Anonymous
05/26/2026 17:17
Subject: Stay at TT or Retire to Suburbs
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Bumping post up. Really want to know what everyone thinks! Does TT really provide a lot of marginal benefit if kids are tracking to top quartile of class academically?
It matters a TON, even at the better suburban schools. For example last year at Chatham NJ - a solid upper middle class town with good school system. It's often ranked in the top 10% of the state.
High property taxes but good schools is the trade off.
Last year class had about 300 graduates. Obviously not everyone is bound for 4 year college, but i think it's like 90%
1 matriculation into cornell, duke, princeton, yale, uChicago - that's it for the top schools. (they did have a vandy, ucla, berkley, georgetown, usc, unc)
so you have to grind hard as kid to get into a top school. and it's not like this is a piece of cake - the parents are professional and all aiming for the same schools.
if the goal is BC, Tuffs, Tulane, Indiana, Middlebury, NYU, Wake Forest - and those are good schools - then that's a different story - although still have to be in top 20% of the class.
College exmissions are MUCH harder in the burbs.
I don’t think it’s that much harder. You’re comparing apples to oranges. NYC TT schools are filled with hooked kids, Chatham PS is not. There’s no guarentee that you’re unhooked kid would have better results. I would be happy if my kid got into any of those colleges.
Anonymous
05/26/2026 17:16
Subject: Stay at TT or Retire to Suburbs
but purely based on the outcomes, stress for students, etc - does not seem worth it.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:There is absolutely no accountability to public school parents -- zero. Private schools have to be accountable or parents will move to other schools.
Yeah, it's certainly not like public school parents have any say in where their kid goes to school
I don’t know if this is sarcasm. The overwhelming majority of total enrollment in the U.S. is in public. Most parents cannot pay private tuition, I’m not saying that to be mean but that’s the reality. Parents are stuck with their local public option in most cases and have to make the most of it.
This is an NYC discussion and in NYC you have a *ton* of choices in public school
And the property taxes to pay for some of the good school districts are very high. Some public districts are spending 40 grand or more per student per year in their public schools. Being stuck with the public school is exactly what the families in a lot of these towns are looking for. It's the entire reason they go to these towns. The quality of the public school controls the real estate market.
personally much rather have DC go to a 2/3T school, be better on the mental health and go to WashU/Emory/NYU versus grinding it out with GPA, ECs, travel sports and if lucky get a top 25 school.
that's worth $500k or whatever MS/HS cost in NYC.
Anonymous
05/26/2026 17:10
Subject: Stay at TT or Retire to Suburbs
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:There is absolutely no accountability to public school parents -- zero. Private schools have to be accountable or parents will move to other schools.
Yeah, it's certainly not like public school parents have any say in where their kid goes to school
I don’t know if this is sarcasm. The overwhelming majority of total enrollment in the U.S. is in public. Most parents cannot pay private tuition, I’m not saying that to be mean but that’s the reality. Parents are stuck with their local public option in most cases and have to make the most of it.
This is an NYC discussion and in NYC you have a *ton* of choices in public school
And the property taxes to pay for some of the good school districts are very high. Some public districts are spending 40 grand or more per student per year in their public schools. Being stuck with the public school is exactly what the families in a lot of these towns are looking for. It's the entire reason they go to these towns. The quality of the public school controls the real estate market.
Anonymous
05/26/2026 17:09
Subject: Stay at TT or Retire to Suburbs
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Have an accepted offer on a house in the burb. Moment of truth. Pull the ripcord or no?
What town?
Princeton
That's where I grew up and attended public school. Luckily, there are also good private options.
What was your experience? No good?
Anonymous
05/26/2026 16:50
Subject: Stay at TT or Retire to Suburbs
Anonymous wrote:Bumping post up. Really want to know what everyone thinks! Does TT really provide a lot of marginal benefit if kids are tracking to top quartile of class academically?
It matters a TON, even at the better suburban schools. For example last year at Chatham NJ - a solid upper middle class town with good school system. It's often ranked in the top 10% of the state.
High property taxes but good schools is the trade off.
Last year class had about 300 graduates. Obviously not everyone is bound for 4 year college, but i think it's like 90%
1 matriculation into cornell, duke, princeton, yale, uChicago - that's it for the top schools. (they did have a vandy, ucla, berkley, georgetown, usc, unc)
so you have to grind hard as kid to get into a top school. and it's not like this is a piece of cake - the parents are professional and all aiming for the same schools.
if the goal is BC, Tuffs, Tulane, Indiana, Middlebury, NYU, Wake Forest - and those are good schools - then that's a different story - although still have to be in top 20% of the class.
College exmissions are MUCH harder in the burbs.
Anonymous
05/26/2026 16:22
Subject: Stay at TT or Retire to Suburbs
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:There is absolutely no accountability to public school parents -- zero. Private schools have to be accountable or parents will move to other schools.
Yeah, it's certainly not like public school parents have any say in where their kid goes to school
I don’t know if this is sarcasm. The overwhelming majority of total enrollment in the U.S. is in public. Most parents cannot pay private tuition, I’m not saying that to be mean but that’s the reality. Parents are stuck with their local public option in most cases and have to make the most of it.
This is an NYC discussion and in NYC you have a *ton* of choices in public school
It’s titled “retire in the suburbs” in a NYC Metropolitan forum. the suburbs are a different beast
Anonymous
05/26/2026 15:08
Subject: Stay at TT or Retire to Suburbs
I agree with you in most cities, but there is a certain hold TT schools in this city have over a certain set of parents. The power structure isn’t same. The math department sucks? Parents tutor their kids like mad and blame their kids. Some of them don’t even let parents see standardized test scores. The only metric is where the kids get admitted to college, when sometimes that’s due family connections. How they do at those schools, etc, that’s all on faith.
Anonymous wrote:There is absolutely no accountability to public school parents -- zero. Private schools have to be accountable or parents will move to other schools.
Anonymous
05/26/2026 15:05
Subject: Stay at TT or Retire to Suburbs
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:There is absolutely no accountability to public school parents -- zero. Private schools have to be accountable or parents will move to other schools.
Yeah, it's certainly not like public school parents have any say in where their kid goes to school
I don’t know if this is sarcasm. The overwhelming majority of total enrollment in the U.S. is in public. Most parents cannot pay private tuition, I’m not saying that to be mean but that’s the reality. Parents are stuck with their local public option in most cases and have to make the most of it.
This is an NYC discussion and in NYC you have a *ton* of choices in public school
Anonymous
05/26/2026 15:01
Subject: Stay at TT or Retire to Suburbs
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:There is absolutely no accountability to public school parents -- zero. Private schools have to be accountable or parents will move to other schools.
Yeah, it's certainly not like public school parents have any say in where their kid goes to school
I don’t know if this is sarcasm. The overwhelming majority of total enrollment in the U.S. is in public. Most parents cannot pay private tuition, I’m not saying that to be mean but that’s the reality. Parents are stuck with their local public option in most cases and have to make the most of it.
Anonymous
05/26/2026 14:55
Subject: Stay at TT or Retire to Suburbs
Anonymous wrote:There is absolutely no accountability to public school parents -- zero. Private schools have to be accountable or parents will move to other schools.
Yeah, it's certainly not like public school parents have any say in where their kid goes to school
Anonymous
05/26/2026 14:40
Subject: Stay at TT or Retire to Suburbs
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Have an accepted offer on a house in the burb. Moment of truth. Pull the ripcord or no?
What town?
Princeton
That's where I grew up and attended public school. Luckily, there are also good private options.
Anonymous
05/26/2026 14:39
Subject: Stay at TT or Retire to Suburbs
There is absolutely no accountability to public school parents -- zero. Private schools have to be accountable or parents will move to other schools.
Anonymous
05/26/2026 14:35
Subject: Stay at TT or Retire to Suburbs
Anonymous wrote:Math and both TT and DOE public schools is garbage. One is not better than the other (unless you're going to a specialized school). So many kids from both TT and DOE are going to RSM and similar math schools. It's 100 percent a mix.
And folks saying that by 3rd grade kids should be doing long division and algebra?
I was learning multiplication tables in 3rd grade in the 80s, definitely not long division.
But my question is, why do kids in 3rd grade NEED to be able to do long division and algebra? Because kids in China, Korea and Singapore are?
Just curious developmentally, why.
I don't think they need to do those things, FWICT they're mostly about juicing achievement test scores by rote algorithmic grinding through math from the next grade level and none of the kids I've talked to about it enjoy it at all.
Most standardized tests don't go much above grade level; the SHSAT only has math that a non-honors-track 8th grader would have covered by then (even the adaptive version reportedly won't change that), PSAT and SAT and ISEE Lower and Upper likewise, you maybe need to do a little material past your grade level for the Hunter test or as a 7th / 8th grade transfer taking the ISEE Middle but that's about it.
Anonymous
05/26/2026 14:30
Subject: Stay at TT or Retire to Suburbs
speaking of math - does anyone know about Exeter Math?
Anonymous
05/26/2026 14:25
Subject: Stay at TT or Retire to Suburbs
Math and both TT and DOE public schools is garbage. One is not better than the other (unless you're going to a specialized school). So many kids from both TT and DOE are going to RSM and similar math schools. It's 100 percent a mix.
And folks saying that by 3rd grade kids should be doing long division and algebra?
I was learning multiplication tables in 3rd grade in the 80s, definitely not long division.
But my question is, why do kids in 3rd grade NEED to be able to do long division and algebra? Because kids in China, Korea and Singapore are?
Just curious developmentally, why.
And folks saying that by 3rd grade kids should be doing long division and algebra?
I was learning multiplication tables in 3rd grade in the 80s, definitely not long division.
But my question is, why do kids in 3rd grade NEED to be able to do long division and algebra? Because kids in China, Korea and Singapore are?
Just curious developmentally, why.