Anonymous
Post 05/15/2026 12:28     Subject: Re:Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions

We are around 450K with assets and when it came down to it we decided it was irresponsible to spend over 70K a year on high school when we will likely not get any aid for college and we're in our 50s. I've known too many kids who have ended up at just ok colleges after their parents spent hundred of thousands on high school. I do think the floor for colleges is higher at many of these schools and maybe that's worth something, if you can comfortably afford it. My kid was not overly impressed with many of the classes they sat in on at various well regarded 2T schools during revisit days. Their feedback at most of the schools was that it seemed easy.
Anonymous
Post 05/15/2026 11:55     Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions

as a 5-25 million net worth family who lives in Brooklyn and sent our kids to public schools k-8 and then private HS and SHS both .. with kids all at T5 colleges, I think you many of you have a vary narrow way of looking at how "best" to raise kids
Anonymous
Post 05/15/2026 11:29     Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Outside of the "hooks" which is definitely the case for a portion of the girls - one thing that i believe helps is the smaller class size.

I believe HM has close to 200 kids per grade. the girls schools generally are in the 60-70 range.

It's alot easier for the CC at B/S/C to push for 1-2 girls at a Columbia or Dartmouth versus having to go to the AO and try to pitch 6 different kids trying to get into columbia ED.

If you take out the 10-15 hooked kids at each of these girls schools you are left with 50 kids. the CC are only going to bat for a couple of girls per t30 college. to me i think that has to make an impact.
do you agree?

I am not sure how that would explain why Brearley performs so well in absolute numbers. It actually seems to send more students than HM to Harvard, Princeton, Yale - and Columbia (each!), despite having 1/3 the number of seniors.


You’re right. It’s just having richer families.


does the generic 5-25MM net worth Brearley family really have a leg up in admissions? compared to any other full pay students?


Child starting Brearley in the fall. We don’t make or own anywhere near that amount, and we are full paying. Many of the families I have interacted with so far, are similar to us. Of course there is a lot of wealth regardless, but the same can be said for places like PS 6 (we are friends with families who make/ are worth WAY more than us who’s kids go there currently).



Are the grandparents helping? How do you plan to handle the increasing cost of private school and living in NYC?

2 bedroom apartments are going for ~8k a month now a day.
you can make $750k a year with one finance person and one tech person pretty easy.

There are many people who do get parental help but the most people we know are paying their own way. We have 14 years of it - (7x2). So there is a bit of belt tightening for a couple of years. If you can pick up a few extra shift or do some consulting on the side can help.

Lots of people in nyc either make a ton of money or have family money. It’s why apartments are so expensive.


Jobs are very volatile with layoffs every year. After 50, it isn’t guaranteed the high paying job will be available.

We are at $500k a year with a net worth of $5mm (majority in real estate) and I don’t think we can easily afford. Helping with the downpayment for a house, funding a business, paying for college, etc… will go a long way in ensuring they have a high quality of life after graduating from school.


A lot of TT graduates would probably prefer their parents have invested the tuition dollars in the S&P and gave it to them in adulthood (several million dollars, enough for a very nice house and a cushion). The sacrifice described here isn’t worth it for some chance to go to U Michigan or Tufts. If you are rich and you wouldn’t even notice the tuition payment, go for it.


Honestly, NYC private school tuition is an *incredibly* inefficient use of money to improve your kids' future prospects - it's the sort of thing you should do when money is no object and you've already maxed out on other, cheaper options, or if you want your kids to have the country club school experience, but it's very hard to justify the expense if it's actually a strain for you to afford it.

Going by the most generous estimates I could find, the average financial impact of going to an Ivy League school versus a replacement-level school is like $60k/year in future income; even if your kid was guaranteed to get into an Ivy if they went to private school and guaranteed not to get into anything close to an Ivy if they didn't, it would be roughly a wash with simply saving the money and giving it to the kid when they graduate from SUNY.
Anonymous
Post 05/15/2026 10:44     Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Outside of the "hooks" which is definitely the case for a portion of the girls - one thing that i believe helps is the smaller class size.

I believe HM has close to 200 kids per grade. the girls schools generally are in the 60-70 range.

It's alot easier for the CC at B/S/C to push for 1-2 girls at a Columbia or Dartmouth versus having to go to the AO and try to pitch 6 different kids trying to get into columbia ED.

If you take out the 10-15 hooked kids at each of these girls schools you are left with 50 kids. the CC are only going to bat for a couple of girls per t30 college. to me i think that has to make an impact.
do you agree?

I am not sure how that would explain why Brearley performs so well in absolute numbers. It actually seems to send more students than HM to Harvard, Princeton, Yale - and Columbia (each!), despite having 1/3 the number of seniors.


You’re right. It’s just having richer families.


does the generic 5-25MM net worth Brearley family really have a leg up in admissions? compared to any other full pay students?


Child starting Brearley in the fall. We don’t make or own anywhere near that amount, and we are full paying. Many of the families I have interacted with so far, are similar to us. Of course there is a lot of wealth regardless, but the same can be said for places like PS 6 (we are friends with families who make/ are worth WAY more than us who’s kids go there currently).



Are the grandparents helping? How do you plan to handle the increasing cost of private school and living in NYC?

2 bedroom apartments are going for ~8k a month now a day.
you can make $750k a year with one finance person and one tech person pretty easy.

There are many people who do get parental help but the most people we know are paying their own way. We have 14 years of it - (7x2). So there is a bit of belt tightening for a couple of years. If you can pick up a few extra shift or do some consulting on the side can help.

Lots of people in nyc either make a ton of money or have family money. It’s why apartments are so expensive.


Jobs are very volatile with layoffs every year. After 50, it isn’t guaranteed the high paying job will be available.

We are at $500k a year with a net worth of $5mm (majority in real estate) and I don’t think we can easily afford. Helping with the downpayment for a house, funding a business, paying for college, etc… will go a long way in ensuring they have a high quality of life after graduating from school.


A lot of TT graduates would probably prefer their parents have invested the tuition dollars in the S&P and gave it to them in adulthood (several million dollars, enough for a very nice house and a cushion). The sacrifice described here isn’t worth it for some chance to go to U Michigan or Tufts. If you are rich and you wouldn’t even notice the tuition payment, go for it.


Tufts and Michigan are pretty good schools that you kind of dismiss. If your view is that they are blah schools and easily achievable by going to public school and you don't value the actual education and you fall in the "middle" income trap - then the answer is pretty easy for you - go to Public school.

interesting that some posters say everyone at these schools are loaded yet we keep discussing the public/private tradeoff.
Anonymous
Post 05/15/2026 10:25     Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Outside of the "hooks" which is definitely the case for a portion of the girls - one thing that i believe helps is the smaller class size.

I believe HM has close to 200 kids per grade. the girls schools generally are in the 60-70 range.

It's alot easier for the CC at B/S/C to push for 1-2 girls at a Columbia or Dartmouth versus having to go to the AO and try to pitch 6 different kids trying to get into columbia ED.

If you take out the 10-15 hooked kids at each of these girls schools you are left with 50 kids. the CC are only going to bat for a couple of girls per t30 college. to me i think that has to make an impact.
do you agree?

I am not sure how that would explain why Brearley performs so well in absolute numbers. It actually seems to send more students than HM to Harvard, Princeton, Yale - and Columbia (each!), despite having 1/3 the number of seniors.


You’re right. It’s just having richer families.


does the generic 5-25MM net worth Brearley family really have a leg up in admissions? compared to any other full pay students?


Child starting Brearley in the fall. We don’t make or own anywhere near that amount, and we are full paying. Many of the families I have interacted with so far, are similar to us. Of course there is a lot of wealth regardless, but the same can be said for places like PS 6 (we are friends with families who make/ are worth WAY more than us who’s kids go there currently).



Are the grandparents helping? How do you plan to handle the increasing cost of private school and living in NYC?

2 bedroom apartments are going for ~8k a month now a day.
you can make $750k a year with one finance person and one tech person pretty easy.

There are many people who do get parental help but the most people we know are paying their own way. We have 14 years of it - (7x2). So there is a bit of belt tightening for a couple of years. If you can pick up a few extra shift or do some consulting on the side can help.

Lots of people in nyc either make a ton of money or have family money. It’s why apartments are so expensive.


Jobs are very volatile with layoffs every year. After 50, it isn’t guaranteed the high paying job will be available.

We are at $500k a year with a net worth of $5mm (majority in real estate) and I don’t think we can easily afford. Helping with the downpayment for a house, funding a business, paying for college, etc… will go a long way in ensuring they have a high quality of life after graduating from school.


A lot of TT graduates would probably prefer their parents have invested the tuition dollars in the S&P and gave it to them in adulthood (several million dollars, enough for a very nice house and a cushion). The sacrifice described here isn’t worth it for some chance to go to U Michigan or Tufts. If you are rich and you wouldn’t even notice the tuition payment, go for it.
Anonymous
Post 05/15/2026 10:07     Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Outside of the "hooks" which is definitely the case for a portion of the girls - one thing that i believe helps is the smaller class size.

I believe HM has close to 200 kids per grade. the girls schools generally are in the 60-70 range.

It's alot easier for the CC at B/S/C to push for 1-2 girls at a Columbia or Dartmouth versus having to go to the AO and try to pitch 6 different kids trying to get into columbia ED.

If you take out the 10-15 hooked kids at each of these girls schools you are left with 50 kids. the CC are only going to bat for a couple of girls per t30 college. to me i think that has to make an impact.
do you agree?

I am not sure how that would explain why Brearley performs so well in absolute numbers. It actually seems to send more students than HM to Harvard, Princeton, Yale - and Columbia (each!), despite having 1/3 the number of seniors.


You’re right. It’s just having richer families.


does the generic 5-25MM net worth Brearley family really have a leg up in admissions? compared to any other full pay students?


Child starting Brearley in the fall. We don’t make or own anywhere near that amount, and we are full paying. Many of the families I have interacted with so far, are similar to us. Of course there is a lot of wealth regardless, but the same can be said for places like PS 6 (we are friends with families who make/ are worth WAY more than us who’s kids go there currently).



Are the grandparents helping? How do you plan to handle the increasing cost of private school and living in NYC?

2 bedroom apartments are going for ~8k a month now a day.
you can make $750k a year with one finance person and one tech person pretty easy.

There are many people who do get parental help but the most people we know are paying their own way. We have 14 years of it - (7x2). So there is a bit of belt tightening for a couple of years. If you can pick up a few extra shift or do some consulting on the side can help.

Lots of people in nyc either make a ton of money or have family money. It’s why apartments are so expensive.


Jobs are very volatile with layoffs every year. After 50, it isn’t guaranteed the high paying job will be available.

We are at $500k a year with a net worth of $5mm (majority in real estate) and I don’t think we can easily afford. Helping with the downpayment for a house, funding a business, paying for college, etc… will go a long way in ensuring they have a high quality of life after graduating from school.


that is kind of the worst spot to be in (relatively speaking of course) - too rich to get financial aid and not enough cushion to pay for the tuition without significant sacrifice (athough having that much equity in RE should help). In your situation I would go public for k-8 and then private for HS. If the decision is private high school versus public - that's personal. We felt like it was better to do private. Our income wasn't much higher than yours at the time but we had a bit more of a financial cushion.

it's a tough decision. Saving for college would be my top priority. Since our college expenses were already paid for - that really helped our decision.
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 23:58     Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Outside of the "hooks" which is definitely the case for a portion of the girls - one thing that i believe helps is the smaller class size.

I believe HM has close to 200 kids per grade. the girls schools generally are in the 60-70 range.

It's alot easier for the CC at B/S/C to push for 1-2 girls at a Columbia or Dartmouth versus having to go to the AO and try to pitch 6 different kids trying to get into columbia ED.

If you take out the 10-15 hooked kids at each of these girls schools you are left with 50 kids. the CC are only going to bat for a couple of girls per t30 college. to me i think that has to make an impact.
do you agree?

I am not sure how that would explain why Brearley performs so well in absolute numbers. It actually seems to send more students than HM to Harvard, Princeton, Yale - and Columbia (each!), despite having 1/3 the number of seniors.


You’re right. It’s just having richer families.


does the generic 5-25MM net worth Brearley family really have a leg up in admissions? compared to any other full pay students?


Child starting Brearley in the fall. We don’t make or own anywhere near that amount, and we are full paying. Many of the families I have interacted with so far, are similar to us. Of course there is a lot of wealth regardless, but the same can be said for places like PS 6 (we are friends with families who make/ are worth WAY more than us who’s kids go there currently).



Are the grandparents helping? How do you plan to handle the increasing cost of private school and living in NYC?

2 bedroom apartments are going for ~8k a month now a day.
you can make $750k a year with one finance person and one tech person pretty easy.

There are many people who do get parental help but the most people we know are paying their own way. We have 14 years of it - (7x2). So there is a bit of belt tightening for a couple of years. If you can pick up a few extra shift or do some consulting on the side can help.

Lots of people in nyc either make a ton of money or have family money. It’s why apartments are so expensive.


Jobs are very volatile with layoffs every year. After 50, it isn’t guaranteed the high paying job will be available.

We are at $500k a year with a net worth of $5mm (majority in real estate) and I don’t think we can easily afford. Helping with the downpayment for a house, funding a business, paying for college, etc… will go a long way in ensuring they have a high quality of life after graduating from school.
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 23:19     Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Outside of the "hooks" which is definitely the case for a portion of the girls - one thing that i believe helps is the smaller class size.

I believe HM has close to 200 kids per grade. the girls schools generally are in the 60-70 range.

It's alot easier for the CC at B/S/C to push for 1-2 girls at a Columbia or Dartmouth versus having to go to the AO and try to pitch 6 different kids trying to get into columbia ED.

If you take out the 10-15 hooked kids at each of these girls schools you are left with 50 kids. the CC are only going to bat for a couple of girls per t30 college. to me i think that has to make an impact.
do you agree?

I am not sure how that would explain why Brearley performs so well in absolute numbers. It actually seems to send more students than HM to Harvard, Princeton, Yale - and Columbia (each!), despite having 1/3 the number of seniors.


You’re right. It’s just having richer families.


does the generic 5-25MM net worth Brearley family really have a leg up in admissions? compared to any other full pay students?


Child starting Brearley in the fall. We don’t make or own anywhere near that amount, and we are full paying. Many of the families I have interacted with so far, are similar to us. Of course there is a lot of wealth regardless, but the same can be said for places like PS 6 (we are friends with families who make/ are worth WAY more than us who’s kids go there currently).



Are the grandparents helping? How do you plan to handle the increasing cost of private school and living in NYC?

2 bedroom apartments are going for ~8k a month now a day.
you can make $750k a year with one finance person and one tech person pretty easy.

There are many people who do get parental help but the most people we know are paying their own way. We have 14 years of it - (7x2). So there is a bit of belt tightening for a couple of years. If you can pick up a few extra shift or do some consulting on the side can help.

Lots of people in nyc either make a ton of money or have family money. It’s why apartments are so expensive.
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 23:12     Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Outside of the "hooks" which is definitely the case for a portion of the girls - one thing that i believe helps is the smaller class size.

I believe HM has close to 200 kids per grade. the girls schools generally are in the 60-70 range.

It's alot easier for the CC at B/S/C to push for 1-2 girls at a Columbia or Dartmouth versus having to go to the AO and try to pitch 6 different kids trying to get into columbia ED.

If you take out the 10-15 hooked kids at each of these girls schools you are left with 50 kids. the CC are only going to bat for a couple of girls per t30 college. to me i think that has to make an impact.
do you agree?

I am not sure how that would explain why Brearley performs so well in absolute numbers. It actually seems to send more students than HM to Harvard, Princeton, Yale - and Columbia (each!), despite having 1/3 the number of seniors.


You’re right. It’s just having richer families.


does the generic 5-25MM net worth Brearley family really have a leg up in admissions? compared to any other full pay students?


Child starting Brearley in the fall. We don’t make or own anywhere near that amount, and we are full paying. Many of the families I have interacted with so far, are similar to us. Of course there is a lot of wealth regardless, but the same can be said for places like PS 6 (we are friends with families who make/ are worth WAY more than us who’s kids go there currently).
we see the same - at Spence. Sure some rich folks but lots of very comfortable families. But maybe the rich only hang together.

Think the view of uber wealthy every single family is outdated.
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 20:11     Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Outside of the "hooks" which is definitely the case for a portion of the girls - one thing that i believe helps is the smaller class size.

I believe HM has close to 200 kids per grade. the girls schools generally are in the 60-70 range.

It's alot easier for the CC at B/S/C to push for 1-2 girls at a Columbia or Dartmouth versus having to go to the AO and try to pitch 6 different kids trying to get into columbia ED.

If you take out the 10-15 hooked kids at each of these girls schools you are left with 50 kids. the CC are only going to bat for a couple of girls per t30 college. to me i think that has to make an impact.
do you agree?

I am not sure how that would explain why Brearley performs so well in absolute numbers. It actually seems to send more students than HM to Harvard, Princeton, Yale - and Columbia (each!), despite having 1/3 the number of seniors.


You’re right. It’s just having richer families.


does the generic 5-25MM net worth Brearley family really have a leg up in admissions? compared to any other full pay students?


Child starting Brearley in the fall. We don’t make or own anywhere near that amount, and we are full paying. Many of the families I have interacted with so far, are similar to us. Of course there is a lot of wealth regardless, but the same can be said for places like PS 6 (we are friends with families who make/ are worth WAY more than us who’s kids go there currently).



Are the grandparents helping? How do you plan to handle the increasing cost of private school and living in NYC?

2 bedroom apartments are going for ~8k a month now a day.


More than 8k if you want a 24/7 doorman and in unit W/D
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 19:26     Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Outside of the "hooks" which is definitely the case for a portion of the girls - one thing that i believe helps is the smaller class size.

I believe HM has close to 200 kids per grade. the girls schools generally are in the 60-70 range.

It's alot easier for the CC at B/S/C to push for 1-2 girls at a Columbia or Dartmouth versus having to go to the AO and try to pitch 6 different kids trying to get into columbia ED.

If you take out the 10-15 hooked kids at each of these girls schools you are left with 50 kids. the CC are only going to bat for a couple of girls per t30 college. to me i think that has to make an impact.
do you agree?

I am not sure how that would explain why Brearley performs so well in absolute numbers. It actually seems to send more students than HM to Harvard, Princeton, Yale - and Columbia (each!), despite having 1/3 the number of seniors.


You’re right. It’s just having richer families.


does the generic 5-25MM net worth Brearley family really have a leg up in admissions? compared to any other full pay students?


Child starting Brearley in the fall. We don’t make or own anywhere near that amount, and we are full paying. Many of the families I have interacted with so far, are similar to us. Of course there is a lot of wealth regardless, but the same can be said for places like PS 6 (we are friends with families who make/ are worth WAY more than us who’s kids go there currently).



Are the grandparents helping? How do you plan to handle the increasing cost of private school and living in NYC?

2 bedroom apartments are going for ~8k a month now a day.
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 17:49     Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Outside of the "hooks" which is definitely the case for a portion of the girls - one thing that i believe helps is the smaller class size.

I believe HM has close to 200 kids per grade. the girls schools generally are in the 60-70 range.

It's alot easier for the CC at B/S/C to push for 1-2 girls at a Columbia or Dartmouth versus having to go to the AO and try to pitch 6 different kids trying to get into columbia ED.

If you take out the 10-15 hooked kids at each of these girls schools you are left with 50 kids. the CC are only going to bat for a couple of girls per t30 college. to me i think that has to make an impact.
do you agree?

I am not sure how that would explain why Brearley performs so well in absolute numbers. It actually seems to send more students than HM to Harvard, Princeton, Yale - and Columbia (each!), despite having 1/3 the number of seniors.


You’re right. It’s just having richer families.


does the generic 5-25MM net worth Brearley family really have a leg up in admissions? compared to any other full pay students?


Child starting Brearley in the fall. We don’t make or own anywhere near that amount, and we are full paying. Many of the families I have interacted with so far, are similar to us. Of course there is a lot of wealth regardless, but the same can be said for places like PS 6 (we are friends with families who make/ are worth WAY more than us who’s kids go there currently).
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 17:32     Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Outside of the "hooks" which is definitely the case for a portion of the girls - one thing that i believe helps is the smaller class size.

I believe HM has close to 200 kids per grade. the girls schools generally are in the 60-70 range.

It's alot easier for the CC at B/S/C to push for 1-2 girls at a Columbia or Dartmouth versus having to go to the AO and try to pitch 6 different kids trying to get into columbia ED.

If you take out the 10-15 hooked kids at each of these girls schools you are left with 50 kids. the CC are only going to bat for a couple of girls per t30 college. to me i think that has to make an impact.
do you agree?

I am not sure how that would explain why Brearley performs so well in absolute numbers. It actually seems to send more students than HM to Harvard, Princeton, Yale - and Columbia (each!), despite having 1/3 the number of seniors.


You’re right. It’s just having richer families.


does the generic 5-25MM net worth Brearley family really have a leg up in admissions? compared to any other full pay students?


The generic family there is worth a lot more.


Is it the same at Chapin/Spence/Nightingale? or is this a Brearley thing?


Same at all these schools.


How are you coming up with this view?

I don't think it's correct but I would love to know why you think so
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 16:45     Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Outside of the "hooks" which is definitely the case for a portion of the girls - one thing that i believe helps is the smaller class size.

I believe HM has close to 200 kids per grade. the girls schools generally are in the 60-70 range.

It's alot easier for the CC at B/S/C to push for 1-2 girls at a Columbia or Dartmouth versus having to go to the AO and try to pitch 6 different kids trying to get into columbia ED.

If you take out the 10-15 hooked kids at each of these girls schools you are left with 50 kids. the CC are only going to bat for a couple of girls per t30 college. to me i think that has to make an impact.
do you agree?

I am not sure how that would explain why Brearley performs so well in absolute numbers. It actually seems to send more students than HM to Harvard, Princeton, Yale - and Columbia (each!), despite having 1/3 the number of seniors.


You’re right. It’s just having richer families.


does the generic 5-25MM net worth Brearley family really have a leg up in admissions? compared to any other full pay students?


The generic family there is worth a lot more.


Is it the same at Chapin/Spence/Nightingale? or is this a Brearley thing?


Same at all these schools.
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 16:40     Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:but anyway those are the 3 top public schools in nyc. It's not easy to get into them.


A typical grade cohort in NYC is around 60,000, so between Hunter's 200 and BS/Stuy's 750 each we're talking around the top 3% of kids. (maybe a touch more if you throw in HSMSE)

Which is not an *easy* lift, but if your kid is getting the ISEE 8's and 9's needed to interest Trinity or Brearley or HM as an unconnected kid (note that the percentiles on those are relative to other ISEE test takers and not the general population), they can probably also do well enough on the SHSAT or Hunter Test to get into one of those top public schools.


being top 3% is impressive. It's not easy. but i understand your point.

I question if it's that hard to get into these private schools as an unconnected kid. we have 1 in what is considered TT and 1 in 2T. We are not a connected family at all. We are like the thousands of generic "upper middle class" manhattan families - dual income making $500-1mm a year.

it may feel generic, but if you make >$500k/yr in nyc, you are within 3% of the city's top-earning households.
"upper middle class" in quotes.

are you in the top 10% of families in manhattan with 500k?

it's snobbish to say manhattan south of 96th street.

that use to be the term people used in the past
"Manhattan" is way too broad. Because their are a lot of people living in the upper half/third of Manhattan who are way below that who would weigh down the averages.


It's not snobbish. It's a fact. The financial status of those in upper Manhattan is dramatically different than UES, UWS, etc. And I'm guessing that when the OP posed the question they were not factoring that in. That does not make those people better or worse. Just a fact of life. Lighten up.


Yep. Almost no full pay family would be caught dead buying their residence north of 96th


Not true but not a lot. I know plenty of private school families who live near Columbia and some who have brownstones in Harlem. I worked with a super wealthy finance type with kids at TT schools who lived in the West 100s - huge apartment. And I know various others as well.


Bank street and Calhoun aren’t TT