Pasadena & Aldentena area houses

gld2

New member
have young kids who go to school. is it good to buy a house at a cheaper price at Pasadena/Aldentena?  or pay more money to buy a house with a good school district, such as San Ramino, or La Canada Flintridge ?
 
gld2 said:
have young kids who go to school. is it good to buy a house at a cheaper price at Pasadena/Aldentena?  or pay more money to buy a house with a good school district, such as San Ramino, or La Canada Flintridge ?
Pay more for the good schools...you'll always get that money back. 
 
Had a friend who was looking in Pasadena, San Marino, Arcadia.  He quickly marked Pasadena off his list because he didn't want to put his kids in private school.  If you want to pay for private school, I hear Polytechnic is quite the elite private school.
 
gld2 said:
have young kids who go to school. is it good to buy a house at a cheaper price at Pasadena/Aldentena?  or pay more money to buy a house with a good school district, such as San Ramino, or La Canada Flintridge ?

I say no to Pasadena/Altadena. (Take a look at the test scores and crime rate. Also, when you drive around that area, you will notice the difference between the cities I mentioned below.)

Your on the right track. I would choose from: San Marino, La Canada Flintridge, and I'll throw in South Pasadena.
 
Depends on what angle you're looking at this.  If you did the cheap parts of Pasadena, would you be ok sending your kids to the public schools zoned for those areas?  If not, then you need to do the math on the delta between housing prices and cost to put X kids in private school for Y years.  Poly is the private school of choice in that area.  Harvard Westlake is probably a bit too far of a commute.
 
The office is at Pasadena.  Checked the house price at San Marino,  it is around 1.8MM, but very old house.  Don't like Arcadia at all,  the school is good but so many FCBs with loads of cash and gangsters.    La Canada is very expensive too  >:D 
 
Are Irvine teachers and administrators actually that much better than other cities?  Or
Is it the rich Asian kids and their propensity to do well in school that makes Irvine education rated so high?

I think any school you stick a bunch of rich Asian kids will do well.  Is it really the teachers?  Doubtful.
 
zubs said:
Are Irvine teachers and administrators actually that much better than other cities?  Or
Is it the rich Asian kids and their propensity to do well in school that makes Irvine education rated so high?

I think any school you stick a bunch of rich Asian kids will do well.  Is it really the teachers?  Doubtful.
It is not really the teachers. 
Sometimes the kids do better because they work harder when there is more competition.  That is good thing if your kid is reasonably smart and motivated. 
However, sometimes the teachers assume that most of the kids are getting outside help and decide not to really teach but increase the level of difficulty of the assignments.  This will be bad for your kid if you can't teach them yourself or don't have the money or time to get tutoring. 
Regardless, as previous posts indicated if your kid is smart (but not super smart) and they won't get influenced by bad friends then they are better off in a school district other than Irvine.
 
You could say that IUSD & Irvine did really well in attracting and maintaining the rich Asian demographic.  So in that sense they raised the educational standing of Irvine.  So they did have some effect on their educational standing relative to their peers....IUSD you did super job!...Here's a sticker!!!

super-job.jpg
 
so far I haven't seen lot of parachute kids with loads of cash or living in a mansion in Irvine.  There might be many parachute FCB kids, i just don't personally have the experience.  IUSD might not need worry about it or the API scores are not impacted much  :)

If it is Newport Coast, all the kids live in a big mansion,  your kids live in a small house,  it is kind of weird. 
 
gld2 said:
The office is at Pasadena.  Checked the house price at San Marino,  it is around 1.8MM, but very old house.  Don't like Arcadia at all,  the school is good but so many FCBs with loads of cash and gangsters.    La Canada is very expensive too  >:D

So right now, you commute from Irvine to Pasadena everyday? (If you do, do you take the metro link and gold line) Another situation, you might be in a situation where you don't have to go to the office everyday?
 
Irvine Dream said:
Regardless, as previous posts indicated if your kid is smart (but not super smart) and they won't get influenced by bad friends then they are better off in a school district other than Irvine.
Can you explain this?

Why would they be better off?
 
@Irvine Dream:

Oh yeah... the "ghetto school will get you into an Ivy" theory.

Sure... but the "won't get influenced by bad friends" seems like a higher risk than not getting into an Ivy.

I would prefer my kids to be safe rather than an Ivy candidate.

And if I did have Ivy aspirations, my kids would be in private school, not IUSD.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
@Irvine Dream:

Oh yeah... the "ghetto school will get you into an Ivy" theory.

Sure... but the "won't get influenced by bad friends" seems like a higher risk than not getting into an Ivy.

I would prefer my kids to be safe rather than an Ivy candidate.

And if I did have Ivy aspirations, my kids would be in private school, not IUSD.

Not necessarily a Ghetto School but I have seen kids from Mission Viejo, Orange, good parts of Corona and Murietta, and even Qwerty's Tustin High getting in to much better schools with lower SAT and AP scores than Irvine kids. 
I want to add that the observation was for same race, similar parents background/income.  Also the kids from outside Irvine had similar or less extra curricular activities than the Irvine kids.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
@Irvine Dream:

Oh yeah... the "ghetto school will get you into an Ivy" theory.

Sure... but the "won't get influenced by bad friends" seems like a higher risk than not getting into an Ivy.

I would prefer my kids to be safe rather than an Ivy candidate.

And if I did have Ivy aspirations, my kids would be in private school, not IUSD.

I think the school area theory changed. Previously I posted an article on TI, that Asians students sued Harvard over discrimination. In which they claim they have better scores and grades and still didn't get accepted.
http://www.talkirvine.com/index.php?topic=12446.0

Maybe put N/A or do not disclose on all forms when you apply to college. (College app/fin aid/SAT scores)


Me personally - I want the best and brightest, if I was the Dean of a college. I want the next Nobel prize winner, the Pulitzer winner, etc..

 
gld2 said:
The office is at Pasadena.  Checked the house price at San Marino,  it is around 1.8MM, but very old house.  Don't like Arcadia at all,  the school is good but so many FCBs with loads of cash and gangsters.    La Canada is very expensive too  >:D

Irvine to Pasadena, that definitely is a rough commute.

San Marino and La Canada public schools are all tops. But these 2 cities do not have much housing under $1m which I why I asked what your price range is. Yes, the housing stock is much different from Irvine/Orange County and pretty much everything in the area is old.

La Crescenta also has great schools and is a little more affordable than La Canada.

Glendale has some good schools and also has some OC style neighborhoods (Rancho San Rafael) built in the 1980s and 1990s.

There are a ton of private school options available too:
Pasadena Area Independent Schools
 
No, not yet ;D.  Just try to figure out the if situation,  which might happen soon.... 
No plan to commute.  we will move to Pasadena area if we decide to work there

eyephone said:
gld2 said:
The office is at Pasadena.  Checked the house price at San Marino,  it is around 1.8MM, but very old house.  Don't like Arcadia at all,  the school is good but so many FCBs with loads of cash and gangsters.    La Canada is very expensive too  >:D

So right now, you commute from Irvine to Pasadena everyday? (If you do, do you take the metro link and gold line) Another situation, you might be in a situation where you don't have to go to the office everyday?
 
You keep dodging the budget question so you must be humble.

Buy in the housing tract near the Langham and then send your kids to Poly.  Save about a half million to pay for their ivy league schooling.

The prosper
 
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