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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Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling
Moved you to your own thread. :)
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Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling
Originally Posted by vtg
(Post 12209200)
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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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. |
Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling
Originally Posted by robin1234
(Post 12209459)
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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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. |
Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling
Originally Posted by vtg
(Post 12209639)
What are the best schools for the kids?
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. |
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. |
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. |
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 $2000+ a month. As I said before traffic can be bad so if you give us an idea of where you're working we can recommend further. |
Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling
Thank you all for spending your time posting in my thread.
The cities Marc_ely listed seem a bit smaller than Irvine (in terms of population) so the lifestyle may be more sterile and flatter. I found out a website.<<<SNIP>>> showing some statistics that the median home price is not much different among them (Irvine: 688,200$, 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? |
Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling
Originally Posted by vtg
(Post 12210263)
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? 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. |
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! |
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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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. |
Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling
You're welcome! I have daughters in 10th and 8th and I feel as if it has been drummed into me never mind them :rofl: . I noticed on your link that it specifies that those on non-immigrant visas don't qualify for california residency status. I wonder how many people who have lived here for years realise that. When I was in Florida we still got resident rates as long as we met the other residency requirements. My kids don't even get any discount etc, despite my husband working for the University of California :blink:
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Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling
Originally Posted by vtg
(Post 12210263)
Surprisingly, I also found the housing prices in Santa Ana (360,800) and Westminter (470,400) are much cheaper,
As you mentioned traffic is bad, is it safe for the kids to use bicycle going to school in Irvine? And I wouldn't let my kids ride bikes anywhere. Especially in Irvine. Someone earlier commented on the demographics of Irvine and the driving skills in that area are somewhat related to that. |
Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling
Wow, I don't know about Santa Ana is that bad, definitely I will take a look around the region, it’s not a good idea to make decisions for the family settlement if we never come and see by our own eyes. However, I think the first few months we will rent a house or condo to have a real recognition on where we will spend our next chapter of lifetime. My wife does not drive so we need to search for the place where we could walk or take the bus for shopping/schooling.
The admission to the UC is tough but it’s good to know the requirement from early time, thanks Wibblypig for the link and everbody for sharing your experience in OC. There are tons of questions and worries everytime we move to a new place. Hope everything will be ironed out, sooner or later. |
Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling
We are moving to Irvine or Mission Viejo in the next three months. Have a son who will be attending college and then onto UCI. Like others have said. Santa Ana isn't a good place to move to. Best to stick to the areas others have mentioned.
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Re: Orange County, Ca - Schooling
Originally Posted by karispirit
(Post 12213571)
We are moving to Irvine or Mission Viejo in the next three months. Have a son who will be attending college and then onto UCI. Like others have said. Santa Ana isn't a good place to move to. Best to stick to the areas others have mentioned.
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