46 students from Pingry were either National Merit Semi Finalists or Commended students this past testing cycle according to the school's 2017-18 profile report. And its no fluke - they have that kind of result year after year. No other private day school in NJ has that kind of record. They are the benchmark., Fyi I don't have any connection to Pingry whatsoever. Nevertheless, clearly, the school isn't for everyone.
I am just surprised to hear that IB courses were comparatively easier than honors and regular in your daughter's school. From my experience and what I've heard from different kids from all over the world, IB courses are much much harder than honors or even AP. IBDP requires more than traditional testing skills, and has overall much stricter requirements regarding community service hours, projects, papers, etc. But I guess different schools can run the IB program very differently even under the same IB curriculum.
JH2022 I only respond because you are making declarative statements such as "Pingry they are the benchmark".
Delbarton had 32 kids get National Merit recognition from a class of 115. Yes a slightly lower percentage then Pingrys 46 of a class of 139 but insignificant. Keep in mind Delbarton soccer, hockey and lacrosse all nationally ranked in top 20. Lastly Delbarton is committed to community service and the arts
Keep in mind both schools historically place about 25-35% of students at ivy and ivy plus schools and 50% at top 30 schools. It really comes down to individual preference. Other schools do produce similar outcomes to Pingry just different. Delbarton all boys, athletic and catholic means it's not for everyone but for some it is a benchmark. For others Pingry fills that definition.
I view Pingry and Delbarton plus several other schools in NJ as exceptional based on the individual goals of the students. I suspect once again you have had no first hand experience with Delbarton.
^^ @magicsecret , I agree, and that is generally true. At our school, SL usually correlates with AP, and the IBD is extremely challenging and great prep for college.
There are schools in the international school community (abroad), that are effectively 100% IB but are also, because of the expat communities they serve, not selective. (They may be the only English language school there.) And they take kids who move to that country for just 2-3 years, so they don't have the luxury of getting them set up. Most of them have worked out the easiest path to the IBD, and while it may not all be a cakewalk, it may look a bit different than what a US school would set up to provide its students with a rigorous, externally graded course of study. HL math, chem, may not be part of all kids' degrees there as they often are here. Here, many schools use it as their fully integrated, most challenging curriculum, and it is hard! There, it may be a diploma that will allow students to have a high school degree that will allow them to access higher education in their own country (because a high scool degree from the us is useless in many places.) But we digress...
As for schools with lots of high scoring kids, it often suggests that they accept a certain type of kid (i.e., high SSAT is weighted heavily in admissions ), and/or that their student body does a lot of prepping. The latter may happen in school or more likely, the norm may be for the parents to pay for tutoring. It doesn't necessarily mean that the school teaches better but it can signal whether it aligns with who your kid is and your expectations.
Personally, I would look at this not as a sign of school quality but for what it says about the community. At all of these schools, you'll find (mostly) success stories as well as tales of (some) kids who had very bad experiences there. The latter is almost always a result of bad fit. The question to ask is -- is this school better for a kid who....-- than is this school better than that one.
It doesn't matter how the IB is set up at each school, at the end of day there are IB exams. My daughter did fairly well on her IB exams. She found her IB courses to be a lot of busy work and very rigid with its curriculum. She found courses at her NJ private were more challenging than IB. What I am trying to point out here is just because a school offers IB doesn't mean it has more academic rigor. We were happy she had very good foundation before we moved overseas. In the city we lived in there were many English speaking international schools, so the expats had many options. The American International school was considered to be the best and not every student enrolled in the IB program.
sunnyschoolRegistered UserPosts: 1,209Senior Member
edited May 2018
Pingry had 12 National Merit Semifinalists, Newark Academy had 7 (see the 2nd link), and Delbarton had 1 for Class of 2018.
Interestingly, Oratory Prep had 3 and is a smaller school. Seton Hall Prep had 2 and Christian Brothers Academy had 3.
It is much harder to make National Merit Semifinalist (223 index score) than National Merit Commended (213 index score).
"MBS Class of 2017 did not send a single student to an ivy league school"
Not every student looking to attend a private school in NJ has an Ivy League admission as their end goal. Also, not sending a student to an ivy league doesn't mean the students did not receive a quality HS education. As some have pointed out, the many private HS in NJ have different "personalities" (just like the many colleges in this country.) You need to find the school that fits your student (otherwise they should attend their local public HS - which in NJ are very well rated). Different families have different priorities for HS - co-ed or single sex, religious or not, diverse or not, strong athletics or not, etc.
I would venture a guess that if you removed the school name off of any of the college lists for Pingry, Delbarton or NA for a given year you couldn't guess the school. Reality is all three produce tremendous results just arrived at differently. In Delbarton's case it's achieved while beating everyone else at sports. That elicits some misconceptions and jealousy but doesn't diminish the outcomes of their students.
Again not every school is for every kid but certainly Delbarton's placement speaks for itself. Cheers
Many thanks sunnyschool for taking the time to do extra legwork with respect to the NMSQT Semifinalists at several indeoendent schools. I do not dispute at all that different families have differing priorities. MBS is frequently lauded as having nice facilities and being friendly, supportive, and nurturing. The right fit is key, but one would hope that access to ivy is available for kids at that kind of sticker price. Perhaps it is available, but less obvious.
Oldfort the actual number was 16 from Delbarton last year down from 27 in 2014. This year looks like it will be around 22-23. I would also keep in mind that at all schools some kids get into ivies and choose alternatives. I think you run the risk of once again generalizing by using such narrow data sets.
With that said your missing the point by trying to define one school as better than another or "the benchmark". No school in NJ can match the combination of national level athletics and great academics Delbarton has. That doesn't make it better just different. If an extra 5 kids a year gets in to Ivy schools from Pingry for some that might be better. If an average student is compelled to achieve greatness by going to Mo Beard then that may be "the benchmark".
For each individual there is a unique best fit. Relax and get comfortable in your own shoes without having to make fun of someone else's.
"No school in NJ can match the combination of national level athletics and great academics Delbarton has."
Ironic that you would make this statement while simultaneously trying to assert that someone can't define one school as better than another.*
*Disclaimer: I have daughters, so zero affiliation with any school mentioned in this thread. I just live in NJ, have sent both kids to private schools, and have opinions.
Replies to: Private High Schools in New Jersey
Delbarton had 32 kids get National Merit recognition from a class of 115. Yes a slightly lower percentage then Pingrys 46 of a class of 139 but insignificant. Keep in mind Delbarton soccer, hockey and lacrosse all nationally ranked in top 20. Lastly Delbarton is committed to community service and the arts
Keep in mind both schools historically place about 25-35% of students at ivy and ivy plus schools and 50% at top 30 schools. It really comes down to individual preference. Other schools do produce similar outcomes to Pingry just different. Delbarton all boys, athletic and catholic means it's not for everyone but for some it is a benchmark. For others Pingry fills that definition.
I view Pingry and Delbarton plus several other schools in NJ as exceptional based on the individual goals of the students. I suspect once again you have had no first hand experience with Delbarton.
Good luck at Johns Hopkins.
There are schools in the international school community (abroad), that are effectively 100% IB but are also, because of the expat communities they serve, not selective. (They may be the only English language school there.) And they take kids who move to that country for just 2-3 years, so they don't have the luxury of getting them set up. Most of them have worked out the easiest path to the IBD, and while it may not all be a cakewalk, it may look a bit different than what a US school would set up to provide its students with a rigorous, externally graded course of study. HL math, chem, may not be part of all kids' degrees there as they often are here. Here, many schools use it as their fully integrated, most challenging curriculum, and it is hard! There, it may be a diploma that will allow students to have a high school degree that will allow them to access higher education in their own country (because a high scool degree from the us is useless in many places.) But we digress...
As for schools with lots of high scoring kids, it often suggests that they accept a certain type of kid (i.e., high SSAT is weighted heavily in admissions ), and/or that their student body does a lot of prepping. The latter may happen in school or more likely, the norm may be for the parents to pay for tutoring. It doesn't necessarily mean that the school teaches better but it can signal whether it aligns with who your kid is and your expectations.
Personally, I would look at this not as a sign of school quality but for what it says about the community. At all of these schools, you'll find (mostly) success stories as well as tales of (some) kids who had very bad experiences there. The latter is almost always a result of bad fit. The question to ask is -- is this school better for a kid who....-- than is this school better than that one.
Interestingly, Oratory Prep had 3 and is a smaller school. Seton Hall Prep had 2 and Christian Brothers Academy had 3.
It is much harder to make National Merit Semifinalist (223 index score) than National Merit Commended (213 index score).
https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/education/2017/09/13/national-merit-scholarship-2018-semifinalists-central-jersey/659956001/
https://www.scribd.com/document/358901119/Semifinalists-in-the-2018-National-Merit-Scholarship-Program#from_embed
Not every student looking to attend a private school in NJ has an Ivy League admission as their end goal. Also, not sending a student to an ivy league doesn't mean the students did not receive a quality HS education. As some have pointed out, the many private HS in NJ have different "personalities" (just like the many colleges in this country.) You need to find the school that fits your student (otherwise they should attend their local public HS - which in NJ are very well rated). Different families have different priorities for HS - co-ed or single sex, religious or not, diverse or not, strong athletics or not, etc.
Pingry: https://www.pingry.org/uploaded/_Teaching_and_Learning/College_Counseling/2017-18_Profile_CCO.pdf
Delbarton: https://www.delbarton.org/uploaded/documents/College_Counseling/2018_Profile.pdf
Newark Academy: https://newarka.myschoolapp.com/ftpimages/85/download/download_1668455.pdf
Morristown Beard: https://www.mbs.net/uploaded/Documents/2017-2018/College_Counseling/2018_MBS_Class_Profile.pdf
https://www.delbarton.org/academics/college-counseling
I would venture a guess that if you removed the school name off of any of the college lists for Pingry, Delbarton or NA for a given year you couldn't guess the school. Reality is all three produce tremendous results just arrived at differently. In Delbarton's case it's achieved while beating everyone else at sports. That elicits some misconceptions and jealousy but doesn't diminish the outcomes of their students.
Again not every school is for every kid but certainly Delbarton's placement speaks for itself. Cheers
With that said your missing the point by trying to define one school as better than another or "the benchmark". No school in NJ can match the combination of national level athletics and great academics Delbarton has. That doesn't make it better just different. If an extra 5 kids a year gets in to Ivy schools from Pingry for some that might be better. If an average student is compelled to achieve greatness by going to Mo Beard then that may be "the benchmark".
For each individual there is a unique best fit. Relax and get comfortable in your own shoes without having to make fun of someone else's.
Ironic that you would make this statement while simultaneously trying to assert that someone can't define one school as better than another.*
*Disclaimer: I have daughters, so zero affiliation with any school mentioned in this thread. I just live in NJ, have sent both kids to private schools, and have opinions.