Reply to City vs. Suburbs

Forum Index » Metropolitan New York City

Reply to "City vs. Suburbs - argh! "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]City kids and suburban kids live different lifestyles. Most suburban NYC high schools seem to really emphasize sports. If your kid is a great athlete, that's a good thing. Overall, you're going to find better facilities and more free opportunities in the suburbs than in City schools. It also tends to be the athletes who get into top colleges, at least if you have no other hooks like URM, legacy, potential big donor parents, etc.

There are sports teams in City high schools--especially if your kids are at private schools-- but jocks aren't at the top of the social pyramid. Lots of kids are into performing and visual arts, and more academic/intellectual activities, e.g., chess. Those things also exist at some suburban schools, but they just don't have the social cache sports do at most schools. In the City, sports aren't valued more than the other stuff---in fact, at many City schools they are valued less.

City kids also can get around on their own or with a small group of friends from an earlier age. Drinking and driving during the teenage years are a non-issue in the City. And if your kid does go to a party or other get-together where things get out of control, it's easy to get out of a bad situation by going to the nearest subway or calling Uber or Lyft. There's no need to call for a parent and wait.

Also, don't assume you have to send your kids to private schools. One thing Adams has backed off from is shutting down the gifted and talented programs in public schools. There are good public schools in the City. If your kids are lucky enough to get into the Anderson Program, Hunter Elementary, NEST+m etc. there's no need to go to private school. Lots of local public schools, especially those with gifted and talented, are just fine too. For high school, personally I think that if you've got a smart kid who can get into either one of the test in schools like Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech, Hunter, Staten Island Tech, Stuy, etc. or one of the top schools using different admissions criteria, like Bard Early College, Townsend Harris,  etc. there's no need for private school.

Plus, should the social scene at your kids' schools be less than ideal for them, it's really easy to participate in other ECs and make friends through them. It is my impression--it may vary by suburb--that many more suburban kids lead social lives limited to other kids who attend the same school. The exception seems to be athletes who may become close with other members of their traveling teams. City kids tend to know more kids who attend other schools, either through the neighborhood, participation in a religious congregation, or ECs that involve kids from many schools, e.g., TADA!.

It's a personal/family choice. If I'd had a kid who was a terrific athlete, I think suburbia might have been a better choice. But for a kid whose strengths were in other areas, I don't.

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics