What does that even mean? No one cares where you went to high school. Most college graduates will not list their high school on their resume or LinkedIn. Someone who went to Dwight and then a good college will do just fine. |
Again, have your kid take the ISEE before you start spinning out. The ISEE will give you some data on what he’s learned and also if he’s a good test taker. Does your school do a practice ISEE the spring of 7th? Also, my kid is a straight A student with 8s and 9s on the ISEE and we applied to LREI. My kid really liked LREI and if you’re downtown and want more progressive school it worth looking at. We found it to be one of the warmer schools we looked at and the kids get into some pretty good colleges. We’re not ending up there but I wouldn’t dismiss out of hand. I’ve also heard good things about Basis and they’re cheaper. |
| How does your school do assessments? If they do narrative reports then go back over for some clues. Do they bring home graded tests and papers? Start thinking about your other options. There’s a great FB page for parents navigating the NYC public high school process. If your kid doesn’t get grades it might be hard to figure out their tier for the admissions process but if you think your child will test well and can handle TT workload then have them take the SHSAT. Do they have any artistic talent? They could audition for one of the arts high schools. Good writer? Try for Bard or Beacon. Are you catholic or open to catholic? Test for Regis or look into Xavier or FP, which have great honors programs and are a fraction of the cost. There are many options in NYC if you look past the 5-10 private “TTs.” |
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Op, why not move to Westchester, CT, or Long Island? Great public schools, and you can all thrive with your money going further and more fresh air?
Alternately, for as much as you’re spending, why not hoarding school? I grew up in the Hudson valley, went to public school and then to Exeter and then Columbia. I don’t know why NYC families put themselves through all of this, only to have to do it all again for college. Can’t be good for your kids. |
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I think you have to begin with the end in mind. You sound like you would not be happy to spend another 300k and be sitting in a colleges counseling office hearing suggestions like Lehigh or Holy Cross. (perfectly good schools!)
I have two kids at HYP right now. So I get it. I acknowledge I wanted my kids to go to the kind of college that wasn't on the table for me. We could sorta kinda afford private K-8, which sounded like a financial slog so we did pubic k-5 and public middle and then private HS. (Also had SHS spots, which would have also been fine). Think about what kind of college you'd be happy with. You might say, maybe something cool like Pitzer or Wes. If so, go to public. BC? Go to Loyola. You will have better luck getting into Cornell from a strong public. At Middlebury, getting a great GPA and applying ED would be the more important than public or private. Or learn to play Rugby at Xavier and go to Cal or Michigan and maybe Brown. Want to go to UVA, buy a nice house in Rye and get him a tutor to keep his grades up. A top HS in NY can totally help you, but all privates can hurt you too. Top or not. They're all full of "institutional priorities": legacies, donors, and very strong FGLI kids who came in via Prep for Prep etc and can thrive in PWI - colleges love them. All these legacy/donor kids get leadership positions - not because of nepotism (disagree with the podcast), but because they were born with the confidence and swagger my kids didn't have at 14. |
Apply to TT or T2 in addition to those schools. But even if your DC ends up at trevor, irei, dwight, basis, they will be fine if they are prepped well and stand out in high school. TBH if you are unhooked and are a good student, you will be successful no matter you go to TT or T2. I don't understand why you think he needs a tutor. Do you think students who are tutored into a TT and continue being tutored there would be better students? Are those TT parents going to provide tutors for their tutored TT kids throughout college, grad school, and their lives? |
Different poster - thanks for sharing. I am interested in going a similar route with my kids - public for younger years and apply to private for HS. How was the transition from public to private for your kids? Pros/cons of this path? TYSM |
People who go to Exeter and HM and Trinity 10000% put it on their LinkedIn and on their resume for the first couple jobs out of college. People do care about this stuff, you and your ilk do not. |
We are in a similar boat - kid is 4 now applying to K next year. One of the big reasons we are considering private is because there don't seem to be a lot of good public middle schools and the admission process for public has changed so much. It also doesn't seem like privates have too many open seats at middle school level. |
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Op - my first preference over a basis or a Trevor would be a bronxville/ Scarsdale/ rye etc. Def open to some of the publics mentioned here also. Basis is a joke, I feel, and also I could have sent him there years ago and saved money if I thought it was up to anything
The standout thing to me is their list is incoherent. Trevor/ LREI, Dwight and basis have only in common that they are relatively easy to get into. The same student who thrives at lrei is not the same student who thrives at basis. I feel like we are just saying it needs to be an easy get for him bc he’s an undesirable student, rather than they had a thoughtful assessment of his profile that we’ve all been discussing for some time. As for the ISEE yes he has taken practice ISEEs and had quite varying results with the first one in high 8s and then when he took it again more variation. I guess my expectation was that they’d suggest a couple ‘stretches’ eg a fieldston, a packer etc.. maybe a Buckley. And then some mid range - I wouldn’t have been surprised to see LREI in there. But it feels like we are just aiming for the lowest rung without us being prepped for that outcome along the way |
They were both behind in math - which I think was more about Covid than curriculum. Publics were remote when privates went hybrid. For quite a while. Studying for the SHSAT helped fill in some blanks. But they got great grades in HS. I think it helped that they had done so little homework in middle school. they were the opposite of burned out. Also, socially, I felt public middle school was a little behind private. In a good way. Again, this was during Covid so it didn't really impact my kids and their private peers, but I saw it in other grades. |
Op - I don’t think anyone cares what high school you went to in the world of work. I oversee a team of 100ish and am in constant hiring mode and I have never noticed or even thought to look or care about anyone’s high school. But it is a key part of what college you go to so it matters for that reason |
I've found first and second jobs are basically handed to some kids who can connect with the HS plus college people ie, Trinity plus Princeton now at JPM. Connect w that person via linkedin or friends, you get to skip several layers of interviews. Similar to college frats or college sports. But this is all pretty thin air. (Is that the right phrase?) |
Sure, if you went to a HS with a great network you can use it but it generally doesn’t matter. Many of the SHS and the Jesuit schools also have amazing alum networks. I’m also a little skeptical of how much the alum network helps the unconnected, non-rich kids at the private TTs. |
me again and I agree. Regis has one of the best networks, I think. Especially since those kids are largely unconnected. As far as I know - that may not be true. |