pianko

We are currently in NJ, My D is in public middle school, 8th grader. I would say our public school system is about B+ - A- in our state level, average 750 students in one grade, huge.

We are looking for private day schools for my D starting from 9th grade. We picked two private day schools from NJ. We also want to consider some private day schools from NYC, since there is a possibility that we will relocate to NYC after my husband has being commuted to city for 13 yrs. (I think he is tired of the commute. )

Can anyone share some information on the private school in NYC? So far, we picked St. Ann's, Dalton and Trinity. Besides of browsing the school websites, we had very limited knowledge on Dalton and Trinity. About 5+ years ago, we toured St. Ann's and liked their teaching philosophy and teachers very much.

My D stats:
JHU-CTY High Honors (7th grade SAT 1800+)
High Honor Rolls, 6,7,8th grades (all As or A+s), All honor classes.
President's Education Awards in 5th grade
7-Years Team Athletes
3-Years high competitive team sport
8-Years piano, many competition prizes, some are state levels.
International Piano competition finalist
attended International Piano Camp for high school/college students last summer
3-years cello,
in 8th grade Orchestra, Selective middle school Orchestra, Jazz band, etc.

Thanks

mhmm

I do not know anything about St. Ann admissions, plus its a much longer commute to NJ, being in Brooklyn. In terms of Trinity and Dalton - you are on the end of setting up tours/getting applications. If you are thinking about any of them, get on the phone, get your application tour date now, if its not too late. Try to attend open houses if they are still going on.
Your better bets would be Fieldston and Riverdale. They take in a huge (100 as opposed to 5) amt of kids for 9th grade, there are school busses going to/from NJ, and essentially everyone commutes to those schools. At the city schools, she would be a rare commuter, and would not integrate as well.
In terms of different philosophies of the schools - they are all the same in terms of being pressure cookers. To be on top, you have to be spending many hours working, being tutored, etc. Fieldston is most relaxed academically, which is why they probably do very well in college placement for top students -- not as many of the same students claw their way for a top ten spot. However they have had some growing pains with having the heads leave for various reasons in the past 5 yrs or so.
Trinity and Riverdale are the more "formal" of the two, while being much less formal than the single sex schools.
Good luck and feel free to ask more specific questions.

NewHavenCTmom

A girlfriends dd14 attends Spence. They love it..

MA2012

My cousin's kids are at Columbia Prep and are very happy there.

pianko

Thanks for everyone's input. We didn't know Fieldston, Riverdale, Columbia prep before I posted it here , We will do some research on those schools.

specific questions about the application, about the EC, do we need to include all the important prizes that she won in the past? If we should, which section should we include?(Student's section, or parents' statement. )