financial Aid | Freshmen | Office of Undergraduate Admissions If a student from a family earning $60K or less is lucky enough to get into Yale, they pay nothing out of pocket!!
In this economy, many more students from upper income families are choosing state schools over private schools due to cost factors as they simply can't manage the private school tuitions, even with some merit and need-based aid. Agreed, the very wealthy will likely still be able to afford the private school tuitions, but fortunately, now with the FA policy changes with some of these top schools, so can the lower and middle income families if the need-based estimated financial contribution (EFC) is good enough.
Tech and UGA, especially with the HOPE scholarship, have become wonderful options for instate students. We are fortunate to have Flagship schools that offer such a good education. Both schools, especially UGA, have really improved in their calibre in the past decade or 2, and are getting increasingly harder to get into, especially as more top students choose to stay in state (which was the intent of the HOPE-- to try to keep the stronger students here with hopes that they will hopefully remain here when they enter the work force). The UGA Honors program is excellent, and the top merit scholarships at both UGA (Foundation Fellows scholarship) and Tech (President's scholarship) offer phenomenal benefits and opportunities.
Also agree that many families seem to want their kids to attend schools only a few hours away. I think to a degree thats also true in%
I guess I use to hear about kids getting full rides to the Ivies.. but back then I wasn't paying so much attention.
I agree with much of what you said. I still think that percentage wise people from the Northeast chase prestige far more than southerners do.
UGA has benefited a ton from the hope. I can't tell you the number of tippy top students I know who are or who did attend UGA in the last decade or so. What I haven't seen quite as much as I think many expected is the trickle down effect. That is, good students couldn't get into UGA so they go to the second tier state schools and those schools start to "rise up." (Although I think Kennesaw State has benefitted some and GSU too).
It seems to me that these students still head out of state to places like Bama, Auburn, Clemson, UTenn etc. What do you think?
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Do you recall the traffic on JFR before they widened the Cobb side? It took 45-60 minutes to go from E. Cobb to Sandy Springs. That was a horror. Remember when some frustrated commuter shot out the traffic light at Riverside? These past few years it hasn't been as bad, but it could still take over 1/2 hr to travel this route. Hopefully the current widening will improve that.
