Anonymous
10/20/2025 09:17
Subject: Current K Applicants
Anonymous wrote:HM felt normal and not snooty, I know it’s top tier but it felt accessible. Riverdale gave us the opposite feeling.
That is how we felt as well. We are applying for K. My friend is applying for middle school and said the same thing.
Anonymous
10/20/2025 08:48
Subject: Current K Applicants
HM felt normal and not snooty, I know it’s top tier but it felt accessible. Riverdale gave us the opposite feeling.
Anonymous
10/20/2025 00:24
Subject: Current K Applicants
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:For posters who are saying they liked “HM” more than expected - curious as to what you expected? New to this scene and perhaps it’s obvious but not to me. Thanks!
I expected it to be colder, more formal, and to feel the intensity. Don’t get me wrong, it’s clearly a very academic school. But the admissions staff was warm and welcoming.
Exactly. It was very diverse, which I liked. Very warm. This is for K admissions, so the pressure cooker part didn’t come out. The kids seemed nice and normal. I just felt like a family like ours (has some money, not flashy or cares to social climb) could find others similar to us. They take a good amount of public school kids, too, which I think enriches the student body.
Anonymous
10/20/2025 00:21
Subject: Current K Applicants
.Anonymous wrote:We were surprised how much more we liked hills schools than expected. We were leaning towards ss school in UES but the facilities and the space for the kids to run at the hills school looked great. We also liked HM. It seemed diverse and welcoming and yet had age appropriate rigor. People we met seem down to earth. It was completely different from one of the all girls school that we toured earlier.
Which all girls school?
Anonymous
10/19/2025 21:55
Subject: Current K Applicants
Anonymous wrote:For posters who are saying they liked “HM” more than expected - curious as to what you expected? New to this scene and perhaps it’s obvious but not to me. Thanks!
I expected it to be colder, more formal, and to feel the intensity. Don’t get me wrong, it’s clearly a very academic school. But the admissions staff was warm and welcoming.
Anonymous
10/19/2025 21:48
Subject: Current K Applicants
Anonymous wrote:We toured HM for HS and it was exactly what we expected, which is not good. Tour guide was a stress case who had lived in the HM bubble so seemed out of touch with the rest of the world.
Note that I know other students at HM. There are a bunch of them who also meet this stereotype. But there are others who are nice, well-adjusted bright kids.
My DS is a senior at HM. I can't speak to the lower and middle schools because he has only attended high school at HM, but it's academically intense and fit is really important to get right there.
Anonymous
10/19/2025 21:41
Subject: Current K Applicants
We were surprised how much more we liked hills schools than expected. We were leaning towards ss school in UES but the facilities and the space for the kids to run at the hills school looked great. We also liked HM. It seemed diverse and welcoming and yet had age appropriate rigor. People we met seem down to earth. It was completely different from one of the all girls school that we toured earlier.
Anonymous
10/19/2025 21:41
Subject: Current K Applicants
We toured HM for HS and it was exactly what we expected, which is not good. Tour guide was a stress case who had lived in the HM bubble so seemed out of touch with the rest of the world.
Note that I know other students at HM. There are a bunch of them who also meet this stereotype. But there are others who are nice, well-adjusted bright kids.
Note that I know other students at HM. There are a bunch of them who also meet this stereotype. But there are others who are nice, well-adjusted bright kids.
Anonymous
10/19/2025 21:04
Subject: Current K Applicants
Woops misplaced quotes - should be “more than expected”
Anonymous
10/19/2025 21:03
Subject: Current K Applicants
For posters who are saying they liked “HM” more than expected - curious as to what you expected? New to this scene and perhaps it’s obvious but not to me. Thanks!
Anonymous
10/19/2025 20:37
Subject: Current K Applicants
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:There's a currently a large thread on Moms of the Upper East Side facebook group trashing Collegiate's culture. A couple of people have piped up saying they are looking to transfer.
What are they saying about the culture?
Some lines that stood out:
Cruel boys; entitled families. Gender stereotypes amplified.
Douchey bros in the making.
Rigorous academics, new impressive facilities. Large class size for K, high turnover in admin, and obviously the senior prank was problematic. Definitely a very different vibe from the K-8 boys’ schools which seemingly put a lot more emphasis on athletics and morality.
From someone whose son has excelled academically and wants to transfer out to find kinder classmates.
We know one family that left and one family that is trying to, all related to the culture.
that’s the culture there for a long time and yes it might have been a small group for this prank but their “jokes and pranks” are always done at the expensive of others and nothing changes
Very interesting. I know one family currently there - know a lot who graduated 20+ years ago so that doesn't count. The older Collegiate alums were generally great. They had a certain ease and comfort in their own skin - very smart without having to advertise it.
The family we know now is insufferable. Very phony, clearly there for the name - nice to your face (though clearly being fake about it) then nasty behind your back. We have met a few kids through them and some were actually very effeminate. I was surprised as I didn't think this would survive at the current Collegiate.
Anonymous
10/19/2025 20:33
Subject: Current K Applicants
We had a very underwhelming experience visiting HM. Not what we expected.
We had a very binary experience at Trinity - people were either really great or really bad (bad was primarily paid professionals).
We had a very binary experience at Trinity - people were either really great or really bad (bad was primarily paid professionals).
Anonymous
10/19/2025 20:10
Subject: Current K Applicants
Just in general you never want to be at a school that’s experiencing a mass exodus event - Fieldston as I understand it still hasn’t recovered from theirs.
Anonymous
10/19/2025 20:04
Subject: Current K Applicants
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:There's a currently a large thread on Moms of the Upper East Side facebook group trashing Collegiate's culture. A couple of people have piped up saying they are looking to transfer.
What are they saying about the culture?
Some lines that stood out:
Cruel boys; entitled families. Gender stereotypes amplified.
Douchey bros in the making.
Rigorous academics, new impressive facilities. Large class size for K, high turnover in admin, and obviously the senior prank was problematic. Definitely a very different vibe from the K-8 boys’ schools which seemingly put a lot more emphasis on athletics and morality.
From someone whose son has excelled academically and wants to transfer out to find kinder classmates.
We know one family that left and one family that is trying to, all related to the culture.
that’s the culture there for a long time and yes it might have been a small group for this prank but their “jokes and pranks” are always done at the expensive of others and nothing changes
Anonymous
10/19/2025 20:02
Subject: Current K Applicants
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:There's a currently a large thread on Moms of the Upper East Side facebook group trashing Collegiate's culture. A couple of people have piped up saying they are looking to transfer.
Oh wow. I’m not on facebook. I’m surprised current parents are speaking so freely.
Facebook allows anonymous posting now.