Best private schools in NYC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So glad I only have boys - too much to keep track of and differentiating the girls schools just adds to the confusion. They all sound the same to me. Best of luck to all of you.

Collegiate has really declined. It used to be incredible. I know several kids/families there and I am very underwhelmed. They will get good exmissions through legacies and wealth. But so many of the kids there are odd.

I used to like Collegiate guys. They had a certain sense of "act like you've been there before" and comfort in their own skin that was appealing. That is no longer the culture. I would not let my kids within a mile of the place.

Can you say more about Collegiate? We are going through the process now and I was surprised to find myself liking St B over Collegiate. Collegiate just seemed so overtly new money in an obnoxious way

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, re the rest of your question, I don’t know Poly Prep that well, but from what people have told me I think Avenues is more rigorous than Fieldston. Poly Prep’s curriculum seems pretty aggressive but I don’t know how it works in practice.

Avenues is a weird cult. No one takes it seriously.

Fieldston has its issues and I personally was not a fan but the piling on here is out of control. I know a number of very successful, normal families with smart kids there. Not sure why someone has such a big bone to pick - I am always questioning of people who come on here and just go to town on a school.

Did someone say Town? GO to Town? Don't be ridiculous, no one gets into Town.

Love the UB alums.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, re the rest of your question, I don’t know Poly Prep that well, but from what people have told me I think Avenues is more rigorous than Fieldston. Poly Prep’s curriculum seems pretty aggressive but I don’t know how it works in practice.

Avenues is a weird cult. No one takes it seriously.

Fieldston has its issues and I personally was not a fan but the piling on here is out of control. I know a number of very successful, normal families with smart kids there. Not sure why someone has such a big bone to pick - I am always questioning of people who come on here and just go to town on a school.

Did someone say Town? GO to Town? Don't be ridiculous, no one gets into Town.

Love the UB alums.

I’m not sure everyone will understand this one but made me laugh. Good digression from Trinity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So glad I only have boys - too much to keep track of and differentiating the girls schools just adds to the confusion. They all sound the same to me. Best of luck to all of you.

Collegiate has really declined. It used to be incredible. I know several kids/families there and I am very underwhelmed. They will get good exmissions through legacies and wealth. But so many of the kids there are odd.

I used to like Collegiate guys. They had a certain sense of "act like you've been there before" and comfort in their own skin that was appealing. That is no longer the culture. I would not let my kids within a mile of the place.

Can you say more about Collegiate? We are going through the process now and I was surprised to find myself liking St B over Collegiate. Collegiate just seemed so overtly new money in an obnoxious way

How did you sense that they were overtly new money? Because they were south asian rather than waspy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So glad I only have boys - too much to keep track of and differentiating the girls schools just adds to the confusion. They all sound the same to me. Best of luck to all of you.

Collegiate has really declined. It used to be incredible. I know several kids/families there and I am very underwhelmed. They will get good exmissions through legacies and wealth. But so many of the kids there are odd.

I used to like Collegiate guys. They had a certain sense of "act like you've been there before" and comfort in their own skin that was appealing. That is no longer the culture. I would not let my kids within a mile of the place.

Can you say more about Collegiate? We are going through the process now and I was surprised to find myself liking St B over Collegiate. Collegiate just seemed so overtly new money in an obnoxious way

How did you sense that they were overtly new money? Because they were south asian rather than waspy?

I'm the original poster who brought this up and I agree with their take on Collegiate. Lots of status chasing new money. All ethnicities - get the chip off your shoulder. The worst family I know is as waspy as they get. Parents starting their kids with ridiculous extracurriculars from birth to pad their college apps. Constant name dropping about how important they are and all the wonderful things they do. Real phonies. No self-awareness. It is kind of funny because they remind me a lot of the Columbia Grammar families I can't stand, but given their kids go to Collegiate, they are much more self-impressed about their kid's school as well.

I know a bunch of Collegiate guys now in their 40s and early 50s. Really cool, diverse, eclectic group. As I said above, they didn't feel the need to advertise how great they were. Pretty chill group. Some were silly rich. Some were very middle class. You couldn't tell the difference, which was great. There were definitely plenty of exceptions to this rule. But it was the overall feel. Now it is very different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trinity parent who wore normal clothing (pants, flats, sweater) for both our k tour and interview. Did not interview with head of admissions (Jennifer) or associate head of admissions (was Drew, is now Jaclyn). Unconnected and got lucky.

The couple we toured with was outwardly flashy, dad was pompous and talked over everyone and argued with his wife and tried to dismiss her questions. They probably thought we were the odd ones, but we never saw them again.

Wow, unconnected? Nice. Any tips

Luck. Honestly. My kid is very bright, but NYC is filled with very bright kids. I am confident that many applicants would have checked the same boxes and been equally successful in the school.

I wish I had meaningful tips. Be yourself. Be kind. Hope that your 4/5 year old has a good day on that visit. Know why the school is of interest to you and why you think your child would be a good fit and communicate that well. We focused a lot on the lower school experience at every school because it felt impossibly hard to predict who our kid would be in middle or high school. That is all I've got.

The rest is just luck.

Thank you. We don’t know at families at Trinity. Everything has gone well so far but feel like an outsider. Guess we will see

You’re welcome to ask me questions if you’re applying for k. My oldest isn’t in upper school yet, so I can’t speak to that process or experience, but happy to share.

If you applied for k, did you talk to parents at the Open House? The diversity event? You don’t need to know anyone, I promise! I just found that asking current parents at every school that interested is very helpful.

We went to the diversity event and talked to a bunch of the parents in the appropriate affinity group. Everyone was nice. Are you saying this meant something for admissions?

No, I don’t think it matters for admissions. You mentioned that you didn’t know any families at Trinity and felt like an outsider. I wondered if you attended and were able to speak to current parents and if it was helpful at all for you. Not for admissions (like I said, that’s a lot of luck), but to get to know the school more and ask the real questions you have that you might not ask admissions.

Everyone was so nice. I noticed that people say so many hoity things about Trinity and I didn't find the actual parents there to be like that at all.

It is an incredibly warm and down to earth community. Not all parents, but most! I’m glad you felt that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, re the rest of your question, I don’t know Poly Prep that well, but from what people have told me I think Avenues is more rigorous than Fieldston. Poly Prep’s curriculum seems pretty aggressive but I don’t know how it works in practice.

Avenues is a weird cult. No one takes it seriously.

Fieldston has its issues and I personally was not a fan but the piling on here is out of control. I know a number of very successful, normal families with smart kids there. Not sure why someone has such a big bone to pick - I am always questioning of people who come on here and just go to town on a school.

Did someone say Town? GO to Town? Don't be ridiculous, no one gets into Town.

You win. Best comment in the entire thread. 😂

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, re the rest of your question, I don’t know Poly Prep that well, but from what people have told me I think Avenues is more rigorous than Fieldston. Poly Prep’s curriculum seems pretty aggressive but I don’t know how it works in practice.

Avenues is a weird cult. No one takes it seriously.

Fieldston has its issues and I personally was not a fan but the piling on here is out of control. I know a number of very successful, normal families with smart kids there. Not sure why someone has such a big bone to pick - I am always questioning of people who come on here and just go to town on a school.

Did someone say Town? GO to Town? Don't be ridiculous, no one gets into Town.

You win. Best comment in the entire thread. 😂

Can someone explain the joke? Thanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, re the rest of your question, I don’t know Poly Prep that well, but from what people have told me I think Avenues is more rigorous than Fieldston. Poly Prep’s curriculum seems pretty aggressive but I don’t know how it works in practice.

Avenues is a weird cult. No one takes it seriously.

Fieldston has its issues and I personally was not a fan but the piling on here is out of control. I know a number of very successful, normal families with smart kids there. Not sure why someone has such a big bone to pick - I am always questioning of people who come on here and just go to town on a school.

Did someone say Town? GO to Town? Don't be ridiculous, no one gets into Town.

You win. Best comment in the entire thread. 😂

Can someone explain the joke? Thanks

It’s from Urbanbaby a million years ago. The lore was that it was impossible to get into the Town school. So the line became “no one gets into Town.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, re the rest of your question, I don’t know Poly Prep that well, but from what people have told me I think Avenues is more rigorous than Fieldston. Poly Prep’s curriculum seems pretty aggressive but I don’t know how it works in practice.

Avenues is a weird cult. No one takes it seriously.

Fieldston has its issues and I personally was not a fan but the piling on here is out of control. I know a number of very successful, normal families with smart kids there. Not sure why someone has such a big bone to pick - I am always questioning of people who come on here and just go to town on a school.

Did someone say Town? GO to Town? Don't be ridiculous, no one gets into Town.

You win. Best comment in the entire thread. 😂

Can someone explain the joke? Thanks

It’s from Urbanbaby a million years ago. The lore was that it was impossible to get into the Town school. So the line became “no one gets into Town.”

How was it impossible? Isn’t it a safety school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, re the rest of your question, I don’t know Poly Prep that well, but from what people have told me I think Avenues is more rigorous than Fieldston. Poly Prep’s curriculum seems pretty aggressive but I don’t know how it works in practice.

Avenues is a weird cult. No one takes it seriously.

Fieldston has its issues and I personally was not a fan but the piling on here is out of control. I know a number of very successful, normal families with smart kids there. Not sure why someone has such a big bone to pick - I am always questioning of people who come on here and just go to town on a school.

Did someone say Town? GO to Town? Don't be ridiculous, no one gets into Town.

You win. Best comment in the entire thread. 😂

Can someone explain the joke? Thanks

It’s from Urbanbaby a million years ago. The lore was that it was impossible to get into the Town school. So the line became “no one gets into Town.”

How was it impossible? Isn’t it a safety school

That was the joke. IYKYK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think among the top tier and most consider Spence, Chapin and Riverdale top tier, college placement are quite similar…but I don’t have all the data.

Horace Mann is not sooooo much more academically rigorous than Spence, maybe a bit more.

Except for Collegiate and Brearley. They typically stand above the rest on college placement.

This post actually led to me look the stats up. Spence has done a lot better over the last 5 years than I would have thought. And it now has better data than Collegiate, which seems to have fallen off some (perhaps consistent with the views mentioned in this thread). Still seems that Brearley is ahead somewhat, but perhaps not by as much as in the past. Brearley had 124 girls go to the ivy league over the last 5 years. For a school with 60 kids per grade, that's pretty crazy. Spence did very well in its own right, with 91, also impressive (and 20 more than Collegiate, which had 71 over five years). Where Spence did well and Brearley not as well was with Duke -- Spence 14 over the last five years compared to just 3 for Brearley. Not sure what accounts for that, but Spence seems to have a nice pipeline to Duke for such a small school.

[Anonymous]

For the posters interested, I have a daughter in middle school with friends at Chapin, Spence and Brearley. They literally cover the exact same material.


I do think the kids at Dalton and Chapin seem to be the most down-to-earth but that is just from our family’s personal experience.

[Anonymous]

For comparison, HM publishes 3-year stats but (by coincidence) they had 124 out of 539 graduates in the last 3 years attend Ivies, so 23% versus Brearley's 41%.

Of course it's also the case that they had 539 graduates in the past 3 years - half again as many girls as Brearley et al, then double it by adding boys - so relative to the difficulty of getting in it's still a pretty good deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For comparison, HM publishes 3-year stats but (by coincidence) they had 124 out of 539 graduates in the last 3 years attend Ivies, so 23% versus Brearley's 41%.

Of course it's also the case that they had 539 graduates in the past 3 years - half again as many girls as Brearley et al, then double it by adding boys - so relative to the difficulty of getting in it's still a pretty good deal.

You’re incredible. Can you do Dalton and Trinity too?