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.

We are slightly higher in terms of both income and net worth with most of the net worth invested, not RE. When kids started school income was only $400k and we had a great zoned public. Income jumped a bunch when older one hit middle school but we did public middle. Switched to private for HS. Big difference between private k-12 and just for hs, plus by waiting those 9 years you have a lot more visibility into earnings and savings - a lot can go right or wrong during that time.

Older kid had great public hs options but we chose a 2T private for quality of life and resources and don’t regret it. We expected to be the poor folk there but there are many like us and the wealthy people are not snobs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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

5-25 is a massive spread. Just like the jump from 25 to 75 is big and 75 to 150

okay, I was using 5-25 bcs is was used earlier. but more specifically we're a "5mm when kids were in grade school, but 20mm by the time kids were in college family"

I am sure not spending 70k per kid every year for 13 years contributed to that 5mm to 25mm jump

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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

5-25 is a massive spread. Just like the jump from 25 to 75 is big and 75 to 150

okay, I was using 5-25 bcs is was used earlier. but more specifically we're a "5mm when kids were in grade school, but 20mm by the time kids were in college family"

Anonymous wrote:

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.

They are very good schools and about the average or slightly below average at the TTs. A lot of incoming families would wince at that outcome though. The education is great, it’s not 1mm+ great if you are struggling to afford it. People on here really overestimate these places to make themselves feel better about the cost.

Anonymous wrote: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

5-25 is a massive spread. Just like the jump from 25 to 75 is big and 75 to 150

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.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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