For Claremont Middle: Fill & Download for Free

The home Kelly Patrick Dugan found is in a great neighborhood - fun, lots to do, and relatively safe. Kelly doesn't have kids, and it doesn't sound like that's in the near future, so the rest of this answer is for others who find this question.I would say that if you have kids, or plan to have school-age kids while you live in this place then schools should be a significant factor in your decision.Oakland has some very good schools (particularly elementary schools) as well as some very bad ones. There are also a variety of private and charter schools in the area. The structural problems in the school district are old and deep.The home Kelly found is near where I used to live, and is close to Chabot Elementary School, which is one of the best in the city. School assignment is by a kind of lottery, but there is priority given to the neighborhood school.The nearby Claremont Middle School has had some challenges, including a very high turnover in the Principal's office. The high-profile "twincipals" got a lot of media attention, and the few years they worked there was more than many of their predecessors, but their star faded, and they've been replaced by the person who was the Chabot principal. We'll see what happens, but recent history does not provide great encouragement. There are some middle schools with somewhat better reputations, but running a good middle school is extremely difficult in the best of circumstances, and the OUSD does not constitute good circumstances.My understanding of the high school options is more limited, but my sense is that it is possible to get a good, even excellent, education from several of them, including Oakland Tech, which is also near Kelly's new place. To get that good education, however, requires both students and parents who are very focused, and strong self-advocates (to be assertive about getting needs met, and to not get distracted). That's probably true of all of the better middle and high schoolsin Oakland, and probably Berkeley, too, for that matter.

Oh boy. College was an experience this year. I applied to 14 schools, safety, match, reach, everything. And thanks to Questbridge (highly recommend) I didn’t have to pay a dime.Safety SchoolsUC Merced — accepted, 36K/yrState university in the middle of farmland. Will I go here? No. But hey, they gave me a ton of money.UC San Diego — accepted, 32K/yrI did like La Jolla and San Diego’s campus, but sorry, it’s not enough to convince me to attend.Match SchoolsUCLA — rejectedNow this was a big oof. It hurt quite a bit to be rejected by UCLA, which I had thought was a match school, but alas.Claremont McKenna — rejectedI knew I wasn’t going to go to Claremont, but it would have been nice to have the option.UC Irvine — accepted, $35K/yrNice, I got into Irvine! But commuting for forty minutes everyday does not sound like my cup of tea, so I won’t go here.Northwestern — rejectedOuch. Northwestern sent me all these cute little letters and packages and then they rejected me. C’est la vie.Emory — accepted, 55K/yrI won’t lie—I applied to Emory because I could, not because I wanted to. And while they gave me a decent package, I’d still have to take out some loans, so I’ll pass on Emory.USC (University of Southern California) — accepted, $40k/yrI got into USC!! This had been my number three school, and I was really excited to get in, but I’d have to take out a crap ton of loans. Dammit.Reach SchoolsStanford — rejectedI cried about this one. Stanford was my number two school, and I would have loved to attend. For a long time I dreamed about spending my days studying under the gorgeous trees of Palo Alto, but no use crying over spilt milk.Columbia — rejectedI toured Columbia and hated it. I’m not a city girl, and being surrounded by the hustle and bustle and honking horns and people and pigeons was so overwhelming. Didn’t feel bad when I got rejected.Princeton — rejectedSorry, Michelle Obama, I failed you.Yale — rejectedThis tied with Stanford as my number two school. When I got rejected I felt sick, because the day before I had just toured Yale and really liked it there. But before I got too down on myself I opened up another email from Harvard…Harvard — accepted, full rideLearning I’d been accepted into my number one school was like a dream come true and I started bawling. The day after I found out I toured the campus, which was also awesome. Cambridge is beautiful.Good luck in college endeavors, and seriously, check out Questbridge. If you qualify they’ll waive your application fees to over 40 colleges, which is pretty damn sweet.

They are both very good colleges, and I have known people who attended each of those colleges.But Grinnell is in the middle of no where.Pitzer is part of the Claremont Colleges (The Claremont Colleges) and I think that is one of the best settings Anywhere. A beautiful campus. Tons of activities. Two soccer teams (I have refereed the game twice: Pomona-Pitzer vs Claremont-McKenna), great joint facilities, and located close to Los Angeles with a wealth of things to do, and also located "outside" of the smog belt.Head to Claremont, Unless you firmly believe that Grinnell is a better Fit for You.