What is the most elite NYC preschool?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting. I had always heard 1-2 new families to Trinity from WSMS after faculty kids, legacies, siblings, and that it’s very stressful to gun for those 1-2 spots.

That is correct. It is usually 1 or 2 at most for new families to Trinity. The earlier poster’s numbers are way off for other schools as well. It is a lovely community. But many people are disgruntled this year because the exmissions did not meet their expectation.

What ended up happening? Waitlists? Or have to go to 2T? I assume WSMS families have high expectations for exmissions…

Very high expectations combined with tuition for full-time of $72k+ per academic year.

[Anonymous]

Someone just posted on Facebook about WSMS: multiple families waitlisted, no offers, or safety schools only. Said new director not plugged in to exmissions. Ouch. That’s got to hurt at that price point. I doubt these parents were so enamored with the Montessori education. But rather the name and exmissions rep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Someone just posted on Facebook about WSMS: multiple families waitlisted, no offers, or safety schools only. Said new director not plugged in to exmissions. Ouch. That’s got to hurt at that price point. I doubt these parents were so enamored with the Montessori education. But rather the name and exmissions rep.

Where did they post? Was it in UWS or MUES FB groups?

Curious what happened. Although this year K admissions was insanity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Someone just posted on Facebook about WSMS: multiple families waitlisted, no offers, or safety schools only. Said new director not plugged in to exmissions. Ouch. That’s got to hurt at that price point. I doubt these parents were so enamored with the Montessori education. But rather the name and exmissions rep.

Wow.. where did the person post?

[Anonymous]

MUES fb post. Under the post asking about PCDS, Brownstone, or WSMS for preschool

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MUES fb post. Under the post asking about PCDS, Brownstone, or WSMS for preschool

thank you! I found it, and yikes! This year was brutal for K admissions, so if your PSD wasn't on top of it, there is no way you're getting in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Agreed, this sounds like Episcopal & Brick. 92NY lags on SS boy and WSMS is in a completely different category.

Why WSMS in different category?

In general, WSMS' TT emissions is like this: about 10+T (3-5 new families), 6-9 D ( about half of them r new families), 2-3 HM (usually all new families), 4-6 Collegiate (usually 2-4 new families), 5-9 Brearley (usually 2-4 new families). But of course WSMS sends about 3-5 families to Chapin and Spence but these two schools are less popular than Brearley among WSMS parents. As you know, this year's K admission was a bloodbath, but WSMS still did pretty well with the new head. k-8 boy schools such as St.B are usually less popular among WSMS families. WSMS has a very good relationship with St. B.. The only k-8 boy school is kind of popular among WSMS parents. Pretty much no families applied to Buckley's this year. The only issue is that many families at WSMS only wanna get into T, D, Collegiate, B and HM (less popular than the other 4). The teachers and staff at WSMS are AMAZING and down to earth. The families are NOT flashy at all and very diverse. There are quiet a bit families whose kids choose to go to public K as well. Usually, 1-2 kids get into Hunter each year. Hope this helps.

This is inaccurate for this year. The new WSMS director has poor relationships with the other admissions directors. For example, St B’s used to be tight with WSMS but this year no boy got in. Dalton was mostly siblings this year, maybe 1/2 non sibling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Agreed, this sounds like Episcopal & Brick. 92NY lags on SS boy and WSMS is in a completely different category.

Why WSMS in different category?

In general, WSMS' TT emissions is like this: about 10+T (3-5 new families), 6-9 D ( about half of them r new families), 2-3 HM (usually all new families), 4-6 Collegiate (usually 2-4 new families), 5-9 Brearley (usually 2-4 new families). But of course WSMS sends about 3-5 families to Chapin and Spence but these two schools are less popular than Brearley among WSMS parents. As you know, this year's K admission was a bloodbath, but WSMS still did pretty well with the new head. k-8 boy schools such as St.B are usually less popular among WSMS families. WSMS has a very good relationship with St. B.. The only k-8 boy school is kind of popular among WSMS parents. Pretty much no families applied to Buckley's this year. The only issue is that many families at WSMS only wanna get into T, D, Collegiate, B and HM (less popular than the other 4). The teachers and staff at WSMS are AMAZING and down to earth. The families are NOT flashy at all and very diverse. There are quiet a bit families whose kids choose to go to public K as well. Usually, 1-2 kids get into Hunter each year. Hope this helps.

This is inaccurate for this year. The new WSMS director has poor relationships with the other admissions directors. For example, St B’s used to be tight with WSMS but this year no boy got in. Dalton was mostly siblings this year, maybe 1/2 non sibling.

I don’t understand. Why did they pick her to be director? She couldn’t pick up the phone to talk to the admissions director and introduce herself?

[Anonymous]

Have people noticed a real difference in big donor family exmissions? Or in the way those families are treated?

Genuine question as I know it’s easy to feel cynical about that type of thing but curious about actual experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Agreed, this sounds like Episcopal & Brick. 92NY lags on SS boy and WSMS is in a completely different category.

Why WSMS in different category?

In general, WSMS' TT emissions is like this: about 10+T (3-5 new families), 6-9 D ( about half of them r new families), 2-3 HM (usually all new families), 4-6 Collegiate (usually 2-4 new families), 5-9 Brearley (usually 2-4 new families). But of course WSMS sends about 3-5 families to Chapin and Spence but these two schools are less popular than Brearley among WSMS parents. As you know, this year's K admission was a bloodbath, but WSMS still did pretty well with the new head. k-8 boy schools such as St.B are usually less popular among WSMS families. WSMS has a very good relationship with St. B.. The only k-8 boy school is kind of popular among WSMS parents. Pretty much no families applied to Buckley's this year. The only issue is that many families at WSMS only wanna get into T, D, Collegiate, B and HM (less popular than the other 4). The teachers and staff at WSMS are AMAZING and down to earth. The families are NOT flashy at all and very diverse. There are quiet a bit families whose kids choose to go to public K as well. Usually, 1-2 kids get into Hunter each year. Hope this helps.

This is inaccurate for this year. The new WSMS director has poor relationships with the other admissions directors. For example, St B’s used to be tight with WSMS but this year no boy got in. Dalton was mostly siblings this year, maybe 1/2 non sibling.

I don’t understand. Why did they pick her to be director? She couldn’t pick up the phone to talk to the admissions director and introduce herself?

Its not about just introducing yourself to admissions directors, it's about building rapport and advocating for your pre-school familes. From what I heard communication was very poor to WSMS parents throughout the process and I can only guess it was equally underwhelming to the Kindergarten admissions directors. Affiliated families generally did great but heard from multiple unaffiliated families that what was said in the FB post was true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Agreed, this sounds like Episcopal & Brick. 92NY lags on SS boy and WSMS is in a completely different category.

Why WSMS in different category?

In general, WSMS' TT emissions is like this: about 10+T (3-5 new families), 6-9 D ( about half of them r new families), 2-3 HM (usually all new families), 4-6 Collegiate (usually 2-4 new families), 5-9 Brearley (usually 2-4 new families). But of course WSMS sends about 3-5 families to Chapin and Spence but these two schools are less popular than Brearley among WSMS parents. As you know, this year's K admission was a bloodbath, but WSMS still did pretty well with the new head. k-8 boy schools such as St.B are usually less popular among WSMS families. WSMS has a very good relationship with St. B.. The only k-8 boy school is kind of popular among WSMS parents. Pretty much no families applied to Buckley's this year. The only issue is that many families at WSMS only wanna get into T, D, Collegiate, B and HM (less popular than the other 4). The teachers and staff at WSMS are AMAZING and down to earth. The families are NOT flashy at all and very diverse. There are quiet a bit families whose kids choose to go to public K as well. Usually, 1-2 kids get into Hunter each year. Hope this helps.

This is inaccurate for this year. The new WSMS director has poor relationships with the other admissions directors. For example, St B’s used to be tight with WSMS but this year no boy got in. Dalton was mostly siblings this year, maybe 1/2 non sibling.

I don’t understand. Why did they pick her to be director? She couldn’t pick up the phone to talk to the admissions director and introduce herself?

Its not about just introducing yourself to admissions directors, it's about building rapport and advocating for your pre-school familes. From what I heard communication was very poor to WSMS parents throughout the process and I can only guess it was equally underwhelming to the Kindergarten admissions directors. Affiliated families generally did great but heard from multiple unaffiliated families that what was said in the FB post was true.

Unbelievable. I would be livid if I spent that kind of money to go there. I’m so shocked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Agreed, this sounds like Episcopal & Brick. 92NY lags on SS boy and WSMS is in a completely different category.

Why WSMS in different category?

In general, WSMS' TT emissions is like this: about 10+T (3-5 new families), 6-9 D ( about half of them r new families), 2-3 HM (usually all new families), 4-6 Collegiate (usually 2-4 new families), 5-9 Brearley (usually 2-4 new families). But of course WSMS sends about 3-5 families to Chapin and Spence but these two schools are less popular than Brearley among WSMS parents. As you know, this year's K admission was a bloodbath, but WSMS still did pretty well with the new head. k-8 boy schools such as St.B are usually less popular among WSMS families. WSMS has a very good relationship with St. B.. The only k-8 boy school is kind of popular among WSMS parents. Pretty much no families applied to Buckley's this year. The only issue is that many families at WSMS only wanna get into T, D, Collegiate, B and HM (less popular than the other 4). The teachers and staff at WSMS are AMAZING and down to earth. The families are NOT flashy at all and very diverse. There are quiet a bit families whose kids choose to go to public K as well. Usually, 1-2 kids get into Hunter each year. Hope this helps.

This is inaccurate for this year. The new WSMS director has poor relationships with the other admissions directors. For example, St B’s used to be tight with WSMS but this year no boy got in. Dalton was mostly siblings this year, maybe 1/2 non sibling.

I don’t understand. Why did they pick her to be director? She couldn’t pick up the phone to talk to the admissions director and introduce herself?

Its not about just introducing yourself to admissions directors, it's about building rapport and advocating for your pre-school familes. From what I heard communication was very poor to WSMS parents throughout the process and I can only guess it was equally underwhelming to the Kindergarten admissions directors. Affiliated families generally did great but heard from multiple unaffiliated families that what was said in the FB post was true.

This is consistent to what I heard from WSMS families this year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Agreed, this sounds like Episcopal & Brick. 92NY lags on SS boy and WSMS is in a completely different category.

Why WSMS in different category?

In general, WSMS' TT emissions is like this: about 10+T (3-5 new families), 6-9 D ( about half of them r new families), 2-3 HM (usually all new families), 4-6 Collegiate (usually 2-4 new families), 5-9 Brearley (usually 2-4 new families). But of course WSMS sends about 3-5 families to Chapin and Spence but these two schools are less popular than Brearley among WSMS parents. As you know, this year's K admission was a bloodbath, but WSMS still did pretty well with the new head. k-8 boy schools such as St.B are usually less popular among WSMS families. WSMS has a very good relationship with St. B.. The only k-8 boy school is kind of popular among WSMS parents. Pretty much no families applied to Buckley's this year. The only issue is that many families at WSMS only wanna get into T, D, Collegiate, B and HM (less popular than the other 4). The teachers and staff at WSMS are AMAZING and down to earth. The families are NOT flashy at all and very diverse. There are quiet a bit families whose kids choose to go to public K as well. Usually, 1-2 kids get into Hunter each year. Hope this helps.

This is inaccurate for this year. The new WSMS director has poor relationships with the other admissions directors. For example, St B’s used to be tight with WSMS but this year no boy got in. Dalton was mostly siblings this year, maybe 1/2 non sibling.

I don’t understand. Why did they pick her to be director? She couldn’t pick up the phone to talk to the admissions director and introduce herself?

Its not about just introducing yourself to admissions directors, it's about building rapport and advocating for your pre-school familes. From what I heard communication was very poor to WSMS parents throughout the process and I can only guess it was equally underwhelming to the Kindergarten admissions directors. Affiliated families generally did great but heard from multiple unaffiliated families that what was said in the FB post was true.

This is consistent to what I heard from WSMS families this year

This is also what I heard. Very poor communication, not great outcomes for many unconnected families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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....

Maybe evens out is the wrong way to describe it. There are still leveled reading groups, but the range has significantly narrowed from the Harry Potter vs beginning reader days of kindergarten.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Agreed, this sounds like Episcopal & Brick. 92NY lags on SS boy and WSMS is in a completely different category.

Why WSMS in different category?

In general, WSMS' TT emissions is like this: about 10+T (3-5 new families), 6-9 D ( about half of them r new families), 2-3 HM (usually all new families), 4-6 Collegiate (usually 2-4 new families), 5-9 Brearley (usually 2-4 new families). But of course WSMS sends about 3-5 families to Chapin and Spence but these two schools are less popular than Brearley among WSMS parents. As you know, this year's K admission was a bloodbath, but WSMS still did pretty well with the new head. k-8 boy schools such as St.B are usually less popular among WSMS families. WSMS has a very good relationship with St. B.. The only k-8 boy school is kind of popular among WSMS parents. Pretty much no families applied to Buckley's this year. The only issue is that many families at WSMS only wanna get into T, D, Collegiate, B and HM (less popular than the other 4). The teachers and staff at WSMS are AMAZING and down to earth. The families are NOT flashy at all and very diverse. There are quiet a bit families whose kids choose to go to public K as well. Usually, 1-2 kids get into Hunter each year. Hope this helps.

This is inaccurate for this year. The new WSMS director has poor relationships with the other admissions directors. For example, St B’s used to be tight with WSMS but this year no boy got in. Dalton was mostly siblings this year, maybe 1/2 non sibling.

I don’t understand. Why did they pick her to be director? She couldn’t pick up the phone to talk to the admissions director and introduce herself?

Its not about just introducing yourself to admissions directors, it's about building rapport and advocating for your pre-school familes. From what I heard communication was very poor to WSMS parents throughout the process and I can only guess it was equally underwhelming to the Kindergarten admissions directors. Affiliated families generally did great but heard from multiple unaffiliated families that what was said in the FB post was true.

This is consistent to what I heard from WSMS families this year

This is also what I heard. Very poor communication, not great outcomes for many unconnected families.

Must have been many families affected. Don't they have to place 40-50 plus into private school? I thought the graduating class is about 75 kids or so.