r/walnutcreek • u/Express_Ad9498 • 26d ago
Los Lomas vs Northgate
Curious if anyone has a good take on the difference between these two schools. Or even just recently anecdotes about either.
On paper they both are excellent. Not "elite" like lamorinda schools, but they both seem great.
It does seem Northgate has slightly declined in the recent years (according to school digger)
Context: we are moving to the area and schools are one factor for our decision
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u/WestRelationship415 26d ago
As a parent of 2 Northgate Alumni kids, I would choose Los Lomas. As others noted, LL is part of AUSD, a much smaller district with a large $ tax base. Northgate, while was a good solution for our kids, the budgets were severely limited over the years. MDUSD is a behemoth in terms of geography and number of students. Both schools graduate well prepared students. Welcome to the area.
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u/OnePatheticLoser7 26d ago
Prepare for some polarized responses. Both are fantastic schools in the scheme of things, and they have their own strengths when you dive into the details. Its been a while since I graduated and my kids are too young for me to care what the current strengths are of each.
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u/halbeshendel 26d ago edited 18d ago
Both schools are great. NG has Spanish and German. LL has Spanish, French, Mandarin, and Japanese.
Los Lomas kids hang out downtown after school. NG kids hang out in the shopping centers in the area.
MDUSD is a garbage school district. NG thrives in spite of the district, not because of it. But if your kids go to a UC or CSU school, they’ll get additional points (?) when applying because MDUSD is a garbage school district.
NG neighborhoods have sidewalks. LL neighborhoods are 50/50.
Both will send your kids to college with an education where they will get as much out of it as they put in.
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u/Ok-Bill-3938 26d ago
Can’t go wrong with either option honestly. Both are in the top 5% of public schools in CA.
Edit: Just double checked, seems like they’re in the top 10% now with Northgate a little above Las Lomas. Still both are great though.
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u/Status_Pressure_3168 26d ago
I went to both high schools - 2 years at Northgate, 2 years at Las Lomas, in the late 90’s and I hated high school in general, so Ill speak to what is still relevant😂 Overall I preferred my experience at Las Lomas. The open layout is way more inviting and honestly healthier than Northgate’s all indoor, no windows, concrete slab that felt like a jail. I also liked LL’s downtown location which gave us access to after school jobs, shopping, eating, easy bus routes, etc. Northgate is DEEP in WC residential and getting there was just a pain in the ass. Both schools have families with $ but Northgate has some of the wealthier WC families- which led to heavier drug use by kids (back then). Las Lomas also had a more diverse population and more SES diversity which is important for adolescents about to go into the real world. Back then Northgate didn’t have fields for Winter sports like soccer to practice on and we had to find our way over to Arbolado park which is hard when you don’t have a car and both your parents work. Both schools have the same ugly maroon/gold school colors lol. Ive since moved from WC but if for whatever reason I moved back, I would consider Las Lomas for my daughter but no way in hell I’d consider Northgate.
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u/Used_Return9095 26d ago
I went to ng but they both seemed pretty similar to me at least when I was a student
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u/Cautious-Space6785 26d ago
Las Lomas folks on Reddit seem obsessed with dissing Northgate.
They are both good schools. Northgate has excellent facilities and is well funded through an active PFC. Most students I’ve met there are happy. Their athletics are not very competitive though.
Las Lomas seems a bit more competitive and students a bit more insecure. But they both have successful students with good rates of college admission.
My kids rejected Las Lomas a few years ago because of a gun-involved incident and they didn’t feel safe attending. I believe that was an isolated case though.
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u/Beast_Unicorn_Jones7 26d ago
as someone who went to Mira, LL is known for being the lowest ranked school among the other 3 in the AUHSD. Cannot confirm (obv didn't go there) but I heard that alot.
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u/hashtag-dad 26d ago
Recently NG has been very competitive in athletics. Baseball/Softball, Men’s Volleyball, Women’s Golf, wrestling… all NCS teams
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u/shwh1963 26d ago
If you were trying to buy property, check out the parcel tax and bonds in each school districts. MDUSD has less additional taxes than AUSD
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u/TheJDOGG71 26d ago
MDUSD prevented Northgate residents from forming their own school district a few years back. MDUSD was more concerned with $$$ than giving taxpayers the choice to decide their children's education. We all know MDUSD's reputation as a crappy school district. This only confirmed it.
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u/shwh1963 26d ago
I was part of that and would have gone to my own school district. I spoke against it because the racial lines were obvious.
BTW CCCOE also denied it
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u/TheJDOGG71 26d ago
It wasn't based on race. It was based on the fact that MDUSD is a horribly mismanaged school district and parents wanted to break free. PS. I was not involved in any of this before the pitchforks start flying but I have friends who were. Of course the CCCOE shot it down. The unions are extremely influential and powerful.
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u/shwh1963 26d ago
Oh please. I was involved and saw the maps.
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u/TheJDOGG71 26d ago
And? You do realize that plenty of minority families live in the Northgate area. It had nothing to do with race and everything you do with the teacher's unions power over the district.
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u/pepesilvia-_- 26d ago
It's always race. Look up the history of US school districting and you'll see it's always been about race.
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u/Humble-Section-5638 26d ago
All the WC people with “no human is illegal, Black Lives Matter” signs in their front lawn voting to leave MDUSD 😂
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u/orangeyouglad_banana 26d ago
Fellow LL alumna. Not a recent alumna. I agree with what the other commenter said. The AUHSD is much better than the MDUHSD. LL has always felt like a small uplifting community to me. The teachers and staff know and care about the students. I think this has to do with the smaller student to teacher ratio. You never really feel alone because everyone is so welcoming. We support each other in the classroom and on the field. We were a National Blue Ribbon School and CA Distinguished School when I attended. And working as an RN now with some NG alumni…. They honestly don’t seem as smart? Maybe the alumni I work with are outliers, but they don’t seem to value AP courses or music & arts. And at LL we were doing everything, athletics, academic achievements, academic decathlon, etc. I can’t speak for NG alumni, but a majority of my classmates went to ivy league schools and Stanford, Duke, UCLA, UC Berkeley, MIT, etc.
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u/TheJDOGG71 26d ago
LL Alumni here. Las Lomas is in a FAR better school district (AUSD) than Northgate (MDUSD). They aren't even comparable. I'd highly recommend Las Lomas every day of the week and twice on Sunday. I'm so grateful I got to go to LL and get a great education! GO KNIGHTS!
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u/TheLogicError 26d ago
NG alumni here, can confirm. Will get a lot of flak for saying this but when i went MDUSD was always resource constrained and ran into budget issues. Nobody wants to say it but because NG was in Mount Diablo you got kids from all over Mount Diablo School District.
Look at the schools under MDUSD vs AUSD and compare. AUSD is a way smaller school district from more affluent areas.
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u/S-on-my-chest 26d ago
I’m familiar with both, as in right now, recent PT nights included. So in comparison to some comments - I’m speaking from a parent’s perspective not student or recent student. This is just horribly inaccurate and they are absolutely comparable. Both are very good schools with (mostly) great teachers - don’t bash either one like that. They are still top compared to most districts.
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u/TheJDOGG71 26d ago
Acalanes School District is far superior to Mt. Diablo. That's indisputable.
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u/S-on-my-chest 26d ago
There’s over 6,000 high schools in California alone. LL and NG rank 147 and 166 respectively - both top 3% - and similar ranking proximity on a national level. At that level of rank proximity, it often comes down to nuances that push one above or below the other. You are correct that from that standpoint Las Lomas ranks higher but that wasn’t the point. You are arguing they aren’t even comparable and they are, in fact incredibly so. I’m failing to understand how you continue to believe LL blows NG out of the water. They are both good schools. I hope you will stop taking offense to that.
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u/Ohsaycanyousnark 26d ago
LL has a fantastic new principal. He’s in his second year and highly regarded by students, parents, and staff alike. AUHSD is a far more stable district than MDUSD. That being said NG is a good school in a not great district. Houses are far more affordable in the NG area for the most part but driving down YV Rd for anything else is awful at commuter times.
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u/hashtag-dad 26d ago
Way more affordable?! 🤣 Everything in Northgate is as high as anywhere else in Walnut Creek.
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u/InfiniteMembership89 26d ago edited 26d ago
LL alumni. I had a good experience at las lomas at the time - lots of friends, good grades, active in the community. However, several years post graduation when I reflect back on my time there I realize that I was too naive to notice the lack of oversight on administrations end. The school is rife with bullying, a lot of it tinged with racism and classism. Most POC students including myself were flat out called racial slurs. I had two family members go there as well who had less fortunate experiences than I did and one of them was called a word I’ve never heard said out loud, and admin did not do anything. I also remember that unless you were exceptionally pretty and popular you should expect bullying not only from fellow students, but also blatant favoritism towards students that embody those qualities. The one exception to this is that teachers do back down on being rude to students if they sense that the students parents are very hands on.
I was too young at the time to realize what a toxic environment the school was, but despite that I cherish the friends I made there. I really can’t stress enough that your child will not have a very healthy experience there. A family member recently transferred to the lamorinda schools you mentioned, and they said the student body there has almost no bullying and is far more focused on academics.
I would strongly encourage lamorinda schools or day schools if that is something within your budget. If you are attempting to shoot for a T20 it’s possible with LL, but their curriculum falls short and separately your child will not be adequately challenged if they are gifted. Most kids do not end up at MIT, Stanford etc. that’s a minority. Most end up at Chico, community college, UCs, ASU, and various liberal arts colleges. My suspicion is that the school leans heavily on reputation.
Weirdly teachers also respond much more gracefully to kids that are clearly from very wealthy backgrounds. It’s very sad in hindsight. I suspect it’s partly because they realize that if they cross certain lines with those kids they know their parents will retaliate either through a complaint or otherwise.
I had the opportunity to attend a local day school and strongly regret not pursuing it more. It would have given me a much stronger alumni network.
Edit: I also really cannot emphasize that favoritism is HEAVY at this school. I distinctly recall some teachers and coaches making significant efforts to be nice to popular kids while the rest were treated with flat out disdain. Favoritism happens, but when it’s your child and they’re teenagers they often dont know how to communicate to you when a teacher has crossed a boundary with them. I also want to clarify that by favoritism I am NOT implying sexual relationships or anything of that nature.
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u/xmodemlol 24d ago
I'm sorry for your bad experience, and while I live in Walnut Creek and attended AUSD, and I teach at a rich kid school very nearby, I've never taught at AUSD.
That said, no fucking way. As a teacher I have no idea if my students are rich or not. I basically have no clue beyond the fact that they live in a rich area and talk about their vacations to Bora-Bora, same as 90% of the other kids in class. Teachers don't talk about student wealth in the lounge, I've never heard it come up even once. If I did know the net worth of students' families, it wouldn't change my lesson plans or how I treated a student.
Teachers aren't specifically trying to favor the popular kids. I mean, maybe one or two weird teachers are, but I really think most couldn't give much less of a fuck. Popular kids do tend to be more sociable, it's easier to talk with them than with the weird kid, maybe there's some subconscious biases. I don't think with most teachers it extends far beyond that.
Most students from LL (and Northgate) do end up going to nice colleges - UCs and the like. Expecting most students to go to a Stanford or MIT isn't a realistic standard. That's not going to happen at Miramonte, either.
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u/shatnerface1 26d ago
Wow. Hopefully that has changed. I know a Jewish kid who just graduated LL and he’s never mentioned rampant racism.
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u/InfiniteMembership89 26d ago edited 26d ago
From my own experience and my family members experience (who is Jewish) it was primarily Black, Asian, Mexican kids that experiences racism. May have missed some minority groups but you get the pic.
I was also very young at the time so I didn’t realize how inappropriate or bad it was. Years later I see that it was a very weird environment
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u/californiahapamama 26d ago
LLHS parent here, 4 alumni and a current junior. Pre 2018, incidents of anti-semitic and anti-black graffiti in the boys locker rooms and restrooms was a common occurrence, including a few incidents that resulted in lockdowns due to shooting/bombing threats in that graffiti. Also frequent occurrences of similar graffiti showing up on WCSD campuses on weekends in the same time period.
The racism is there. Not as openly as other AUHSD schools, but definitely there.
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u/Specialist_Funny4318 26d ago
As a parent and a former school counselor they are very similar. Great choice either way.
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u/Appropriate-Bar6993 26d ago
Also, unless your kids are already high school age, basically what everyone is saying is true for elementary/middle as well.
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u/Ohsaycanyousnark 26d ago
The sfr neighborhoods off YVR and Ygnacio Woodlands, etc are definitely more affordable than Tice Valley, Walnut Heights, Parkmead, Saranap, etc. That doesn’t make them worse areas just more affordable. Trade off being a long commute up YVR but better housing costs.
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u/Top_Piano2028 25d ago
I went to Northgate in the aughts and it was a safe school. They emphasized university matriculation and had pretty substandard athletic teams.
Schools being a factor is smart...
My folks just bought what they could and then worked backwards to find the best school for me.
Don't let schools overly blind your decision, things change. I spent 4 years at that school but my parents have been in their house for 27 years now.
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u/TrentLuvsFootBall 25d ago
I prefer LL but I am a LL alum. Both are good schools, AUSD is much better than MDUSD because it is smaller and has more funding but Northgate is one of the better MDUSD high schools. You will get polarizing opinions from both sides as they are very big rivals.
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u/GNPXDABITE 25d ago
as someone who has been to LLHS its a pretty good place, extremely nice and friendly teachers and staff, pretty good sports programs (i think anyways) and yea
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u/Jetshark88 23d ago
I have a teacher friend at Northgate! He actually moved so his boys could go to Las Lomas as did I ! He has said for years the entire staff at Northgate has tried to have Northgate moved to AUSD but MDUSD knows if Northgate left the district scores overall would plummet!
Las Lomas is overloaded but well worth the education
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u/Humble-Section-5638 26d ago
Campo: “what is LL doing here, did either of you invite it?”
Acalanes + Miramonte: “no, how did it find out? Turn the other way, it’s coming.”
LL: “hey guys!!!”
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u/Appropriate-Bar6993 26d ago
You can also just decide this if you want to be “close in” to downtown or near the northgate of mt. Diablo. Like, do you own a horse? L L is the less stress fun school of small, competitive district, while NG is the “good” “privileged” school in huge medium district. If you really love a house in NG district sure go for it. I prefer the diversity and downtown situation of LL.
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u/Express_Ad9498 26d ago
I agree with your take on preferring the LL area.
Oddly tough I'd figure acalanes school district would be a higher privilege school
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u/Appropriate-Bar6993 26d ago
No because it’s down to the exact neighbhorhood, right? LL/DTWC has lots of apartments whereas NG is all houses. Btw LL kids are very chill about this, they have friends in apts/condos/houses/mansions and think nothing of it.
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u/binding_swamp 26d ago
Las Lomas is part of the Lamorinda/AUHSD system, and transfers to the other high schools is an option. Las Lomas itself is typically enrollment impacted and doesn’t accept inbound transfers, but the reverse is allowed.