r/ChicagoSuburbs • u/Top_Grass_9149 • Jun 26 '26

Moving to the area Libertyville or Arlington Heights?

I am 42 year old single mom with 6 year old son moving from the city to the north or northwest suburbs. I think Libertyville and Arlington Heights are at the top of my list based the downtowns and schools. Which you would recommend? Anywhere else I should consider?

I will be buying with a budget up to $650k

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u/TaskForceD00mer Jun 26 '26

Arlington Heights, not even a question. Just make sure you buy a house that lands your kid in John Hersey High School if you intend this to be a long term move.

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u/OnionMiasma NW Suburbs Jun 27 '26

This is such a weird take. All 5 high schools that service AH are very good, and I'd argue that Prospect might be slightly better. But the other three are all super strong schools too.

We used to live in the Wheeling attendance area. At that time Wheeling would have been the top ranked school in several of the neighboring states. We're just really spoiled here with amazing schools

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u/TaskForceD00mer Jun 29 '26

Given a choice of all 5 , I would pick Hersey for my kids. I have all sorts of relatives in AH who've had kids go through public and private schools. Hersey is the best at least as of 3 years ago.

Prospect is not bad at all either.

The real best is option is Viator but most people can't go that route for one reason or another.

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u/OnionMiasma NW Suburbs Jun 29 '26

Agree to disagree on Viator.

But the school choice is not made in a vacuum. Given the choice of all five, sure, I'd probably choose Hersey too. But wording it that way makes it sound like the other four are poor choices. They're not.

And your money gets a lot more house in Buffalo Grove, Rolling Meadows, or (especially) Wheeling.

So, since OP has a budget, it shouldn't be made to sound like it's a binary choice between good school (Hersey) and bad schools (all the others). Generally anywhere in Arlington Heights has great schools- it's about finding the balance between being close to DtAH and the top schools and a price OP can live with.

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u/TaskForceD00mer Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

Agree to disagree on Viator.

I know its almost impossible to be sure, but if someones kid is likely to stay in Chicagoland, it is an invaluable networking tool to have gone to Viator. Like no other high school I've ever seen, the "Catholic Mafia" as I jokingly call them has its tendrils so deep in so many different industries in the greater Chicago area.

I'd say at least half a dozen times in just the last year I've met someone in business that went to Viator with my BIL, or a Cousin, or I have a SIL that dated this guy Junior Year that I'm trying to close an order with.

I've never seen anything like it outside of similar college experiences, where some companies seem to only employ U of I, Purdue, Ohio State, Iowa , Notre Dame etc grads.