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[quote=Anonymous]St B's has a somewhat unique culture in NYC.  It is very English and stresses a sort of general erudition.  Public speaking, writing, literature are all very important.  It is the only grammar school I know of with a (challenging) class dedicated solely to geography (in its own quite beautiful geography room).  The school is extremely intense academically, it has produced some massively successful people, but it is not a future-hedge-funder factory.  Humour, eccentricity, and tradition with an importance placed on character go along with the high academic expectations of the students.  It can also be very tough, in the first few grades about 5 or 6 students didn't make the cut and transferred elsewhere. There is a lot of individualism and the students remain deeply loyal for the rest of their lives (evidenced by the fact that this 38 yr old Old Boy is writing this post as honestly as possible, biased though it may seen...).  St B's graduates make great dinner party guests in my experience!

I was probably about 10th in my class of 35, so yes one would have to be towards the top to go to Collegiate.  If ever classmate ahead of me also wanted to go I probably would not have gotten in.  I would not be surprised to learn that St B's sends (or sent) more boys to Collegiate for high school than anywhere else (as spaces are quite limited anyhow, would equate to 2-5 from St B's each yr I would think).

Probably about 40% of my year went to either Collegiate, Trinity, Horace Mann, Andover, or Exeter which I would say are all comparable academically.  I think 5 or 6 went to Trinity in my year.  Due to the Englishness of the school and its parents, there is occasionally a boy who goes to Eton or Winchester or one the English schools.  There is also usually one boy who ends up at Stuyvesant.  The boys I would think of as the top three in my class went to Collegiate, Trinity, and Andover (one of whom ended up being the Valedictorian of his Princeton year).  I would say students bang in the middle of the class would go to Choate, Hotchkiss, perhaps St Paul's.  Boarding school was more common than NYC high schools (then at least).

If your goal is to have your son end up at Collegiate (which is, of course, a great choice too) then I would imagine applying for K is a surer way vs going to St B's and trying to get one of the few spaces available in high school.  As I can only speak for myself and my fellow St B's/Collegiate classmates, we all felt that the quality of education and the truly special experience that St B's offered followed by the incredible education at Collegiate was a combination that couldn't be beat.

Hope that helps!
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