Anonymous
05/15/2026 17:14
Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions
Sharing our experience for reference: Our child transferred from public to private in Middle School. Currently in HS. They are getting an excellent education. At a vigorous TT, but still have time to explore various activities.
We considered specialized high schools so they took the SHSAT but only did a couple practice tests. Scored high enough for all schools except Stuy. Probably would have a decent chance for Stuy if we prepared, but likely would be in the lower half of the class.
Most of the teachers are very engaging, offer far more feedbacks than at public school, benefit of the small class size. Also very happy to write recommendations for summer programs. Peers make the key difference, a lot more intellectual curiosity and driven than the public school peers. They inspire each other. Child shows the joy of learning most of the time, money well spent!
Their school gets excellent college results. But somehow we are more relaxed about college outcome than before. First we know our child will likely get into a decent college, even if not a top 20. Secondly they have grown much more capable, confident and self-disciplined that I feel they will do fine in life no matter which college they get into.
What else… some rich and famous families but the average seems to be upper middle class, successful professional type. Our child made friends with several kids who are on financial aid. The kids are smart and confident. Their families are lovely.
We are comfortable financially but not rich. We have fully funded a 529 for college so didn’t make a sacrifice or had to make a trade-off.
We considered specialized high schools so they took the SHSAT but only did a couple practice tests. Scored high enough for all schools except Stuy. Probably would have a decent chance for Stuy if we prepared, but likely would be in the lower half of the class.
Most of the teachers are very engaging, offer far more feedbacks than at public school, benefit of the small class size. Also very happy to write recommendations for summer programs. Peers make the key difference, a lot more intellectual curiosity and driven than the public school peers. They inspire each other. Child shows the joy of learning most of the time, money well spent!
Their school gets excellent college results. But somehow we are more relaxed about college outcome than before. First we know our child will likely get into a decent college, even if not a top 20. Secondly they have grown much more capable, confident and self-disciplined that I feel they will do fine in life no matter which college they get into.
What else… some rich and famous families but the average seems to be upper middle class, successful professional type. Our child made friends with several kids who are on financial aid. The kids are smart and confident. Their families are lovely.
We are comfortable financially but not rich. We have fully funded a 529 for college so didn’t make a sacrifice or had to make a trade-off.
Anonymous
05/15/2026 17:04
Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:you can make $750k a year with one finance person and one tech person pretty easy.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Hi Twin.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.
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
05/15/2026 17:04
Subject: Re:Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions
Is it fair to assume you chose a SHSAT high school instead of a 2T school? Have you been pleased with the college acceptances? (college placements can be skewed due to Merit/Aid decisions).Anonymous wrote: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.
I don't think many would say that a 2T school is more difficult than Stuy.
Anonymous
05/15/2026 16:49
Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Of course the other side of this is that once you are up to $20M, your kids are basically guaranteed a comfortable standard of living to pursue whatever they want in life regardless of where they go in school/college, and so the marginal benefit of going to HM or whatever fades for different reasons.
It's a catch-22; if you're not wealthy enough to easily afford private school then your money would probably be better spent on something else, but if you are wealthy enough, your kids are going to do great regardless and they aren't necessarily going to want to crawl over the corpses of 1700 other Ivy Leaguers for an entry-level post at the 3rd best hedge fund anyway.
my kid is at an Ivy and says half these kids are getting into 1st and 2nd best hedge funds via the nepo train. so be ready to push past that - not easy
1st best hedge fund hiring is more meritocratic than HYP admissions. Nepo train will not get you to Citadel, Jane Street or Point 72. Can’t speak for others places.
Agree with this statement. But there are a ton of HF out there and the point on private equity is definitely true. do the 2-3 years at a IB then work daddy/mommy connections and get a PE job. That is another hidden benefit of going to these private schools, the networks are much "better" for job placements.
How much of the value of the "network" of these schools comes from a student having attended vs. having parents who are well connected? Said another way, would the student at Stuy with a PE Partner dad end up doing better than the FGLI Prep for Prep kid who enters a TT at middle or high school?
that's a good question that perhaps some of the graduates of these schools can tell us.
There are a lot more PFP kids at these top schools than PE Partners at Stuy is my guess.
Anonymous
05/15/2026 16:47
Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions
your definition of FU level wealth is much lower than mine. We pay full freight for 2 kids but still buy clothes on sale, fly coach, etc.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:you can make $750k a year with one finance person and one tech person pretty easy.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.
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.
The tuition increases in the last decade or so have been staggering. You need F*** Y** level wealth to make 13+ years of private education in NYC make financial sense. It has not always been that way.
but maybe your definition of FU money is $1MM a year. For me it's 5x that number and 50x net worth.
Anonymous
05/15/2026 16:45
Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:you can make $750k a year with one finance person and one tech person pretty easy.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.
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.
i would love to see your source for the $60k - not that i disagree with it completely. I am skeptical that it's an average, the median i can see. Average it's been proven to be an incorrect statement to be honest.
the data i see really emphasises the Ivy plus improves the tail outcomes. while Ivy plus is 1% of the college attending universe - it's 2.5% of the top 10% in earnigns, 8% of the top 1% of earnings 13% of the top .1% of earnings. They are over represented in all categories (CEOs, supreme court judges, Senators, etc).
but your point on a strain - that's correct.
there should be some benefit to the education learned at an Ivy plus versus a SUNY - but that's hard to quantify.
Anonymous
05/15/2026 16:45
Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:you can make $750k a year with one finance person and one tech person pretty easy.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.
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.
The tuition increases in the last decade or so have been staggering. You need F*** Y** level wealth to make 13+ years of private education in NYC make financial sense. It has not always been that way.
Anonymous
05/15/2026 16:35
Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Of course the other side of this is that once you are up to $20M, your kids are basically guaranteed a comfortable standard of living to pursue whatever they want in life regardless of where they go in school/college, and so the marginal benefit of going to HM or whatever fades for different reasons.
It's a catch-22; if you're not wealthy enough to easily afford private school then your money would probably be better spent on something else, but if you are wealthy enough, your kids are going to do great regardless and they aren't necessarily going to want to crawl over the corpses of 1700 other Ivy Leaguers for an entry-level post at the 3rd best hedge fund anyway.
my kid is at an Ivy and says half these kids are getting into 1st and 2nd best hedge funds via the nepo train. so be ready to push past that - not easy
1st best hedge fund hiring is more meritocratic than HYP admissions. Nepo train will not get you to Citadel, Jane Street or Point 72. Can’t speak for others places.
Agree with this statement. But there are a ton of HF out there and the point on private equity is definitely true. do the 2-3 years at a IB then work daddy/mommy connections and get a PE job. That is another hidden benefit of going to these private schools, the networks are much "better" for job placements.
How much of the value of the "network" of these schools comes from a student having attended vs. having parents who are well connected? Said another way, would the student at Stuy with a PE Partner dad end up doing better than the FGLI Prep for Prep kid who enters a TT at middle or high school?
Anonymous
05/15/2026 16:31
Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Of course the other side of this is that once you are up to $20M, your kids are basically guaranteed a comfortable standard of living to pursue whatever they want in life regardless of where they go in school/college, and so the marginal benefit of going to HM or whatever fades for different reasons.
It's a catch-22; if you're not wealthy enough to easily afford private school then your money would probably be better spent on something else, but if you are wealthy enough, your kids are going to do great regardless and they aren't necessarily going to want to crawl over the corpses of 1700 other Ivy Leaguers for an entry-level post at the 3rd best hedge fund anyway.
my kid is at an Ivy and says half these kids are getting into 1st and 2nd best hedge funds via the nepo train. so be ready to push past that - not easy
1st best hedge fund hiring is more meritocratic than HYP admissions. Nepo train will not get you to Citadel, Jane Street or Point 72. Can’t speak for others places.
Agree with this statement. But there are a ton of HF out there and the point on private equity is definitely true. do the 2-3 years at a IB then work daddy/mommy connections and get a PE job. That is another hidden benefit of going to these private schools, the networks are much "better" for job placements.
Anonymous
05/15/2026 15:56
Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions
Anonymous wrote:It's a catch-22; if you're not wealthy enough to easily afford private school then your money would probably be better spent on something else, but if you are wealthy enough, your kids are going to do great regardless and they aren't necessarily going to want to crawl over the corpses of 1700 other Ivy Leaguers for an entry-level post at the 3rd best hedge fund anyway.
The bigger catch-22 is that only the sufficiently wealthy can afford the highly refined education that includes deep dives into history, culture, and philosophy and shows the value of literarily aware, examined life, and yet if you believe this board, the entire purpose of this is to optimize for prestige signaling and compensation packages.
Anonymous
05/15/2026 15:31
Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Of course the other side of this is that once you are up to $20M, your kids are basically guaranteed a comfortable standard of living to pursue whatever they want in life regardless of where they go in school/college, and so the marginal benefit of going to HM or whatever fades for different reasons.
It's a catch-22; if you're not wealthy enough to easily afford private school then your money would probably be better spent on something else, but if you are wealthy enough, your kids are going to do great regardless and they aren't necessarily going to want to crawl over the corpses of 1700 other Ivy Leaguers for an entry-level post at the 3rd best hedge fund anyway.
my kid is at an Ivy and says half these kids are getting into 1st and 2nd best hedge funds via the nepo train. so be ready to push past that - not easy
1st best hedge fund hiring is more meritocratic than HYP admissions. Nepo train will not get you to Citadel, Jane Street or Point 72. Can’t speak for others places.
It is more common in private equity. When you look up a young partner, the father is famous enough to easily see how they helped with brining the connections to raise capital or write the regulation for the sector.
Yes, fully agree with this.
Anonymous
05/15/2026 15:29
Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Of course the other side of this is that once you are up to $20M, your kids are basically guaranteed a comfortable standard of living to pursue whatever they want in life regardless of where they go in school/college, and so the marginal benefit of going to HM or whatever fades for different reasons.
It's a catch-22; if you're not wealthy enough to easily afford private school then your money would probably be better spent on something else, but if you are wealthy enough, your kids are going to do great regardless and they aren't necessarily going to want to crawl over the corpses of 1700 other Ivy Leaguers for an entry-level post at the 3rd best hedge fund anyway.
my kid is at an Ivy and says half these kids are getting into 1st and 2nd best hedge funds via the nepo train. so be ready to push past that - not easy
1st best hedge fund hiring is more meritocratic than HYP admissions. Nepo train will not get you to Citadel, Jane Street or Point 72. Can’t speak for others places.
It is more common in private equity. When you look up a young partner, the father is famous enough to easily see how they helped with brining the connections to raise capital or write the regulation for the sector.
Anonymous
05/15/2026 15:18
Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Of course the other side of this is that once you are up to $20M, your kids are basically guaranteed a comfortable standard of living to pursue whatever they want in life regardless of where they go in school/college, and so the marginal benefit of going to HM or whatever fades for different reasons.
It's a catch-22; if you're not wealthy enough to easily afford private school then your money would probably be better spent on something else, but if you are wealthy enough, your kids are going to do great regardless and they aren't necessarily going to want to crawl over the corpses of 1700 other Ivy Leaguers for an entry-level post at the 3rd best hedge fund anyway.
my kid is at an Ivy and says half these kids are getting into 1st and 2nd best hedge funds via the nepo train. so be ready to push past that - not easy
1st best hedge fund hiring is more meritocratic than HYP admissions. Nepo train will not get you to Citadel, Jane Street or Point 72. Can’t speak for others places.
Anonymous
05/15/2026 15:00
Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions
Anonymous wrote:Of course the other side of this is that once you are up to $20M, your kids are basically guaranteed a comfortable standard of living to pursue whatever they want in life regardless of where they go in school/college, and so the marginal benefit of going to HM or whatever fades for different reasons.
It's a catch-22; if you're not wealthy enough to easily afford private school then your money would probably be better spent on something else, but if you are wealthy enough, your kids are going to do great regardless and they aren't necessarily going to want to crawl over the corpses of 1700 other Ivy Leaguers for an entry-level post at the 3rd best hedge fund anyway.
my kid is at an Ivy and says half these kids are getting into 1st and 2nd best hedge funds via the nepo train. so be ready to push past that - not easy
Anonymous
05/15/2026 14:12
Subject: Class of '26 Instagram College Decisions
Of course the other side of this is that once you are up to $20M, your kids are basically guaranteed a comfortable standard of living to pursue whatever they want in life regardless of where they go in school/college, and so the marginal benefit of going to HM or whatever fades for different reasons.
It's a catch-22; if you're not wealthy enough to easily afford private school then your money would probably be better spent on something else, but if you are wealthy enough, your kids are going to do great regardless and they aren't necessarily going to want to crawl over the corpses of 1700 other Ivy Leaguers for an entry-level post at the 3rd best hedge fund anyway.
It's a catch-22; if you're not wealthy enough to easily afford private school then your money would probably be better spent on something else, but if you are wealthy enough, your kids are going to do great regardless and they aren't necessarily going to want to crawl over the corpses of 1700 other Ivy Leaguers for an entry-level post at the 3rd best hedge fund anyway.