Anonymous
02/19/2026 16:02
Subject: What is the most elite NYC preschool?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Very curious which 4 preschools these are... if you're at a SS boys' school for K, I would guess Brick & Episcopal first 2?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:7 kids from WSMS and 6 kids from PCDS to Brearley? So 25% of Brearley incoming K (50, right?) is from these 2 schools? Something sounds off.
I can confirm the six from PCDS. You don’t have to trust me, but I know the kids.
Brearley incoming is 50-55 spots I think.
It's not that unusual. In my son's K class, 12 kids (24%) of 50 came from two preschools. Then there were two other preschools that each sent 3-4 - so 19 kids of 50 (38%) were from four preschools. The school upped their "diversity of preschools" by then taking only 1-2 kids/school for the remaining 31 spots.
My guess would be 92NY and WSMS
Agreed, this sounds like Episcopal & Brick. 92NY lags on SS boy and WSMS is in a completely different category.
Why WSMS in different category?
In general, WSMS' TT emissions is like this: about 10+T (3-5 new families), 6-9 D ( about half of them r new families), 2-3 HM (usually all new families), 4-6 Collegiate (usually 2-4 new families), 5-9 Brearley (usually 2-4 new families). But of course WSMS sends about 3-5 families to Chapin and Spence but these two schools are less popular than Brearley among WSMS parents. As you know, this year's K admission was a bloodbath, but WSMS still did pretty well with the new head. k-8 boy schools such as St.B are usually less popular among WSMS families. WSMS has a very good relationship with St. B.. The only k-8 boy school is kind of popular among WSMS parents. Pretty much no families applied to Buckley's this year. The only issue is that many families at WSMS only wanna get into T, D, Collegiate, B and HM (less popular than the other 4). The teachers and staff at WSMS are AMAZING and down to earth. The families are NOT flashy at all and very diverse. There are quiet a bit families whose kids choose to go to public K as well. Usually, 1-2 kids get into Hunter each year. Hope this helps.
Matches what I’ve seen as a parent there.
Anonymous
02/19/2026 15:39
Subject: What is the most elite NYC preschool?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Interesting. I had always heard 1-2 new families to Trinity from WSMS after faculty kids, legacies, siblings, and that it’s very stressful to gun for those 1-2 spots.
That is correct. It is usually 1 or 2 at most for new families to Trinity. The earlier poster’s numbers are way off for other schools as well. It is a lovely community. But many people are disgruntled this year because the exmissions did not meet their expectation.
What ended up happening? Waitlists? Or have to go to 2T? I assume WSMS families have high expectations for exmissions…
Anonymous
02/19/2026 15:18
Subject: What is the most elite NYC preschool?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:A family at Episcopal Day School told me that since the number of spots at top-tier schools stays about the same every year, it gets really competitive for kids who aren’t legacies or siblings.
Assuming you mean Episcopal School, not REDS (Resurrection Episcopal Day School)? There are more legacies/siblings at Episcopal.
Yes, at this point Episcopal is itself a legacies/siblings driven school, let alone the schools that all of the kids are applying out to.
Anonymous
02/19/2026 15:16
Subject: What is the most elite NYC preschool?
Anonymous wrote:Interesting. I had always heard 1-2 new families to Trinity from WSMS after faculty kids, legacies, siblings, and that it’s very stressful to gun for those 1-2 spots.
That is correct. It is usually 1 or 2 at most for new families to Trinity. The earlier poster’s numbers are way off for other schools as well. It is a lovely community. But many people are disgruntled this year because the exmissions did not meet their expectation.
Anonymous
02/19/2026 14:02
Subject: What is the most elite NYC preschool?
Interesting. I had always heard 1-2 new families to Trinity from WSMS after faculty kids, legacies, siblings, and that it’s very stressful to gun for those 1-2 spots.
Anonymous
02/19/2026 13:46
Subject: What is the most elite NYC preschool?
Anonymous wrote:A family at Episcopal Day School told me that since the number of spots at top-tier schools stays about the same every year, it gets really competitive for kids who aren’t legacies or siblings.
Assuming you mean Episcopal School, not REDS (Resurrection Episcopal Day School)? There are more legacies/siblings at Episcopal.
Anonymous
02/19/2026 12:54
Subject: What is the most elite NYC preschool?
A family at Episcopal Day School told me that since the number of spots at top-tier schools stays about the same every year, it gets really competitive for kids who aren’t legacies or siblings.
Anonymous
02/19/2026 12:52
Subject: What is the most elite NYC preschool?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Very curious which 4 preschools these are... if you're at a SS boys' school for K, I would guess Brick & Episcopal first 2?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:7 kids from WSMS and 6 kids from PCDS to Brearley? So 25% of Brearley incoming K (50, right?) is from these 2 schools? Something sounds off.
I can confirm the six from PCDS. You don’t have to trust me, but I know the kids.
Brearley incoming is 50-55 spots I think.
It's not that unusual. In my son's K class, 12 kids (24%) of 50 came from two preschools. Then there were two other preschools that each sent 3-4 - so 19 kids of 50 (38%) were from four preschools. The school upped their "diversity of preschools" by then taking only 1-2 kids/school for the remaining 31 spots.
My guess would be 92NY and WSMS
Agreed, this sounds like Episcopal & Brick. 92NY lags on SS boy and WSMS is in a completely different category.
Why WSMS in different category?
In general, WSMS' TT emissions is like this: about 10+T (3-5 new families), 6-9 D ( about half of them r new families), 2-3 HM (usually all new families), 4-6 Collegiate (usually 2-4 new families), 5-9 Brearley (usually 2-4 new families). But of course WSMS sends about 3-5 families to Chapin and Spence but these two schools are less popular than Brearley among WSMS parents. As you know, this year's K admission was a bloodbath, but WSMS still did pretty well with the new head. k-8 boy schools such as St.B are usually less popular among WSMS families. WSMS has a very good relationship with St. B.. The only k-8 boy school is kind of popular among WSMS parents. Pretty much no families applied to Buckley's this year. The only issue is that many families at WSMS only wanna get into T, D, Collegiate, B and HM (less popular than the other 4). The teachers and staff at WSMS are AMAZING and down to earth. The families are NOT flashy at all and very diverse. There are quiet a bit families whose kids choose to go to public K as well. Usually, 1-2 kids get into Hunter each year. Hope this helps.
This is all great on community etc but these exmission numbers are not correct. They have historically done an excellent job but they do not send what equates to 15% of the incoming classes of some of the schools mentioned. Also, the numbers don't add up in themselves when considering the class sizes and the schools mentioned.
Anonymous
02/19/2026 12:28
Subject: Re:What is the most elite NYC preschool?
Anonymous wrote:Continuing to ask about Resurrection Episcopal Day School - especially exmissions. That school is like a black hole when it comes to trying to get info.
REDS exmissions are fantastic. Kids go on to all the "top" ongoing schools. It is a smaller school so it flies under the radar.
Anonymous
02/19/2026 11:06
Subject: What is the most elite NYC preschool?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Very curious which 4 preschools these are... if you're at a SS boys' school for K, I would guess Brick & Episcopal first 2?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:7 kids from WSMS and 6 kids from PCDS to Brearley? So 25% of Brearley incoming K (50, right?) is from these 2 schools? Something sounds off.
I can confirm the six from PCDS. You don’t have to trust me, but I know the kids.
Brearley incoming is 50-55 spots I think.
It's not that unusual. In my son's K class, 12 kids (24%) of 50 came from two preschools. Then there were two other preschools that each sent 3-4 - so 19 kids of 50 (38%) were from four preschools. The school upped their "diversity of preschools" by then taking only 1-2 kids/school for the remaining 31 spots.
My guess would be 92NY and WSMS
Agreed, this sounds like Episcopal & Brick. 92NY lags on SS boy and WSMS is in a completely different category.
Why WSMS in different category?
In general, WSMS' TT emissions is like this: about 10+T (3-5 new families), 6-9 D ( about half of them r new families), 2-3 HM (usually all new families), 4-6 Collegiate (usually 2-4 new families), 5-9 Brearley (usually 2-4 new families). But of course WSMS sends about 3-5 families to Chapin and Spence but these two schools are less popular than Brearley among WSMS parents. As you know, this year's K admission was a bloodbath, but WSMS still did pretty well with the new head. k-8 boy schools such as St.B are usually less popular among WSMS families. WSMS has a very good relationship with St. B.. The only k-8 boy school is kind of popular among WSMS parents. Pretty much no families applied to Buckley's this year. The only issue is that many families at WSMS only wanna get into T, D, Collegiate, B and HM (less popular than the other 4). The teachers and staff at WSMS are AMAZING and down to earth. The families are NOT flashy at all and very diverse. There are quiet a bit families whose kids choose to go to public K as well. Usually, 1-2 kids get into Hunter each year. Hope this helps.
Anonymous
02/19/2026 10:08
Subject: What is the most elite NYC preschool?
Personally, I haven't heard much about REDS post-COVID. It was always highly regarded though.
Anonymous
02/19/2026 10:05
Subject: Re:What is the most elite NYC preschool?
Continuing to ask about Resurrection Episcopal Day School - especially exmissions. That school is like a black hole when it comes to trying to get info.
Anonymous
02/19/2026 10:02
Subject: What is the most elite NYC preschool?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Very curious which 4 preschools these are... if you're at a SS boys' school for K, I would guess Brick & Episcopal first 2?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:7 kids from WSMS and 6 kids from PCDS to Brearley? So 25% of Brearley incoming K (50, right?) is from these 2 schools? Something sounds off.
I can confirm the six from PCDS. You don’t have to trust me, but I know the kids.
Brearley incoming is 50-55 spots I think.
It's not that unusual. In my son's K class, 12 kids (24%) of 50 came from two preschools. Then there were two other preschools that each sent 3-4 - so 19 kids of 50 (38%) were from four preschools. The school upped their "diversity of preschools" by then taking only 1-2 kids/school for the remaining 31 spots.
My guess would be 92NY and WSMS
Agreed, this sounds like Episcopal & Brick. 92NY lags on SS boy and WSMS is in a completely different category.
Why WSMS in different category?
Anonymous
02/19/2026 09:59
Subject: What is the most elite NYC preschool?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Very curious which 4 preschools these are... if you're at a SS boys' school for K, I would guess Brick & Episcopal first 2?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:7 kids from WSMS and 6 kids from PCDS to Brearley? So 25% of Brearley incoming K (50, right?) is from these 2 schools? Something sounds off.
I can confirm the six from PCDS. You don’t have to trust me, but I know the kids.
Brearley incoming is 50-55 spots I think.
It's not that unusual. In my son's K class, 12 kids (24%) of 50 came from two preschools. Then there were two other preschools that each sent 3-4 - so 19 kids of 50 (38%) were from four preschools. The school upped their "diversity of preschools" by then taking only 1-2 kids/school for the remaining 31 spots.
My guess would be 92NY and WSMS
Agreed, this sounds like Episcopal & Brick. 92NY lags on SS boy and WSMS is in a completely different category.
Anonymous
02/18/2026 22:03
Subject: What is the most elite NYC preschool?
(one of my many objections to the Calkins "just right" nonsense is that it would buttonhole kids into a specific range of books even if they found them uninteresting or babyish)