Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Differences between public and private schools

You're using Waltham and Lexington as your polar opposites? No. I'm sorry, this is going to be an unbearably dull for people to read, skip over unless you're a member of the endless Mass schools debate.

Lexington is hot house central, highly prized by a certain segment of the population who are trying desperately to get their kids into Harvard, and some very unfortunate people who moved there for 'good schools', then discovered they're not good, they're just high pressure, status driven places. Which suits some, sure, and they're welcome to it. But not people like us with kids like ours. But in this comparison, it's close to Boston/Cambridge, and properties have that schools premium.

Waltham does not have a reputation for much of anything, does it, sandwiched in between Newton, Belmont, Lexington and Concord, the 'good schools' districts and the rich Weston, Wellesley and Wayland. It just suffers the price increase from beingin there with decent schools, like Melrose or Reading. If you want a cheap town within reach of a good private school better to go with Medford, Burlington, Billerica, some of those towns on the T. If you're shooting for Phillips, why not compare housing in Wilmington? For Concord Academy, Billerica, for Milton Academy, Mattapan, for Commonwealth or BUA, anywhere on the T, like Lynn. For many of these towns you'll have multiple options well under $400,000.