<p>If you are going to move for a school system, rent, don’t buy. In Massachusetts the top school systems are really good. If you are going to be in Boston the Latin schools (Boston Latin and Latin Academy) rival all but the best private schools. Do a cost benefit analysis of paying private tuition vs a four year rental for a house/apartment in Lexington, Concord or Dover. </p>
<p>There’s also the Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School, in Marlborough. As it’s a charter school, it is free. <a href=“http://www.amsacs.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=229532&type=d#about[/url]”>Admissions - The Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School; Admissions is competitive. To quote from the website:
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<p>Renting in any of the four towns named would be more affordable than renting in Lexington, Concord and Dover.</p>
<p>Yes, we would be renting for sure. Here are the public schools on our list based on all your great input:</p>
<p>Lexington High School
Wellesley High School
Newton South High School
Acton-Boxborough Regional High School
Dover-Sherborn High School
Belmont High School
Brookline High School
Lincoln-Sudbury High School
Weyland
Westford
Natick</p>
<p>Since we are not located in Boston yet and won’t be until the end of June 2015, we can’t apply to some of schools, like the Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School where the application process in underway. It also seems that the public schools might differ from one another in the admissions process based on the school district they belong to. So much to read and learn. This will also be the case for the private schools as we will not be able to visit them or have face to face interviews. Thank you very much for all the insights shared on this thread and elsewhere on CC! You are just amazing!</p>
<p>For public schools, check this out <a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/massachusetts/rankings?int=c0b4c1”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/massachusetts/rankings?int=c0b4c1</a> . It’ll give you a general sense on some of the better public school districts in MA. As mentioned above, some great districts are Wellesley, Natick, Belmont, Lexington, Winchester, Dover etc…</p>
<p>Again, these towns are more expensive… 
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<p>I’d add Concord-Carlisle and WInchester. In the towns on your public school list you don’t need to apply to a school. You’re automatically placed in the high school based on residence in the town.</p>
<p>Why Newton South and not Newton North?</p>
<p>I would also add Andover to the mix; not the private school, but the public school. It’s another good one.</p>
<p>If you could list three of your top public schools and three of your top private schools in Greater Boston, what would they be, according to your personal experiences and views? </p>
<p>Our 8th grade daughter asked the question above… She will be taking her first SSAT in January, and is in the process of writing essays for schools. </p>
<p>That’s a tough one. A lot of the schools you’re looking at, as well a the public school systems, are similar in terms of quality, yet have different pluses and minuses. In the end it will (and should) come down to which schools are a good match for your daughter and which towns feel right to your family.</p>
<p>For instance, Lincoln and Concord border each other but they have different zoning, so while both are lovely towns with a lot of farms and open space, a homeowner’s experience in each would be slightly different. Lincoln has 2-acre zoning which means that the houses are quite spread out. The town also doesn’t have a true town center. There are a couple of clusters of shops and another of municipal buildings, but no place you’d want to stroll around. Although Concord does have some very large lots it also has some small ones and it has two centers with shopping. If you value your privacy most you might like Lincoln better. If you’re someone who likes to be able to walk into town to do your errands you might prefer Concord. </p>
<p>A few comments on towns. These are purely my personal views so anyone is free to disagree.</p>
<p>Westford, Natick and Acton are further from Boston than the other town so you’d get more house for your money in those towns. You’d also have a longer commute into town if that matters to you. Acton is a nice family town, but unless your daughter ends up attending one of the schools in Groton or Concord I’d skip it. In order to get there from any place to the east, such as Boston or Rte. 95, the highway ringing Boston, you have to go through the Concord rotary, a major traffic bottleneck. Furthermore, the state is scheduled to begin reconstruction in a couple of years and I predict major delays and headaches. Acton schools, while high achieving, are also very pressured. Check the town demographics with a real estate agent and you’ll get some idea as to why.</p>
<p>Although still solidly suburban, Lexington, Belmont, Brookline and Newton will feel a little more urban than towns like Wayland, Concord, Lincoln or Dover.</p>
<p>It all comes down to what you like. Are you looking for a community where you’d have the choice between public and private? A town where you’d have lots of space? Something relatively affordable? A town within easy reach of Boston? One of the nice things about the Boston area is that there are so many good schools. Massachusetts consistently ranks at the top on measures of school achievement plus we have a long tradition of excellent private schools.it would be hard to go wrong with just about any of the places you’re looking at. Any information you can give us on you preferences will help us advise you.</p>
<p>If I were you I’d have my daughter concentrate on her private school applications and leave worrying about public to you. She has enough on her plate. I say this as the mother of an 8th grader going through the process.</p>
<p>BTW, do you have younger children we should be considering?</p>
<p>I just wrote a super long message about my impressions from friends in all the aforementioned towns and lost it. :-@ If I have the motivation to write it again I’ll send it to you via PM. </p>
<p>Stargirl, I’d like to see your post.
Also, have you checked your “drafts” folder? You may find all of part of your post there.</p>
<p>I’m at a conference this weekend so I’m on my phone in the hotel… I switched tabs to get a link and the page reloaded. I was typing it as a PM so no draft. But post is on the way!</p>
<p>These are all based on my impressions, experiences, and what friends living in each town have told me, so take this all with a grain of salt. </p>
<p>Lexington: We have a family friend who’s a freshman at a top LAC who says LHS was harder. It’s one of the top “feeder” schools to Harvard, up there with Andover and Exeter. <a href=“The Making of a Harvard Feeder School | News | The Harvard Crimson”>http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/12/13/making-harvard-feeder-schools/</a></p>
<p>Lincoln: I love Lincoln, mainly because my favorite teacher is now at the middle school there. It’s rural and cozy. My Lincoln friend is bored of it being in the middle of nowhere, but she loves Lincoln-Sudbury. </p>
<p>Sudbury: I’m in Sudbury at least once a week. It’s less rural than Dover and Lincoln, but just as cute. The library is fantastic. It’s full of nice residential neighborhoods. The vast majority of LS students are from Sudbury. </p>
<p>Dover: Dover has the highest median income in the state but not the highest cost of living because as far as I know, it’s the middle of nowhere. That’s not a bad thing. There are a ton of cyclists, presumably because of its long and scenic roads. I don’t know anyone at Dover-Sherborn, but due to the wealth of the towns it’s not low down on rankings. </p>
<p>Wellesley: I love Wellesley! It has two cute town centers (although only one is actually a town center). Home to Wellesley College, it’s a safe upperclass suburb. My friends at WHS love it; I’m jealous of their advisory groups. </p>
<p>Natick: One of my favorite adults in middle school is now in Natick. The high school is brand new; my friends tell me class sizes hover around 18. Their mornings start with a universal study hall. </p>
<p>Please message me with any questions! Hope this is helpful. </p>
<p>And Shrewsbury! Consistently ranks among the top places to live in the US, has a crew team (!!!), great school and town. </p>
<p>Side note: beware of the US News rankings. It gives you a general idea, but my school ranks much higher than it should. </p>
<p>I’ll share about the ones I know more about…</p>
<p>Lexington is a very nice town close to Boston, and very historic, great schools, many offerings; I feel like it is a pretty large town. 2 very good MS’s and an excellent HS</p>
<p>Winchester is about 8 miles from Boston. It’s a nice, charming, New England town. It is a pretty small town - say 22,000. Great schools, good people, etc… HS is undergoing an EXPENSIVE renovation and was a blue ribbon school recently.</p>
<p>I know some people in Concord/Carlisle, and have only heard good. They are always great in academics and athletics.</p>
<p>I also have heard very good things about Natick.</p>
<p>All of these towns, and many more have excellent public school systems, and are lovely places to live (that are extremely expensive). You are lucky that you’re moving to the Boston area, as it truly offers some of the best education - both public and private - in the world. I believe that you can’t go wrong w/ any of these great private schools, as well as with these wonderful public schools - and for some, I believe that public might be the way to go.</p>
<p>lol stargirl, I read WHS and didn’t read Wellesley, so I thought Winchester High School instead of Wellesley High school. Simply bc I know more about the Winchester WHS then the Wellesley WHS. </p>
<p>I know nothing about Winchester :-/ 
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<p>If you do go public and you want the best bang for your buck, I’ll second the Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School, in Marlborough. I have good friends with kids there. They don’t live in Marlborough but in a neighboring town and the cost of living is MUCH less the farther you go from Boston. My friends could afford private school but feel the Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School is the best school for them. I used to live in the same town and commuted into Boston for work, if we still lived in MA this is where my kids would be going.</p>
<p>@Sue22, @stargirl3, @ambitiouswolf, thank you for taking the time to write your wonderful comments, truly appreciated. One of the reasons that we are very worried is because we won’t be able to visit the schools, you are our eyes and ears! </p>
<p>@Sue22, we have two daughters, our older daughter is at Harvard College. For our younger one, we are trying hard for the private schools but we would of course consider these fantastic public schools as well. Our older daughter stays at Harvard, so there will be no commuting for her. For us, we would like to be near a town center, for the shopping and the convenience. Also, we get a lot of family & friends visiting every time we move to a new place. They stay over for a few weeks at a time, and for that matter we would love to have a larger house instead of a small apartment! We also like to go out to restaurants, galleries and movies, we are city people :)</p>