Best private schools in NYC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brearley is a lot different from the other two. They want brainy go-getters. The ringers coming in for 9th are 100% competitive and locked-in on the ultimate goal of a TT college slot. Nothing else matters to them.

Also depends on the grade, but culturally NBS students often socialize with Columbia Grammar student body which tend to be a socially faster crowd, social media and cell phones pop up earlier than at some of the other schools…

why do they socialize with them specifically? aren’t they on opposite sides of the city

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brearley is a lot different from the other two. They want brainy go-getters. The ringers coming in for 9th are 100% competitive and locked-in on the ultimate goal of a TT college slot. Nothing else matters to them.

Also depends on the grade, but culturally NBS students often socialize with Columbia Grammar student body which tend to be a socially faster crowd, social media and cell phones pop up earlier than at some of the other schools…

why do they socialize with them specifically? aren’t they on opposite sides of the city

My DD graduated NBS in 2022, and this was not true of her experience. They socialized with the other east side schools. I don’t think she knows anyone who went to CGPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brearley is a lot different from the other two. They want brainy go-getters. The ringers coming in for 9th are 100% competitive and locked-in on the ultimate goal of a TT college slot. Nothing else matters to them.

Also depends on the grade, but culturally NBS students often socialize with Columbia Grammar student body which tend to be a socially faster crowd, social media and cell phones pop up earlier than at some of the other schools…

My daughter's friends at Nightingale socialize more with other UES schools and boys at Collegiate. I don't know anyone from CG in their social circles (besides one pre-school friend, whom they hardly ever see). If anything, Nightingale seem to be one of the more conservative schools on the tech/phone front.

[Anonymous]

Isn’t NBS a second tier school along the lines of Sacred Heart? The top girls’ schools are Brearley with Spence and Chapin about the same?

What are the cell phone policies at all these schools? Imagine they are all the same, leave with teacher when you come to class, pick up the phone at 3pm? How could they vary?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t NBS a second tier school along the lines of Sacred Heart? The top girls’ schools are Brearley with Spence and Chapin about the same?

What are the cell phone policies at all these schools? Imagine they are all the same, leave with teacher when you come to class, pick up the phone at 3pm? How could they vary?

Tech policy has turned more anti phone but vary slightly across schools - specifically for junior/seniors. Ask on tours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brearley is a lot different from the other two. They want brainy go-getters. The ringers coming in for 9th are 100% competitive and locked-in on the ultimate goal of a TT college slot. Nothing else matters to them.

Also depends on the grade, but culturally NBS students often socialize with Columbia Grammar student body which tend to be a socially faster crowd, social media and cell phones pop up earlier than at some of the other schools…

My daughter's friends at Nightingale socialize more with other UES schools and boys at Collegiate. I don't know anyone from CG in their social circles (besides one pre-school friend, whom they hardly ever see). If anything, Nightingale seem to be one of the more conservative schools on the tech/phone front.

Purely anecdotal, my child is a middle schooler at one of the girls’ schools and the Nightingale girls have the largest online presence on TikTok which is frustrating when you are a parent trying to limit your kids’ online envy. I hear a lot of, “All the Nightingale girls are online.” Again, that is just my personal observation and does not reflect the overarching values of the school.

[Anonymous]

We toured Nightingale and had a terrible impression of the tour guides - also the insides are weirdly cramped and dark. The academics / exmissions are supposedly pretty strong, and they've got that big sports facility expansion in the works, so it's certainly not the worst school to gamble on, but it definitely felt like a dropoff from the other three.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We toured Nightingale and had a terrible impression of the tour guides - also the insides are weirdly cramped and dark. The academics / exmissions are supposedly pretty strong, and they've got that big sports facility expansion in the works, so it's certainly not the worst school to gamble on, but it definitely felt like a dropoff from the other three.

When we toured, Spence was always our preferred destination but the student tour guide at Chapin really won us over. She was so articulate, friendly and polite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We toured Nightingale and had a terrible impression of the tour guides - also the insides are weirdly cramped and dark. The academics / exmissions are supposedly pretty strong, and they've got that big sports facility expansion in the works, so it's certainly not the worst school to gamble on, but it definitely felt like a dropoff from the other three.

Same, Sacred Heart on the other hand, had a less steep drop off, in our family’s opinion. The student tour guides are very telling of the school’s culture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When we toured, Spence was always our preferred destination but the student tour guide at Chapin really won us over. She was so articulate, friendly and polite.

Spence actually had our favorite student tour guides - they were super nice but also very clearly smart and accomplished and were kind of showcasing the whole "what your daughter could turn out like if she goes to Spence" thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When we toured, Spence was always our preferred destination but the student tour guide at Chapin really won us over. She was so articulate, friendly and polite.

Spence actually had our favorite student tour guides - they were super nice but also very clearly smart and accomplished and were kind of showcasing the whole "what your daughter could turn out like if she goes to Spence" thing.

Our Spence's lower school's tour was led by a parent, she was amazing also. She knows the school very well and very articulate on their anti- clique culture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When we toured, Spence was always our preferred destination but the student tour guide at Chapin really won us over. She was so articulate, friendly and polite.

Spence actually had our favorite student tour guides - they were super nice but also very clearly smart and accomplished and were kind of showcasing the whole "what your daughter could turn out like if she goes to Spence" thing.

Our Spence's lower school's tour was led by a parent, she was amazing also. She knows the school very well and very articulate on their anti- clique culture.

We had good tours at NBS and Spence, messy at chapin and messy at Trinity. Just one date a point in bigger picture

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When we toured, Spence was always our preferred destination but the student tour guide at Chapin really won us over. She was so articulate, friendly and polite.

Spence actually had our favorite student tour guides - they were super nice but also very clearly smart and accomplished and were kind of showcasing the whole "what your daughter could turn out like if she goes to Spence" thing.

Our Spence's lower school's tour was led by a parent, she was amazing also. She knows the school very well and very articulate on their anti- clique culture.

We had good tours at NBS and Spence, messy at chapin and messy at Trinity. Just one date a point in bigger picture

Interesting…we had the exact opposite experience. Our tour at NBS wasn’t bad, just not memorable at all. Our Spence tour was shockingly bad - particularly the student tour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When we toured, Spence was always our preferred destination but the student tour guide at Chapin really won us over. She was so articulate, friendly and polite.

Spence actually had our favorite student tour guides - they were super nice but also very clearly smart and accomplished and were kind of showcasing the whole "what your daughter could turn out like if she goes to Spence" thing.

Our Spence's lower school's tour was led by a parent, she was amazing also. She knows the school very well and very articulate on their anti- clique culture.

Spence’s “anti-clique” culture…LMAO

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When we toured, Spence was always our preferred destination but the student tour guide at Chapin really won us over. She was so articulate, friendly and polite.

Spence actually had our favorite student tour guides - they were super nice but also very clearly smart and accomplished and were kind of showcasing the whole "what your daughter could turn out like if she goes to Spence" thing.

Our Spence's lower school's tour was led by a parent, she was amazing also. She knows the school very well and very articulate on their anti- clique culture.

We had good tours at NBS and Spence, messy at chapin and messy at Trinity. Just one date a point in bigger picture

Our Trinity tour was good despite having a very odd family on the tour with us - the tour guides handled it well and represented the school well.

The rest of the process there was not very good or professional. They treated us like second class citizens. We know a lot of people there but decided not to activate them as we weren't sure if we would attend if accepted (never call in a favor you don't intend to use), and we told them all what a poor job their admissions office does - I wonder if we would have been treated like adults if they knew we were pretty well connected. Being connected shouldn't be required to be treated decently - I know they get a ton of applicants but we were viable, with or without our connections, yet they didn't seem to care.