West Lafayette Jr/Sr High School versus Harrison High School (Frankfort: cliquey, crime)

[withalittleluck]

We are going to be moving to the West Lafayette, Indiana area this summer, and it seems as if West Lafayette Jr/Sr High School has a better reputation than Harrison High School. However, when looking at homes to buy, it is far less expensive to purchase a "nice" (subjective term!) home in the Harrison school district than in the West Lafayette school district. There are more homes to select from in the Harrison school district as well. I have children that do well in school and I want them to be challenged, but also to enjoy their time in school. Can anyone comment as to the environment at either or both of these schools? I have not been able to determine this from other information I've found on the internet (www.greatschools.org) or from the websites of the schools. I am concerned with the learning environment at the schools (attitudes of students, teachers, and parents), not the test scores (which I have been able to find). Thank you!

[sponger42]

In 1998 Harrison provided a good learning environment for motivated students. They offered accelerated programs culminating in AP classes in History, English, Chemistry, Calculus, and a few foreign languages. From what I've heard from students and teachers, this hasn't changed much.

West Lafayette is definitely the best school in the Lafayette area, but much of this is due to the influence of the university with many children of university professors attending. Harrison has a much more rural culture than West Lafayette and I would guess this translates into smarter kids having a harder time due to peer pressure than they would at West Lafayette.

I think that the overall environment at West Lafayette is better. The school is set in the middle of an upscale residential neighborhood near the university, but far from most of the fraternities and sororities. I see groups of students walking down to the campus fast food places at lunch and the ones who live close can walk home. The streets are all 30mph or below and it's a VERY low-crime area.

Harrison is out on County Farm Road, so when school gets out, student drivers stream off in every direction along 45-50mph county roads and highways. There are some new subdivisions close by which I know nothing about, but I think there are no sidewalks so walking or biking to school would be even more dangerous than the rally race of hundreds of teenage drivers.

So, the short summary of everything is that West Lafayette is better but Harrison is adequate. I would certainly choose to live in town. I am currently stuck out in the countryside and really hate having to drive 20 minutes to get anywhere. Not to mention that a major winter storm is forecast this week and I may get snowed in for days. West Lafayette almost never has snow days, but Harrison has several every year and the county roads can be closed and power knocked out for days on end by major winter storms.

[whereshome]

I graduated from West Lafayette High School. I agree with sponger42. The enrollment at Harrison High School is much bigger than WLHS. Also, if your children are interested in participating in athletics and are only average athletes, there will be plenty of opportunities at WLHS. I had friends that graduated from Harrison and they did just as well in college as I did. That being said, WLHS definitely has the better academic reputation and I think the biggest reason for that is the large number of parents who are professors and employees at Purdue University. The whole city of West Lafayette deems education to be very important. I would recommend WLHS over Harrison, but I am a grad of WLHS that had a GREAT HS experience.

[withalittleluck]

Thank you both for your comments! It's nice to have some personal input when I can't go to visit the schools myself right now. You both made some helpful points!

[girlbuffalo1]

Harrison is a good school and West Lafayette is a good school--neither are failing or have the problems that Jefferson HS has in the city. I do think that West Lafayette is one of the highest ranked schools--but there are no problems at Harrison--even if not quite up to West Lafayette standards

[MsLauraJD]

I have lived in a community with the population of 18,000 people in Arkansas. I was married almost a year ago. My husband is changing jobs which are taking me and my children to Lafayette Indiana. I have searched the internet for information and have read comments. But the information is from January 2011 and older. I need someone to let me know how this city is faring now as far as the best area to live in Lafayette and which elementary and high school is best. I have an 8 year old, a sophomore and a senior. Also, I found out that Lafayette has a small population of African Americans. Will we have problems being excepted? We are a bi-racial family, meaning their step-dad is white. Also tell me something about Frankfort. It is also an option. Thank you.

[jeremybrooks772]

You probably shouldn't be too concerned about race issues, especially in West Lafayette. As for schools, I would avoid Lafayette Jeff HS. They have much more cliques and issues with drugs and alcohol. West Lafayette Jr/Sr High School is smaller and fares better academically. Much less cliquey than other schools in the are and a better environment to succeed. If you can afford a place in West Lafayette, that would be your best bet. Tippecanoe County School Corporation is nothing special but would be a nice option for either Harrison HS or McCutcheon HS. These schools are more rural. Personally I would stay away from Frankfort. It is mostly what I call a "hick town", the culture and vibe is something I don't particularly like. Obviously, your opinion may (and probably will) differ, so try to check it out yourself.

[Mary Baxter]

I have three children and my first and third graduated from Harrison and second child from West Lafayette High. I can tell you the pros and
Cons of both schools being a school teacher myself and actively serving volunteering in both schools. You can not not go wrong choosing either school. There both give a great education in the honors program and preparing them for college. There are way more AP courses offered at Harrison because they have teachers that teach 6-7 periods a day. I love the teachers at Harrison. I love the teachers at Westside too. They have teachers that teach 5 periods a day because of a union law put in place a while back and so therefore do not have as many teachers applying or teaching AP courses. Harrison has a lot
To offer like Genetics & other specific areas of interest. They can and do have hard honors and AP courses with great math and science teachers. We got Klumpey from Westside and both school have wzxwllent honors science programs. The two honors Chemistry teachers started out at Harrison and learned from our Honors and AP teacher we still have at Harrison. Harrison has a Quiz Bowl that has won almost every year at the Stare & National level along with their robotics. I chose Harrison for my third student who is graduating this year. Harrison may have a bigger population, but I like the closed campus and there is very little problems that are seen for a school this big. Westside is very small and the children are all alike economically and Harrison with having 1,000 more kids have a more diverse round economic population. You want to compare the higher educated families whose children have taken honors/ AP courses at Harrison against Westside then that would be equal being students have more opportunity for more college credits at Harrison and well academically prepared for college. My first daughter graduates with 12 college credits at Harrison along w 12 college credits from Purdue which Harrison school district paid for. Westside could not offer all these AP college courses or pay for them at Purdue. My daughter was a Sophmore entering College at a private school with half scholarship paid for then full scholarship her second year
At a very hard private college. She is finishing up her masters. My second daughter went to Westside because we thought she would so better in a smaller school. She did well there and took many honors courses, but no AP. I paid for her to take Calculus at Purdue because we had lost Klumpey to Harrison and did not want the same math teacher we has for pre cal. Good thing you can pay $1,800., walk over to Purdue and take calculus and that is what my daughter did her senior yr.

Both schools genuinely care for their students and have wonderful Christian teachers. There is more even economics at Westside and less uneducated parents as Harrison. But Harrison can be compared to Wearside if you take the majority of parents that are educated and stress the importance
Of taking advantage if all the honors/AP courses. Please don't compare two different student populations because Harrison has more rural students from other economic backgrounds than Westside. I hope this helps from a mom whose three children all got great honors/ AP education and the ones in college are doing very well. My second is in college and got a partial scholarship and went to Westside. My third is graduating Harrison this year and is choosing where he will go and is looking to play baseball also in a college.

Thanks for understanding from someone who has raised her children in both schools.