I am currently a graduating senior from Plano West Senior High school and I have been in the plano schools since kindergarden. While I will admit that the schools in plano are incredibly competitive, (I have a 3.8 weighted GPA and I am not even in the top quarter of my class) colleges are well aware of the competitive nature. While talking with the Dean of Texas Tech Honors college, he said that students from PISD are given more leeway within the criteria. What I mean by that is, even though the honors college "officailly" only accepted to 10% students, students from plano not in the top 10%, but with high SAT scores are still accepted. I will say that scholarships are generally not treated the same way, at least with my experience. For me in paticular, the competitive nature of PISD has only made me want to work that much harder. As for the social enviornent, west plano is not as everyone seems to say it is. Yes, many people here are a lot more affluent than your average community, but I was not one of them and never once did I not feel accepted because of my family's income. Sure, kids wear designer clothes that I would love to be able to wear them too, but no one juges people based on what they are wearing. My experience has been that Plano West is encredbily warm and acceptive.

Wow! I've just seen an eye opening article about Plano schools. There is an election going on now for the Plano school board and this link is to an article about the election. There are charts that show Plano school quality is slipping. Maybe that is why people are moving from Plan to Frisco or Allen.

www.mycrescent.com/be-vocal/allen-schools-best-plano-slips.html

You can also see a video of one of the candidates speaking. He is running against an incumbent. Looks like Plano has problems and this candidate says the board is ignoring the problems.

Thank you very much for your help, we came last night from Texas, and we were not sure about Frisco or Plano, but now we think that we liked more Plano, we have two friends that live in West Plano and they are middle class, the thing that I liked there is that everybody take care of their houses and is nice around the area, I don't like competition that much but I think everyday you see more everywere, I am casual and I like a casual life, Thanks for your help a lot...

Plano? Frisco? They both have good schools. So does Allen and Richardson. Drive the streets of the cities. Each city has a very different "feel" to it. Make sure to visit a library in each city you consider. If your child is a high performer, if you think your child might get a National Merit Scholarship, then you might want to give special consideration to Plano. The program for the cream-of-the-crop is very successful in Plano. I live in Plano and I love Plano. I have friends in Frisco, Allen, and Richardson and they are happy too.

How to pick neighborhoods in Plano or anywhere in Texas? Use the data from the Texas Education Agency.
Go to the link I'll paste below. Select the district and view the district overall assessment, then look at individual school ratings, then go to the district web page and look for attendance zones. Then you can pick a home based on individual school performance.
ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/account/2008/districtlist.srch.html

To avoid social competitiveness in Plano, avoid Plano West High School and its feeders. If you don't have a lot of money your child will feel at a disadvantage. Most of Plano is middle class and you should not have those issues in most parts of Plano.

One thing unique about Plano schools is the high school structure. High school is 9th and 10th only. Then they go to a different school for Senior High which is 11th and 12th. The schools are large, but I am not sure the class size or if there is any difference between Frisco and Plano in class size. I have a son graduating this year and a daughter in 8th grade.

We moved to Allen last September, and my daughter goes to Anderson, it is one of the exemplary school in Allen ISD and I found it is very good, but unfortunately that have a new school opening in our neighboorhood and my daughter will be moving there this year along a lot of kids from Anderson. You may want check their latest school boundary.

I am going on March 26 to check the area, I will let you know, where do you want to move? Frisco or Plano? or which city?

I am moving to the area with my family from Ma so I am so worried about starting school here. How is the Anderson school? Also we have 6 hr days here in Ma, I was told the hours at Anderson were from 8-3, seems long..

Thank you very much for your help, I'm going to check Plano and Frisco, let's see..my husband will be working in the desing area in doen town Dallas, and i don't want him to drive to long...which area of Plano are you moving?how I know a good neighborhood?

I'm also moving to Plano soon and spoke to one other parent who said that while the schools in Plano are very good, there is much more "social" competitiveness and "pretentiousness" in Plano than in Frisco. I've also been told the student/teacher ratio in Frisco is lower.

have you find out something aboyt that?
thanks for your answer, i am planning to move next year and i want to know please
patty