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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It appears that we may have the good fortune of receiving offers from Trinity and Dalton for kindergarten. Daughter is bright and loves school. Seems to have an emerging interest in STEM, but she is 4, who knows where she will go as she gets older. Logistically, both schools are convenient to us.

Would appreciate the group's opinions. The prior posts have been helpful to us - any fresh comments appreciated.[/quote]

I’m actually a trinity grad with family currently at dalton. Recently had family make the choice between trinity and dalton. Chose Dalton in the end.

There’s a weird consensus among certain parents that Dalton STEM is slightly weaker than other TT’s, which I don’t agree with, but who knows?

I always think that if i could go back, I would have chosen dalton for myself, but that’s only because I tend to do better with less supervision and more academic freedom. Family there now is in Little Dalton and they absolutely adore it. I can give more specifics if you’re curious.

This is purely anecdotal, but I’ll say quickly that I wasn’t ‘happy’ at Trinity (i was a lifer), and i think that was true for a lot of us. But i wasn’t necessarily unhappy either. I did get a great education and went on to a good college, though, which was the point, i guess. [/quote]

Really helpful, thanks so much! Any specifics you can share about their experience at Little Dalton would be much appreciated.[/quote]

Sure!
 
So there were many reasons why dalton was ultimately chosen and why it’s so beloved now. I’ll list a few good and a couple bad.

First is one small deciding factor: the amount of care dalton put in once they were admitted. The acceptance letter they wrote was truly wonderful, which is a small, but pretty telling, expression of the care they put into choosing the kindergarten class. It was more than a page long and included remarkable insights into our kiddo. TBH, we sort of expected to get into trinity due to multi-generational legacy, etc., but they displayed no enthusiasm or genuine interest, which is fine. Again, when you’re applying, the schools keep a safe distance from parents. Once you’re admitted, though, dalton instantly made an effort to create a sense of community which trinity neglected. Is this the most important thing? Of course not. But it does make a bit of difference when you’re trying to decide between schools like these.

Second, when we did the visit, we loved Little Dalton’s physical space. It’s a special place. Lots of nooks and crannies, hidden hallways, a surprisingly large gym, tons of classrooms, and a sense of joyous, albeit organized, chaos in which a kid can thrive. It feels fun! Big Dalton also holds regular events for Little Dalton, which are lovely, and the older students host the younger ones - not entirely uncommon at other schools, but we like what dalton does, international day, etc. We love house system, too.

Third, their learning philosophy and the structure of their courses is more conducive to learning for youth imo. The fluidity between classes helps: ours is an advanced reader; they got to move up groups in order to stay challenged beginning in K, and the staff were wonderful in encouraging them to progress with their weekly library book all through k. The teachers are absolutely exceptional; ours still exchanges letters to his K teacher, and it’s such a nice little thing.

Fourth, the community is pretty wonderful. Parents are as involved as they want to be: there’s no pressure to be a joiner, but there certainly are more and less involved people. More than that, though, we’ve noticed that there’s an extreme lack of snootiness despite the caliber of some of the parents we’ve met. Most everyone, with a couple of notable exceptions, have been lovely, as are the kids. At Trinity, this has not always been the case, and this dates back to my dad’s days there.

Fifth, fin aid is generous, all things considered. We’re full-pay, but for tons of students and families we’re close with now, dalton has been exceedingly good at ensuring that admitted kids could attend regardless of need. One of the things we loved most about it was how they made it seem that if your child was admitted, it was for a good reason and they truly want you to be able to go.

There are downsides to dalton. For example, afterschool activities fill up FAST. The signup goes up, and the spots for certain classes go in, like, two minutes. It took us 2x to get STEAM and chess (dalton chess is extremely competitive though), and 3x to get tennis. Again, at dalton as anywhere, rich kids will have an advantage in certain things. But we do believe that Dalton puts in sincere effort to make things as fair as possible.

Most importantly, the kiddo loves it there. Still hates getting going in the morning, but by the time they get to school, they’re off to the races, and when they come home, they’re full of stories about things they’ve learned, etc. There’s a lot more, but that’s enough for now. We just love dalton. Like I said above, it’ll be great for some people, not so great for others, but for us, it’s a perfect fit. And I won’t taint your judgment with my memories as a trinity survivor, but there were lots of lows and a few highs…[/quote]

Should also mention the birthdays. So. Many. Birthdays. Especially at the beginning of the school year. [/quote]

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