What is the most elite NYC preschool?

[Anonymous]

Are there any anecdotes of siblings/legacies that didn't get admission? And if so - what did the PSDs say?

I understand at some schools this is a leg up (and they offer an early decision) - so curious why some folks may be told no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are there any anecdotes of siblings/legacies that didn't get admission? And if so - what did the PSDs say?

I understand at some schools this is a leg up (and they offer an early decision) - so curious why some folks may be told no.

Rumor is that 1 in 3 legacy applicants are offered a spot at our TT. If they took everyone, there would be zero room for new families. So I think the legacy kid has to be a robust applicant.

Siblings that didn’t make the cut— the news often comes from the admissions department at the ongoing school directly. And they are candid. Some kids are just not the right fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are there any anecdotes of siblings/legacies that didn't get admission? And if so - what did the PSDs say?

I understand at some schools this is a leg up (and they offer an early decision) - so curious why some folks may be told no.

Rumor is that 1 in 3 legacy applicants are offered a spot at our TT. If they took everyone, there would be zero room for new families. So I think the legacy kid has to be a robust applicant.

Siblings that didn’t make the cut— the news often comes from the admissions department at the ongoing school directly. And they are candid. Some kids are just not the right fit.

One in three is still a big leg up compared to the usual odds. I assume in this case even legacy plus sibling status doesn’t act as a guarantee if your child isn’t a fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are there any anecdotes of siblings/legacies that didn't get admission? And if so - what did the PSDs say?

I understand at some schools this is a leg up (and they offer an early decision) - so curious why some folks may be told no.

Rumor is that 1 in 3 legacy applicants are offered a spot at our TT. If they took everyone, there would be zero room for new families. So I think the legacy kid has to be a robust applicant.

Siblings that didn’t make the cut— the news often comes from the admissions department at the ongoing school directly. And they are candid. Some kids are just not the right fit.

One in three is still a big leg up compared to the usual odds. I assume in this case even legacy plus sibling status doesn’t act as a guarantee if your child isn’t a fit.

*Huge* leg up. 33% odds vs 5%

Legacy plus sibling still doesn’t get the square peg in the round hole.

[Anonymous]

We are at a TT. Last year the entire class was affiliated families. From what we have heard this year there will only be 10 slots available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are at a TT. Last year the entire class was affiliated families. From what we have heard this year there will only be 10 slots available.

Single sex or co-ed?

A class where zero people are unconnected is wild.

[Anonymous]

Co-ed PS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Co-ed PS

What is PS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Co-ed PS

What is PS?

Pre-school?

[Anonymous]

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:7 kids from WSMS and 6 kids from PCDS to Brearley? So 25% of Brearley incoming K (50, right?) is from these 2 schools? Something sounds off.

I can confirm the six from PCDS. You don’t have to trust me, but I know the kids.

Brearley incoming is 50-55 spots I think.

It's not that unusual. In my son's K class, 12 kids (24%) of 50 came from two preschools. Then there were two other preschools that each sent 3-4 - so 19 kids of 50 (38%) were from four preschools. The school upped their "diversity of preschools" by then taking only 1-2 kids/school for the remaining 31 spots.

[Anonymous]

Very curious which 4 preschools these are... if you're at a SS boys' school for K, I would guess Brick & Episcopal first 2?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:7 kids from WSMS and 6 kids from PCDS to Brearley? So 25% of Brearley incoming K (50, right?) is from these 2 schools? Something sounds off.

I can confirm the six from PCDS. You don’t have to trust me, but I know the kids.

Brearley incoming is 50-55 spots I think.

It's not that unusual. In my son's K class, 12 kids (24%) of 50 came from two preschools. Then there were two other preschools that each sent 3-4 - so 19 kids of 50 (38%) were from four preschools. The school upped their "diversity of preschools" by then taking only 1-2 kids/school for the remaining 31 spots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very curious which 4 preschools these are... if you're at a SS boys' school for K, I would guess Brick & Episcopal first 2?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:7 kids from WSMS and 6 kids from PCDS to Brearley? So 25% of Brearley incoming K (50, right?) is from these 2 schools? Something sounds off.

I can confirm the six from PCDS. You don’t have to trust me, but I know the kids.

Brearley incoming is 50-55 spots I think.

It's not that unusual. In my son's K class, 12 kids (24%) of 50 came from two preschools. Then there were two other preschools that each sent 3-4 - so 19 kids of 50 (38%) were from four preschools. The school upped their "diversity of preschools" by then taking only 1-2 kids/school for the remaining 31 spots.

My guess would be 92NY and WSMS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, but in NYC (play based, or child-led, or reggio) preschools, kids are not being taught to read. And they are definitely not being taught to count to 100. Could they be? Absolutely. But the preschools are banking on the children learning these skills in kindergarten. Which is why skipping kindergarten when you don’t get into private school and instead sending a kid to public 1st grade creates the panic.

Sorry, but is that consistently the case? I just looked at Episcopal's website - cited earlier in this thread as the TT of all TT preschools - and there's a whole section about library and love of reading and children choosing their own books to read and so on. Wouldn't a kid who's reasonably in the running for a TT/2T private K slot be expected to be demonstrating these sorts of skills at playgroup? (heck, wouldn't they be intellectually curious enough that they'd have picked up reading at home by then after being read to every day?)

It seems like there's a nice business opportunity for somebody in offering a low-ratio, open-admissions 'catch-up' private K program which takes in kids in this situation and runs them through the public-school K+1 curricula in one year so they can join a public school in 2nd.

Cultivate a love of reading? Absolutely. Introduce the alphabet and work on letter recognition for kindergarten assessments? Yes. Be able to identify and write their name? Yes. Teach children CVC words or phonics or sight words? Not really at most of these preschools.

Do some kids just naturally pick it up or have parents do it at home or hire tutors or send kids to Little Learning or Book Wise? Yes and they keep that very close to the vest. Do you need to know how to read or count to 100 to get into a top kindergarten? Absolutely not.

Every school we applied to seemed to look for different metrics on play dates and all structure their assessments differently (one on one, small group, large group, FL testing or not)— some seemed IQ based, some skill, some behavior and personality, some are interested in the parents, some are looking for it all.

At our TT some came in reading Harry Potter, some came in with basic phonetic awareness. And guess what? By third grade it had all evened out because the kids (by and large) are incredibly bright.

Your business model is not a bad idea at all, but I think many turn to tutoring.

I hate this thinking. What makes you think it "evens out"? The kid entering kindergarten reading Harry Potter.... isn't going to just stop learning. If they are reading a 5th grade level (Potter's 1st book), by 3rd grade would be reading things high school kids do if they are following their track....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate this thinking. What makes you think it "evens out"? The kid entering kindergarten reading Harry Potter.... isn't going to just stop learning. If they are reading a 5th grade level (Potter's 1st book), by 3rd grade would be reading things high school kids do if they are following their track....

In my experience at least, the books kids read tend to have to at least as much to do with their interest in the subject matter as their reading ability; kids will push themselves to read harder books if they're interested in the books - my oldest got into YA novels at a shockingly young age because she was utterly fascinated by trashy teenage romance/murder plots - but even if your 3rd grader is capable of reading Joyce's "Ulysses," it's unlikely they'd get much out of it because it doesn't really speak to the experiences of a 3rd grader.