Living In Chicago Suburbs

Chicago Suburb schools?

• BessieRhodes Magnet, Skokie: Great Schools Net=9. K-8

• Emerson Middle School, Niles: Great Schools Net=9. Grades 6-8 only.

• Eisenhower JuniorHigh School, HoffmanEstates: Great Schools Net=9. Grades 7-8 only.

• Margaret Mead JuniorHigh School, Elk Grove Village: Great Schools Net=9. Grades 7-8 only.

• Nathan Hale Elementary, Schaumburg: Great Schools Net=9. K-6.

• Herbert Hoover Elementary, Schaumburg: Great Schools Net=9. PK-6.

• Adlai Stevenson Elementary, Elk Grove Village: Great Schools Net=9. PK-6.

• Adoph Link Elementary, Elk Grove Village: Great Schools Net=9. K-6.

• (Elk Grove Village is between Schaumburg and O Hare)

• what about Evans Ton? The top-rated elementary/middle school there get Great Schools Net=8.

• (wow lots of good Elementary School-s in/near Schaumburg.)

  • these schools are in the Schaumburg district. Each has its own neighborhood boundaries. Unfortunately maps or descriptions of those boundaries are not on the web: you can [enter](http://elink.sd54.k12.il.us/elinkrp/Students/Basic Trans Boundary Search.aspx) an address and find out what school covers it, but you can't go the other direction! And there's nobody in the schools to tell you until August11! The district person said but if you talk to a real estate agent, they can tell you.

• spoke to friend-of-friend who has lived in the area her whole live: always in the burbs until 8yrs ago, downtown since then

  • Metra stops: see here then click on "Milwaukee District West Line" checkbox. Hanover Park, Roselle, Bartlett.
  • this compares the overall schools-per-town near HoffmanEstates, and also gives median home prices for each town.
  • Schaumburg has no downtown, it's all sprawl
  • ArlingtonHeights is very nice: near Metra stop, they've made a real downtown: sidewalk cafes, restaurants, shops. Mid-rise residences. Has some good schools (with a map)
    • Middle School list
      • SouthMiddle School - gs - district25 - site
      • ThomasMiddle School - gs - district25 - site
    • Elementary School list
      • Dryden - gs - district25 -
      • Greenbrier - gs - district25 -
      • Ivy Hill - gs - district25 -
      • Olive Mary Stitt - gs - district25 -
      • Patton - gs - district25 -
      • Westgate - gs - district25 -
      • Windsor - gs - district25 -
      • J W Riley - gs - district21 - site
    • High School list
      • John Hersey gs - district214 - site
    • Has multiple outdoor pools.
    • list of houses available for sale from Red Fin
    • rentals
      • from rentalhomesplus
      • from realestate.yahoo.com
      • from oodle
      • from rent.com (most of these are near Arlington, which doesn't do any good in terms of schools)
      • rentals and sales http://arlington-heights.il.house.info/
  • Barrington, IL very nice. Schools list excellent. This is where we ended up.
  • Elmhurst is also nice (but 30min SE from HoffmanEstates) - school list has some gs=7 not great, but many good ones
  • Elk Grove Village: High School not considered good; too much noise from O Hare.

• another friend recommended

  • Downers Grove (28mi from HoffmanEstates) - schools list
  • Crystal Lake (32mi NW of HoffmanEstates) - schools list
  • Hinsdale (39mi SE of HoffmanEstates, directly So of Elmhurst) - schools list

• just close-to-Hoffman places with good schools

  • Roselle - schools list -
    • district12 includes only Roselle Middle School and SpringHills Elementary School
    • Lake Park High School has 1 campus for frosh/soph, another campus for jnr/senior. It seems to be its own High SchoolDistrict108.
    • Fredrick Nerge Elementary School is in District54, which includes a large number of Elementary and Middle schools. Ah, that's the Schaumburg Il district. How confusing...
  • Lake Zurich (12mi north of HoffmanEstates) district95 - schools list
  • StCharles (20mi SW of HoffmanEstates) - district303 - schools list looks good except Richmond Elementary School.

• the father-of-a-friend, who taught High School out there, says

  • Palatine district15 is good, esp Fremd High School district211
  • Roselle not bad
  • Lake Zurich good, though not as good as Palatine
  • Buffalo Grove High School and Adlai Stevenson High School (in Linconshire Il) gs also excellent
  • Barrington not recommended.

• a friend-of-friend said: I'd probably order them this way: Barrington, Lake Zurich, ArlingtonHeights, and Roselle

• update after some house-hunting

  • in ArlingtonHeights, to be in "walking distance" of that truly-nice "downtown" area, you end up paying like $1.3M for not-great houses. And when you get further away, the houses are still not great.
  • in Lake Zurich, you find mostly tract-housing (at least what's on the market now)
  • StCharles is too bloody far (remember, these drives from HoffmanEstates are not on real highways)

Final outcome: bought house in Barrington Il.

Commuting To Chicago

Good Things About Suburbs