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Orange County, Ca - Schooling

Orange County, Ca - Schooling

Old Mar 21st 2017, 4:47 am
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Smile Orange County, Ca - Schooling

is there anyone living in Orange county, California? I badly need your advice on choosing a good public shool for my kids (6-10 years old). Thank you.
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Old Mar 21st 2017, 7:05 am
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Default Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling

Moved you to your own thread.
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Old Mar 21st 2017, 12:41 pm
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Default Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling

Originally Posted by vtg
is there anyone living in Orange county, California? I badly need your advice on choosing a good public shool for my kids (6-10 years old). Thank you.
First question would be, do you have a specific location in OC you want to be near, place of work, family etc.? Then you can look at commuting distances. Your home would have to be in the catchment area for the school.
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Old Mar 21st 2017, 4:06 pm
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Default Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling

I always find this to be helpful
https://www.usnews.com/education/bes...ols/california

Certainly for my area, this is a good listing and reflective of the schools.

Good high schools tend to be in better areas and have good feeder schools. Since your eldest will shortly be in high school anyway, best to make sure you are in area for a good one.
You can filter out the private, charter and magnet schools if you want to, just leaving you with good public ones.
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Old Mar 21st 2017, 4:07 pm
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Default Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling

Originally Posted by robin1234
First question would be, do you have a specific location in OC you want to be near, place of work, family etc.? Then you can look at commuting distances. Your home would have to be in the catchment area for the school.
We want to move to Irvine (from Orlando) and raise the kid there because the weather is similar and it's safe but I have no idea about the public schooling system in Irvine. What are the best schools for the kids? Which part of Irvine I could find good housing for a couple with two kids? Thank you.
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Old Mar 21st 2017, 4:35 pm
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Default Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling

Irvine appears to have some really good high schools
https://www.usnews.com/education/bes...ame=california

watch out for the property taxes if you intend to buy.
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Old Mar 21st 2017, 4:49 pm
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Default Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling

Originally Posted by vtg
What are the best schools for the kids?
This very much depends on the kids. I, for example, have one very high-flying academic type who thrives on pressure and competition; and one more middling ability one who responds negatively to external pressure and works far better when permitted to jog along to the beat of her own internal drum.

Neither likes sports so we don't require stunning athletic facilities, but that might be a factor for others.

The right choice for our family was a very large (2.5k) high school that offers every possible option from the AP catalog and enough kids in each year to stream my high flyer into accelerated and more challenging classes with peers to match his abilities, while still offering solid mid-level classes and an extensive range of vocational programs for my 'not really sure which way she will go yet' 13 year old.

On paper, this is not the 'excellent' 10/10 school in our area, which is in a very affluent suburb 20 mins away. But my perfectly normal B-average younger one would drown there academically; I don't want her developing self-image to be 'I'm stupid compared to everyone else'. And I didn't want my kids to go through adolescence in a bubble of very white, very rich elitism.

So 'best schools'... the answers can differ greatly depending on your kids, and your academic, social, and personal development goals for them.
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Old Mar 21st 2017, 8:16 pm
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Default Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling

Most of the schools in OC are supposed to be good.
Here's a link to the Greatschools ratings:
Irvine Schools, 1-25 - Irvine, CA | GreatSchools

Lots are 10/10, but the number should be taken with a pinch of salt. In my experience here satisfaction with the school is more to do with the individual teacher you get assigned. Some are good and some.... meh.

Irvine is expensive and a magnet for Asian immigrants from China etc. Take a look at the race/ethnicity ratings of the schools. If you're white you might not want them in a school of 85% Asian, but then again maybe you might if you are Asian yourself? Or you might not care. My kids mix with a wide variety of colors and backgrounds and I think that's cool as it reflects work life here too.

Have you been to Irvine? It's not... err... everyone's cup of tea. I work there but wouldn't live there. It's too flat, sterile and expensive.

Oh yeah, OC traffic sucks, freeways in particular.
So if at all possible work near where you live.
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Old Mar 22nd 2017, 3:30 am
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Default Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling

I have not decided yet but my friends recommend Irvine, besides warm weather and safe, the cost of living is not so high comparing to SF Bay area.
If you mentioned it’s expensive, I am a bit confused. Is 100k income enough to live comfortably for a family with 2 kids?

I know lifestyle in Irvine is quiet and boring but raising the kids is my first priority. I know it depends on the kids’ ability, they are not kind of talented and gifted ones and I also do not want them to race with others very white and very rich elitism. Somehow, we just want to have a roadmap for their better academic background so they could enroll in some good Universities in the future.
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Old Mar 22nd 2017, 5:09 am
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Default Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling

The whole of Southern California has nice warm weather and all of the OC areas are safe and have decent schools. But Irvine is just one city in it.

It's good for families but so are lots of surrounding cities too. I'm in Mission Viejo, and there are Laguna Hills, Lake Forest, Rancho Santa Margarita, lots of places to be honest. They're all good and all family orientated.
If you go closer to the coast the prices of everything shoots up dramatically and matches many areas around the bay.

A $100k salary is not particularly large for around here. I think you will take home about $5800 a month? Assuming you're renting a 3bed house in Irvine you're looking at $2400+ a month for that. If you try other cities that will drop to more like $2000+ a month.

As I said before traffic can be bad so if you give us an idea of where you're working we can recommend further.
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Old Mar 22nd 2017, 11:56 am
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Default Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling

Thank you all for spending your time posting in my thread.

The cities Marc_ely listed seem a bit smaller than Irvine (in terms of population) so the lifestyle may be more sterile and flatter. I found out a website.<<<SNIP>>>
showing some statistics that the median home price is not much different among them (Irvine: 688,200$, Lake Forest: 584,000$, Laguna Hills: 600,800 and Racho Santa Margarita: 557,500$). So the housing price will reflect rental fees so I think the fluctuation is not so much comparing one another.

Surprisingly, I also found the housing prices in Santa Ana (360,800) and Westminter (470,400) are much cheaper, it this statistics reliable? Can anyone verify this?

I have my own business and travel quite often so Irvine is still my target because of nearby John Wayne airport, however Santa Ana is the next choice for cheap housing, so my shortlist is Irvine and Santa Ana.

As you mentioned traffic is bad, is it safe for the kids to use bicycle going to school in Irvine?

And what is the minimum achievement in high schools that the students will get automatic entry to University of California?

Last edited by Jerseygirl; Mar 22nd 2017 at 2:25 pm. Reason: Link removed...looks spammy for a new member
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Old Mar 23rd 2017, 3:33 pm
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Default Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling

Originally Posted by vtg
Thank you all for spending your time posting in my thread.

The cities Marc_ely listed seem a bit smaller than Irvine (in terms of population) so the lifestyle may be more sterile and flatter. I found out a website.<<<SNIP>>>
showing some statistics that the median home price is not much different among them (Irvine: 688,200$, Lake Forest: 584,000$, Laguna Hills: 600,800 and Racho Santa Margarita: 557,500$). So the housing price will reflect rental fees so I think the fluctuation is not so much comparing one another.

Surprisingly, I also found the housing prices in Santa Ana (360,800) and Westminter (470,400) are much cheaper, it this statistics reliable? Can anyone verify this?

I have my own business and travel quite often so Irvine is still my target because of nearby John Wayne airport, however Santa Ana is the next choice for cheap housing, so my shortlist is Irvine and Santa Ana.

As you mentioned traffic is bad, is it safe for the kids to use bicycle going to school in Irvine?

And what is the minimum achievement in high schools that the students will get automatic entry to University of California?
I live in Lake Forest (right next to Irvine) the cities all run together so you can't even tell which one you are in most of the time. From my house in Lake Forest it is about a 15 minute drive to John Wayne airport (during the morning commute that would be closer to 30 minutes). As Marc_ely noted the schools in Irvine are largely populated by Asians and are rated very well.
The average of Santa Ana schools are rated 5/10.

If you are raising kids, I certainly wouldn't want to be doing that in Santa Ana. Unfortunately, it has quite a high crime rate for Orange County.

There are many busy, high speed streets in Irvine so it would depend on how far you are from the school as to whether it would be safe to ride a bike to school.
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Old Mar 23rd 2017, 3:56 pm
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Default Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling

Yep Havnfun is spot on. Unless you know the area you really can't tell which city you're in!

When you fly in to John Wayne at night you can see lights extending all the way from LA down to San Juan Capistrano. You're basically talking about 50miles of surburban sprawl. Don't get me wrong, there are lots of parks so lots of bits are green...

Santa Ana is cheaper because it is an absolute shithole. It is where all the poor people live. It has far higher rates of crime. I wouldn't walk about there in the day let alone let a kid ride to school there!

You need to come and look around. The places I listed are all nice family areas (as is Irvine). Are you looking to rent or buy? How many bedrooms?

No idea if there is an automatic entry to U.C. I didn't think there were any automatic entries to anywhere!
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Old Mar 23rd 2017, 9:47 pm
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Default Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling

Hello! We moved from Florida to Northern California! Obviously i can't help with the places to live, but I can point you in the right direction for state college requirements. Although as Marc said, it's not an automatic entry and UC places are highly sort after. This link has the requirements, you will hear a lot about 'a to g requirements' as these are the main basic requirements to apply. There are lots of other things that make college applications look good too, but they are similar to what the requirements were in Florida so you should be good to go with those.
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Old Mar 23rd 2017, 9:59 pm
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Default Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling

Thanks Wibblypig for posting that.
I've had a look as my eldest is already looking in year 7...

Maybe what the OP had found was this page:
University of California - California residents

This implies entry based on being a CA resident and basically being accademically at the top.
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