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We are moving from Seattle to the Chicago area with a junior in high school, an 8th grader and a son in community college. My husband will work in the Rosemont area. Our first priority is to find a high school where our kids will find a place socially. I can crunch the numbers and read reviews and find a solid education but need help with finding an accepting school culture (high school is the focus). I started out looking at Downers Grove and have researched Des Plaines, Mt. Prospect, Palatine, Barrington, Arlington Hghts, Hoffman Estates and Buffalo Grove. BG came out of it's proximity to College of Lake County and Rosemont. We lived in the Grayslake area for seven years in the early 2000's so I am familiar with CLC but not Harper Community College. My high school junior who is a quiet academic socially shy girl, likes what she has read about Stephenson High School. I can't find much but it is massive! So far in my house search I haven't come across much housing inventory for Buffalo Grove High School, everything is Stephenson. It seems that Illinois schools offer a wider variety of electives than our current high school but I have found that across the board not just at Stephenson. She is interested in engineering courses and I have yet to find a school that doesn't offer them. As a family it is important for us to be able to go into the city on the weekends and be close to shops, restaurants, etc. We love the protected green spaces Illinois offers. A small downtown area and a train station in the village we select would be wonderful. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
The sorts of things that will make this move easier or harder on the kids is how good a fit they'll find with classmates and neighbors.
It is very hard to predict what sorts of options are going to be open to any high school junior at either large or small high schools as very often the relationships between existing students (and even teachers) get fairly settled by the end of sophomore year if not earlier. That said. for schools that have a bit more experience with transfer students there may be some specific options / procedures that may be helpful. I know some high schools actually make the procedures publicly accessible (I think Libertyville High School has pdfs on the web...) but that doesn't mean that others don't have a similar procedure, you'll probably need to call around...
The options for community college at either Harper, CLC, or COD (even Triton or other community colleges) can all be excellent -- really comes down to how mature you student is about using the resources that each school to further their goals.
Lastly the options for the 8th grader might be closest to those of the high schools, but there are even fewer publicly accessible documents that spell out how each school deals with transfers. Generally too small a middle school / junior high won't have a whole lot of flexibility and too big might be the best place for your child to get to know the kids that are best for them...
Wish I could be more helpful but the data for how many kids really transfer at these ages is pretty spotty. I know for a while Naperville would get a big influx of transfer kids but as telecom firms and other more tech oriented spots have become less common in the region so too have transfers fallen off. My gut says the relative mobility of Libertyville, due to Abbot Labs and firms in related healthcare sector might be higher than the average for the region but hard data is not easy to come by...
Thank you! You make an excellent point about finding out how transfers are handled. I have made a few calls to schools and I was really impressed that the Dist 211 Assist. Superintendent called me back within an hour in response to a question I asked a receptionist about credits. Four years ago we were due to move back to the area and I looked at Libertyville HS. The area is definitely one we love and ticks all of the boxes. My husband would dearly love to cut down his commute as those memories are the only negative ones of our time in Illinois. At the time he was commuting Glenview to Gurnee and it could easily exceed the hour mark.
As someone that moved out of the Chicago area before a child was in High School, but had already started looking into it because we were in the city and getting into a good school is tough so we had started looking at the suburbs. Mostly I can tell you what I would not do whether I had the income or not. I would not want to send my child to several of the upper middle class neighborhoods. Hinsdale and Wlimette stand out. You will be caught up in a keeping up with the impossible jones situation. Yes I would want a good school academically but if possible not in environment where how much money you have is the most important thing. It's been a while(5 years) since I was in the same boat, but I would look into Naperville if you can afford it and it hasn't become all about money.
As someone that moved out of the Chicago area before a child was in High School, but had already started looking into it because we were in the city and getting into a good school is tough so we had started looking at the suburbs. Mostly I can tell you what I would not do whether I had the income or not. I would not want to send my child to several of the upper middle class neighborhoods. Hinsdale and Wlimette stand out. You will be caught up in a keeping up with the impossible jones situation. Yes I would want a good school academically but if possible not in environment where how much money you have is the most important thing. It's been a while(5 years) since I was in the same boat, but I would look into Naperville if you can afford it and it hasn't become all about money.
Mod cut.
There a LOTS of people with very well balanced lives and values that are not distorted by worldly wealth living towns like Wilmette, Hinsdale and far more costly towns just as there are people with shallow and distorted values living all over the country / world.
The degree to which anyone facing the tough tasks associated with relocating while their kids are in school should weigh any fears of "keeping up with the Jones" is no more than they should give in their current home. wherever that may be.
The benefits of moving to an area with well funded schools, lots of nice community amenities and and environment that places good parenting above all else cannot be overlooked...
Last edited by PJSaturn; 09-07-2015 at 02:04 PM..
Reason: Personal barb.
We are moving from Seattle to the Chicago area with a junior in high school, an 8th grader and a son in community college. My husband will work in the Rosemont area. Our first priority is to find a high school where our kids will find a place socially. I can crunch the numbers and read reviews and find a solid education but need help with finding an accepting school culture (high school is the focus). I started out looking at Downers Grove and have researched Des Plaines, Mt. Prospect, Palatine, Barrington, Arlington Hghts, Hoffman Estates and Buffalo Grove. BG came out of it's proximity to College of Lake County and Rosemont. We lived in the Grayslake area for seven years in the early 2000's so I am familiar with CLC but not Harper Community College. My high school junior who is a quiet academic socially shy girl, likes what she has read about Stephenson High School. I can't find much but it is massive! So far in my house search I haven't come across much housing inventory for Buffalo Grove High School, everything is Stephenson. It seems that Illinois schools offer a wider variety of electives than our current high school but I have found that across the board not just at Stephenson. She is interested in engineering courses and I have yet to find a school that doesn't offer them. As a family it is important for us to be able to go into the city on the weekends and be close to shops, restaurants, etc. We love the protected green spaces Illinois offers. A small downtown area and a train station in the village we select would be wonderful. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Stevenson is huge (back up to nearly 4000 students - but was even bigger years ago when my kids went there). It is more like a small college campus than a high school and has outstanding facilities and a sprawling campus. There really is something there for everyone. But it is very competitive in almost everything, be it academics, athletics, arts, whatever. I don't know what you mean by "accepting high school culture". If by that you mean everyone gets a trophy for participating, Stevenson is definitely not the place for you. But if you mean a place that pushes everyone to get better regardless of where they lie on the spectrum, then you could not find a better place.
If you are looking for houses that feed into Buffalo Grove HS, look in northern Arlington Heights. There are some higher end communities like Terramere which is right along the border with BG that feed into BGHS. You will probably find more inventory there.
BG does have more parks and green space than any other nearby community (except for the rural towns like Long Grove), but it does not have any downtown area at all. It does have Metra service but it does not run on weekends, so if the plan is to use the train to go into the city on weekends, you would have to use a different line (Milwaukee North or UP Northwest). The train ride on weekends is pretty long and service is greatly reduced on all lines, so you just might want to drive.
I would also look at the south end of Palatine that feeds into Fremd HS. Also Inverness. Fremd is an excellent school, but a bit limited as far as facilities go, and is 5 minutes from Harper, which has a very expansive campus for a community college. I think they are offering 4 year programs there in certain areas in conjunction with I believe, Northern Illinois University. The area around Euclid and Quentin Roads is newer and upscale and minutes from both Harper and Fremd.
Thanks for the insights. To clarify. I am looking for an "accepting school culture" as in a place where my kids can find friends and activities to participate in even though they are new. My kids don't need trophies for anything. My younger daughter plays rec soccer but my older one does not play sports. The thing I am trying to avoid is an entitled population of kids. Competition can get unhealthy in some affluent suburbs.
Thanks for the insights. To clarify. I am looking for an "accepting school culture" as in a place where my kids can find friends and activities to participate in even though they are new. My kids don't need trophies for anything. My younger daughter plays rec soccer but my older one does not play sports. The thing I am trying to avoid is an entitled population of kids. Competition can get unhealthy in some affluent suburbs.
Stevenson is a really competitive school. Although, it does not serve as affulent areas as most North Shore districts, it still serves affulent areas in general, but it's more competitve because of the size of the school. How has your daughter been researching Stevenson? Has she been looking at the school website, reviews or both? If you want to find a school that's easy for your kid to make friends, I think a bigger school is better to look at because there wil be more kids for your kids to meet, but not too big where they can be lost academically and not be able to make any sports. Also, what's your budget?
Thanks! Yes, she has been looking at the website, google reviews and great schools. I am not sure why she is so set on it at the moment. You make an excellent point about the school not being too big. She is focused on not too small but you confirm my misgivings about Stevenson. I think it would be different if she had been there since elementary. So appreciate everyone's time and advice!
Thanks! Yes, she has been looking at the website, google reviews and great schools. I am not sure why she is so set on it at the moment. You make an excellent point about the school not being too big. She is focused on not too small but you confirm my misgivings about Stevenson. I think it would be different if she had been there since elementary. So appreciate everyone's time and advice!
I would look at Fremd HS and Harper CC. It seems to fit what you are looking for better than Stevenson and College of Lake County. Palatine also has a nice downtown area and is on the UP Northwest line which runs every day.
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Just baseless...
