Chicago suburbs

[HitHard69]

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Downers Grove FTW

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QFT...

Or anywhere in the surrounding area... Woodridge, Darien, Lisle... Bolingbrook is iffy. There's some nice places and there's some "ghetto" type places. The Downers Grove School districts are very good, both North and South. South gets a bad rap because they don't meet "No child left behind standards" but there's a reason for that. Each school in the area has a specialty for disabled students, be it Deaf, Blind, etc... Downers South is the school that all the learning disability/ behavior disability kids in the area go to, so it brings down the schools scores.

You're also close enough to Naperville where you can go check out the bar "scene" and nail some loose women, and we have 3 Metra train stops in Downers alone, which can take you into the city or out to Aurora for some gambling at the boats.

[Case Closed]

I live in the city of West Chicago. It's cheaper than the surrounding area(Naperville, Wheaton etc...) it's still in the DuPage school district. I really believe West Chicago Community High School is a great high school. I am sure some people will disagree with me about West Chicago, but we have lots of train access and I would love raising a kid in that town.

flame away

[chisness]

I've been pretty happy with Buffalo Grove, which feeds into Stevenson. I'm not really sure of all the important factors, but there's a Metra station, the schools are solid (ACT avg is 25.6), and it's definitely less expensive than the New Trier schools. I'm also pretty happy with the restaurants/things to do nearby.

[illini43]

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I live in the city of West Chicago. It's cheaper than the surrounding area(Naperville, Wheaton etc...) it's still in the DuPage school district. I really believe West Chicago Community High School is a great high school. I am sure some people will disagree with me about West Chicago, but we have lots of train access and I would love raising a kid in that town.

flame away

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West Chicago's baseball team sucked when I played them. I threw a 5-inning slaughter against them freshmen year, then went 4.2 innings without giving up a hit before someone got a single in another win for my team.

Is Pal Joey's (restaraunt) in West Chicago or Winfield? Sometimes I get those confused. Pal Joey's - good pizza, weird location.

[bigbootch]

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Good info, but OP stated he's 3 years away from even having kids. So 7 years away from needing a school district. I wouldn't use that as a big factor. Depending on where you're working find a commute you're comfortable with. Then live there.

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You definitely have a point, but I think this is still valuable NOT because of the ACT score itself, but because of the factors that likely resulted in the ACT scores in the first place. Average ACT scores change every year - these other factors have a strong tendency to persist.

At the risk of sounding like I'm overly stereotyping or being snobby or whatever, let me explain what I mean. Schools like New Trier do not have a (by a large margin) the highest average ACT score in the state (and have had, for decades) by random chance. It is because the people who live there tend to be successful, highly-educated, and are likely to want their children to be the same. This creates the overall "atmosphere" of the town, and it becomes a place where success if encouraged and prioritized. In other words, a town full of people with advanced degrees will create an environment where the children are highly more likely to succeed than a town full of people without 4-year degrees. That's unfortunate, but that's the way it is.

So anyway, it is THESE factors that persist, and to the extent that the average ACT score is influenced by these factors, OP should consider that when selecting "What kind of a nice town do I want to live in."

-bigbootch

[IlliniLou]

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we should probably get a 2p2 Chicago burbs happy hour going somewhere

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I'm down when I am back from school.

I am also stunned at the amount of suburbanites on this board.

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How about at the next Mike and Joe gig?.... could be cubby bear chitown, cubby north, Austins, Blarneys Island.

Link forthcomig..

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im down for that, but Mike and Joe are only really good when you're hammered and gettin head in the beer garden outside of Kam's [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

oh yeah, and a schools ACT score doesn't matter, you're kid will get a good ACT score if they aren't retarded, the test isnt hard

[Big TR]

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Aurora, as long as you are within the Oswego School District, is a good option. You should be able to find a home under $300k that will work for you.

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you can put that $ you're saving towards medical bills since you'll get shot pulling into your driveway.

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This is like saying "Don't live in Lincoln Park in Chicago, you'll get shot. Chicago has gangs, you know."

[kleinstadt1]

You probably won't find much in Naperville for that price range. Condo or townhouse, maybe.

I'd rule out St. Charles. That place is like the US Capitol of McMansions. Not that close to the train, either.

I used to work full time, now part time, in Winfield. That might be okay, and there's a train stop in the middle of the downtown, as sad as it is.

The areas surrounding Winfield might be okay, too (Batavia, Warrenville).

Aurora and St. Charles should probably be considered exurbs rather than suburbs of Chicago. Same goes for the towns off the Metra UP West Line west of, say, Wheaton, which include the Elburn and LaFox stops that a previous poster mentioned. These include Geneva, Batavia, etc.

[bellytimber]

Wheaton and Glen Ellyn feel a little like Naperville felt fifteen years ago. Both are nice, pretty in the fall, have great schools, are pricey, and lie within thirty minutes of downtown Chicago. Wheaton fwiw is extremely christian, people used to say it was on a trivial pursuit card for having more churches per capita than any other town in america. It was actually a pretty cool place to go to HS and didn't seem weirdly religious, but yeah, it's not the place I would have wanted to spend my twenties in.

Quick story, my parents had friends from California who moved into wheaton when I was in HS, they moved into a nice neighborhood, and true to form, their friendly wheaton neighbors threw a "welcome to the neighborhood" party for them. It was BYOB party, which in retrospect for wheaton was unusual. So the newcomers showed up with some wine or some beer and knocked on the door. The host of the party answered the door, looked at their booze, and made an awkward face...it was Bring Your Own Bible.

that's not an urban myth fwiw, I am good friends with the daughter of the family it happened to. THere was a miscommunication, they had been invited to an ongoing bible study group. Oh well, I guess there's always Glen Ellyn.

btw illini43, pal joey's is in winfield. Haha never thought I'd write that on 2p2.

[elwoodblues]

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Quick story, my parents had friends from California who moved into wheaton when I was in HS, they moved into a nice neighborhood, and true to form, their friendly wheaton neighbors threw a "welcome to the neighborhood" party for them. It was BYOB party, which in retrospect for wheaton was unusual. So the newcomers showed up with some wine or some beer and knocked on the door. The host of the party answered the door, looked at their booze, and made an awkward face...it was Bring Your Own Bible.

that's not an urban myth fwiw

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If anything, it's a suburban myth.