Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 18:01     Subject: K List

I know people who only applied to one school because they were happy to send their child to their local zoned public school if they didn’t get in to the school of their choice.

So if you are okay with not getting in to any of them and sending your child to public, then I would say make your choices as small and competitive as you want.

If you have zero interest in the option of public, you need to broaden your search and add a couple more safety schools.
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 17:57     Subject: K List

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:If you're unconnected and thinking of applying again later if the TTs don't work out, consider also applying to Speyer. Its a K-8, but has a lot of the enrichment the TTs do and small student/teacher ratio and great at acceleration and about half the class each year matriculates into these TTs for high school.


Sorry, what does connected/unconnected mean?


Connected mean numerous things here are a few:

- feeder preschool (School director has a strong relationship with TT schools, and gets a lot of kids in to them)
- Sibling
- Legacy
- A personal connection to someone on the board, admin, teacher who can vouch for you.

Unconnected means you have none of those things on your side.
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 09:38     Subject: K List

Anonymous wrote:If you're unconnected and thinking of applying again later if the TTs don't work out, consider also applying to Speyer. Its a K-8, but has a lot of the enrichment the TTs do and small student/teacher ratio and great at acceleration and about half the class each year matriculates into these TTs for high school.


Sorry, what does connected/unconnected mean?
Anonymous
Post 05/13/2026 20:55     Subject: K List

If you're unconnected and thinking of applying again later if the TTs don't work out, consider also applying to Speyer. Its a K-8, but has a lot of the enrichment the TTs do and small student/teacher ratio and great at acceleration and about half the class each year matriculates into these TTs for high school.
Anonymous
Post 05/13/2026 18:51     Subject: K List

Anonymous wrote:This was our list minus Trinity plus Nightingale as we didn’t want to commute to UWS. I completely understand that if we are paying 70k, I only want TT. We did fall in love with Nightingale along the way (though didn’t get an offer). It’s worth checking out! We are not connected, not from a well known feeder school. Eventually we got offers at 2 out of 5 and chose Dalton. Very, very happy here. After we started Dalton, we discovered how it’s uniquely diverse and down to earth. The parents are much chiller than the girls schools. I can’t recommend it enough!


OP here: thank you so much for the feedback! I am hearing same things from parents who went through the process in the past few years. Congratulations and glad you’re all happy at Dalton
Anonymous
Post 05/13/2026 17:52     Subject: Re:K List

Anonymous wrote:Agree-- if you're interested in the girls' schools it's worth adding Nightingale. It's a little smaller than the other three, but really close to C/S in every way that matters (teaching, curriculum, rigor, exmissions). We go to a different girls' school but we debated a long time.


As did we. It's a nice school.

I have heard some issues with the math department but that could just be random noise.
Anonymous
Post 05/13/2026 17:38     Subject: Re:K List

Agree-- if you're interested in the girls' schools it's worth adding Nightingale. It's a little smaller than the other three, but really close to C/S in every way that matters (teaching, curriculum, rigor, exmissions). We go to a different girls' school but we debated a long time.
Anonymous
Post 05/13/2026 17:27     Subject: K List

Anonymous wrote:This was our list minus Trinity plus Nightingale as we didn’t want to commute to UWS. I completely understand that if we are paying 70k, I only want TT. We did fall in love with Nightingale along the way (though didn’t get an offer). It’s worth checking out! We are not connected, not from a well known feeder school. Eventually we got offers at 2 out of 5 and chose Dalton. Very, very happy here. After we started Dalton, we discovered how it’s uniquely diverse and down to earth. The parents are much chiller than the girls schools. I can’t recommend it enough!


+1

I know Nightingale is not TT but their college matriculations seem pretty strong this year - on par with Riverdale. I’ve also heard good things about Town, but probably not prestigious enough for OP.
Anonymous
Post 05/13/2026 17:21     Subject: K List

This was our list minus Trinity plus Nightingale as we didn’t want to commute to UWS. I completely understand that if we are paying 70k, I only want TT. We did fall in love with Nightingale along the way (though didn’t get an offer). It’s worth checking out! We are not connected, not from a well known feeder school. Eventually we got offers at 2 out of 5 and chose Dalton. Very, very happy here. After we started Dalton, we discovered how it’s uniquely diverse and down to earth. The parents are much chiller than the girls schools. I can’t recommend it enough!
Anonymous
Post 05/13/2026 09:16     Subject: K List

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP, if that’s the case, why did you ask? Why did you ask about philosophy if you only care about TT?


OP was just asking what the differences were between the five schools, aside from the obvious SS or coed. Interested in current families' thoughts on this too. Are B/C/S so different from one another that we should apply to all or just one? Unconnected here, but according to PSD, they are very supportive of S and B for DD, but not C so much.


Why does your PSD think C is not a good fit? In general you should apply to all to maximize your chance.


She mentioned DD as having a strong personality and a bit competitive. Not sure what this ultimately means. Also PSD mentioned high number of past siblings at current school for C. God help us I guess


Ha. It is 100% the siblings. Don't buy what she is saying re personality.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 23:40     Subject: K List

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP, if that’s the case, why did you ask? Why did you ask about philosophy if you only care about TT?


OP was just asking what the differences were between the five schools, aside from the obvious SS or coed. Interested in current families' thoughts on this too. Are B/C/S so different from one another that we should apply to all or just one? Unconnected here, but according to PSD, they are very supportive of S and B for DD, but not C so much.


Why does your PSD think C is not a good fit? In general you should apply to all to maximize your chance.


She mentioned DD as having a strong personality and a bit competitive. Not sure what this ultimately means. Also PSD mentioned high number of past siblings at current school for C. God help us I guess


Ah, sounds like a little pre-application brokering by the PSD. It's the sibling thing that's the reason. Nothing to do with the kid's personality. If the siblings were mostly from B or S, you'd be steered toward C.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 22:52     Subject: K List

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP, if that’s the case, why did you ask? Why did you ask about philosophy if you only care about TT?


OP was just asking what the differences were between the five schools, aside from the obvious SS or coed. Interested in current families' thoughts on this too. Are B/C/S so different from one another that we should apply to all or just one? Unconnected here, but according to PSD, they are very supportive of S and B for DD, but not C so much.


Why does your PSD think C is not a good fit? In general you should apply to all to maximize your chance.


She mentioned DD as having a strong personality and a bit competitive. Not sure what this ultimately means. Also PSD mentioned high number of past siblings at current school for C. God help us I guess
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 16:53     Subject: K List

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP, if that’s the case, why did you ask? Why did you ask about philosophy if you only care about TT?


OP was just asking what the differences were between the five schools, aside from the obvious SS or coed. Interested in current families' thoughts on this too. Are B/C/S so different from one another that we should apply to all or just one? Unconnected here, but according to PSD, they are very supportive of S and B for DD, but not C so much.


Why does your PSD think C is not a good fit? In general you should apply to all to maximize your chance.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 12:51     Subject: K List

Anonymous wrote:OP, if that’s the case, why did you ask? Why did you ask about philosophy if you only care about TT?


OP was just asking what the differences were between the five schools, aside from the obvious SS or coed. Interested in current families' thoughts on this too. Are B/C/S so different from one another that we should apply to all or just one? Unconnected here, but according to PSD, they are very supportive of S and B for DD, but not C so much.
Anonymous
Post 05/11/2026 17:55     Subject: K List

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:If you are happy with public school, skip the whole thing and do it later when you know what kind of learner your kid is. These places get so small over 13 years and honestly, any real academic differences don’t kick in until later on. I was unimpressed with my kids K12 elementary. The teachers were mainly young and not very good. I found out half way through fourth, most of the kids were being tutored on the source, and I don’t think it was to keep up, I think it was because they weren’t being taught phonics or achieving math fluency. Ask if they have standardized tests and if they let parents see the results to track year by year. K12 is a mixed bag even in TT and no school is more important than your kid.


Which k-12 did your kids go to?


Trevor