Anonymous wrote:Chicago is going down hill. Talented people are leaving and more illegal immigrants are coming. This will increase a need to raise taxes and businesses would leave as well.

Go away, you MAGA troll. You just hate Chicago because it's blue and it keeps Illinois blue. Chicago is a great city. It's not losing population.

Chicago is going down hill. Talented people are leaving and more illegal immigrants are coming. This will increase a need to raise taxes and businesses would leave as well.

Anonymous wrote:I agree with other posters - New Trier is a huge suburban school that happens to attract affluent and highly educated parents. It likely has many high achievers creating a pressured environment, so I'd worry about stress/anxiety and burnout for the average student.

I'm a Stuy/Harvard alum. If we were weighing options like New Trier, SEHS public like Walter Payton, or private, I would probably lean towards a more progressive private school and live in the city depending on the student. High school admissions in Chicago is crazy, though. Many families move to the north shore to avoid that process.

I am a Deerfield grad. State and national athletic champion - the schools in the Central Suburban league are very supportive of athletics. Deerfield had a lot of soft kids, but they treated my brother and me (my brother a multiple NCAA All American and Phd in economics) very well. Most of my AP class friends were into music and theater - and showed tremendous respect to me. No bullying, no ostracism. The New Trier kids were the same, notwithstanding the kick we got out of crushing them in athletics. My brother and I were one of the rare poor single mother students in Deerfield. I went to Duke on athletic scholarship. Deerfield prepared me incredibly well, despite having no social background for a place like Duke and the demands of athletics. Me and my two DHS classmates at Duke easily measured up with the prep school kids. They had a slight advantage in course like Freshman English because they often had already read the books for their prep school summer reading list, but it was not much of an advantage. None of the public suburban schools mentioned in Illinois are magnets, so overall the score averages are not the same as as a place like TJ. My kids went to TJ and both went on to Princeton, but they would have done the same had I stayed in Illinois and lived in Deerfield or Lake Forest or Glencoe. To the person who averred Illinois doesn't have people who have great educational outcomes, they must not be familiar with the area. In fact, the problem with schools like Deerfield, which is much better than the non-magnets in Virginia or Maryland, is that there is no diversity. Chicago remains one of the most segregated metro areas in the country. I had plenty of diversity through athletics, and indeed got a lot socially out of the 50 mile drives to the southern suburbs or up to Waukegan for competition, but there is not much diversity in the North Shore high schools {and in Deerfield's case I don't count Michael Jordan's kids as diversifying Deerfield). The sister school in the school district - Highland Park - has a cadre of immigrants who have settled around the former Fort Sheridan area in Highwood, but they make up a small portion of the school. Highland Park's top end of the class was extraordinary - the kids along the lake come from significant wealth. I had a choice to go to either high school - there is a zone where a student can choose - but Highland Park just wasn't very good at sports back then so it was not much of a choice. We shared at graduation venue at Ravinia, the summer home of the Chicago Symphony where kids like me could attend at little cost (again, the person who thought Illinois is rife with idiots just doesn't know the area), and my brother and I conceded that after knowing some HP students that the top of their class was every bit the measure of anything New Trier produced.

The problem with Illinois is that its finances are in such bad shape that it is difficult to justify living there. The pension problem is the nation's largest per capita, and while taxes are already sky high, they are going to go higher. And it is not just taxation rates or levels, people just don't feel comfortable having 40 percent of their taxes going towards work already performed (many places in Illinois are approaching this level with health benefits included), and they find it difficult to stay in Illinois. It ranks at the top in political corruption, too - not an opinion but surveys consistently rank it so - and it just is becoming a less desirable place to live. Apart from U of I UC, the public university system is mediocre, with 50 percent of students leaving the state. The state is losing population, likely a reflection of the state's corrupt politics and poor financial management. My mother's family is four generations from Lake Forest, one of the servant class families for the McCormick estate. I had every reason and advantage to stay in the Chicago area, and chose not to do so. I am glad I did not - as much as I could have afforded North Shore homes I used to simply gaze at.

I agree with other posters - New Trier is a huge suburban school that happens to attract affluent and highly educated parents. It likely has many high achievers creating a pressured environment, so I'd worry about stress/anxiety and burnout for the average student.

I'm a Stuy/Harvard alum. If we were weighing options like New Trier, SEHS public like Walter Payton, or private, I would probably lean towards a more progressive private school and live in the city depending on the student. High school admissions in Chicago is crazy, though. Many families move to the north shore to avoid that process.

Anonymous wrote:If you’re from DC or the northeast, so you still find Chicago to be a great city? Do you find New Trier and the Glenbrooks to truly be on par with TJ or Stuyvesant for example, or are they just top schools for Illinois (which has terrible schools overall)? What would be the DC/NOVA/MD equivalent to Maine South?

I’m asking because all I hear is about how pressure cooker NT is, but my experience in Illinois so far is that these are not the sharpest people I’ve met around. I’m wondering if New Trier families and students have a lot of wealth but in terms of education are more on par with say Marshall or Wilson High rather than Langley.

LOL, what are you trying to say here? You think that Wilson and Marshall families have a lot of money but aren't too bright? Wowza.

Anonymous wrote:One thing that I forgot to say in the last posting: Chicago is the best city in the world for three months out of the year.

I am a GBS grad and could not agree with your post more. I absolutely find the Midwest esp Chicago folks smarter and nicer than many attorneys who are boring and arrogant here. I could not believe that nobody in my preK community had dads who knew how to play poker. I am actually a mom of 2 and most of my friends boys and girls know the game. Not that poker is meaningful but you know - how do not know how to play poker???! I don't care if you went to UVA in my book you are not the sharpest on the block!

Another NT grad here who took 4 and 5 level classes. Most of the kids in my classes were quite bright. The folks who got mediocre grades in them tended to be very bright kids who didn't apply themselves. The kids who worked very hard, but perhaps weren't innately intelligent, were rarely in these classes. I went to a private liberal arts undergrad with a full tuition scholarship; while not a top ten school, still quite good, and wow, classes were almost always easy after NT. I think I got two Bs in four years. I did attend a top-5 law school, and I'd say the level of intelligence and competitiveness was comparable to my NT experience.

I'm now deciding whether to put my young children through that pressure cooker or opt for something a bit less intense. I don't care at all if my kids attend Ivys - but I do care that they are happy, learn, and hopefully find their passions.

When we purchased our home, while pregnant with my first, I thought there'd be no way I'd pick NT. Nine years later, it turns out my oldest is pretty darn bright, and his little brother is no slouch. Now as we're looking to move, I'm considering it.

Anonymous wrote:As a New Trier grad who went to a hyper-selective college, Level 4 and 5 classes at New Trier prepared me as well if not better than my Thomas Jefferson alumni classmates. Level 4 and 5 classes are the equivalent of the magnet schools that you're discussing. I would say that New Trier is rather unique in that you can take whatever levelling combination for any subject is best for your child. Further, no one bats an eye if you do level 4 for say math and science but level 2 for English, history and foreign language. You're always part of the mainstream. I think you're overthinking it.

I think the comments about Illinoisans being not too sharp, I remember something that a mentor once said to me: "Some of the biggest [idiots] come out of the Ivy League." Where you go to high school or college speaks nothing about your intelligence or performance in the workplace.

Hi, fellow Trevian! I graduated in '03 and also went to a very selective college. The academic program at NT is pretty incredible. Can't say I remember knowing any TJ or Stuy grads at my university, but I did know a ton who went to fancy private schools and felt no less prepared for the rigors of a top school than them.

One thing that I forgot to say in the last posting: Chicago is the best city in the world for three months out of the year.

As a New Trier grad who went to a hyper-selective college, Level 4 and 5 classes at New Trier prepared me as well if not better than my Thomas Jefferson alumni classmates. Level 4 and 5 classes are the equivalent of the magnet schools that you're discussing. I would say that New Trier is rather unique in that you can take whatever levelling combination for any subject is best for your child. Further, no one bats an eye if you do level 4 for say math and science but level 2 for English, history and foreign language. You're always part of the mainstream. I think you're overthinking it.

I think the comments about Illinoisans being not too sharp, I remember something that a mentor once said to me: "Some of the biggest [idiots] come out of the Ivy League." Where you go to high school or college speaks nothing about your intelligence or performance in the workplace.

Anonymous wrote:If you’re from DC or the northeast, so you still find Chicago to be a great city? Do you find New Trier and the Glenbrooks to truly be on par with TJ or Stuyvesant for example, or are they just top schools for Illinois (which has terrible schools overall)? What would be the DC/NOVA/MD equivalent to Maine South?

I’m asking because all I hear is about how pressure cooker NT is, but my experience in Illinois so far is that these are not the sharpest people I’ve met around. I’m wondering if New Trier families and students have a lot of wealth but in terms of education are more on par with say Marshall or Wilson High rather than Langley.

what is your source for this?

and of course new trier and the glenbrooks aren't on par with TJ or Stuyvesant. Why would they be? It's like comparing apples to oranges. Tj and Stuy are uber selective, specialized magnet schools that you have to apply to get into. TJ has their pick of students from a population of what? 2 million? and stuy a population of 8 million? The better comparison would be the CPS magnet schools like Walter Payton, Northside College Prep, etc. which yes, would compare to Tj and Stuy. New Trier and GBN/GBS are neighborhood high schools that have to accept everyone in their catchment area. Now, granted, they draw from wealthy, rather exclusive areas so they do tend to be higher achieving than average, but if you live in that area...you're in. Yes, New Trier is on par or better than Langley. Not comparable to Wilson. Better than Marshall.

Anonymous wrote:If you’re from DC or the northeast, so you still find Chicago to be a great city? Do you find New Trier and the Glenbrooks to truly be on par with TJ or Stuyvesant for example, or are they just top schools for Illinois (which has terrible schools overall)? What would be the DC/NOVA/MD equivalent to Maine South?

I’m asking because all I hear is about how pressure cooker NT is, but my experience in Illinois so far is that these are not the sharpest people I’ve met around. I’m wondering if New Trier families and students have a lot of wealth but in terms of education are more on par with say Marshall or Wilson High rather than Langley.

Chicago is a fantastic city, one of my absolute favorites. Comparing individual high schools like this post does is incredibly small-minded. It’s high school. Who cares?

-Bethesda native, Northwestern grad

Anonymous wrote:If you’re from DC or the northeast, so you still find Chicago to be a great city? Do you find New Trier and the Glenbrooks to truly be on par with TJ or Stuyvesant for example, or are they just top schools for Illinois (which has terrible schools overall)? What would be the DC/NOVA/MD equivalent to Maine South?

I’m asking because all I hear is about how pressure cooker NT is, but my experience in Illinois so far is that these are not the sharpest people I’ve met around. I’m wondering if New Trier families and students have a lot of wealth but in terms of education are more on par with say Marshall or Wilson High rather than Langley.

What a bizarre thing to say. You don't come off as terribly sharp.

New Trier is like Whitman in my mind but I don’t really know. Definitely not TJ or Sty.

Chicago is cold and midwestern.

If you’re from DC or the northeast, so you still find Chicago to be a great city? Do you find New Trier and the Glenbrooks to truly be on par with TJ or Stuyvesant for example, or are they just top schools for Illinois (which has terrible schools overall)? What would be the DC/NOVA/MD equivalent to Maine South?

I’m asking because all I hear is about how pressure cooker NT is, but my experience in Illinois so far is that these are not the sharpest people I’ve met around. I’m wondering if New Trier families and students have a lot of wealth but in terms of education are more on par with say Marshall or Wilson High rather than Langley.