These schools will take a variety of kids. The TT ones have the luxury of having a lot of demand so they can curate a range of personalities.

Anonymous wrote:Thank you! Was there anything you all did to prepare your children or were they naturally bright? Did the preschools help in any way to prepare them for the assessments?

The book Testing for Kindergarten by Karen Quinn goes over the specifics.

We did not do any specific prep, but we did practice writing her name and worked on letter identification/sounds and numbers. She loves drawing, playing games and doing puzzles, so doing those type of activities at home may have helped, but it was just typical play time at our house, not prep.

Also, as a contrast to the prior poster, my daughter was on the younger end of the spectrum during the interviews (she was 4 or very newly 4.5 during her playdates) and is also quite shy, but she still did well enough to get accepted at TT schools. I am raising this just so you're not worried if your kid doesn't love to interact with adults! The teachers know how to approach and evaluate shy kids too.

Anonymous wrote:Thank you! Was there anything you all did to prepare your children or were they naturally bright? Did the preschools help in any way to prepare them for the assessments?

He was/is very bright, is very curious, and loves interacting with adults. He was also an older applicant (was 5 on these interviews). But there are lots (and lots) of very bright kids in this city.

As for prep, we told him what these visits were in simple terms- we’re trying to pick a school for you after preschool. Listen to the grown ups, follow their directions, have fun. He’d have figured it out eventually, so we felt it best to just label what was going on. I’m sure preschool prepped, though I’m not sure how.

Thank you! Was there anything you all did to prepare your children or were they naturally bright? Did the preschools help in any way to prepare them for the assessments?

Also be aware of grade size at each school. Dalton is like 100 kids. HM is big too. Trinity, Collegiate and St B’s are all smaller.

Anonymous wrote:Looking at Dalton, Trinity, Collegiate, Horace Mann for our TT and Allen Stevenson and St David for our next tier. Coming from a connected preschool but loads of kids applying private (and definitely a bunch of legacy and sibs in the bunch).

Our list was very similar, but didn’t do AS, SD, or HM. This is a few years old, so take it with a grain of salt.

St B’s was a one on one child assessment.

Collegiate was a big group of boys. It was chaotic and my kid went in like a deer in the headlights and came out looking completely overstimulated.

Dalton was a small group.

Trinity was two kids, a boy and a girl.

Just know your kid. I knew a big group assessment would be hard— he’s just not that kid. Maybe on the right day he’d open up, but we didn’t catch him on that day. One on one was where he’d do best. We explained that it was nice grown ups (like his teachers) that just wanted to get to know him. We gave him behavioral standards, and encouraged him to be kind and have fun. Then we just… prayed. The kids are 4 and 5 years old. It’s a wildcard.

For you, be on time. Be tidy. Do not take out your phone or look at your watch- tour guides notice everything. Don’t ask a question just to ask, come up with a couple of questions that are important to *you* and ask them at every school- this gave us a great baseline.

As for a connected preschool and siblings/legacies, it’s out of your hands. Their process is inherently different than yours and you cannot control that. Be aware of where they’re likely going to end up in k, but don’t let it discourage you from applying. Of course if there are 6 siblings or legacies from Collegiate at your preschool and you love Collegiate, that’ll be hard. But you can’t control that!

My daughter got into Dalton (and a TT girls school) unconnected. For Dalton, I think the single most important factor was the child assessment. Our parent interview was a week after the playdate, and we received very strong feedback directly from Babby at that meeting. The parent interview honestly felt like it was just checking the box to make sure we weren't crazy. That being said, things could be different now that Babby isn't doing admissions. We did come from a connected uptown preschool, though one that tends to lean more toward the SS schools.

Sorry also St Bernard’s is another school we are considering.

Looking at Dalton, Trinity, Collegiate, Horace Mann for our TT and Allen Stevenson and St David for our next tier. Coming from a connected preschool but loads of kids applying private (and definitely a bunch of legacy and sibs in the bunch).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With our oldest we were a new family (we’re both public school kids not from NYC). We got
one kindergarten accept (to our top choice) and the rest were waitlist. We didn’t want multiple offers, we just wanted to get in where we wanted to go! We’ve since applied a sibling and while still stressful, it was a more transparent process.

Congrats. Any tips for the process? We have a similar background (non NYC public kids, first child applying to K )

What’s schools are you looking at? Applying from connected preschool?

Anonymous wrote:With our oldest we were a new family (we’re both public school kids not from NYC). We got
one kindergarten accept (to our top choice) and the rest were waitlist. We didn’t want multiple offers, we just wanted to get in where we wanted to go! We’ve since applied a sibling and while still stressful, it was a more transparent process.

Congrats. Any tips for the process? We have a similar background (non NYC public kids, first child applying to K )

With our oldest we were a new family (we’re both public school kids not from NYC). We got
one kindergarten accept (to our top choice) and the rest were waitlist. We didn’t want multiple offers, we just wanted to get in where we wanted to go! We’ve since applied a sibling and while still stressful, it was a more transparent process.

At the Kindergarten level about half the students enrolling are typically siblings, legacy or faculty children. Siblings usually make up the biggest portion of this preferred group.

This will vary by school but seems to be a mostly applicable rule of thumb.

Hi,

In regards to private schools,
I hear a lot of admitted students fall under preferential status, which has me wondering how many of you do. Are you legacy, sibling, faculty? When I see people post multiple admission offers I wonder if they’re connected because how?!