Anonymous
Post 01/16/2026 13:25     Subject: What's the most elite and exclusive K-12 School?
I do miss the years Fieldston would get into the NYT once a year due to strife btwn various communities…. Teachers hating on admins; students hating on admins; x community hating on y community;
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2026 10:20     Subject: Re:What's the most elite and exclusive K-12 School?
Anonymous wrote:Do not put top 10 and Fieldston in the same sentence.


Amen - if you're searching for another non-TT school to put in that list there are any number that have a stronger argument for it than Fieldston does. (Poly Prep, Friends, Trevor, NBS, Avenues, Packer, ...)
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2026 09:57     Subject: Re:What's the most elite and exclusive K-12 School?
Do not put top 10 and Fieldston in the same sentence.

Anonymous wrote:I would say the top 10 nyc private schools in no particular order are Collegiate, Spence, Chapin, Brearley, Dalton, Trinity, St. Ann's, Fieldston, Horace Mann, Riverdale. Hunter, Stuyvesant, and Regis are also top, but different beasts so I'm not including them in this list. Ditto for K-8 schools.

College results wax & wane for any particular year, so it's better to look at long-term averages. They also do not take into account the immense wealth of the student body and do not reflect how an upper-middle class, unconnected kid would do in the process. I think there are certain schools who should do much better given the wealth of their student body (Trinity, Spence, Riverdale). In fact, I would bet the wealth uptick alone is what moved the needle on the Riverdale exmissions in recent years. Furthermore, certain schools have a more artsy / quirky / non-materialistic bent, which is reflected in their college choices.

This is all to say that the quality of your child's education and their experience at a school will not be encapsulated in exmission results. YMMV depending on your child, and sending them to a particular high school will not determine where they go to college. In fact, sending them to a top school packed with legacy/connections/wealth might hinder their ivy league chances, but may provide an excellent education and help long-term with connections for their career, etc.

Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 19:02     Subject: What's the most elite and exclusive K-12 School?
Anonymous wrote:IG pages mean next-to-nothing. They are incomplete, subject to change, and have reporting bias. People scan them, see a Harvard or Princeton and think a school is amazing.

You have to look at the complete list from the school and compare to prior years.


Speak for yourself. I agree that I wouldn’t obsess over them but they do give a high level sense in real time of where kids are going. You can also see pictures of kids and they often mention if recruited for sports so there is some sense of whether a kid was hooked (though far from complete).

I think people who spend lots of their time scanning and studying these need a life, but they can be somewhat helpful.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 08:15     Subject: What's the most elite and exclusive K-12 School?
IG pages mean next-to-nothing. They are incomplete, subject to change, and have reporting bias. People scan them, see a Harvard or Princeton and think a school is amazing.

You have to look at the complete list from the school and compare to prior years.
Anonymous
Post 01/14/2026 19:52     Subject: Re:What's the most elite and exclusive K-12 School?
Thanks!
Anonymous
Post 01/14/2026 19:43     Subject: What's the most elite and exclusive K-12 School?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Idk, 7 to HPY and 8 to other ivies, plus many others to the likes of MIT, Duke etc seems pretty acceptable to me at this point in the cycle. For comparison, take a look at Trinity's 2026 exmissions account, it's objectively weaker so far.


How can we see Trinity’s 2026 exmissions so far? Is it public


I haven't checked Trinity specifically but many schools have exmissions results IG pages - it is very common now - there are a few different common syntaxes but it is usually something like "Trinity26Seniors" or "TrinityColleges26". Someone is charged with writing clever narratives celebrating the kid. I've always been curious who is in charge of that. This is not just an NYC thing - it is at schools nationally.
Anonymous
Post 01/14/2026 18:41     Subject: What's the most elite and exclusive K-12 School?
Anonymous wrote:Idk, 7 to HPY and 8 to other ivies, plus many others to the likes of MIT, Duke etc seems pretty acceptable to me at this point in the cycle. For comparison, take a look at Trinity's 2026 exmissions account, it's objectively weaker so far.


How can we see Trinity’s 2026 exmissions so far? Is it public
Anonymous
Post 01/14/2026 16:05     Subject: What's the most elite and exclusive K-12 School?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Idk, 7 to HPY and 8 to other ivies, plus many others to the likes of MIT, Duke etc seems pretty acceptable to me at this point in the cycle. For comparison, take a look at Trinity's 2026 exmissions account, it's objectively weaker so far.


Are you saying friends has better results than Trinity? Wow
no, this is fieldston
Anonymous
Post 01/14/2026 15:43     Subject: What's the most elite and exclusive K-12 School?
Anonymous wrote:Idk, 7 to HPY and 8 to other ivies, plus many others to the likes of MIT, Duke etc seems pretty acceptable to me at this point in the cycle. For comparison, take a look at Trinity's 2026 exmissions account, it's objectively weaker so far.


Are you saying friends has better results than Trinity? Wow
Anonymous
Post 01/14/2026 15:25     Subject: Re:What's the most elite and exclusive K-12 School?
I would say the top 10 nyc private schools in no particular order are Collegiate, Spence, Chapin, Brearley, Dalton, Trinity, St. Ann's, Fieldston, Horace Mann, Riverdale. Hunter, Stuyvesant, and Regis are also top, but different beasts so I'm not including them in this list. Ditto for K-8 schools.

College results wax & wane for any particular year, so it's better to look at long-term averages. They also do not take into account the immense wealth of the student body and do not reflect how an upper-middle class, unconnected kid would do in the process. I think there are certain schools who should do much better given the wealth of their student body (Trinity, Spence, Riverdale). In fact, I would bet the wealth uptick alone is what moved the needle on the Riverdale exmissions in recent years. Furthermore, certain schools have a more artsy / quirky / non-materialistic bent, which is reflected in their college choices.

This is all to say that the quality of your child's education and their experience at a school will not be encapsulated in exmission results. YMMV depending on your child, and sending them to a particular high school will not determine where they go to college. In fact, sending them to a top school packed with legacy/connections/wealth might hinder their ivy league chances, but may provide an excellent education and help long-term with connections for their career, etc.

Anonymous
Post 01/14/2026 15:23     Subject: What's the most elite and exclusive K-12 School?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
How many TT schools do you have to apply to in order to have a reasonable chance of getting into one? What if you applied to 8 or 10, would it be likely you get into one?

Assume full pay.


Sorry, but there aren’t 10 of them; this is a bit like asking how many Ivies you have to apply to to get into an Ivy. If you lower your standards you can probably get your kid in somewhere, but only a handful of private schools have smarter kids than you would find at a top public school.


Trinity Dalton Collegiate Riverdale HM St B Chaplin Spence Brearley St Anne. That’s more than ten. Now go nitpick about how Riverdale or St Anne isn’t TT


This is exactly 10.

But a boy cannot apply to Brearley, Chaplin, or Spence. And a girl cannot apply to Collegiate or St B. So one applicant cannot apply to 10 TT schools.


Add NBS Buckley st David’s grace friends


Is Friends really up to par academically? Have heard parents grouchy about having to pay tuition and also get their kids tutors especially in math, as compared to other schools. Community seems nice but is it too loosey goosey?


We looked closely at Friends and were fine with the academics, and my kid is more math/science focused. We liked some parts of the curriculum more than others but overall had no major issues. The use of the Bible as the core text for freshman English seemed odd, but not a deal breaker. Community was good but not great. Again - not ideal but not a red flag.

Exmissions are fine. At schools at this tier, you need to focus on the top kids, who get into very good schools. They don't tend to have the depth of top schools like the TT ones, but if your kid is a very strong performer, they will do fine, and in fact, it is better as your kid isn't jockeying with every single other kid for Ivies - they will likely have a happier HS experience. Though your worst case scenario from somewhere like this is definitely worse.


I had mixed feelings about Friends but that’s more about the culture than anything else. I think their exmissions are pretty good. If you look at their matriculation lists almost everyone is going to pretty good schools. The exmissions does seem a lot better than the other downtown schools. I know people with kids at the HS and it seems pretty rigorous. The English Department is famous for being tough.


For top kids Friends and Grace are interchangeable - Grace exmissions for the top half of the class are just as good. Bottom half at Friends is better - Grace has more meh schools. So if you have a top performer, it doesn't matter. But if you are less certain, your worst case scenario at Friends is probably better. Though the cultures are different. Grace struck me as warmer. Friends was obsessed with justice, diversity, etc (I'm a Democrat so not obsessively opposed to such things but it was too much). YMMV.
Anonymous
Post 01/14/2026 14:58     Subject: What's the most elite and exclusive K-12 School?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
How many TT schools do you have to apply to in order to have a reasonable chance of getting into one? What if you applied to 8 or 10, would it be likely you get into one?

Assume full pay.


Sorry, but there aren’t 10 of them; this is a bit like asking how many Ivies you have to apply to to get into an Ivy. If you lower your standards you can probably get your kid in somewhere, but only a handful of private schools have smarter kids than you would find at a top public school.


Trinity Dalton Collegiate Riverdale HM St B Chaplin Spence Brearley St Anne. That’s more than ten. Now go nitpick about how Riverdale or St Anne isn’t TT


This is exactly 10.

But a boy cannot apply to Brearley, Chaplin, or Spence. And a girl cannot apply to Collegiate or St B. So one applicant cannot apply to 10 TT schools.


Add NBS Buckley st David’s grace friends


Is Friends really up to par academically? Have heard parents grouchy about having to pay tuition and also get their kids tutors especially in math, as compared to other schools. Community seems nice but is it too loosey goosey?


We looked closely at Friends and were fine with the academics, and my kid is more math/science focused. We liked some parts of the curriculum more than others but overall had no major issues. The use of the Bible as the core text for freshman English seemed odd, but not a deal breaker. Community was good but not great. Again - not ideal but not a red flag.

Exmissions are fine. At schools at this tier, you need to focus on the top kids, who get into very good schools. They don't tend to have the depth of top schools like the TT ones, but if your kid is a very strong performer, they will do fine, and in fact, it is better as your kid isn't jockeying with every single other kid for Ivies - they will likely have a happier HS experience. Though your worst case scenario from somewhere like this is definitely worse.


I had mixed feelings about Friends but that’s more about the culture than anything else. I think their exmissions are pretty good. If you look at their matriculation lists almost everyone is going to pretty good schools. The exmissions does seem a lot better than the other downtown schools. I know people with kids at the HS and it seems pretty rigorous. The English Department is famous for being tough.
Anonymous
Post 01/14/2026 14:49     Subject: What's the most elite and exclusive K-12 School?
I've consistently maintained that, given that their students lack connections/money and that every Ivy except Cornell has a cap on the number of students they'll admit from any given one, the SHSAT schools' exmissions are easily competitive with any TT private school's.
Anonymous
Post 01/14/2026 14:45     Subject: What's the most elite and exclusive K-12 School?
Anonymous wrote:(but Trinity seems snooty and insular and generally unpleasant, so if they're having an embarrassingly bad year then cheers to that)


I'm curious what percentage of Trinity students (and at similar schools) are legacies at Ivies and similar schools. I'm sure many of them are smart but a lot of these kids don't have a high bar to get in, inflating their exmissions stats.

I also see some of these kids on LinkedIn and similarly and the number of fake leadership roles in extracurriculars are off the charts - it is so clear that many of them are doing what their parents are telling them to do (often based on favors their parents called in) to get into college then will drop these "interests" like a bad habit the day they are accepted. Too bad colleges don't see through this.