Many of my clients are moving to Northwest Arkansas because they realize it’s a great place to raise a family. Today, I want to discuss their criteria for raising a family to address some of the concerns you might have about moving to Northwest Arkansas.
Bentonville and Fayetteville are great places to raise a family, as they have great colleges, high schools, and unique schools geared toward an area of study, such as politics or culinary skills. There are also many jobs available in Northwest Arkansas, and the area is very safe.
The rest of this article will expand on these five reasons why Northwest Arkansas is a great place to raise a family. By the time you’re through reading this post, you may just be convinced to move your family over here.
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There’s a Great College
The first reason why people move down here to raise their family is that there’s a college here — and a great college.
A little-known detail about the University of Arkansas is that in these last couple of years, it’s been growing exponentially.
While many other schools around America have been shrinking, the University of Arkansas has gained about 5,000 more students in the last couple of years. It had around 30,000 students enrolled but now sits at 35,000.
Parents are quickly realizing — between the low tuition, the great housing, all the fun things to do around here, and this really great environment of Northwest Arkansas — that when their students leave high school, they can go to the University of Arkansas.
Their children can keep living here and go to the university because the tuition is great, it’s a fantastic place to live, and there are so many amazing career paths they can go into at the University of Arkansas. For instance, they could follow one of these paths:
- Medical
- Law
- Engineering
- Supply chain
- Business
There are so many things that the University of Arkansas is good at, and people are drawn here because they know that they can just send their students to this great school. It’s undoubtedly a factor why they move down here and feel it’s a great place to raise their families.
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There Are Great High Schools
The second reason my clients always mention Northwest Arkansas is the fact that it has great high schools.
Whether you’re going to a charter school like Haas hall, Don Tyson School of Innovation, Bentonville High School, Fayetteville High School, Rogers, or Farmington, all the high schools around Northwest Arkansas are fantastic, highly-rated high schools.
They have low teacher-to-student ratios. They have great pathways in the school system itself to learn unique things within the school system. And on top of that — a bigger draw for the area is that you can jump from school to school if you want to.
Let’s say, for instance, you live in Farmington, but you want to send your student to Fayetteville. You’re more than welcome to apply and actually just go to Fayetteville versus Farmington or vice versa.
This arrangement is unique to the area. Where I came from in the Chicagoland area, that’s not something that happens. Or you would have to pay thousands of dollars extra to get your student into that area.
Northwest Arkansas is very unique in that realm where you can just move from school to
school, and you can just apply for it and get into it. The same goes for charter schools; although you don’t always get in because it’s a lottery system, you can apply.
The lives of many people I know who have gotten into the school systems have changed for the better overall because the charter schools around here are just fantastic.
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They Have Unique Schools
The third reason why Northwest Arkansas is a great place to raise a family is that it not only has great high schools, charter schools, and private schools, but they have very unique schools.
For instance, if your student isn’t the best at math, english, or isn’t going to be an engineer — maybe they’re going to be in art, culinary, or a very specific field.
One cool thing is that Northwest Arkansas has a unique field for different sorts of education. There are so many schools that your student can get into that are very specific to the actual focus of the area itself.
A good example is Don Tyson’s School of Innovation. This school is what it sounds like — a school dedicated to engineering, innovation, and science.
And maybe your student wants to get into more of the actual art side, for example, language, arts, culture, painting, or music. There are schools dedicated to each of these. There are even schools dedicated to a political side as well.
Northwest Arkansas is so diverse — they will find a school that’s built and dedicated to your student’s area of interest.
There Are So Many Jobs
The fourth reason people move down here is that there are so many jobs in Northwest Arkansas.
From a parent’s perspective, you may wonder if you bring your students to Northwest Arkansas and they go through the education system, will they have job opportunities?
I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but we have some of the three biggest companies in the world in Northwest Arkansas.
On top of that, we have startups and midsize companies. We have all the different connections to Walmart, as Walmart requires a lot of its suppliers to be in Northwest Arkansas.
We have Hershey’s, Dove, Unilever, and all the different major brands that represent themselves in Walmart stores. But if you don’t want to work for Walmart, J.B. Hunt, Tyson, or a retailer, there are so many manufacturing jobs.
There are so many different skilled labor jobs. Additionally, if you’re into investment firms or startup culture, there are so many different things that you can do in Northwest Arkansas. So jobs are not hurting at all here.
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It’s a Very Safe Place
And last but certainly not least — I cannot stress this enough because it’s very understated — is that Northwest Arkansas is a very safe place to raise a family.
Now, let’s think about this for a second. Would you send your 19-year-old daughter to a university with a lot of violence and issues around it?
The answer is no.
The university, Walmart, Tyson, J.B. Hunt, the midsize companies, and all the cities have a big interest and play a big part in ensuring this area is safe for everyone here.
You can go anywhere in Northwest Arkansas and feel very safe. One really cool thing I love about Fayetteville specifically is the Razorback pathway. It’s the major pathway that runs between the cities and all the different trail systems that connect to it.
All the pathways in Fayetteville are lit up. Now, they aren’t all lit up in Springdale and Rogers, but many are in Bentonville. It’s cool that all the pathways are lit around the university.
It’s easy to go around the town anytime because there’s so much light around the area. And so, again, part of the reason people moved to Northwest Arkansas to raise a family is that it’s so safe.
Final Thoughts
The quality of education in Northwest Arkansas is a major consideration for people looking for the best place to raise their families. When there’s an abundance of jobs and a safe community, it’s a no-brainer to move here.
And if you are thinking about moving down to Northwest Arkansas, download my three-day itinerary.